Another Sitka local is throwing her hat in the ring for a seat on the Sitka Assembly. Katie Riley filed to run with the city last week (7-30-25). KCAW sat down with Riley to learn more about her decision to run, and some of her priorities if elected.
RILEY: I am running for the Sitka Assembly because I am a born and raised Sitkan. I love my community. I’m very invested in the future of it and making sure that current and future generations of Sitkans can continue to thrive here. Our community faces a lot of challenges, but we also have an amazing set of opportunities, and we live in a wonderful place, and I think that we need representation that understands those challenges, has experienced them, and can provide a solutions oriented perspective for what we can do going forward.
KCAW: If elected, what will you bring to the table?
RILEY: I have been involved in local government over the past five years, serving on the Planning Commission and the Sustainability Commission. So I bring a certain amount of understanding of how those processes work, how the bodies work, and what we can do to make a difference on those bodies. And then I also bring a fresh perspective. You know, as a young Sitkan who’s getting involved in the elected body for the first time, it’s an opportunity for me to bring solutions to that table and represent the concerns of my generation and really share some of those new perspectives with the members that are on there.
KCAW: Can you tell me a bit about what boards you serve on, or what entities you serve on?
RILEY: Yeah, I’ve been on the Planning Commission for the past five years. And the reason that I got on that body was really about housing affordability. When I moved home after college, one of the main things that my peers were dealing with was having to move all of the time, really not seeing a lot of available housing, and that is because we have the same groups competing for the same stock of housing. So we have renters, we have people who are looking for starter homes, we have the seasonal workforce, and we have visitors, and we have a limited housing stock here in Sitka. And so how can we find solutions that balance the needs of all those folks and still provide opportunities for year-round residents to find affordable housing, was one of the issues that I got on there to address, and have really become interested in the broader community development aspect of it all, and making sure that Sitka is a livable place for years to come. The other work I do is on the Sustainability Commission. And that is a newer commission that was created in 2022 and through my work on there, I’ve looked a lot at energy issues and really understanding, you know, why do our rates increase? Why do they cost what they do? What does our infrastructure look like, and what are the workforce development needs that we need to steward these systems going forward? We have amazing renewable energy here in Sitka, and we need to have the younger generation coming up that knows how to work with these systems and knows how to continue keeping the lights on for Sitkans.
KCAW: So you’re talking about some of these really big issues that are affecting Sitkans. If elected, what is one big issue that you’d want to tackle?
RILEY: I definitely want to focus on housing. That is something that is near and dear to me. I’m a renter. I live in a trailer park. And I have experienced, you know, housing insecurity as well. And just wondering, how long am I going to be able to stay there as trailer park owners age, and we have to deal with, you know, the future of what is a significant source of housing for a lot of Sitkans. And so housing is something I really want to tackle. It’s a really complex issue, you know, and solutions are, if there were easy ones, we would have done them already. So this is something that I look forward to putting time and energy into. I’m at a point in my life where I can dedicate that to this body, and it’s really important to give back to the community that raised me.
KCAW: And lastly, what do you think is important for Sitkans to know about you and your campaign?
RILEY: I was born and raised here. I moved back. I’m really invested in the future of my community. I’m a commercial fisherwoman. I am the Deputy Director of the Sitka Conservation Society. And I think that those things are really complementary, not contradictory. So, you know, I want Sitkans to know that I am going to be solutions oriented. I want to focus on solving problems, not just naming them, and I’m willing to dedicate the time and effort to figuring things out.
Sitkans will be voting to fill two open seats on the Sitka Assembly and two seats on the school board in the upcoming municipal election. Both assembly seats and one school board seat are three-year terms, and one school board seat is a two-year term. The filing period to run for a seat is open until 5 p.m. on Aug. 8. Sitka’s municipal election is Tuesday, Oct. 7.
