Sitka’s city hall rolled out new public records request software Friday (6-12-26). Up until the launch, city staff managed requests through emails, a spreadsheet, and sticky notes, and they say the update will make the process more efficient for the clerk’s office and the public. 

Deputy Municipal Clerk Holley Bayne said handling requests has become cumbersome in recent years. She said the number of requests has quadrupled in the past decade. In 2017, staff received 54 public records requests. That number grew to 209 in 2025.

“The times have changed from 15, 20 years ago, so we just want to change with it,” Bayne said. “And I think it’ll work out good on both ends.”

In February, the assembly unanimously approved roughly $21,000 for a two-year contract with NextRequest, an online platform designed to manage public records requests. 

Bayne said the software will provide tips on how to narrow down a request, track staff time and the status of a request, and redact documents automatically. She said there’s also an option to make the requests go public facing, which could make it easier for other Sitkans to access information. 

“Once we have our records that are returned to the public, now they’re a public document, [and] we can make a library where someone can search those documents available. They don’t have to do another records request,” Bayne said. “So that would be super helpful if there’s a hot topic that’s happening, you can just search for those records.”

Bayne said Sitkans will still be able to submit a paper request form if they prefer. You can find a link to the new portal here.

Phone and internet service was down for a portion of Sitka on Friday (5-22-26).

Internet and telephone service in Sitka is provided, in large part, by two Alaska-based companies, GCI and Alaska Communications, or ACS. A representative from ACS declined to comment. However, a message on the ACS answering machine gave some information.

“We are experiencing intermittent internet disruptions in Sitka. We are working to restore service as quickly as possible. Thank you for calling Alaska Communications,” the message said.

The outage impacted phone service for some residents, businesses, and public offices, including the Sitka Police Department and Fire Hall’s non-emergency lines. A city press release said staff are actively working to resolve the issue. 911 service is still operational and should be used for emergencies. 

GCI Senior Director of Communications Megan Webb said the company has received no reports of outages from GCI customers.   

Editor’s Note: This is a developing story and may be updated

Virgin Voyages staff welcome about a dozen representatives from the City of Sitka, Sitka Tribe of Alaska, and local organizations as they board the 912-foot red and white cruise ship, the Brilliant Lady, on Thursday.

It’s the inaugural port call for not only the company’s newest “lady ship,” but for the adults-only cruise line as a whole, and is marked by shared champagne, speeches, and the exchange of plaques. 

“Virgin Voyages, as a company, is fairly young,” says Sitka Tourism Manager Judson Rusk. “And this is the first time they’ve ever entered the Alaskan market. This is the first ship in Alaska, and it’s the first time to Sitka, so this is a first on a lot of fronts.”

Virgin Voyages is a relatively new company — an extension of the multi-billion-dollar Virgin Group, founded by business magnate Richard Branson, and Bain Capital.  

Their first ship was built in 2021. The Brilliant Lady, in 2025. And they pride themselves on not being “your average cruise line.” 

Jill Stoneberg, the company’s senior director of sustainability, says for one, kids aren’t allowed. Second, she says they want to give back to the communities they visit by volunteering with local organizations, like Sitka Trail Works. Third, they want their guests to feel connected to the places they visit, so they’ve recently welcomed on board a full-time naturalist to educate about the wildlife and land in Alaska, and a heritage guide from Alaska Native Voices. 

“We recognize there are many different Indigenous groups, and they’re speaking from their experience through art, through storytelling, through dance,” she says. “And we’re just really pleased to be able to offer that authenticity to [the guests’] time on board.” 

Stoneberg wants to show the delegation a bit about what makes this cruise experience unique, and leads them to the dining room of one of the boat’s many restaurants to talk over eggs benedict and mimosas. Then, she leads them on a tour of the 17-deck vessel, which accommodates up to 2,762 passengers and 1,150 crew.  

She leads them through the casino, shopping center, night club, and adult arcade, and even shows them the ship’s tattoo parlor, Squid Ink.  

“We’re the first cruise line to offer a tattoo parlor on board,” Stoneberg says. “It’s actually very popular. If you want a tattoo, you have to sign up for it at the very beginning of the cruise.” 

Then, she takes them “behind the scenes” to the control room and waste room to walk them through some of the environmental measures the company takes as part of its decarbonization initiative. She says Virgin started off with efficient technologies because its fleet is so young. 

“We’re considered a hard-to-abate industry, meaning that it’s very difficult to transition completely to zero-carbon and low-carbon fuels to meet our energy demands,” she says. “But it’s something that the industry takes very seriously, and the goal is to be net zero carbon emissions by 2050.” 

Stoneberg says the company has started to use biofuels and Climeon technology — which converts low-temperature waste heat from the main engine into useful power — to run its fleet. And three of its four boats have shore power capabilities, which essentially means they can plug the ship into a local electric grid when in port. The fleet also makes 97% of its water on board through a desalinization process and doesn’t provide any single-use plastics to its guests, according to Stoneberg.

Virgin Voyages is the newest of about 25 cruise lines operating in Sitka this season, and its arrival comes at a time when the community of just over 8,000 is still grappling with the recent uptick. Cruise ship traffic has more than doubled since before the COVID-19 pandemic. But in 2025, Sitka voters overwhelmingly rejected a ballot measure that would have capped the number of visitors. 

Tribal Council Chair Yeidikook’áa Brady-Howard, who is welcomed up to receive a plaque and say a few words on behalf of the Tribe, says the relationship between the community and cruise companies is complex. 

“We are very much the continued stewards of the lands that we’ve inhabited since time immemoria,” she says. “And when we have basically a floating city coming into our own community, we always have concerns about the impact for us. But also we’re responsible for the economic well-being of our people as well, and so we’re always walking that line between hoping for the best in terms of the impact that something like this can have on our community, as well as understanding very much that we require the economic stimulation that these sorts of things bring.” 

As the tour wraps up, Stoneberg walks the guests to the entrance of the massive boat, plaques in hand. The delegation exits and makes its way back to town as Stoneberg and the crew wait for the Brilliant Lady’s nearly 3,000 passengers to wrap up their time in Sitka and load up again before they head onward to their next destination. Tomorrow, another boat will take its place with more of the roughly 600,000 passengers set to stop in Sitka this season.

For the past few years, engineers, electricity, and sustainability experts have been developing Sitka’s Community Renewable Energy Strategy after determining key values from the community. The City & Borough of Sitka’s Sustainability Coordinator Bri Gabel joins KCAW for the Morning Interview to share more about a collaborative planning workshop this upcoming Monday (5-11-26) where Sitkans can provide public comment before they begin the strategy development process.

The number of public records requests for the City and Borough of Sitka has quadrupled in the past decade, and staff are calling for more support with that process. At its regular meeting on Tuesday, the Sitka Assembly approved funding for public records request software to help with the increased workload in the municipal clerk’s office.   

Deputy Municipal Clerk Holley Bayne said the city continues to see growth in both the number and complexity of public records requests, which are currently managed “through emails, a spreadsheet, and sticky notes.” In 2017, staff received 54 public records requests. That number grew to 209 requests in 2025.

“So far this year, we have had 44 requests received already, and that’s more than one per working day. We’re at the 36th working day right now,” Bayne said.

The program would automate a number of processes, would meet security rules that are important for handling sensitive information, and would help speed up redaction, according to Bayne.

The assembly unanimously approved about $21,000 for a two-year contract with NextRequest, an online platform designed to manage public records requests. 

Sitka’s Municipal Administrator John Leach announced his intention to resign on Wednesday (10-29-25) after six years on the job. He will be leaving at the end of May of next year, hoping to give the city ample time for a smooth transition.

KCAW’s Hope McKenney sat down with Leach on Friday to discuss his time in the role and what’s next.

TRANSCRIPT:

LEACH: What brought me to Sitka was my days in the Coast Guard. I was actually stationed over at Air Station Sitka as the engineering officer from 2015 to 2018. I fell in love with the community. I loved everything about the place. I ended up getting orders to Washington, DC. I made a pretty difficult decision to leave my family here while I went off by myself to Washington, DC — it’s what they call a “geo-bachelor” tour. And with the intent to return to Sitka, I put in my retirement notice while I was at Coast Guard headquarters in Washington, DC, and looking for a way to get back here and be in this community, this opportunity popped up, and I applied for the position and got it in late September of 2019, I think, was the official higher time. 

KCAW: So you announced this week that you’ll be stepping down from the position at the end of May of next year. Tell me a bit about that decision.

LEACH: Six years, or, I guess, about six-and-a-half years when this comes about next year, it’s a long time to be in a role with this level of intensity. I love the work. I absolutely love and value the people that I work with, but it can take a toll on you. And I never really had an opportunity to take a break, and I think I need that. I’m not leaving the community. I’m still here. I still want to help. I still want to volunteer. I plan on doing the things that I enjoy here in Sitka. That’s the reason why I moved back. But I think it’s just time to step aside a little bit and take a break and then see where else I can get involved after that.

KCAW: So in your six years, it’ll be six-and-a-half years by the time you leave, what are you most proud of during that time as municipal administrator?

LEACH: I think what I’m most proud of is putting systems in place that help us look further into the future. I think we make more calculated decisions now, whether that’s through our strategic planning or asset management. It’s about making good value decisions for what we’re going to do next, instead of just, you know, what’s the biggest fire right now and who’s the loudest person yelling? You know, we’re looking out for the long term interest of the city, and how things are going to happen 20 years from now. So just instilling that long term vision, I think, has been a big win.

KCAW: Can you talk about some of the challenges that you’ve seen over these six years?

LEACH: The biggest challenge, and it’s for everybody, not just me, it’s everybody that works at the city is, as I said, the high intensity, the big demands and the very limited resources. Local government is very personal for people, and you multiply that by a few times since you’re in this small island community. So because you’re making these decisions and doing work that is so personal to people, and then they’re the same people you’re connecting with, sometimes you have to make an unpopular decision and you take it personally if other people take it personally. You know, we really want to serve everybody, but you’re never going to make everybody happy. And that personal connection is really difficult to confront, I guess. 

KCAW: So you mentioned staying in the community. What’s next?

LEACH: Well, first and foremost, I’m going to take a break. I want to take a few months of not doing anything, reconnecting with my family. When I got out of the Coast Guard, I didn’t take that leave, that break before taking this job. It was out of the uniform one day, off the plane and stepping into this job the next day. So again, I’d like to reconnect with my family, recharge, and I’ve thought about some consulting work, seeing if I can help other municipalities, or even plug in here somehow through that work. But otherwise, the options, they’re open.

KCAW: Well, thank you. Is there anything else I should have asked you, or you’d like to share?

LEACH: I just want to emphasize that my decision to step down is not rooted in any frustration. I think Sitka is in a really strong position right now, and that’s because of the people who serve it every day. There’s a lot of good people in City Hall that are working on the citizens’ behalf here, and sometimes they go unrecognized. But I talked about local government being deeply personal. You know, these are the same folks that you go to school with, you go to church with, you’re sharing holidays together, and they’re here to serve you, and they work their tails off every day. So I want to thank them, and I want to just remind the folks of Sitka of that fact, that they’re here to work for you, and they also are your friends and neighbors.

Recent storms and landslides across Southeast Alaska are a good reminder to be prepared. Municipal Administrator John Leach joined KCAW for the Morning Interview to discuss emergency management preparedness for Sitkans. He talked about the importance of staying informed, keeping an emergency kit with at least one week of food, water, batteries, and medicine on hand, and making an emergency plan with family, friends, and neighbors. Listen to the conversation here:

While tourists draped in ponchos meander down Lincoln Street, peering through the windows of Sitka’s gift shops and snapping pictures of the famous Russian Orthodox Cathedral, Melissa Lunas and Ariadne Will stand in the middle of a nearby alleyway to photograph a different site: a fairly large pothole.

“It looks like it’s been patched three times, if not four… that’s definitely Fat Pothole Week worthy,” remarked Lunas. Will agreed, remarking that it is “like a whole archipelago.”

As a lifelong Sitkan and a city planner, Will is no stranger to navigating Sitka’s potholes. But as the city began preparing its streets for the harsh winter months, Will noticed a parallel between the work the city does filling potholes and Katmai bears’ weight-gain journey she has followed along for years.

“My grandparents maintain a private driveway, and there’s always a lot of potholes there, and it’s always kind of a journey to get through them and get around them,” said Will. “And I think that felt a little similar to me is the journey of these bears gaining all this weight and eating all these fish and getting prepared for winter.”

After initially sharing the idea as a joke with her coworkers and friends, Will found it actually resonated with a lot of people. After pitching “Fat Pothole Week”  to Lunas, the city’s public and government relations director, in late September, they called for community members to submit their best pothole pics. Then, much like Fat Bear Week, the potholes portraits will face off in a week-long bracket battle. The winner will be the first, but not only, pothole filled by the city’s public works crew. 

Harry Greene is a city street superintendent. Given Sitka’s rainy climate and decades old streets, Greene says it’s an especially susceptible region for potholes.

“Well, the asphalt institute says there’s three enemies to asphalt and pavement,” said Greene. “The first one’s water, the second one’s water, and the third one’s water. So it’s the water we have, it’s these aging roads we have. We have to keep after the potholes that develop.”

When he heard about Fat Pothole Week, he hoped it would incentivize Sitkans to report them.

“We actually rely on people’s complaints to tell us that there’s a problem,” said Greene. “And because we can’t [hear from everybody], we don’t get it all. So [if Fat Pothole Week has] people tell us where there’s a pothole, I think it’s a good idea.”

As the submission deadline draws near, Will is optimistic that Fat Pothole Week will not only give Sitkans a laugh, but remind folks of the role they can play in preserving Sitka’s infrastructure.

“And I think that we’ve built a lot up in this town, and to be able to take care of it is really important,” said Will.

Lunas shares Will’s enthusiasm. She says that while the city often sends out surveys to gauge community interests, they have never done an initiative that connects  their work to pop-culture events, and Fat Pothole Week is getting folks’ attention. Lunas is glad for that, especially because it spotlights the dedicated and often unseen work of Sitka’s streets crew. 

“I would imagine that the community isn’t very familiar with our asset management and how Public Works has schedules for everything that they do, and so this is kind of a fun way to bring that to light a little bit,” said Lunas.

If it proves successful, Lunas believes that Fat Pothole Week could become a Sitka tradition for years to come.  After all, street maintenance never ends, so there are plenty of Alley Archipelagos across Sitka for those with the eyes to see them.

The bracket voting for Fat Pothole Week begins on Sept. 30, and lasts until Oct. 4, with the winner announced on Oct. 5. To vote for your favorite potholes, check out the City of Sitka’s Facebook and Instagram.

Have thoughts about how you want to see public building infrastructure improved? Perhaps you’re curious to learn more how certain policy implementation is funded? All of these fall under a process called asset management planning. Sitka Municipal Administrator John Leach joins KCAW for the Morning Interview to break down what that is and how Sitkans can get involved in the process.

A candidate running for a seat on the Sitka Assembly is suing the city over what he claims were restrictions on his ability to comment on police department Facebook posts.

Austin Cranford filed the lawsuit in Alaska’s U.S. District Court on Aug. 18. In the court filing, Cranford said in June, he told city officials that the Sitka Police Department was violating the First Amendment by restricting public comments on its official Facebook page.

In emails included in the suit, Municipal Administrator John Leach responded to Cranford, saying members of the public can’t post comments on the police department’s page or posts. However, in early August, Cranford said someone was able to comment on a post about an upcoming department event, contradicting Leach’s statement. 

Eventually, Leach told Cranford that city employees wouldn’t spend more time on the matter, but that the city would respond to a legal challenge.

Cranford claims the discrepancy deprives him of his First Amendment right to free speech in a public forum maintained by the city. Cranford, who is running for a seat on the Sitka Assembly this fall, claims that the city’s actions have hindered his ability to communicate with the public and campaign politically.

Cranford asks the federal court to declare the selective comment policy on the police department’s Facebook page to be unconstitutional. He also asks that the court require the city to open the comments section on official social media pages to all members of the public equally, and to award him nominal damages and attorneys’ fees. 

In a letter to Sitkans, Cranford said he hopes the lawsuit will serve to “defend a fundamental right, restore public trust, and hold those responsible accountable.”

Austin Cranford is the son of former police sergeant Gary Cranford, who sued the city in 2023, alleging he was unfairly demoted from sergeant to officer in breach of his union contract. The case was settled out of court earlier this year. Cranford walked away with over $300,000 and the city continues to deny liability in the case. 

A request for comment from city officials was not returned by press time.