This October, City of Fairbanks voters will pick who they want to sit in the mayor’s office for the next three years. Two names will appear on their ballots: incumbent David Pruhs, and Mindy O’Neall, the current presiding officer of the Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly.
About 15-20% of registered voters have typically participated in Fairbanks city elections in recent years, according to election records, and voters haven’t unseated an incumbent mayor since 2016.
To get a sense of what the city’s electorate is thinking this year, KUAC sought out citizens on downtown streets, as well as at Creamer’s Field Migratory Waterfowl Refuge, storefronts and the Noel Wien Library. After two days spent approaching more than 100 people to ask about the mayoral candidates, KUAC found seven who live in the city and agreed to share their names and answer questions.
Five of them were undecided, one was for Pruhs, and one for O’Neall. Here’s what they had to say.
David Resch, 68, West Fairbanks
Resch was one of three people huddled around the counter at the Music Mart, a locally-owned instrument shop downtown, where a pick rigged to the top of the door strums a guitar on the ceiling when it opens.
He’s a store manager there, and Resch told KUAC he’s a vote for O’Neall. He said he was put off by one of Pruhs’ Facebook posts from earlier this year.
“Remember he got in a little bit of hot water for that? [It was] a little while ago. Yeah, I didn’t like those comments very much,” Resch said.
The post seemed to imply a connection between Alaska Natives and vandalism downtown. Local Alaska Native organizations called Pruhs’ remarks discriminatory, and he apologized, saying the apparent connection was unintentional and pledging to learn from the situation.
Resch also said, regardless of who takes office, replacing the demolished Polaris Building is key for the city.
“We need something good to go there,” he said.
Patrick Costello, 60, downtown
Costello was there with Resch at Music Mart. He’s another store manager, and he said he wasn’t familiar enough with the candidates to say for whom he might vote.
But he wants a mayor who isn’t “beholden to any particular interest or party that is going to try to serve all the people equally and fairly.”
Costello also said he’d like to see the city incentivize downtown business development.
“Cause it’s like, it’s a ghost town now. It’s like a desert,” he said.
Anita Tomsha, 69, downtown
Tomsha owns the Music Mart. Like her colleagues, she also hopes whoever wins the mayoral race puts focus on downtown development.
Tomsha agreed with Costello in that she also didn’t know enough about the candidates to say whom she prefers, but she did know the qualities she’s looking for in a candidate.
She said she wants a local leader to be “wise, decent, conservative and not corrupt.”
“And somebody who wants the best for our community that’s voted in by the people,” she said.
Jonathan Bishop, 27, downtown
Bishop, clad in University of Alaska Fairbanks clothing, was walking next to a field full of talkative birds, on his way to leave Creamer’s Field Migratory Waterfowl Refuge.
Bishop, who works at Safeway, initially said he didn’t plan to vote in any of this year’s local races. But then, he said he wasn’t sure.
“It would be my first time voting, so maybe. I haven’t decided yet,” he said. “Voting is an important part of being an adult.”
Chuck Leake, 71, North Fairbanks
Leake was snapping pictures of the birds at Creamer’s Field from the parking lot closest to College Road. He’s a local artist who sculpts bone and ivory.
Without hesitation, Leake said he plans to vote for Pruhs.
“He’s done a lot for downtown. He’s cleaning up the city, and he seems like a very decent fella,” Leake said.
Leake told KUAC that he appreciates how Pruhs has managed the city over the last three years, and that he prefers minimal government.
“I like as little government as possible, and for people to stay out of my business, and to provide the very basic services,” Leake said.
He gave law enforcement and trash removal as examples of what he considers basic services.
Michael Richter, 27, downtown
Richter moved to Fairbanks from Florida in middle school. He’s now a full-time direct service provider, and he was walking into the Noel Wien Library with one of his clients.
Richter said he’ll need to “do more research” into municipal elections, though he said he has voted for president before.
“But I’d like to do it locally. I think it’s a good thing for the community, especially at a young age, like 27, so better start young, you know?” he said.
He said, as a voter, he likes to see services and facilities that benefit local children.
“Any kind of development for kids, for the community, is great. I’m willing to pay my tax dollars for that.”
George-san Johnston Hisamoto, 69, East Fairbanks
Hisamoto was outside Noel Wien, carrying his library haul in a tote and waiting for a ride from Van Tran, the paratransit service operated by the Fairbanks North Star Borough. He said he wasn’t very familiar with the candidates for mayor yet, but he does have a local issue he cares about.
“I just appreciate all the wheelchair accessible roads and sidewalks,” he said. “And they’re doing an excellent job, so I’m trying to give them praise.”
Hisamoto gets around in a wheelchair. He said, in the 1990s, he was crossing a road in Fairbanks when a drunk driver ran a red light and hit him while going 65 miles per hour.
“I’m not mad. You know why? I’m still here. I should be dead,” he said.
But he’s not. Hisamoto can take trips to the library. He can chat with strangers. And he can vote.
The candidates
The City of Fairbanks has a strong mayor form of government, meaning whoever assumes the role serves as a chief administrative officer charged with carrying out city business and supervising the enforcement of local laws. The mayor can also pardon people and veto legislation, among other powers listed in the city charter.
It’ll be up to the candidates and their campaigns to earn the support of those undecided voters, and many more. Whichever candidate wins, they’ll have their hands full with the usual responsibilities of overseeing a dispatch center and police and firefighting forces, among other departments. They’ll likely also be at the helm as the city takes the next steps on either leasing or selling the city-owned Polaris Building site.
Broadly speaking, Pruhs and O’Neall have similar goals for Fairbanks, including improving public safety, addressing housing issues and fortifying downtown. But how the candidates’ past experiences and stated priorities could help realize those goals isn’t the same.
Pruhs points to the city’s recently established storefront improvement grant program as a promising revitalization tool for downtown. He also says he’s consistently supported recruitment and retention measures for public safety personnel during his tenure as mayor. And he says his administration’s ongoing crackdown on blighted properties is key for breathing life into the city.
“It’s been a lot of work,” he said in a brief interview with KUAC. “We’ve come a long way. But when you start cleaning up a town from that level, it brings in more people who want to come in the downtown, work in the downtown, invest in the downtown or invest in the town itself.”
Pruhs also touts the reserves in his proposed budgets over the last three years as evidence of fiscal responsibility.
For O’Neall, she said she’s eyeing things like improving accessibility for people with disabilities, enhancing bike and pedestrian facilities and increasing housing density in Fairbanks. As a borough assembly member, O’Neall sponsored at least two zoning ordinances related to those goals that have passed within the last year. One is aimed at reducing excess parking, and the other at creating a path for first-floor residential development in the downtown’s central business district.
And she said she thinks she can foster better collaboration with community organizations and between the two municipal governments, which levy taxes, create budgets and deliver their services in ways that have both clashed and led to joint efforts in recent years.
“I have not served in the city before, but I have experience in the borough, which will really strengthen the connection and relationships between borough operations and city operations for better government,” O’Neall said in a short interview.
The borough holds some powers and handles a number of services that the municipalities within it do not. That includes community planning, running animal control, libraries and public transportation, as well as helping fund the local school district.
Municipal elections are Oct. 7, and early voting begins Sept. 22. Other races within the Fairbanks North Star Borough will decide seats on the Fairbanks and North Pole city councils, as well as spots on the borough assembly and the school district’s board of education.