Current Sitka Assembly Member Kevin Mosher has filed to run for mayor. Mosher, who is two years into serving his third term on the assembly, has served as an assembly member since 2018. He also threw his hat in the ring for the mayor’s seat in 2022, but lost to incumbent Steven Eisenbeisz.
Mosher has lived in Sitka for more than three decades and has worked as a staff accountant at Sitka’s urban Native corporation, Shee Atiká, for 15 years.
KCAW’s Hope McKenney sat down with Mosher on Tuesday (7-21-26) to talk about why he’s making another run for elected office.
TRANSCRIPT:
MOSHER: I ran for mayor one time, and I did not win, and that’s okay. And I’m kind of glad I didn’t win at that time. I don’t think I was ready for it. But the reason why I’ve decided to run for mayor this time is because, well, one, I think I’m qualified now. I think I have the experience, the wisdom, the city leadership skills, and I feel like there’s a lot of change happening. You know, our current municipal administrator won’t be there for much longer, and that’s a huge change. And I feel like I have good working relationships with the assembly members, with the staff. Over all these years, I built trust, because that’s a part of effective governance as well as building trust within the community and with the staff. And I’ve done that, and I understand how the structure goes. You know, I usually communicate with [Municipal Administrator] John [Leach], and then we get another sponsor on something. We have a meeting, we collaborate together, and then the staff gets involved. So I’m very proud of the work I’ve done. I think the biggest compliment I’ve gotten so far for all these years is that I come in with an open mind, and I do my homework, I do my research, meet with people, listen — a lot of listening, and when I come into an assembly meeting, if I’m presented with different information or a different point of view, and I’m willing to change my mind, and I have several times, I think it’s really important to have an open mind. So that kind of leadership, I think, is necessary, and I am looking forward to this opportunity to serve the community.
KCAW: And so, like you said, you’ve served on the assembly for nearly a decade now. What are some of the biggest issues facing Sitkins right now? And if elected as mayor, how do you propose to address those?
MOSHER: Well, the mayor is one vote of seven, so that’s something to keep in mind. There’s lots of issues. The cost of living is looming large over people. Housing is huge. Childcare is huge. We’re working on that right now. There’s lots of other things like that. Some big things. You know, people want to live here, and sometimes they can’t afford to live here. Whether they’re born here or get a job here to come here, they can’t find a place to live, and they can’t find childcare. I mean, I talked to my wife about this. We could probably sell our house for a pretty penny, but then we’re going to turn around and we won’t have a place to live. So there’s no real mobility there. So you know, basically the cost of living and the quality of life. And we have a very beautiful town, and we do have overall a very nice quality of life, but it takes a lot of hard work to maintain that. A lot of our infrastructure in town is aging, and so that has to be paid for. A lot of this infrastructure was built with state or federal money, so the current tax base doesn’t have the funds to pay for those repairs and maintenance. And so we’re trying to get federal and state grants. We’re trying to be business friendly to have responsible business growth, so we can have the tax revenue to help pay for these things [like] basic services like police, fire, roads, things like that, as well as supporting the schools, which is a basic requirement in my mind. I think the entire assembly agrees with that. So, in my mind, being mayor will be listening and guiding gently the assembly and the public to maintain the good things that are happening. There are a lot of good things. We’ve gotten some grants, we’ve got lots of infrastructure projects planned and also ongoing, and also we’re growing in other ways. We’re trying to make better communication within the city. There’s a communication plan. So there’s always room for improvement and grow. So in my mind, there’s two things. One is to help maintain the things that are good that are going on, especially in a time of big change, and then also at the same time to help facilitate pathways forward to help see if we can address things like childcare or housing affordability and things like that. And those are big things. And so they are things that community is going to have to decide if they want to work on together and tackle together. And I’m willing to work on that with other assembly members, and there’s a lot of excitement on the assembly to move forward with things like that, and I believe I have the skills now, at this point in my life, to be able to lead in this way.
