Fairbanks voters got a chance last Friday to see how this year’s candidates for city mayor responded to questions about local issues. That chance came at the League of Women Voters of the Tanana Valley forum, co-sponsored by the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and KUAC.
The City of Fairbanks mayoral race is between incumbent David Pruhs and Mindy O’Neall, who’s the current presiding officer of the Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly, and whomever voters elect will lead the city of more than 30,000 residents for the next three years.
Fairbanks has a strong mayor form of government, meaning city executive and administrative power is vested in the mayor, who is responsible for following through on adopted budgets and capital improvements as well as supervising enforcement of local laws. The mayor also has the authority to veto legislation and pardon people for violating municipal ordinances.
The candidates who want those responsibilities took questions Friday about budgeting, voter turnout, homelessness and housing, with downtown development emerging as a key topic.
Pruhs pointed to demolition projects in the downtown core that were completed during his first term, like the Polaris Building and the Alaska Motor Inn. He also said he plans to continue the city’s storefront improvement grant program as well as the ongoing campaign to remove blighted properties.
“You help the buildings that need help, help the business owners that need help,” he said. “You have a very good, vibrant downtown now. I’m going to continue it. We’re on the upside.”
O’Neall says the Polaris demolition and blighted property program makes for a good start, but that the city is “about three years late for planning for a vibrant city.”
She said she’d work to connect homeless people to services, increase housing density and improve public safety.
“Revitalizing downtown is all about ensuring that we have safety, that we have people who can walk downtown, they can window shop, they can engage with our public, and they can find entertainment and a reason to come downtown, not just as tourists but as residents,” O’Neall said.
Pruhs touted the reserves in his proposed budgets since he’s been in office, and he said the 2025 budget weathered a drop in projected revenue while still increasing public safety personnel.
Between 2022 and 2024, city revenues grew by about $5 million, according to city budget documents, which show a decrease in revenue of about $1.5 million between last year and this year.
“And in this budget where I had a 3% loss in revenue, no one lost a job. Everyone got their pay increases,” Pruhs said. “The only person in the whole city who did not get a pay increase was the position of the mayor.”
O’Neall said she wants to see the city “grow the pie” through incentivizing private investment and teaming up with community organizations. She gave an example of the borough doing that with the Kiwanis Club.
“They provided funding, we partnered with them, and they – we rebuilt Veterans [Memorial] Park,” she said
On multiple occasions during Friday’s forum, Pruhs and O’Neall also singled out what they saw as faults in their opponents’ messages or governing styles.
That was apparent in an exchange about the city’s Emergency Services Patrol. The program aims to relieve pressure on the city’s police and fire departments by responding to calls where people under the influence of drugs or alcohol need transport to a safe environment.
In April, the city revived the patrol through a new contractor after a year-long hiatus. The council authorized a contract worth $325,000 for one year.
In May, as part of the Borough Assembly’s budget process, O’Neall drafted a budget amendment to grant the city an additional $325,000 in hopes of expanding the patrol’s services.
That amendment passed, and O’Neall said Friday that’s an example of her commitment to helping people in need while improving public safety. But Pruhs said the city hasn’t seen that money yet.
“It’s never come over. The red tape is so bad, we’ve never gotten it, so let’s make sure everyone understands that,” he said.
The borough administration is currently working with city staff to finalize grant terms that align with the powers of a second-class borough before distributing funds for the patrol, according to Borough Chief of Staff Kuba Grzeda, who said by email that they are “looking forward” to completing an agreement soon, but don’t have a date yet.
On O’Neall’s end, she took issue Friday with what she said is a need for more transparency at the city. Currently, the city does not post audio recordings of council meetings on its website, instead using a public records request portal to send the files to those who ask for them.
“That’s not a great way for people to engage with their local government,” O’Neall said. “We should make it easy and accessible for busy residents to participate in a government that’s making their decisions that affect their every day life.”
The audio files used to be posted online. The city clerk’s office says it was notified that the website was changing to a platform that, after July 2024, could no longer host large audio files. Deputy City Clerk Colt Chase said by email that the city chose not to renew that contract, and that a new site is being built that will allow them to start publishing the files online again. He said it’s “nearing completion.”
Early voting for municipal elections in the Fairbanks North Star Borough began Monday and ends Oct. 2. Election day is Oct. 7.