Sitkans will consider amending the city’s Home Rule Charter in the upcoming municipal election. At its meeting Tuesday night (5-26-26), the Sitka Assembly voted to put a question to voters this fall that would give the assembly more discretion over when to schedule a special election.

In Sitka, citizen initiatives can go out to voters in a special election, provided that the sponsors can secure enough signatures. Once they’ve gotten the signatures, the city’s charter requires a special election within the next 40 to 90 days. The new ordinance would eliminate that requirement, and instead give the assembly the authority to decide whether to hold a special election, if it thinks it would be in the best interest of the city. If not, the petition would go before voters at the next scheduled regular or special election.

Municipal Clerk Sara Peterson said if approved by voters this fall, the amendment would bring Sitka more into alignment with other communities across the state. She said the amount of money and staff time it takes to put on a special election is what prompted the proposed change. The 2025 special election that would have capped cruise ship traffic cost the city more than $18,000.

Larry Edwards with Small Town Soul, a local advocacy group that authored the visitor cap proposition, said the group supports the charter’s requirement, and urged the assembly to vote no on the amendment. 

“In practice, democracy sometimes comes with a cost, and sometimes comes with inconveniences, and sometimes both, but those are not reasons to restrict it,” Edwards said. “It is important for citizens to be able to trigger an initiative special election on a major issue that is time sensitive.”

Assembly Member Katie Riley was concerned it could leave petitioners waiting a long time between filing and voting. She said while she isn’t against putting an amendment forward to Sitka voters, this isn’t the amendment she would go with. 

“There’s a lot of fear out there right now, and there’s a lot of fear about changes that are happening rapidly in our country, and that’s very real perceived fear for some folks,” she said. “I think that this is a pretty technical fix, but it’s occurring in a context in which people have a heightened sense of things that are happening around them and how that might impact their personal lives and their ability to make their voice heard.”

Assembly Member Tim Pike said he doesn’t think the change would hurt the democratic process. He said the state statute language is “battle tested,” and he thinks they should put the question to the voters. 

“I think it’s an opportunity for us to hear from the people and see what they’re feeling. We are not the deciders on this, we are just presenting a question to the public, and as such, I think the risk to democracy is quite low, because democracy will speak and decide whether or not this is a good idea or a bad idea,” Pike said.

Ultimately, the amendment passed 4-2, with assembly members Riley and Scott Saline opposed. The proposition will be included on the Oct. 6 election ballot. 

The Sitka Assembly formally accepted the resignation of Assembly Member Tim Pike at its meeting Tuesday night (5-26-26). Pike is a recently retired Career and Technical Education teacher at Sitka High School, who’s served on the assembly since late 2022. He said he’s stepping down due to family needs. 

Assembly Member Scott Saline said Pike would be missed.

“I get all teary-eyed thinking of your leadership that I know rubbed off on my kids, man,” Saline said. “Sorry to see you go.”

Assembly Member Katie Riley, who was elected last October, said she looks forward to hearing Pike’s thoughts on future issues despite him no longer being on the assembly. 

“I didn’t get to serve with you that long, which is my loss, but [I] just really appreciate the perspective and the very careful deliberation that you brought to the table. It always makes me think deeper about the issues that we’re talking about, and lends just a really unique, wonderful perspective,” she said.

Pike’s last day in office will be June 30. The assembly will advertise for letters of interest to fill the vacant seat, and at the July 14 meeting, the group will appoint someone to fill it until the municipal election on Oct. 6. 

Pike, a recently retired Career and Technical Education teacher at Sitka High School, has served on the assembly since late 2022. In a letter to Municipal Clerk Sara Peterson from May 20, Pike said due to family needs, the June 23 assembly meeting will be his last. 

The assembly is expected to either advertise for letters of interest to fill the vacant seat, or place an item on the June 23 agenda to appoint someone to fill it until the next regular election in October. 

In other business, the assembly is expected to approve the property tax rates for the next year and give final approval on the city’s operating budget and capital improvement plan. 

The Sitka Assembly meets at 6 p.m. tonight. Raven News will broadcast the meeting live, following Alaska News Nightly. 

The Sitka Assembly on Tuesday (5-12-26) passed the city’s final operating budget and capital improvement plan for Fiscal Year 2027, which starts on July 1.

Municipal Administrator John Leach said this year is closing in a financially stable position, but notably tighter than recent years. He said the gap between what the city brings in and what it costs to operate has continued to narrow and it’s shaped every decision reflected in the budget. He said while the budget doesn’t resolve every long-term pressure the city is facing, it’s a “clear-eyed response” to where things are right now.

“Sales tax remains our foundation, but we’re watching the tourism season closely, and federal funding uncertainty continues to create planning challenges for all of us,” Leach said. “Fuel costs for me are a particular concern this year, and those hit us on both sides of the ledger. So it raises our own operating costs, while it also potentially dampens visitor activity and sales tax revenue that comes with it.”

To balance its books, the city had to cut about $900,000 from the proposed budget. Those cuts include the purchase of two patrol cars for the police department and a police sergeant position, as well as $250,000 for athletic field sand.

The assembly also approved the enterprise fund budgets on Tuesday, which include another round of rate increases to keep up with maintenance and infrastructure costs. While electrical rates will remain the same to give Sitkans a bit of a break, there will be a 6% increase in water rates, 2% increase in wastewater, 2% in solid waste, and 4% in harbor rates. 

Leach said in a memo that the budgets prioritize maintaining the city’s core services, supporting strategic initiatives, and preserving long-term financial sustainability for Sitka.

The budgets were approved by the assembly on first reading. They will review them for a final reading on May 26.

Sitka’s childcare system has the capacity to serve only about half of the young children who need it, according to a childcare needs assessment that was presented to the Sitka Assembly at its meeting Tuesday night (5-12-26).

For years, parents and providers in Sitka have said childcare capacity on the island is at its limit. Now, the assembly is taking steps to address the issue. Earlier this year, the city hired the Southeast Childhood Collective to conduct a study, in an effort to understand and tackle the community’s childcare shortage. 

The 30-page report analyzes the island’s childcare system and outlines three programming options to “improve stability, strengthen the workforce, and expand access to care.”

Blue Shibler, executive director of the regional nonprofit, said Tuesday that city governments across the state are trying to step it up because lack of childcare access is hurting local economies, affecting every sector of the workforce. 

“We hear this from businesses in almost every industry. We hear it from chambers across the state and across the country, that the number one reason they have a hard time attracting employees and keeping employees is because they can’t find childcare,” Shibler said.

The report lays out three main childcare constraints: supply and demand imbalance, workforce limitations, and affordability. 

It estimates that around 485 young children in Sitka require regular childcare. The licensed system has the capacity to serve about half of that. The report also says local childcare workers face a persistent wage gap that limits recruitment to the field, and estimates monthly tuition in Sitka far exceeds the federal threshold for affordable childcare. Federal benchmarks define childcare as affordable when it does not exceed 7% of household income. Based on Sitka’s median household income of about $101,200, the affordable monthly cost of childcare is $590. In practice, monthly tuition in Sitka averages approximately $1,600 for infants and $1,450 for toddlers, according to the city.

Shibler said the private market can’t increase the childcare supply on its own. A sustained public investment is needed, and strengthening childcare is a long-term investment in Sitka’s future. 

“It’s important to note that the impacts of supply shortages extend across the community, in terms of reduced workforce participation, employer recruitment challenges and ultimately, population decline,” she said. “That has been talked about throughout the Southeast region quite a bit — that we’re losing families and the workforce age demographic in general because they can’t find childcare.” 

The report suggests several program options that could cost anywhere from $277,000 to $2 million. They range from workforce incentives to subsidies and scholarships.

Program Model 1 — the least expensive option — is a workforce incentive program to address low wages. Model 2 provides a subsidy, or per child operating grant. And Model 3 blends the first two, and adds a family affordability component, like need-based scholarships from the city. Shibler said the program proposals are largely based on what has been successful in Juneau.

But how the city would pay for the programs is still unclear. 

Three options were put forward to raise the necessary funds, including a 2% alcohol tax, a 1% seasonal sales tax for the winter months, or an additional 1% summer season tax. 

Assembly Member Katie Riley said she’s “extremely uncomfortable” with a winter sales tax increase. She said it would be a burden that the working families in the community simply can’t afford. 

“That doesn’t mean that they’re not thinking long term,” Riley said. “That doesn’t mean that we don’t know the importance of this. That means that right now, cost pressures are insane, and people do need to look out for their short-term costs in addition to thinking about that long-term picture.” 

Assembly members agreed they want robust community input and further discussion before moving forward.

“I’ve heard the word ‘cost’ a lot,” said Assembly Member Tim Pike. “I actually think the right word is ‘investment.’ Right? We’re investing in our children as a community, and I think it’s important for us to keep that in front of us as we look at this funding process. It’s not a cost, it’s an investment, and it’ll pay dividends for us down the road, and it helps our community go forward.”

The assembly plans to hold a public work session in the next month to further discuss the issue. 

In January, the assembly greenlit $25,000 to pay the Southeast Childhood Collective to conduct the study as part of an effort to address the growing issue of childcare in Sitka. 

The regional nonprofit says the report provides a data-informed analysis of the island’s childcare system and outlines three investment options to “improve stability, strengthen the workforce, and expand access to care.” 

The report lays out three main childcare constraints: supply and demand imbalance, workforce constraints, and affordability. It estimates Sitka has a demand of approximately 485 young children who require regular childcare, and that the licensed system has the capacity to serve less than half of that. The report also says the local childcare workforce faces a persistent wage gap that limits recruitment to the field. Furthermore, the report estimates monthly tuition in Sitka far exceeds the federal threshold for affordable childcare. 

The assembly will consider accepting the report and directing staff on next steps at its meeting tonight. The report suggests several program options that could cost anywhere from $277,000 to $2 million. 

In other business, the assembly will consider adopting the city’s operating budget and capital improvement plan. In a memo, Municipal Administrator John Leach said the gap between what the city brings in and what it costs to operate has continued to narrow, which has shaped every decision reflected in the draft budget. 

The Sitka Assembly meets at 6 p.m. tonight. Raven News will broadcast the meeting live, following Alaska News Nightly. 

The City of Sitka is still on the hunt for a new fire chief, following the retirement of Craig Warren; Sitka’s spring cleanup is ongoing. The event allows residents to dispose of household trash, scrap metal, appliances, and hazardous materials for free; and there will be a community workshop on May 11 to discuss how to make Sitka’s energy future affordable, reliable, self-sufficient and innovative. Municipal Administrator John Leach joined KCAW on the Morning Interview to discuss the latest updates. Listen to their conversation here:

The Sitka Assembly, acting as a quasi-judicial body, denied a second-level public records appeal at its meeting Tuesday night (4-28-26). 

Austin Cranford said he submitted a public records request to the city in February to understand how the city is handling sign-on bonuses and high turnover at the police department. He claims staff’s response included unlawful redactions and denied the existence of some documents. 

“People listening tonight might wonder why I keep fighting the city on these issues, filing appeals and pushing back,” Cranford said. “I do it because demanding that our government follow its own laws is how we protect our home.”

Cranford is a former assembly candidate, and the son of former police sergeant Gary Cranford, who sued the city and settled for over $300,000 out of court. And it isn’t the first time Austin Cranford has challenged the city. He sued the city last year alleging censorship on the city police department’s Facebook page. He also had two public records appeals in February of 2024. 

In his appeal on Tuesday, Cranford asked the assembly to order the release of unredacted records and direct a secondary search for records of alleged communications regarding several police officers who resigned over bonus disputes. 

Municipal Attorney Rachel Jones said Cranford asked the clerk’s office to perform a level of analysis and research of records that’s not contemplated by the Alaska Public Records Act. She compared clerks to records librarians, whose job it is to grab documents that can be quickly identified. 

She said if someone requests a copy of Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit, that’s a request for a document that exists. She said requests for the entire works of Tolkien would require a bit more research, but since libraries are organized by author, a librarian can easily locate the information. But in her analogy, she said Cranford’s request took things a step further.

“If somebody comes in and says, ‘I want every record in your library that contains the word ‘hobbit.’ Now we’re looking at the complete works of Tolkien, every academic paper about Tolkien, newspapers, magazines, fan fiction, maybe anthropology reports saying Neanderthals look like hobbits. Maybe political satire saying, ‘This guy looks like a hobbit.’ That becomes research, where the librarian needs to know all of the content of the documents to assess whether this category applies to them or not.”

Jones said Cranford was attempting to get a research and investigation project off the ground by using the public records process inappropriately. 

Assembly members unanimously agreed that the clerks did their duty to produce records that existed and were asked for, and ultimately denied Cranford’s appeal.

“We’re fortunate the law is all about accuracy and language,” said Assembly Member Tim Pike. “And I think that’s the issue that I see in front of us. And as a consequence, I think based upon the language that was submitted, the clerks have supplied that particular information.”

The number of public records requests the City and Borough of Sitka receives annually has quadrupled in the past decade. Earlier this year, the assembly  approved about $21,000 for a two-year contract with an online platform designed to manage public records requests. The city hopes to start using the portal by June.  

Two candidates for the city’s top job advanced to a second round of interviews last week. In two public interviews, the Sitka Assembly dug deeper into the backgrounds of municipal administrator candidates Steven Dahl and Jenny Alber to consider how they would fit in with the city government team.

Dahl, who has worked as a city administrator in Oregon, said he has conducted more research on Sitka since his first interview. He said, if he gets the job, he would want to collaborate with Sitkans to develop a solution to balance tourism and the needs of locals, but he’d have to learn more first.

“What exactly [is it] that people who don’t want tourism [in Sitka], what they really don’t like about it? Is it more people invading their town? They don’t feel like they can go shopping on a Saturday, or they feel limited about that, or they feel like their hometown is being invaded?,” says Dahl. “I need to understand that part of it before I can come up with a good solution for that.”

Collaboration was also a recurring theme in Alber’s interview. Alber, who currently works as the deputy director for the City of New Orleans department of safety and permits, said harnessing local institutional knowledge is essential to best plan for emergencies like natural disasters. 

“Probably being as isolated as Sitka is, I’m sure FEMA can’t just show up tomorrow with trailers. So I think it is very much all hands on deck. Here’s the community. Who’s essential?,” says Alber. “I think those are all things that you really have to take the time and prepare for, and have the hard conversations, and get the right people in the room, and then go to your community and say, ‘Okay, do you have a plan?'” 

Over the course of each two-hour interview, assembly members took turns asking the candidates questions from how they would approach the job’s responsibilities, to solutions for issues like housing, education, and navigating city budgets. 

The assembly convened behind closed doors in executive sessions after both interviews to discuss each candidate. After the final interview on Friday (4-24-26), Mayor Steven Eisenbeisz said the assembly will take more time to consider Dahl and Alber, before getting back to both of the candidates in due order.

The Sitka Assembly gave the city’s municipal administrator and attorney both “exemplary” reviews for their work over the past year in a special meeting Tuesday night (4-21-26). 

Municipal Administrator John Leach requested his evaluation be held in public. He resigned from his position late last year, but agreed to stay on with the city until this December. 

Assembly Member Kevin Mosher said during his more than six years in the position, Leach has helped lead the city through many ups and downs, including the COVID-19 pandemic and the tourism boom. He said Leach will be missed. 

“I’m very grateful that you’ve given us these years. I know that you put your heart and soul into this job,” Mosher said. “I know you take great pains at supporting your staff, supporting the assembly, and supporting the public. I’ve seen that. We’ve all seen that.”

Leach said he took the job in late 2019 to serve the community he loves. He said it’s been tough at times, but he plans to stay in Sitka and continue to serve. 

“It can be hard to live in the same place that you have to make tough decisions knowing that some of those tough decisions are not going to sit well with some people,” Leach said. “As long as everybody understands that I’m trying to make the best decisions I can with the information I have at the time [while] keeping the long-term interests of the city in mind.”

Assembly members decided against a pay increase for Leach in light of a recent bump for his interim work as the city continues to search for his replacement. 

Meanwhile, Municipal Attorney Rachel Jones requested that her evaluation be held behind closed doors. City staff said future pay and benefits will be negotiated.