GF Chamber of Commerce hosts FNSB Assembly Candidates

Lisa Cassino: I just want to thank each of you for your willingness to serve in public office. Um, I know that it takes a lot of time to campaign, um, so I appreciate the energy that you put into that. Um, if you would join me in welcoming our candidates that are here to seek us, uh, represent us at Borough Assembly. Is the microphone okay?

Can you guys hear all right? A little feedback? Okay. Um, from seat A, we've got from left to right, we have Mr. David Guttenberg. We have Mr. Miguel Ramirez. For seat F, we have Mr. Garrett Armstrong and Ms. Tammy Tammie. And for seat G, we have Mr. Jimmy Cash and Ms. Kristen Kelly. Again, so much for joining us. Uh, the chamber is a nonpartisan organization, um, and as you all know, we, um, advocate for business prosperity within the interior.

Our hope is that, uh, you and the audience walk away with enough information to be able to cast your votes on October 1st or any time in between then. Early voting did start yesterday, um, so if you are going to be out of town on October 1st, I would encourage you to do that any time up until then. So our format, I'm gonna, I don't, There's a couple of strangers that might not have been on our political forum, uh, panels before, but, um, we have, uh, open ended yes no questions.

We also have the opportunity for you to ask questions of each other, um, and we'll go through that. I'll also let you know how much time you have to answer, uh, usually 60 seconds. When we get to audience questions, it'll probably be 30 seconds because we have a lot of you on the panel today. Um, I'd ask the audience.

Um, last week we were able to get through lots of audience questions because you guys put forward some really good ones, um, on your tables are little audience question cards. If you have questions, please write them down. Um, a caveat this week, though, is that I'm going to ask the candidates, Um, in seats.

So if you have a specific seat that you want to have answer your question, make sure you note that on there. Um, but if we have all six of them answer all of the audience questions, we will have no time to do audience questions. So pick two to ask a question of and we'll try to go that way and again, 30 seconds for those questions.

Um, I'd ask to hold our applause until the end so that we can get through as many questions as possible here today. Um, and to the candidates in front of you is an obnoxious screen size. Can you all see that?

It will tell you how much time you have left, um, it'll blink Um, at you when you are counting down, when you see your time is at zero, please stop talking.

This will also allow us to get through as many questions as possible. Um, so with that, we're going to hope, go ahead and get started. Um, we're going to begin with a 90 second response to our opening question. Um, and this time it's going to be really easy. We're just going to go right down the line starting with Mr. Guttenberg and the opening question is going to be, what are the biggest challenges facing the borough that will need to be addressed during your potential term? and how will you work to address those? 90 seconds to you.

[00:03:02] David Guttenberg: Thank you. Thank you for having us. Um, the biggest challenge for the borough is going to be education funding and hopefully the state will step up and do their job so that the borough doesn't have to use its taxpayers funds to, to, um, to augment the, the, um, the school district's budget.

But I think every year the problem with the borough and any admini and any body is to live within its means and balance the budget. That we have supplying and, um, uh, delivering the services that the, that the people pay for, that they expect, whether it's keeping Mary Siah open, keeping the ball fields maintained, um, supporting services for kids and seniors, all doing that within our budget constraints.

The state has a lot of money. The feds can print money. The borough has a finite amount of funds and the public expects services delivered, delivering those services in a way that is economical, feasible, and delivers them in a way that they expect.

Moderator: All right. Well, thank you. You're going to reset the clock, Amanda.

Mr. Ramirez, 90 seconds to you.

[00:04:13] Miguel Ramirez: Yes. Thank you for the great question. Good afternoon, everybody. I insist on a cost-effective government. Uh, we need to protect property rights and neighborhood integrity. We need to keep, uh, support the tax cap. Our, our senior citizen population has grown by four times. We need to keep working with the senior advisory committee, keeping the senior tax exemptions in.

Um, our borough has a lot of, a lot of things they can do, they cannot do. We're a second class borough with limited powers. We need to, uh, To work within the limits of our budget and the, and those that we give a budget to, uh, within those constraints, and that will help, uh, create more diversity within our borough and, uh, help people say, thank you.

Moderator: Thank you, Mr Armstrong.

[00:05:00] Garrett Armstrong: Thank you for that question. So I'd say it's education. And I say that not only as a concerned citizen, but as a teacher, I see that, but I see that every day. I can see that in the budget cuts. For example, I've worked in the school district for the last six years. Every year it's been budget cuts.

Administrators I've known who've worked in the district for since 2010 and have said it's been nothing budget cuts for the last 12, 13, 14 years. And that has a serious impact. So for example, I just left my school, Wood River Elementary, and we have classes that have jumped in size from 25 to 26 students to 35.

Picture 35 kids in a space about the size of my gymnasium at the school. And that's what I'm working with. So, it is an issue. I understand the district is looking at a 20 million dollar shorted, uh, budget shortfall. And obviously, we need to work with Juneau. We need to lobby as, as an assembly to increase the base student allocation and make sure Juneau does its part.

Because as I say, the borough is doing, it's providing its local contribution, and it's working within its means. We simply just need more funds. Because that means small, you know, large, increasing the class sizes means also less time for each student. You know, it's more, it's more management than actual teaching for the teachers.

And it also means we're cutting positions, and as we've all heard, raising insurance rates to astronomical levels. Sometimes hundreds of dollars per pay period for individual plans. So I'd say the borough should be working with Juneau to raise the, to raise education funding and see what cuts we can make to keep, maintain our schools and quality of education.

Thank you.

[00:06:30] Tammie Wilson: Thank you. Ms. Tammie. So it's absolutely the budget. I mean, you know, that's one of our primary jobs to do. The current assembly just raised it another 10 million, even after Juneau. We had a special election and everyone said we don't want to fund more. They still did and coming within 7 of the tax cap for the first time in its history.

So what do we need to do? We've taken on a lot of powers through different votes. Um, animal control, parks and rec, many others. It's time that we go to the public and we find out are they satisfied with these services? Do they think we're paying too much? Are there other ways to be able to provide these services?

And I think the other part is absolutely schools. You know, and to me, it's not about the basic student allocation, it's about making sure that every student gets funded the same way. Right now, Juneau actually penalizes us for being a borough, where they take impact aid that was meant for our military students, where they take how much money we spend, you know, on, you know, how much our houses are worth and other things we get penalized, and that is not the way it was supposed to work.

The way it is, is that every student, no matter where you live in the borough or in non boroughs, should be funded exactly the same way. Can't expect us to keep putting that on to taxpayers, increasing property taxes, because the state wants to save money on your backs. Thank you.

Moderator: Thank you. Mr. Cash.

[00:07:48] Jimi Cash: Thank you.

So, I was on the assembly for four years, 2019 to 2023, and every year, the same issue. It's always the budget, because the borough gets all of its revenue from taxes, so it's on your backs. Whether your businesses, your renters, your homeowners, property owners, whatever, the main way the borough gets their income is from taxes.

And so I watched the, uh, the movie Reagan last night. I took my teenage daughters to it. And, uh, one of the things that Reagan said was that when the people have more money in their pockets from less taxes, they go out and spend more money in businesses. And those businesses have to produce more goods.

And then those people who produce those goods have to hire more people. And so that's the biggest thing in my mind. The best way we can help the borough, we can help businesses, we can help the economy, we can help, you know, The community is by getting out of the way of the, out of, uh, out of getting, really getting out of people's pockets, cutting taxes, not raising taxes, definitely not raising taxes by 10 million like they tried to do in May.

So the biggest thing is always going to be the budget. And you know, that's not really going to change unless something major happens. But I think that's the biggest thing is really realizing that every dollar that the borough makes is on your backs.

Moderator: Thank you.

[00:08:58] Jimi Cash: Ms. Kelly.

[00:08:59] Kristin Kelly: Hi, I'm Kristen Kelly and I'm running, um, against Jimmy Cash for seat G.

I'm going to echo a lot of what you've already heard, being the last one to talk, but, um, the biggest problem facing the borough right now is this crisis in school funding. Until we get that under control, whether that's, um, through good relationships with our legislature and our governor, until that's under control, it's always going to be the most pressing need that we have as a borough.

There was some talk about our budget last year. I just want to clarify that our budget that we passed last year is at a 2019 level of spending. So we're at five years ago is what we are basically funding our budget at now. So we're very tight and so we don't have a lot of room to help our school district if the state doesn't meet its constitutional mandate to fund education.

So what we really need to do is work with our legislators And work with our government and the Department of Education to give all of our students an excellent education. Because as Jimmy said, that does fund, it does trickle down to all parts of our economy. People won't want to move here with their families if we don't have a good school system.

So that to me is the basis of all my decision making.

Moderator: Thank you. Okay, we're going to jump right into our first set of candidate to candidate questions. We're going to start with the candidates in seat F. So, um, these will be the same instructions for both of you. Um, the question asker will have 30 seconds to ask, you'll have 60 seconds to answer.

If you're not satisfied with the answer, you can rebut for 15 seconds, and then they will have 30 seconds to close. So we're gonna go, it'll be Ms. Tammie, you'll ask your question first of Mr. Armstrong, and 30 seconds to you.

[00:10:58] Tammie Wilson: Thank you. At the North Pole Chamber of Commerce, we had a question about the animal shelter and you said you needed time to research whether or not we should be spending over 33 million dollars for a new shelter. So what have you found in your research?

[00:11:12] Garrett Armstrong: Thank you for that question. In short, well, I think there need, we need to have a new facility because the facility is currently at 60 years old, at six years old.

If we don't have the budget for it, then clearly we need to reassess situation and find something that is within our means.

[00:11:27] Tammie Wilson: Follow up? Yes. So we do have a budget. Um, it's been funded at 33 million dollars. So are you saying that You want to reallocate that 33 million. Um, what exactly would your plan be?

30 seconds to you.

[00:11:41] Garrett Armstrong: Well, thank you for the clarification for the clarifying question. I would say that this is something that needs to be discussed with the whole borough assembly. Certainly I am for a cost saving whenever possible. So let's, so I would talk with the assembly and see what can be done.

Moderator: Thank you. Okay. Mr. Armstrong. Now over to you, you'll have 30 seconds to ask Ms. Tammie a question. 15 seconds to ask Ms. Tammie a question.

[00:12:02] Garrett Armstrong: Mm hmm. Thank you. Okay. So, Ms. Tammie, a question for you. So, at the August 20 So, at the, uh, League of Women Voters event, uh, sorry, candidate forum on Friday, you said you would do absolutely nothing to improve borough services.

Doesn't include air quality, which, in your neighborhood, is of serious concern.

[00:12:20] Tammie Wilson: So, um, by a ballot initiative, we do not have those powers. Those powers are to the state. They are the ones that complaints go into. They're the ones who monitor it. Mm hmm. So at this time, all we do, which I think is amazing, is we do the educational portion of it.

So we have put plans together so people know how to build sheds to keep them covered, which if you go door to door like I have, you'll see more wood sheds than you've ever seen before. Um, the DEC has also now looked at wood stoves and they have made their own determination on what ones are really clean and too bad we didn't do that millions of dollars ago because I think it would be a lot further.

So, as far as certain powers that we have, we do not have the air quality powers to do any more than what we're currently doing.

Moderator: 15 seconds to rebut.

[00:13:03] Garrett Armstrong: Okay, it's a follow up. So a follow up question for you. So what about any previous times in the borough assembly? Have you voted in the past against air quality monitoring?

[00:13:12] Tammie Wilson: So there were monitors that were called purple monitors and we found that they were not being utilized in any type of fashion, um, whether that came into using that data or not. So basically, we were wasting our money on something that wasn't even being taken into consideration.

Moderator: Thank you. All right, we're going to move into our next question.

So we're going to hear first from Mr. Cash. This will be a 60 second response, um, and I've got orders, so I'm trying to keep it within the races, so just kind of follow my lead over here. The question is going to be what can the assembly do to help reduce the cost of living, specifically energy, to make the borough a more attractive place for people to live and conduct business?

[00:13:58] Jimi Cash: So it all goes back down to, well, taxes, property taxes, and if the property taxes continue to go up it's going to make it harder for people to purchase homes because when you're buying a home it's not just the sticker price of the house that's being sold. You actually, you have to count into your escrow, your insurance and your taxes.

And we just bought another house and it's the same way. Like, I cannot believe how much our property taxes were going to be for that house every year. Um, and that goes also with businesses. So, if a business is trying to build a new property or expand their, their, their structure or build a new warehouse, if you're, you guys are all in business, so you understand that right now there's not only a shortage of housing, but there's also a shortage of commercial real estate, commercial warehousing and stuff like that.

And developers can't build when they look at the taxes and the cost. It doesn't pencil out. So the biggest thing we can do is try to keep the budget and the tax mill rate down and keep zoning friendly for businesses and for development.

Moderator: Thank you.

[00:14:51] Kristin Kelly: Ms. Kelly. Well, if we're talking about energy, things that the borough can do is reduce costs by, um, passing on grants that we have as, um, my time in the borough with the Woodstove Exchange Program.

Getting natural gas into homes and making that more affordable to people. Working with our legislators also to get that gas line closer to Fairbanks. Right now it's going to be pretty far away, which will increase the cost of natural gas. So I think it's really important to, um, raise our voices and be powerful and, and, um, get that gas line closer to us so that natural gas is more affordable here in Fairbanks.

That's a couple ways on the borough that we can, um, work toward reducing those costs.

Moderator: Thank you. Mr. Ramirez. Can

[00:15:45] Miguel Ramirez: you repeat the question, please?

Moderator: Yes, sir. Um, what can the assembly do to help reduce the cost of living, specifically energy, to make the borough a more attractive place for people to live and conduct business?

[00:15:55] Miguel Ramirez: Yes. Thank you. One, we don't want to raise taxes on our property owners. Energy. We need to get a pipeline for natural gas. Natural gas is a good alternative. But there's also I believe, if I'm not mistaken, IGU covers a certain amount where they'll, uh, construct and connect the line to your house. If, if, that doesn't meet within a certain amount of fee, they charge you a ridiculous amount of money to actually kind of, uh, I have many neighbors of mine that want to do natural gas, but that's preventing them because of the cost of the connection for natural gas.

If not, they would have converted. You know, we have to stay within a budget. Uh, we have to look out for the welfare of all our community, not just certain sectors.

Moderator: Thank you, Mr. Guttenberg.

[00:16:37] David Guttenberg: Thank you. And a very relevant question, always in Fairbanks. So I think the most significant thing that the borough can do to drive the cost of energy down Is it continues supporting the IGU and its efforts?

And I don't see anybody from IGU continue to drive its costs down by expanding the natural gas infrastructure that they're doing. We just, um, approve money to replace the boilers at the North Pole High School. Hopefully they talk about, uh, the, the, that gas line goes almost to that school, but can you support driving down the cost with their efforts?

And then we can continue the energy Woodstove change out. and make, um, at the same time, which is a little contradictory, make, um, wood lots available for woodcutters, for people who, who use wood for heating can have, uh, those heating on. But basically, the big issue is driving down the cost by supporting IGU's efforts.

Moderator: Thank you. Uh, Ms. Tammie.

[00:17:37] Tammie Wilson: Thank you. This is a great question. IGU has put a lot of lines in, but one thing we haven't done is be able to make it more affordable for people to switch. from oil or wood into gas cost up to 25, 000 by time you get done with the whole process. And if you want to use the grants that the borough has, then you have to be willing to do a deed restriction, which most people in Alaska are not willing to do.

But the other amazing program that you can do is Alaska Housing had a program where they went in and they audited buildings, school buildings, personal buildings, you know, and shows you if you do A, B, and C, here's what your savings are. That doesn't just give you financial savings, but again, it gives you air quality savings.

And we should be taking advantage of all those types of programs to make everything cost less, be more efficient, and help overall. Thank you.

Moderator: Thank you, Mr. Armstrong.

[00:18:23] Garrett Armstrong: Well, thank you for the question. I've heard a lot of great ideas so far about answers to this question. My only, my contribution would be we also need to look into what create more incentives people to install solar panels and get renewable energy in the borough.

So, for example, my wife and I made the investment, installed solar panels in our home, and the immediate savings switched over immediately. We actually found, as silver lining of the cost of kilowatt hours from GVA go up, we actually see our point where it's going to be paid back are actually getting shorter.

So we're actually going to pay it off within 10 years instead of 12. So I wouldn't see what could be done in the assembly to incentivize people to build more of them. I'd also say it encourages local business as well because we had ours installed by a local firm, Renewable Energy Services, and I'd love to see that more, when we got that created, that would create new jobs, facility business, and like I said, continue to work with the interior gas line and, and to expand that because I've seen that in my neighborhood, and it's been a great savings for a lot of my neighbors who have taken advantage of it.

So I'd encourage that as well. Thank you.

Moderator: Thank you. Um, and as a reminder, if you have a question, um, please just raise it high so that chamber staff can see those and collect them for us. We're going to go to you with, um, candidates, candidate questions. Um, so same processes before 30 seconds to ask 60 seconds to answer, um, with some rebuttal in between there, Mr Guttenberg, you will ask your opponent the question first.

So 30 seconds to you.

[00:19:46] David Guttenberg: Well, thank you. It's a, it's kind of a, kind of a gut gotcha question. We don't want to do gotcha questions, but, um, I'm just asking Mr Ramirez. If, if you were on the assembly and we were. Squeezing the budget. What programs would you cut?

[00:20:04] Miguel Ramirez: That is a great question, Ms. Guttenberg. I believe before cutting anything, you have to leave it to the will of the people. So you have to present what you think would be imperative, um, have public comment on it, and then have the voice of the people when the majority vote on what they think should be cut.

Moderator: 15 seconds to rebut.

[00:20:26] David Guttenberg: Well, all of our decisions cannot go out to the vote of the people. We're acting within time constraints. So, um, at some point, if you're on a body, you, you are going to have to make those decisions yourself. Thank you.

[00:20:41] Moderator: Mr. Ramirez, 30 seconds.

[00:20:44] Miguel Ramirez: Um, so one of the things I would look at is, honestly, I love trails like everybody, but we can't infringe on people's property rights.

We have to look at the cost of putting in trails and where we're putting them. So that would be one of the areas where I would make sure we look into so we don't infringe on people's property rights.

Moderator: Thank you. Okay, we're going to reverse that now. So, Mr. Ramirez, if you have a question you'd like to ask your opponent, you may do so with 30 seconds.

[00:21:10] Miguel Ramirez: Uh, yes. Good afternoon, David. Um, I want to know why you're not in favor of the

[00:21:16] David Guttenberg: tax cap. The tax cap is the law of the land, right? We are required, and we don't have an alternative, to live with it.

We have to live with it. The tax cap says that if the only way to answer the tax cap issue, if you have an underfunding, you have to go to the people. We had an overwhelming support for education funding. We didn't have any money, so we went to the people asking them if they wanted to increase the tax cap to pay for education.

They said no. That's the answer. We cannot raise the tax cap.

Moderator: Uh, 15 seconds to you, Mr. Ramirez.

[00:21:58] Miguel Ramirez: Even though the assembly heard the overwhelming majority of the people before the special election happened that they didn't want to spend over 125, 000 on the election, why did it proceed then?

Moderator: Um, 30 seconds to you.

[00:22:14] David Guttenberg: Well, we heard overwhelming response from people that they wanted to fund education.

We heard overwhelming response to people that they didn't want an election. We gave the people the choice. We're still hearing from people, probably many people, to the tax cap, they're still saying fund education. So now we don't have the ability to fund education. Hopefully the state will step up and do their job so it's not an issue for the borough.

Moderator: Thank you. Um, moving to question three. Um, Ms. Kelly, you will answer first with a 60 second response. The question is, what should the borough's top two legislative priorities be and why? 60 seconds, Ms. Kelly.

[00:23:03] Kristin Kelly: Well, I'm going to sound a little bit like a broken record. Our top legislative priority is education funding. We have to stop this crazy panic cycle that we're putting our borough and all of its residents through every year. It's crazy and it's unnecessary. It's driving professionals out of the business and the people that are the most harmed by it, I would say our entire community is harmed, but the people that are the most harmed by it are children trying to learn and develop a skill set in an education that they're going to need for their entire life.

So we have to figure this out. That would be our number one. Number two, I would say is unfunded mandates. We, I think someone already referred to our senior population is, is, um, growing at a faster rate than anywhere else. And I'll have to finish this in another question because it looks like I'm out of time.

Thank you. Mr. Cash.

[00:24:07] Jimi Cash: Miss Kelly and I have, uh, agree on that. The state needs to do a little bit more to help with education funding. Um, also school bond debt reimbursement, they're not holding up their end of the bargain there. Um, also, just on that note, uh, once school bonds are paid off, that's going to be, open up some more room in the budget for us to support education or whatever.

So if the idea of school bonds ever come up again, don't support it. That's my opinion. But, um, what else? I think, uh, you said two? Yep. Yep.

Well, a couple wins that I'm really happy to see happen was the, uh, uh, military spouse licensure reciprocity. We need to work on that and continue to broaden that so that nurses and teachers and, and spouses who come up with family members from the military can actually get into the workforce here in Fairbanks, uh, and the whole state easier, so.

Moderator: Thank you. Uh, Mr. Guttenberg.

[00:25:04] David Guttenberg: Thank you. Well, of course, top of the list is funding education, increasing the BSA. Increasing the BSA puts it into statute. Um, we can build from there. But the, um, I think the capital project list is important. I mean, for the legislature to return to having money to do capital project.

So we can do, um, whether we're, we're we're building roof, we're repairing ruse on schools or we're funding, um, uh, road service areas so that people's roads can be taken care of in more efficiently than we can, but, um. Those are kind of the two top things. The unfunding mandate is incredibly important. The state says you have to do something, you have to do it, but they don't kick in and reimburse you for it.

They require you to do it. There's no participation. You're required to do it. Some of it's okay, some of it isn't. Um, they need to step up and take a big part of that. Um, those are some of the big things. The list of legislative things, We'll see what happens this year.

Moderator: Thank you, Mr. Ramirez.

[00:26:06] Miguel Ramirez: Uh, yes, we all agree.

We all want our kids and education funded, but the state, I believe, got 2. 2 billion, an additional 322 million. Um, I work in government. I know about where overhead needs to be cut. Every October 1st, I'm worried about a job. Because, uh, where I work in the private sector, um, we need, um, on the other issue is we need to look at the budget within the assembly.

There's over 33 million dollars for an animal shelter when, um, there's citizens in our borough that can do it for way less and we can use that money for more critical needs like education. Thank you.

Moderator: Thank you, Mr. Armstrong.

[00:26:46] Garrett Armstrong: Yes, thank you. Well, to repeat my point from earlier, education is still the number, still it.

I'd say that this is a crisis that happens every year. It's been like this for 14 years, and it's not only bad for our kids, it's bad for business. Because if business is looking to expand into Alaska, and the borough in particular, our borough, they will be looking into the quality of education, because that's going to get the quality of your workforce.

So I would say, I would encourage Juneau to focus on that, on increasing the BSA, on securing additional funding for our schools, because That is the greatest investment we can make in our society, in my opinion. And to echo, and to echo an earlier point, also, improving capital projects are very important, I'd say, because we need, because there's a lot of infrastructure.

I'm thinking of state institutions like the Pioneer Home, for example, that tend to our elders that need, that have long overdue and deferred repairs that need to be done, as well as a personal project of mine that'd be sort of in there as well, which would be GRIPS, which is improving the electrical transmission of the rail belt, so that we can drive down the utility costs for electricity for.

You know, businesses and residents across the borough. Thank you.

Moderator: Thank you, Ms. Tammie.

[00:27:52] Tammie Wilson: Thank you. First, I want to make it clear on unfunded mandates. I'm happy to pay extra taxes so that our seniors can have that benefit and have one less thing to worry about on their income. So, all unfunded mandates are not bad.

First of all, we need to go to the legislature and stop our borough assessor for assessing our non profits. That's crazy that we are taking money out of their hands that they're using to help less fortunate people and putting into the, into the borough. That's never happened, you know, um, until this current assessor has come upon.

The other thing is, and, and I was one that did it, was a school bond moratorium. It's one of the best things that we did because we started fixing buildings before they were so bad that you had to literally. Do a whole new roof versus just being able to fix it. Having a capital improvement program where we're doing this proactively instead of reactively have saved millions of dollars to our constituents and, you know, made it so that, you know, we're taking care of things the way that we should.

So, you know, those would be the two things that we take care of.

Moderator: Thank you. Okay, we're going to go to our last set of, um, candidate to candidate questions. Um, again, 30, 60, 15, 30. Um, Mr. Cash, you're going to ask Miss Kelly your question first.

[00:29:05] Jimi Cash: Gosh, every time. I don't like gotcha questions. So, Miss Kelly, what is your favorite winter sport?

[00:29:11] Kristin Kelly: Oh, that actually is a really hard question. Um, I would probably say cross country skiing, followed closely by ski juring, and then by snowshoeing. Basically anything on a trail. I love doing and being out in nature and loving the snow. It changes your attitude if you actually like winter sports. Would you like to rebut

Moderator: that answer?

Okay, we'll take that time and put it to the audience questions. All right, well, Ms. Kelly, would you like to ask Mr. Cash a question? Sure.

[00:29:47] Kristin Kelly: Um, what would you do? We were talking the other night at the women, or the League of Women Voters Forum, um, and we're talking about community and improving the borough.

So without cutting a program, how would you improve the Fairbanks North Star Borough community?

[00:30:10] Jimi Cash: Well, without cutting a program, one is, like Ms. Tammie mentioned, was making sure that the assessing department stops assessing non profits like churches and the food bank, and those are organizations that are doing their best to try to help the community, and the government just needs to get out of the way and let non profits.

Do what they have a passion and the resources to do.

Moderator: Okay, uh, would you like to rebut that? 15 seconds.

[00:30:37] Kristin Kelly: Well, I'm uncomfortable about talking about a borough employee's position. I don't think that's a campaign. issue to do. Um, so no, I'm not gonna rebut that.

[00:30:55] Moderator: All right. Um, so, uh, audience questions. Last call, uh, Chad, I did see one come over here if you want to grab that from Amanda because she's doing double duty on timing for me here. Um, Ms. Tammie, um, this question is going to start with you. 60 seconds to respond. So, recognizing that government can be a tool to meet economic needs, What specific policies or recommendations would you propose to stimulate growth and address the housing and or economic development issues for our community?

[00:31:28] Tammie Wilson: Nice question for 60 seconds. Um, well one of the things that we did, um, that I did on the assembly working with other members was to incentivize building and, and make it up to 10 years to where they wouldn't have to pay property taxes trying to get things started. And I think the, and we made it a very short time so that we could see if it worked.

I don't think we really hit the mark because I, not as many builders took advantage of it, and I don't know if that's because of how much it costs to be able to put things together, but I think we need to look at that again because we're still very short for housing for a military, and no military personnel should have to move anywhere without their family, and without taking care of that issue, my understanding that is still happening.

Moderator: Mr. Armstrong.

[00:32:12] Garrett Armstrong: Thank you for that question. I would say that one, one thing to do to stimulate, to stimulate growth and economic growth would be also invest, you know, encouraging the school district to continue to invest in this amazing CTE and trade programs, as well as, I will say from personal experience, because I was in the welding program for a year at, you know, TVC, that it's a fantastic resource that the community uses and I'd like to see that continue to grow.

Thank you.

Moderator: Ms. Kelly. Can you repeat the question? Yes, recognizing that government can be a tool to meet economic needs, what specific policies or recommendations would you propose to stimulate growth and address either housing and or economic development challenges for our community? Thank you.

[00:32:56] Kristin Kelly: So I also, um, with, with, um, Ms.

Tammie worked on the ordinance that extended tax incentives to builders. Ms. Kelly. And we heard some feedback about that on why perhaps it wasn't as successful as it should have been. So I would like to, in my next term, take another stab at that and make it more affordable and attractive for builders to build homes because we don't have enough housing here.

Um, the youth are asking for, not the youth, but young people are asking us to make more Housing available. The military is asking to make more housing available. So it is a very great need here and we need the, the builders and, um, and the construction to make that happen. So I'm, I'm for giving, giving incentives to, to build to builders.

Easy for me to say .

Moderator: Thank you Mr. Cash.

[00:33:57] Jimi Cash: So, you've heard it a couple times, incentives to builders, which is really important. We did have one situation where a builder was trying to take advantage of that program and the interpretation that the assessing department had on the ordinance made it so he couldn't take advantage of it.

And also we have the issue that was referenced before with the interpretation in the assessing department of exclusive use is causing them to tax non profits. So there's that issue, that's signed. But the way that the borough can really encourage economic growth is by getting rid of borough land. So we have thousands of acres of borough land that needs to be sold off, and once it's sold off, then it can get put onto the tax rolls, and it can be developed, and then we can have a growing tax base.

Moderator: Thank you. Mr. Ramirez.

[00:34:41] Miguel Ramirez: Uh, yes, housing. First, I need to make a disclaimer. I'm not representing the DOD Housing Department in any way. I gotta put that out there. Housing is an issue for our military. We have housing issues on Allison. We brought the F 35 squadrons up here. We have airmen that are E 4s, if they've been three years as a E 4.

They have to move out of the barracks and Fort Wainwright is not having an issue. We're housing them at Fort Wainwright. But housing is a big issue. Not only with incentives we need to give to our builders, we need to give rebates to those owners who are building homes. Tax rebates. Um, so we don't put the burden on us, the tax payers.

Moderator: Thank you. Mr. Guttenberg.

[00:35:24] David Guttenberg: Well, thank you. Um, good question. Very good question. Very relevant. We all ask these same questions. And the problem, whether we give incentives or not, where, and why don't those incentives working or working in the capacity that we want? What do we hear from? We're hearing back from the military and loaners for housing is, um, some zoning issues, available property.

The season's too short for a lot of them. Okay. What we're hearing from the local builders is they can't build a home, an affordable home, two bedroom home, uh, with a garage and, and sell it as a, um, uh, affordable for the price that they need to make a profit That reflects the 30, uh, $25 a sheet. Sheetrock, it low's, right?

And that also re reflects on the, the, uh, the 22 million to $30 million, um, uh, animal shelter, right? So the cost of the cost of, of billing here, short seasons. Making sure that more land and the zoning is appropriate for whoever wants it, whether it's no zoning at all, but um, but the bill. Oh, I'm out of time.

Moderator: All right, our next question is going to start with Mr. Ramirez. 60 second response. The topic of privatization of public services is something we hear about every single year and in just about every election. In support of, if you support privatization, either through business or non profits, can you provide us with a specific example, and if you do not support privatization, please tell us why.

[00:36:56] Miguel Ramirez: Ooh, that's a great, that's a great question. Um, wow. I honestly, gonna have to get back to you.

Moderator: Okay. Mr. Guttenberg.

[00:37:08] David Guttenberg: Thank you. Well, I think everything that was economically, um, feasible to privatize has probably already been done. You know, you can't, if you're gonna privatize, you can't put the burden. Driving the cost down on the backs of employees.

That's one thing that happens all too often. Look what's going on with the borough We privatized the bus service. The school district no longer controls the routes with a number of Children that can get picked up. So we do a lot of things that are privatized But if we're going to do it, it needs to be analyzed Economically part of that equation is How much control do we lose?

Moderator: Okay. Thank you Mr. Cash Can you repeat the question? Yes, sir. Uh, the topic of privatization. If you support privatization either through businesses or non profits, can you provide us with a specific example? Um, if you do not support that, please tell us why.

[00:38:04] Jimi Cash: Yes, so I do, and I would entertain the idea for most anything, um, but specifically animal control.

Right? Anchorage's animal control is privatized. Why couldn't we do it? Um, The school buses, why, you know, I don't necessarily think that's a bad idea because I do know that the school district works really, really closely with Durham to make sure that those routes are covered. And because of that privatization, they've been able to take vans and run around and pick up students in areas where they don't need a big bus.

So it's cost savings and the ability to get more routes in different areas. So, um, I don't have, other than maybe the animal control, I don't have a specific, um, but I definitely think it's, it's. It's responsible and it would be irresponsible not to look at it if it could be a cost savings and be done, uh, to the same standard.

Um, obviously though if there's contracts, if we have union contracts or, or, or, uh, agreements, we got to honor those contracts. So I'm not advocating at all for, for validating or violating any contracts.

Moderator: Thank you. Uh, Ms.

[00:39:06] Kristin Kelly: Kelly. Well, it's a really complex question and I appreciate the question. Um, I agree with Mr.

Guttenberg that a lot of what we have has been private, a lot of what can be privatized has been, um, I, I think about my own work. I work at North Star College and I, I look at how like the busing affects the students that can come there. So quickly, that's a program that juniors and seniors can come and go to, um, attend the university there those years.

What we're finding is because there's no busing offered, since we privatized it, the students from North Pole and Eielson aren't coming. They're not able to take advantage of this wonderful program and um, because they can't, some of them can't afford it. And that's my fear of privatization, is the people that can't afford what the businesses are charging, then they lose out on what should be a government service.

Um,

Moderator: thank you Mr. Armstrong.

[00:40:11] Garrett Armstrong: Well, that is a, that's a good th good question, but a thorny one to ask. So, I myself have mixed feelings about privatization, and I believe, as mentioned earlier, as a proud member of, you know, my union. I believe that union contracts should be respected and honored, but, and I sometimes will see that sometimes privatization can work.

So I'll give you an example from my personal life. My dad has been, Crip, has crippled in 2005 and has been bedbound for the past year. My mom has been primary care group for him, my wife and I have stepped in to help out, and it's learned very fast how limited services for seniors are, both public and private.

Because of where they live, out in the borough, just getting my dad to come out to get a catheter change, this is a once a month procedure and he's done, would, he simply would take an emergency call from the, from emergency services, until they said, sorry, there's been some changes in the policy, we can't do that, and there was no way to get my dad transported up until last July, when there was a company that opened that said they could do it, which is great.

So I think you got to be cautious about these things. Thank you.

Tammie Wilson: Thank you, Ms. Tammie. I absolutely believe in privatization. What you have to do is you have to look at, you know, what is needed. So we hear all the time that there's all these vacancies in the borough and we can't hire people. And so therefore we can't give the service that people want.

Well, why can't we hire them? And if we can't hire them as employees of the borough, is there a company already out there that can do it? For instance, I'm pretty sure our janitorial service that we have at the borough is private. And to me, they do a great job. You know, using the bus system, um, one of the things that was misstated, the school district does decide the routes.

What Durham has to do is try to find enough drivers to make those routes up. But part of their issue is that they don't have some of the other things that Mr. Cash talked about, and that's vans and other means, and thinking outside the box, if I can't find enough bus drivers, how do I still get kids to school?

Why not use vans up in the other area? Why not cut the time it takes them to get to school lower? Because we always want to put everything as it's always been, and the world is not that way. We have to think outside the box.

Moderator: Uh, thank you. Uh, this is going to be our last prepared question. We're a little bit ahead of schedule, so that makes me excited because that means more time for audience.

Uh, Mr. Armstrong, you're going to be the first, um, responder in this question. You'll have 60 seconds again. What are your specific, actually, just kidding, I didn't read the question. We've talked about education, like, enough. So I'm going to, um, we have some education questions from the audience that I think are better than the one that we had in here.

Um, so this will be, um, we're going to go to yes, no questions. So get your yes, no paddles out first. Okay. Um, so yes if you agree, no if you don't. Raise them high and proud so everybody can see them. Um, how do you plan to vote on Prop 1, an ordinance establishing maximum allowable tax revenues, um, on October 1st?

As a reminder to our audience that a yes vote means current tax cap would remain in place. A no vote means that it will be modified or negated by the borough assembly.

So it looks like two nos and the rest yeses up here. Okay, great. Question two. Do you support the borough transitioning to a mail in voting process and system?

[00:43:28] Kristin Kelly: Oh, sorry. Okay.

Moderator: Would you support implementing tax incentives or other financial incentives to encourage housing development in areas that remained underutilized?

Okay. Do you support moving forward with the 33 million animal shelter as planned?

[00:43:57] Kristin Kelly: I'm holding it like this. Okay.

Moderator: Um, well, on our panel up here, I pulled a couple that could be yes or no questions, so we're going to do it this way. Um, how did you vote in the May 7th special election? Yes or no.

Um, did you think the special election in May was necessary?

Okay. Can property taxes be kept at current rates while raising the tax cap on all other tax items? Yes or no? Can

[00:44:44] Miguel Ramirez: you repeat that?

Moderator: Sure. Can property taxes be kept at current rates while raising the tax cap on all other tax items?

Skip that one. Yeah,

[00:45:01] Jimi Cash: thank you. The

Moderator: state continues to fall short on solving education funding. Do you support long term tax changes locally to take on the state's responsibility? There are a lot of education questions up here. Take on the state's responsibility? Yes. Do you support long term tax changes locally to take on the state's responsibility?

I feel like everybody up here was in that world. Okay. Um, We're going to go with, um, this one is for Mr. Cash and Ms. Kelly. Um, do you view our public schools as an economic driver? What will you do to grow that economic engine? 30 seconds, Amanda. And we're going to go with Mr. Cash first.

[00:45:49] Jimi Cash: Uh, could you restate the question?

Do you view our public schools as an economic driver? And what will you do to help grow that economic engine?

[00:46:00] Jimi Cash: Well, absolutely. There, you know, that's where all of our employees come from. Public schools and homeschools because a lot of the homeschool students are enrolled in some sort of public school, uh, homeschool program.

Just because you do the homeschool, the B.E.S.T. program is, is run by the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District. IDEA and all of them are run by school districts. So public schools, kind of.

I don't remember the second part of that question, but,

Moderator: um, you kind of answered it. But what, what will you do to grow that economic engine?

[00:46:31] Jimi Cash: Just encourage people to get good education.

Moderator: Okay. Um, Ms. Kelly.

[00:46:39] Kristin Kelly: Yes, I absolutely view it as a driver for economic development. It goes through all parts of our community. Besides the children getting their education and using that to make our community a better place, it filters to people that want to live here. Okay. Come in the military. Um, if we don't have excellent schools, people will not bring their children and their families here.

We saw that with Eielson when, um, it was supposed to expand. We were expecting all these families to come. They didn't come because our schools are not as rated as highly as they were in the 1980s and 1990s. Okay,

Moderator: this one is going to be for Mr. Armstrong and Ms. Tammie. Um, please describe your position, excuse me, on the way the borough currently taxes our local, essential, non profit organizations.

Mr. Armstrong is first.

[00:47:34] Garrett Armstrong: Thank you. Well, uh, can I ask a clarifying question or just go straight forward? Alright, go for it. I would say that, as far as I understand, it has been, it has been fair, but I think it's, I would like to know, like, more of what kind of service we're talking about.

If we're talking about FRA, for example. I think it's great. They personally helped my dad to transport like in that affirmative situation, but if it's something else, so for example, a church that has an recreational center, the recreational center is a recreational center, not a place of worship, and it ought to be taxed accordingly.

Thank you.

[00:48:05] Moderator: Ms. Tammie.

Tammie Wilson: So what we're doing is absolutely wrong in case you don't understand what we're doing is we're taking like a piece of land and we're taking the building, drawing a circle around and saying that not part of the non profit is not being taxed, but all the other land, even if they have a development program, is going to be taxed.

Every time you tax a non profit, that's less money that goes to the community to help those that need it. And again, it's never been done before. They keep blaming the state for it. So if it is the state's problem, which I don't believe it is, it's an assessor problem, then please state, help our assessor be able to know you don't tax non profits.

Moderator: Thank you. Uh, this one's going to be for Mr. Guttenberg and Mr. Ramirez. How can the borough better support our aging population? Mr. Ramirez, you're first.

[00:48:52] Miguel Ramirez: Uh, yes, we can support them by keeping the senior tax exemption, um, also speaking with the senior advisory committee and hearing their recommendations and see what, what as a community we can go forth with.

Thank you.

Moderator: Mr. Guttenberg.

[00:49:06] David Guttenberg: Thank you. Well, I'm, I'm not in support of getting rid of the senior property tax exemption. We heard from the seniors when we tried to close the, um, the pools or the Maryside pool, They came out in droves, in numbers. and talked about how important that was, how important to them.

Now there's different levels of seniors. These are the seniors that need services. There's a lot of seniors that don't, but the the Van Tran, the Senior Center, the services that they want, we hear from them. We should be supporting the things that they want from the borough.

Moderator: Thank you. This next one is going to be for each of the candidates.

30 seconds. And we're going to start with Ms. Kelly and just go right down the line here. What can the Assembly do to help make our community more attractive to local businesses, startups, entrepreneurs? 30 seconds.

[00:50:05] Kristin Kelly: Um, in 30 seconds. Okay, well, um, I think by having, um, a robust economy, we need to have, um, businesses that want to come here, want to bring their families, which gets back to education, of course, but also having, um, like a nice place to come, with a good quality of living. Um, people that want to bring their families here, to have trails, to have recreational services.

Quality of living is so important, especially during our winter months, that we can get out and do things that are really fun and, um, improve our lives. Mr. Cash.

[00:50:45] Jimi Cash: So to incentivize, uh, startups, a big part of that is development. Right now we have a shortage of commercial real estate. Um, there's a couple companies that I've spoke to recently that are trying to build, or trying to find a place where they can expand their operations, and they can't afford to, because property taxes are too high, or the zoning issues also, we need to make it easier for zoning to get changed.

Uh, we need to also work with the neighborhoods, uh, there was a, a, uh, property across on 30th Avenue a couple years ago that I'm running out of time, I'll talk to you about it later.

Moderator: Ms. Tammie?

[00:51:19] Tammie Wilson: Well, new businesses, of course, as Jimmy just said, they're looking at costs. Property taxes, energy, all those types of things.

But the other part they look at is business regulations, and it's not just on the borough side, it's also on the state side. So to act like we're two different entities, especially when it comes to startups with business, it's just not fair to those businesses. We need to have a streamlined way to do it.

We need to go to, you know, and actually proactively look for businesses to come in. I mean, look at Three Bears. They were told to come in, but then the regulations have them just sitting there doing basically nothing.

Moderator: Thank you, Mr. Armstrong.

[00:51:54] Garrett Armstrong: Okay, I think several. So one's commercial property development, as well as expand more, you know, create more incentives for developing commercial properties, residential places, people have places to live.

Also, because that's one thing that younger people are, are concerned about here. Also, lowering entry costs. I'm working with GVA to make that happen and bring more kilowatts into the grid, so the entry costs are down for everybody. And also looking at quality of life issues. What draws people to Fairbanks is our outdoors.

We should really be looking into expanding the borough's, you know, amazing trail systems and public, and public lands and park systems. Thank you.

Moderator: Thank you, Mr. Maria Ramirez.

[00:52:27] Miguel Ramirez: Yes, of course. We, we gotta keep our housing costs down. The cost of energy down. Um, we can't tax our citizens to no end to pay for this.

Um, we gotta work as a whole, as a community. All right. Uh, we can bring more affordable housing. Our general, our families will stay here. Our kids kids will stay here. And, um, everybody loves the lights here. The lights have been coming out beautifully lately. Um. A lot of people, more people will be attracted to stay here with more affordable homing to include our military, and then especially the ones that want to retire, they'll end up staying here.

Thank you.

Moderator: Thank you. Mr. Guttenberg?

[00:53:00] David Guttenberg: Thank you, Will. I think when you're talking to startups, it means a lot of different things to a lot of different people, but when you get off work, what do you want to do, right? You want to have recreational opportunities, when you think about your kids, what's the school district look like?

You know, if you want to put in a big business, where's the, where's the zoning? Zoning is planning. A lot of people don't like planning. But if you want to be successful and not have land use conflicts, you need to deal with that. But I think when people get off work, what is there to do? This town is wonderful for the arts when you keep supporting a recreational opportunity.

Moderator: Thank you. Okay. This is also going to be, um, let's do 30 seconds on this one. Um, this will be for all candidates again, and we're going to go reverse order. So Mr. Guttenberg down to Ms. Kelly. Um, what is the single biggest difference you have in policy than your opponent?

[00:53:56] David Guttenberg: Do I go first?

Moderator: Yes.

[00:54:01] David Guttenberg: Well, I think the single biggest qual quality that I bring to this fair, to this, to this race is my depth of, oh, sorry.

Moderator: The question is the biggest difference you have in policy than your candidate. Okay. Your opponent policy . Well,

[00:54:17] David Guttenberg: I think it's, it's managing the borough in an economical way that makes sense and have, and is efficient. And we have to live within our means, whatever the tax base is, whatever the tax cap is, that's where we have to deal with it.

We have to focus on the positive. We're talking about what do we bring to people, we need to bring that aspect of the things we can do. We can do things, we have to have that can do spirit. We can supply education, we can do trails, we can do economic opportunities. I think Mr. Ramirez is a nice guy, but that's not what I've heard.

Moderator: Thank you, Mr. Ramirez.

[00:54:53] Miguel Ramirez: Yes, thank you. I think the difference in policy, uh, is, I believe in assisting a cost effective government. I believe in, um, property rights, neighborhood integrity, uh, I believe in not taxing our non profits to over examine, and our assessor has done things historically that's not been done in the state before.

So, uh, I don't believe in big government, and I believe in small government and the will of the people.

Moderator: Thank you, Mr. Armstrong.

[00:55:21] Garrett Armstrong: Well, the primary difference that I see is vision. So I have a vision for the, for the future, for the borough that we're, I'm looking ahead to see what can we do to strengthen our schools, grow our local economy, including it's Construc construction, and also support our senior citizens and of course, strengthen our parks and rec, all with working within the tax cap and working within whatever our budget may be.

And having that positive outlook and a collaborative spirit to say, yes, we're all in the same community. Let's work together to make this the best borough it can be.

Moderator: Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Tammie.

[00:55:52] Tammie Wilson: So I believe the biggest difference is my opponent believes in bigger government, more money. Money will be the solution to everything.

Um, we have a revenue cap because that's exactly what our constituents are afraid of, um, that it would become that direction. I mean, 100%, we need to make sure that we're protecting private property rights and we're listening to public testimony. When it comes out and currently that's not happening. Um, the special election's a perfect example of that.

And then the mail-in ballot's. Taking three meetings beforehand, it's time to move ahead, realize that people live here because they wanna be left alone and be able to have their rights to do what they want on their properties.

[00:56:25] Jimi Cash: Thank you, Mr. Cash. I think it's mostly the, a philosophy change difference. Um, I believe in smaller government, I see the tax cap.

Uh, I don't see the tax cap as a goal. I see the tax cap as something to stay away from. Smaller government, more freedom, more independence for the residents. That's a little bit different than philosophy. Ms. Kelly is a nice lady and I enjoy talking to her between, between meetings, but we see things a little bit differently.

Moderator: Thank you. Ms. Kelly.

[00:56:58] Kristin Kelly: I agree, Jimmy. Um, we do have different philosophies and I'm just gonna talk about one in specific, which is trails. Um, my opponent refers to trails as a communist land grab. Well with this crowd especially, I wanna emphasize that um, the outdoor rec industry is a $3.2 billion industry in Alaska trails bring money to our state.

We have the Yukon Quest, we have the Alaska Long Trail developing. It is money and it is jobs.

Moderator: Okay, thank you. This is a, we had a clarifying question from the audience. Um, it is for candidates, um, Mr. Guttenberg and Ms. Kelly. It says both of you said that you voted to increase the tax cap for education in the special election, a long term tax change. You also said you are not for taking on the state's responsibility.

Can you clarify?

Mr. Guttenberg, 30 seconds.

[00:58:04] David Guttenberg: Well, the state has its responsibility. That's its responsibility. It's in the Constitution. So I don't think there's a conflict there. Um, what was the second part of that?

Moderator: Um, I'll just re read it one more time. Both of you said that you voted to increase the tax cap for education in the special election, which is a long term tax change.

You also said you are not for taking on the state's responsibility. Clarify your statement.

[00:58:27] David Guttenberg: Well, I answered the first part about the state. The, um, uh, the tax cap. You realize, when you talk amongst yourselves, you're talking amongst yourselves. When you're asking me the question. I'm the person that votes on the change.

I was not supporting, I was supporting increasing the tax cap, which not have been 10 million, it would have been 3 million. And, um, in many years, the tax cap is way above where, where we tax, where we function, the state's budget, the borough's budget is. So, um. Thank you.

Moderator: Um, and Ms. Kelly, this was also directed to you. Same question.

[00:59:04] Kristin Kelly: Yeah, it is a difficult question to answer in 30 seconds, but I'll do my best. One thing you have to think about with this question is where we were in time. We were dealing with um, a education funding that had been vetoed by the governor. We didn't know if that was gonna, we were gonna actually get an increase at the time.

But the thing I really want to clarify is it wasn't necessarily going to be a property tax increase. There's other ways that we could have raised that money than property taxes if we had been successful in that election. It didn't have to be property tax increases.

Moderator: Thank you. Um, let's see here.

Here's another special election question. Um, the assembly held a special election to raise taxes on the premises that there was not enough money to fund schools while holding a 53 million dollar surplus in funds. How do you balance the ask for more taxes while considering a 33 million dollar animal control project and have a 53 billion million dollar surplus beyond the minimum required balance?

Um, we're gonna do this as Let's do the first four candidates down here. So, Mr. Guttenberg, we'll allow you to go first.

[01:00:23] David Guttenberg: So, you know, the um, the borough has uh, I think the borough is managed and its internal budgeting is pretty conservative. It, it, it has funds set aside. You know, so first of all, you have to remember the borough gets its payday twice a year, right?

It has to have money set aside. pay for the bills all the year. The borough puts a fund to replace vehicles. The borough has funds to replace school roofs. The borough has all kinds of things. To say that money and a lot of it, school bond debt reimbursement, a lot of that money is set aside for purposes originally.

Moderator: Thank you. Did you start that? 30 seconds. Yeah. Sure. We'll give you a Amanda says let's give him 60 so you get another 30.

[01:01:15] David Guttenberg: Okay. So the funds available The money that was set aside for the capital for the animal shelter is not part of that. We, the borough wisely, uh, has a ten, about ten or twelve million a year, it's a formula, aside every year for major maintenance.

You know, you're talking about that money, you're talking about, uh, replacement for, um, computers and vehicles and, and some people want to cut that fund to zero, which means we're in crisis management. Every year. Every year we're going to come up, we're going to come up short. We're going to want to go back to the voters.

Do we need new computers? Do we need new pickup trucks? That's the way some people want to answer that question.

Moderator: Thank you. Mr. Ramirez.

[01:02:02] Miguel Ramirez: Uh, yes. This is over 33 million for an animal shelter. Like I said, I met with some business owners. They could do it for a fraction of the cost, where that remaining funding can go into critical needs of the budget.

Like Mr. Gutberg said, uh, the assembly, uh, funded the boiler the other day. The boilers get repaired at the North Pole High School, but we shouldn't be looking at last minute answers to maintenance. Deferred maintenance needs to be there. Plans need to be there, um, for, for deferred, uh, maintenance, but we have to be physically responsible with the money we're giving and the budget we're giving.

If somebody comes to any assembly member or to the borough itself and offers a better plan, yes. As Jimmy Cash is in commercial construction, he himself has said this price tag is way too much, and he knows the cost of sheetrock and construction. Thank

Moderator: you. Thank you. Uh, Mr. Armstrong?

[01:02:54] Garrett Armstrong: Thank you for the question.

So, I will, I will agree that the borough, the way the borough's budget is set up, it makes sense we have to have it compartmentalized in different ways, so that way we are not in a jam. So I think, for example, I don't know if any of you have seen the news, the Anchorage Daily News about the issues they've been having with some of the maintenance vehicles and things, and we wouldn't want that to happen because there are some critical needs, such as road maintenance here, and especially in the winter, that we don't want to do without either.

So, concerning the animal shelter and what is to be done for that, I will point out to people, this is an ongoing process, and we should, and we've got to bear in mind that, like any other deal, there is a back and a forth and an exchange. And we're encountering that right. And as you all know, if you've ever worked with a contractor, sometimes you have to go back and forth to figure out exactly what you need and the cost of that.

So I would tell everyone to, I would encourage everyone to be patient on this and we, and we should be, and as a borough, we should be calm, measured and continue to work with and work within our means. Thank you.

[01:03:49] Tammie Wilson: Thank you, Ms. Tammie. So isn't that the question of the, of the decade? I mean, that's what we hear on the doors more than anything else.

How do you, first of all, find 13 million. I don't know. I've never found 13 million before. So the borough finds 13 million. So what they decide to do, let's have a special election to get 10 million more and spend 125, 000 even though it was 3 4 1. No, let's not do it. And that's not bad enough. Let's go ahead and take 16 million for the Doggy Palace, right?

And then let's increase it by another 17 million to get to 33 million and then spend another 200 something thousand just last Friday to do more. design on it after we've done already a million dollars on it. I mean you would think that all of our buildings, school buildings and everything else are prestige and have no maintenance issues whatsoever.

Well obviously that was wrong because we had to put things in North Pole High School and we've heard about other heating things. So why would we be building way beyond our capacity when we have so many other buildings and needs that we need to take care of? I'd love to hear that answer. Thanks.

Moderator: Thank you.

We do have time so Mr. Cash and Ms. Kelly will give you that question too. Could you repeat the question? Yes. Just to clarify. Um, this is on the 53 million surplus in funds, um, and the special taxes. How do you balance the ask for more taxes while considering a 33 million animal control and a 53 million budget beyond the minimum required balance?

[01:05:17] Jimi Cash: Yep. Alright. So, first off, I want to mention the Education Investment Reserve, which is something that we passed right before I got off the assembly last year. Um, the point of that was that 13 million that they find, they find money like that every year. It's from, uh, interest and lawsuits that we've passed or that we, that we win, et cetera.

And the Education Investment Reserve was supposed to be like the City of Fairbanks permanent fund as money gets put into educate, into a fund that will build over time to be used for education. What did this current assembly do? One of the very first things that they did was they got rid of that Education Investment Reserve.

And then they go back just a few months later and tell us we don't have enough money for education. So, the 33 million for the animal shelter, I was part of two ordinances while I was on the assembly to help with animal control, and the problem is animal control. That's where the biggest problem is. Dogs biting people, being able to enforce the laws that we currently have on the books.

The animal shelter is old, and it does need to be repaired or maybe replaced, but at the cost of 33 million is ridiculous. That's not going to solve our animal control problems. That money needs to go somewhere else.

[01:06:19] Kristin Kelly: Thank you. Ms. Kelly? Thank you. Well, um, with the first part of the question, reserves are We have to have, like you would in your own family, a savings account for when disasters strike, or when we need a new car, or we need a new truck.

That's just good government. Um, but when we talk about that in light of a special election and the animal, there's a lot in this question. In the animal control, you have to consider that these are two different budgets. Um, the animal control project is coming out of the capital improvement budget.

That's And that was passed way before I ever got seated on the assembly. Um, maybe Ms. Tammie voted for it years back, but it has been in the works for years and years. And what we're seeing now is high cost of building. There is no disagreement. I don't think that we need a new animal shelter. What is shocking to all of us is the price of it.

And I think that's going to be with a lot of our projects that are coming up. It's not going to just be the animal shelters that's expensive. So. Thank you.

Moderator: Um, we're gonna, I'm, uh, gonna go off script again here because we have a few minutes left of time. Um, you all have brought up different, um, points within each of your, uh, seeded races here.

Um, I'm gonna allow you 60 seconds to, um, address, uh, something that your opponent might have said that you would like to clarify or give you more time to talk about something that you might have, um, fallen short on. So, um, It's up to you what you want to discuss. I'm going to give you 60 seconds before we move into closing comments.

And we're going to start with Mr. Armstrong and walk our way back, Mr. Armstrong.

[01:08:01] Garrett Armstrong: So I was characterized as a big government type of candidate. I want to counter that. I'm not a born and raised here. I understand the desire for us to be independent, to live our lives, to do things our own way. However, I have seen, and we've all probably seen the lives.

And I will say from my father, a lot of people get left behind. And often it's not good, and while I'd love to see local businesses step up and try to take care of people and nonprofits take care of people, oftentimes, there are needs, especially among the senior community. I think about my father, where my poor 73 year old mother is the one expected to take care of him gratis.

And I, my wife and I have stepped in to help, but that's been really difficult. Like I said, a couple, we found a couple businesses that can help out, but the help is few and far between. So I believe no one deserves to be left behind. So that's what it's being for us. I believe we can do this in an affordable way.

We can take care of our seniors, we can take care of our schools in a sensible way, and we can take care of our parks, public lands, and occurrence development in a sensible way. That is all. Thank you.

Moderator: Thank you. Ms. Tammie.

[01:09:01] Tammie Wilson: Yeah, I just want to clarify, like the 56 million dollars that is currently in reserves, that's like 40 million over what's required.

You know, it's just being able to put that money into things that the assembly wants versus what the people want to have in there. The capital improvement program, that's all general funds. That's all my money. and their money in that. It's not a separate fund that can only be used for specific things, so make it sound like that.

It's just completely wrong. I'm glad we have the Capital Improvement Program because we're able to do a lot of things with it, but when other more major concerns come up, we need to look and say, do we need to change where that funds come? And last but not least, and the reason we keep talking about the special election is, they wanted to break the law.

That's what it would have done. They wanted to break the law to get 10 million dollars more on a citizen initiative that was in place. for two years and cannot be changed for two years. So remember that when you're voting, do you want somebody who's going to follow the law or someone who has no problem breaking it?

Thank you,

[01:09:59] Jimi Cash: Mr. Cash. That's what I clarify. Um, the reference to my trails plan comment about being a communist land grab. I love that one and I wear it as a badge of honor because during the trails plan, I was specifically referring to a few trails that were private property. that according to the trails plan the borough had the authority to take an imminent domain if that person ever wanted to subdivide their land.

If that person ever wanted to subdivide their land there was this trail that was going across there and that person now has no choice but to give a portion of that land to the borough to be used for a trail. That's not good. That's not okay. So that was my reference and I don't, I don't find that as an insult at all.

Moderator: Thank you. Ms. Kelly.

[01:10:44] Jimi Cash: Oh, go ahead. I have a few more seconds. Sorry. 20 seconds. On that to wrap that up. Um, thanks to Mr. Lajewski in a very last minute move, he actually was able to come up with some language to change the trails plan so that those particular properties weren't going to be taken, potentially taken by the borough.

So we averted that issue.

Moderator: Thank you. Ms. Kelly.

[01:11:03] Kristin Kelly: Um, just in response to that, there, having land, you, you, you, we give up property rights just by virtue of buying land. And there are, um, Yes, like there are things for roads that, um, it's on the road plan that has to be on there. If utility, I mean, it's just, it's just part of the deal.

You would think by the way people talk about the, the trails plan that was all private property, the danger of messing with this right now is most of that land is going across state land, mental health land, university land. If they are given the option, Hey, put in. Put in a trail here or not, what do you think those businesses are going to do?

They're going to do the easiest thing. And when they don't give us trail access, we're going to lose treasures that we have here that we'll never get back. Like the Yukon Quest Trail, the Alaska Long Distance Trail. All those things require that we are able to go contiguous.

Moderator: Mr. Guttenberg,

would you like to clarify any of your statements or anything that maybe your opponent had said?

[01:12:21] David Guttenberg: So, if you're going to say that we were breaking the law because we put a tax cap initiative back on the ballot, that's what the tax cap initiative says. Even in the one you're going to vote for, um, October 1st, if you want to change it, you got to put it on the ballot.

That's what it says. You can, the assembly by itself cannot change the tax cap. It has to be by the, by the voters on the ballot. Um, and just because, because on the assembly, we hear a lot of people. With a lot of different viewpoints, you have to listen to everybody, not just the people in your social circle.

Everybody.

Moderator: Thank you, Mr Ramirez.

[01:13:05] Miguel Ramirez: Yeah, I don't need no clarification from his gun. But what I'm gonna say is what you see is what you get. I stand for my principles, my values and what I live by. If elected, that's what you'll get. If I don't know an answer to a question like I did tonight, I'm gonna tell you, I'll research and find it for you.

I'm not gonna sit here. Excuse my language and try to B s. Nobody. Everybody knows this is my first time running. For anything, uh, I just want a better borough, a better, a better way of life for all of our citizens in our borough. Thank you.

Moderator: Thank you, Mr. Armstrong. Oh, did you start? Yeah, you did. Sorry.

[01:13:37] Kristin Kelly: Alright,

Moderator: well, um, in the spirit of, uh, the Golden Heart City, I would love to give 15 seconds to each of you to pay your opponent a compliment. Mr. Cash. Mr. Cash, you can

[01:13:54] Jimi Cash: start. She's a nice lady. I enjoy talking to her. Ms. Kelly.

[01:14:02] Kristin Kelly: I also enjoy Jimmy's company. I know he has a penchant for Kristen's and he's nice to them.

His wife is Kristen. But what I actually admire most about Jimmy is he's a really good family man and he takes really good care of his family. I saw that while I was on the borough.

Moderator: Mr. Ramirez.

[01:14:22] Miguel Ramirez: I mentioned this at the assembly. I had a problem with the installation of my neighbor's natural gas. It had been forgotten about but Mr.

Guttenberg did bring it up While I was out on a business trip, it got repaired and fixed. So, thank you.

[01:14:37] David Guttenberg: Mr. Guttenberg. Thank you. Well, I appreciate Mr. Ramirez here. He's been a gentleman, and I believe, like the rest of us, he wants what's best for the borough, and that's significant.

Moderator: Thank you. Ms. Tammie.

[01:14:51] Tammie Wilson: Well, I must say, I respect that you're a teacher.

I've been a teacher before, and I know it's a lot of hard work. You don't get a lot of kudos. You get a lot of criticism. And to get up every day and be able to take on students, it's something I want to say thank you for doing.

Moderator: Mr. Armstrong.

[01:15:05] Garrett Armstrong: Well, I'd like to say thank you, Ms. Tammie, for your experience.

You have been, you have served the state and Alaskans in general in many capacities over the years, so I'm thankful for that, and how you are so determined, hardworking, and knowledgeable.

Moderator: Thank you. I'm gonna end on like a positive here.

[01:15:21] Jimi Cash: All

Moderator: right, so we're gonna move into our closing question, um, basically more of a closing statement for you all.

Um, you are going to have, um, 90 seconds to answer this. I changed that, Amanda, where we have some time. Given your experience and knowledge, why should someone cast their vote for you on October 1st? We are going to begin with the reverse order in which we started, so Ms. Kelly, you are up first.

90 seconds.

[01:15:59] Kristin Kelly: Well, um, I think a vote for me is a vote for experience and knowledge. I have served for the last three years on the Assembly. I'm the current finance chairman, but I also have a lot of knowledge in our, our, our community and our neighborhoods. I've lived here for more than 30 years and I've been a community member and very involved in our community in, in that time.

I, I am familiar with a lot of different programs and I know how important they are for our community. I have a very can do, practical, common sense approach to government. I am nonpartisan, so I'm not, um, swayed by, by philosophies that, that swing one way or the other. I just want our government to work, and I want to be able to pay for it.

I'm a property owner. I, too, don't want to pay a bunch of property taxes. However, I look at it in the same light that without property taxes, we don't have a civilization. We can't pay for anything. So, I feel like There has to be a happy medium in there, like we have to, I'm, I've been there, I, there was a year that my husband and I were rolling our quarters up to change when we first got married to pay our property taxes.

I understand that, but I also understand that we can't have services, and we need services, we need government to help us. All the community. Not just the most wealthy. We need it for the little guy. And that goes from our schools all the way to our recreational facilities. Thank

Moderator: you. Mr.

[01:17:34] Kristin Kelly: Cash.

[01:17:36] Jimi Cash: So I'm not a politician.

I'm just a guy who happens to be in politics. I don't prepare statements. I stutter over myself sometimes. I'm never going to tell you guys something that I, just because I know that's what you want to hear. Like Mr. Ramirez said earlier, what you see is what you get. I'm always going to tell you what I actually believe, and I'm always going to stand up for what I believe is right.

Um, I, I don't, I don't tend to lean to the side that the government's the answer. Unfortunately, my way of thinking is that usually the government's in the way. Um, I know most of you people here, because I've been involved with the chamber for a long time, and, uh, and I know that a lot of the people who come to this room weekly, You guys are the ones who are involved in the community.

You guys are involved in the non profits. You guys are involved in the economic growth. You guys are the employers. You guys are the parents. You guys are the ones going to the, coaching the games. And it really is you guys who are the impact to the community. The ones that are going to do the real change.

We're the people up here that just want to be the ones with the mic and try to be the voice for you guys. Um, but we really do need to hear from you guys, which means you guys need to get out and vote. So all of you need to vote, and you need to tell your friends and family to vote. Because if you don't vote, then you can't have any, any, any voice in what you have to, what you want to complain about.

So the reason I ran the first time is because my wife told me I either need to step up and do something about it or shut up. A little nicer words than that, but basically that's what she said. I'd appreciate your vote on, on, on the first. Thank you.

[01:19:07] Tammie Wilson: Thank you, Ms. Tammie. Thank you. Um, and thank you for everybody being here and taking out time of your day to, to listen to us.

You know, I have experience on both the state and the level, which I think is important, but I think the most important thing is. I don't expect people to come down to the assembly to find out what you think. You know, I've been doing door to door for several months now. You know, there's been a group of us, we've hit thousands of, of voters.

You know, sometimes the doors are very friendly and sometimes not so friendly. But, you know, you just smile, tell them to have an amazing day and, and go back home and write down the things that you've learned. And what I've learned is, people are on the edge to be able to afford to live here. And there's nothing worse than having to move because property taxes are too high, or the cost of living, the Whatever you need to buy for your family is too much, especially for our retirees who've raised their families here, have their grandkids here.

I can't imagine how to go live somewhere else and leave my family here, all because I can't afford to live here anymore. And I feel like, you know, that's why I got back into this race. When that special election came, and for the first time, you know, they couldn't stay underneath the revenue cap, you know, that was just too much.

And that's what we heard then too. We called, we talked to people, we found out, is it just our opinion? Or the opinion of of everybody else. And as you saw, 70 to 30% that was telling people, it's too high, it's too much, and we need to get our house in order. I would really appreciate your vote on October 1st.

I just wanna say thank you to all those dogs that haven't bitten me as I've interrupted their day.

[01:20:35] Garrett Armstrong: Thank you.

Moderator: Thank you, Mr. Armstrong.

[01:20:38] Garrett Armstrong:. So I would say in short, a vote for me is a vote for progress, for economic development and for better bureau overall. So I was born and raised here in Fairbanks.

Graduated from West Valley's class of 2005, and I, my wife and I are committed to Fairbanks. She remembers one of the first things she told me, uh, or I told her apparently when we first met, was I told her I was born here, I intend to die here, and in between those, I'm gonna make my life here. So I'm really glad and honored that we're doing that.

So for that, I am someone, as we know, someone who grew up here. I appreciate all sorts of views and perspectives. I have, I was decided I was at a friend's wedding in Anchorage, and I was seated at the Fairbanks. You could tell it was the Fairbanks. 'cause we all looked a little different. We were all kinda like, we're really close to each other.

This is odd. And it felt, but it was fun. And I tell people that is kind of the, what I enjoy about Fairbanks is we're all able to be ourselves and do our own things. So I can do stand for, you know, economic development so we can have, build the affordable homes so we can afford to live here and have new people, invite people to come up and live here with us and grow our community, grow our economy, and also grow our schools so that way we can have the high quality of life we want to have up here.

So in closing, I think that we have a sense of community is what's the best about the, about it. I touched on this at the, uh, at the talk last Friday. And I still say as a teacher, this is what inspires me to get up and go to work every day, is seeing the kids at school, seeing the parents, and witnessing the next generation of Fairbanks take root.

And I'm really happy to, I want to nourish that here in the Assembly. Thank you.

Moderator: Thank you, Mr. Ramirez.

[01:22:11] Miguel Ramirez: Good afternoon. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for taking the time out your day to be here. I'm a retired combat veteran with tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, so I know how to fight for my country and I'll know how to fight for the citizens of our borough.

Um, I came here in 2014 with the military. A little while later, met my beautiful wife, Maria. Got married, fell in love with the neighborhood, the people. Thank you, babe. She's the biggest support after our creator. Of course, she's been the biggest support. I assist in a cost-effective government. I support the tax cap.

Um, This thing, we need to put the brakes on this assessment of our churches and our, you know, our food banks and stuff like that. It is getting quite out of hand. Um, you know, property rights and neighborhood integrity. We love our community, we love our tourism, we love our businesses, but if we raise taxes, that's going to actually hurt our businesses because then people will think, hey, I got to spend more money to go there.

Why should I spend when I'm there? It's going to push people away from coming here. And bringing businesses here and stuff like that as well. Property taxes are getting out of hand. We need to find more affordable homes, um, not only for our military, but our entire community. Uh, we need to work on, uh, you know, incentives and rebates, um, that not burden the taxpayer.

So a vote for me would be small government, um, supporting the tax cap and just, I fought for you, so now let me serve for you. Thank you.

Moderator: Thank you. Mr. Guttenberg.

[01:23:35] David Guttenberg: Thank you. I came here in 1969 as a kid to fight forest fires. I found an amazing place. This is an amazing community. I retired out of the Labor's Union, um, and I spent 16 years in the legislature.

I think when I define, and I still call myself a laborer. Thank you for my brothers over here. Um, the right size government, it's not big government, it's not small government, it's the right size government. It's trying to find out what the community wants, what they're willing to support and spend money on.

What we need to do is keep building this community, and that's hard because we have some things. Stacked against us. Short construction season. Extreme weather. We hear that from a lot of people, but for many of us that's why we like it here. So we need to keep the, um, keep building this community. Make it the dynamic place.

We heard from the military here a couple weeks ago that when people come up here who don't want to come up here, they like it here and they don't want to leave. We need to keep building this community. This is a great place and it's a great place because of the people here. So whatever happens on the assembly, we need to make sure that we're doing services that people want, that we can afford.

And the tax cap was lowered last year. That's why we had the crisis. It was broken. The assembly broke the tax cap and lowered it for the first time in 40 years. It created the crisis. And people need to be responsible for that. But this is a great place. We need to continue to make it a greater place.

Moderator: Thank you. Um, I want to thank all of you for um, engaging in this discussion today. I know there's a lot of important topics that um, surround our community. Um, but your willingness to serve, knock on doors, say hi to little pups in the area. We appreciate that. To our audience, your voice definitely matters.

Your vote is your voice. Local elections are what impacts us the most. So I hope that you can take what you learned today and consider that as you talk to your family and your friends and your co workers and make the best decision that's right for you. But please make sure you do vote on October 1st.

Our thanks again to Denali State Bank for sponsoring all of our candidate forum series that we have. And, um, would you all join me in a final round of applause to thank our candidates here today.

KUAC appreciates corrections to typos in the above transcription.