School board candidates Amy Morrison and Todd Gebler answered questions from the Sitka Chamber of Commerce in a 35-minute lunchtime forum on September 29, 2021. Sitka’s municipal clerk and elections supervisor Sara Peterson outlined the early voting process.

A political newcomer has thrown his hat in the ring for school board in Sitka — or maybe he’s just thrown it over the backyard fence.

Todd Gebler lives next door to current school board president Amy Morrision, who suggested that he run for one of two open seats on the board this year.

Gebler wasn’t so sure.

“You know at first I was a little skeptical,” he said. “I don’t know anything about it to tell you the truth. I do know a couple of other past board members — some good friends of ours — and I talked to them, and no one really told me not to do it.”

School board politics fly a bit lower under the radar than those at the Sitka Assembly table, but the work is still very demanding, as the board has to manage chronic budget shortfalls in state government, which usually translate into high-pressure financial decisions about which school programs to keep, and which to cut back.

Gebler says Morrison and his other acquaintances who’ve served time on the board gave him fair warning.

“They gave me the unscripted version,” he said. “It’s not easy. It’s going to be hard and time consuming — stuff like that. It’s definitely something that I want to do.”

Gebler and his wife have an eight-year old son who will be entering Keet Gooshi Heen, and Gebler feels that this is a good time for him to become involved in the district. He says he has no agenda; his focus will be on doing what’s best for the kids.

Gebler is 51 years old. He has lived intermittently in Sitka for 12 of the last 20 years, working as a nurse, now in SEARHC Home Health. From a medical standpoint, Gebler says he’s been happy with the way the district has handled the COVID-19 pandemic.

Gebler has no prior experience in elected office. He has served on the board of the Betty Eliason Childcare Center.

Todd Gebler is running for one of two open seats on the Sitka School Board. Incumbent Amy Morrison is the only other candidate who filed by the August 5 deadline. Incumbent Eric Van Cise has said he will not seek another term.

As in recent years, KCAW will provide complete candidate profiles, and position statements — in their own words — on the KCAW Election Hub, which will go live in early September.

The municipal election in Sitka is Tuesday, October 5.

The filing period to run for a seat on the Sitka Assembly closed on August 6, and three candidates are in the running. KCAW spoke with Dave Miller, who is new to local politics, but not city government.

While Dave Miller doesn’t have experience in local politics, he knows how the city’s sausage is made. He worked for the city for 25 years, as a fire engineer, then chief of the fire department. In 2017 he applied for the vacant city administrator job, but later withdrew from the running. He served as acting administrator and acting police chief at different points during his tenure.

“And I always thought that it’d be, after I retired, it’d be a good thing to do to help pay back what what the city has done for me, I mean, by giving me a job by helping, you know, raise my kids here in town and all that,” he says. “I just thought it’d be a great thing to be able to help the city out and run for office.”

If elected, Miller says he doesn’t have specific legislation in mind to bring forward. 

“I don’t have any set goals to say, ‘Hey, I want to sell this or buy this or do this or do that,'” he says. “I want to help do whatever I can for the people in the city and for the for the city itself and you know, and the state, et cetera, to make things better if I can or, or keep things moving along if they’re running good.”

He says he’d like to avoid increasing taxes or rates, but being familiar with the challenges of city budgeting, he says he can’t make any promises. 

“My goal would be to try not to increase taxes. I’m not for going out there and just doing it randomly, increasing taxes to make people pay more,” he says. “But if it really needs to be done, then that’s, I think, what we’re gonna have to do, or we’re gonna have to cut things that we’re doing.”

Miller recalls, as an example, a time when the city considered not paving side roads in order to save money. “I’d really hate to see that and I think most people would,  that’s just a dusty thing, man,” he says. “But we need to figure out how to get money to make those roads work.” 

He says he’s in favor of seeing the marine haulout project through, and likely in favor of selling the Sitka Community Hospital building, which the city still owns but currently leases to SEARHC. 

“There’s a lot of maintenance and upkeep to be done on that building over the next number of years. I guess if I needed to make a decision today, I would probably be saying ‘It’s probably something that we need to sell and move on with,'” he says. “But I haven’t heard all sides of the story that are out there, and I’m more than willing to listen to those.”

And Miller says that philosophy will go with just about every decision he makes at the Assembly table. 

“I’m a pretty easy going guy. I love to talk. I’ll listen to what you have to say on just about any topic that you want to talk about, and I’ll try to figure it out,” he says. “We may not always agree, but I’ll at least listen to see what’s there, and I’m open to changing my mind if that needs to happen.” 

If Miller is elected, he will serve a three year term on the Sitka Assembly. Sitka’s Municipal Election is Tuesday, October 5.

Editor’s Note: Raven Radio will bring you continuing coverage of Sitka’s Municipal Election in the coming weeks. Interviews with the candidates, questionnaires and statements will be available on the KCAW Election Hub in early September.