Recording transcript:
Trevor Storrs: All right. We are just after 6:00 p.m. We're going to get going and other people will be joining us. Thank you so much. It's great to see. We weren't too sure how many people would show up and it's great to see a strong audience here talking about children and families. It's my honor here to be your facilitator.
[00:00:17] I'm Trevor Storrs. I'm the President and CEO of the Alaska Children's Trust. The Children's Trust is a statewide organization focused on the prevention of child abuse and which really means we work really hard to make sure that children and communities have the knowledge, skills, supports, and resources to thrive.
[00:00:34] Because when they're thriving, we have less child abuse, neglect, and many other issues. So, tonight, uh, we recognize that, uh, policies and systems really impact how well children and families are doing. So, always when there's an election, uh, we're really excited to talk to candidates and hear their perspective on specific issues related to children and families.
[00:00:57] So, uh, tonight the process will be, one, we're going to do a quick presentation and sharing what is the state of children in this region. It's really important to kind of set the stage of where they're at, what are the challenges or not. Then, what we will do is we will go into candidate questions. We have five set up.
[00:01:18] Uh, we will go in alphabetical order, one, two, three, and then we'll do one, two, three. You get the idea. After those are done It will be audience questions. And Jen back there, uh, with the Children's Trust, our VP of Policy and Advocacy. She has, uh, cards, so if you would like one, you don't have to write the question down now, or if you have it, please do, and then just put it up.
[00:01:40] Jen will be collecting the questions. We'll be going through, we won't be able to get through every one, but we will start picking those questions, um, and even trying to, Connect the ones that are similar and try to ask those. And of course, afterwards, really encourage you, this is your opportunity to learn about the candidates.
[00:01:57] And if you want to do follow up, the candidates will be here afterwards. You can speak to them and, or go to their websites, email them, ask those questions about children and families. Cause we want to remind all candidates currently on the stage or they're running for state office or school board, anything we should always be asking them issues related to children, families, and make that the most important thing.
[00:02:19] I also want the audience to know we are recording this tonight. There is a recording that is happening in the back on video, but we are specifically doing voice. Uh, this will be shared out afterwards. We're not doing it live for us. But, this will be shared, it will be unedited. We also ask that the audience, as the candidates are sharing, afterwards you want to do a little bit of a clap, but let's make sure, if we all want to be able to hear at 7 o'clock, that we don't, uh, take up too much of that space, but we also want to be respectful.
[00:02:51] If you don't agree with something, then you get to disagree, but we ask all people to both cheer, and or not cheer, in silence. So we can, uh, be respectful, and be able to move through the process. So with that, uh, Teresa here, who also works in our advocacy team, we are going to go through a slideshow and just kind of explain where children are at.
[00:03:13] And I do have my notes, uh, just to make sure. Alright. And yes, gentlemen, you might want to turn around if it's helpful to step off stage and come back. We can always do that. Alright, so again the slides you will see tonight are all from what we call KidsCount. It is a centralization of data. We don't create the data.
[00:03:33] We collect it from a variety of reputable sources and center it into one location related to children and families so people can find it. And you can always find it on our website, which will be a QR code. So overall here you will see how are kids doing. This is a ranking. There's different ways to look at it, but do know our current ranking is we're 50% 41 out of 50 states for overall child well being.
[00:03:57] If you were wondering, 50 is not first place. First is. We're always in the bottom half, if not in the bottom third. We're continually struggling, um, in overall ratings. So next is just looking at, uh, Health insurance. About 8 percent of children in the interior do not have health coverage. Whether we're talking private, Medicaid, anything of that nature.
[00:04:24] Health insurance is a really key aspect of accessing preventative services, as well as if we're dealing with developmental delays, and or in the family there could also be other issues, and it limits their access to both physical and behavioral health services. For more information, visit www. FEMA. gov 36 percent of the interior high schoolers felt sad or hopeless almost every day for two or more weeks in a row.
[00:04:51] And this is from 2017. Some newer data is just coming out through the YRBS. It's a standard survey. It's actually probably a little higher. But this is really showing the importance of youth mental health. Our youth are struggling. There's a lot going on and there's a lot of reasons for it. Just so you know, and we specifically said 2017, because that was pre COVID.
[00:05:16] COVID did not help, it only increased it, and we're still seeing those challenges today.
[00:05:24] Where, uh, percentage of teens reported using different substances. Alcohol is 19. Tobacco is 12. Marijuana is 20. Vaping is 11. And prescription drugs. We're actually seeing some of these areas decreasing, all except for vaping. Uh, that is increasing, but we are seeing some decreases, even in the marijuana utilization.
[00:05:47] That's exciting, but still these percentages are high, but this is the utilization. 15 percent of children in the interior are kindergarten ready, meaning they're ready to enter school. Only 15%. A lot of kids are arriving with delays or deficits, and if those deficits are not addressed, they continue through.
[00:06:09] Hence why when you start looking at 3rd and 4th grade, uh, 3rd grade reading or 8th grade math, you see our major delays. If we're not doing things at the beginning, if you don't start off with a good foundation, the rest of the house is not stable. So, this is, uh, really concerning that only 15%. That's a lot of work for a catch up.
[00:06:29] And a lot of kids and families don't have the resources to be able to do that. 80 percent of the interior children had a developmental screening to ensure they reach key milestones. 80 percent is a really good number. Of course, we want to see 100%, but I want to say 80 percent is really high, and it's equal and or above the national average, so it's doing very well.
[00:06:52] And this is when parents take the kids in, and they get those screenings, so if there are delays or challenges, hopefully they can then be connected to services if services are available. Over 2, 000 of the children live in poverty. So, uh, poverty level is, uh, uh, for a family of four is just under 27, 000.
[00:07:15] Could you imagine if you made 28, 000 that you weren't in poverty? So this is the standard. We can go into details about that at a later time. But still, 2, 000 families. And when we talk about families thrive when they have the knowledge, skills, supports, and resources to thrive. If you don't have the economics, our world is based off of economics.
[00:07:36] Dollar for dollar. If you don't have the economics, It's really hard to get the health insurance or access to the resources or the knowledge that are needed to thrive. So this plays a huge role in preventing child abuse and neglect when we can uplift that. Fourteen percent of the children statewide live in homes that experience food insecurity.
[00:07:59] Pretty self explanatory. Uh, and we know on a state level there were some challenges with food stamps, the SNAP program, Uh, but this was all before that time frame. Thirty eight percent of three year olds are in routine child care. And I'm quite sure that everybody knows, not only is Fairbanks, but our state and nation is really dealing with a child care crisis.
[00:08:21] It's a huge issue. Hint, hint, I might ask something about it. But, uh, child care, uh, only thirty eight percent, and a lot of families are in greater need. Sixty one percent, uh, participate in afterschool activities. This is out of school time. Out of school time is before and after school, as well as during the holidays and summers and so forth.
[00:08:45] This is when kids are learning protective factors, as well as, just so you know, we know when children have one to three caring adults outside of their primary care providers that they can go and ask for help. There are risks of, and again, fill in the blank, are greatly reduced. Out of school programs, whether we're talking the organized sports, to music, to art, all of those after school, uh, programs are really essential.
[00:09:13] Not only are they learning skills, it's enhancing what they're learning in schools, and it connects them to those other caring adults in their lives that can be very influential and reduce the risk of. Whether we're talking suicide rates, that feeling of sadness when kids are participating in these programs, it really addresses, uh, that aspect.
[00:09:34] 47 percent of high schoolers are comfortable seeking help from three or more trusted adults, so less than 50%. These are critical times in our youth's lives, and they need to find those comforts of connecting. So sometimes that connection is broken because teachers come and go. We know we've seen a lot of turnover in our teachers.
[00:09:55] Having that teacher teach multiple generations in a community is disappearing rapidly, 61 percent in out of school time, and that's really a lot of younger kids, not our high schoolers. For There's some challenges, so, uh, really seeing that increase is important. This is the QR code if you want to learn.
[00:10:19] There's all kinds of data around suicide rate, Uh, specific housing, some employment. We have vast amount of data. I didn't want to take up all night around data. This is just an indicator. If you don't know QR codes, get out the camera. It captures it. I think most people know. Or just go to our website, alaskachildrenstrust.
[00:10:39] org, and go under our work, and under kids count, you can find the database that has all of this information. All right. So as I mentioned, the first part will be our questions and the second will be questions. So again, as you've looked at this data, if you have questions, we ask to raise your hand and Jen will pass around the cards and we'll do follow up.
[00:11:00] One of the things that we do want to recognize, we are having a conversation with the Borough Mayor. It's a, uh, The status is called the second class borough. Doesn't mean that you are second class by any means, but there's some specific definitions and I've already talked to, uh, all the candidates is at times candidates or with the second class borough, there are things that you can get involved with, like more around the social service side that is left to the state, maybe not to the borough, but specifically, and I want to make it public is our questions aren't about can the borough do this or not.
[00:11:35] What can you do in your leadership role if you were mayor of the borough that could impact? And there's a variety of things that can happen. So it's not always about taking the lead, but actually having the leadership. So really encourage you all to be thinking that. And, uh, we talked about, um, the respect aspect.
[00:11:57] So we will get started. Uh, let me get up. All right. Where's my, alright, our first question, and it's really, uh, an opportunity for you to introduce yourselves, but as community leaders running for the borough mayor, just introduce yourself with an achievement that you take pride in that has broadened access to the knowledge, skills, supports, and resources that children, families, and the borough need to thrive.
[00:12:23] So what have you done? in your past that you're really proud of, that's really been supportive to children and families. And, uh, we'll start, uh, here with Mr. Coghill.
[00:12:35] John Coghill: So thank you, uh, for the, uh, children's trust. And, uh, so I'll be watching you. So it looks like I'm gonna be talking to you. Uh, so my name is John Coghill, born and raised right here in the interior.
[00:12:48] Uh, born in Fairbanks, raised down there in Nenana. And, uh, Followed this good looking girl to Fairbanks about 49 years ago. And she kept me. So far, so good. In the meanwhile, what we've done is we've raised three of our own children, and we have eight grandchildren. And what we've done during that time is we took in foster kids during the, probably, 1990s for the most part.
[00:13:14] A couple of things that I've done along the way that I think could be helpful. Some in the religious world. I was significant in organizing Sunday school. Helped with the Office of Children's Services in trying to help families stay together. Probably the biggest thing is, right now, I get to be a foster parent.
[00:13:37] I get to know the system from all kinds of work, from family centered services and beyond. I've worked with those while I was in the legislature, and will continue to work with them. So, I'm a dad, a husband, and I've worked in the state legislature, significantly working on children's and families issues.
[00:13:57] So.
[00:13:58] Trevor Storrs: Alright, Mr. Hopkins.
[00:14:00] Grier Hopkins: My name is Grier Hopkins, born and raised here in Fairbanks. My wife and three year old daughter are also born and raised here. And we've had four generations here living in Fairbanks. And this is my alma mater as well. I was the very last class to go here at school before they added the big addition on.
[00:14:14] And so it's nice to be back in my old stomping grounds here for sure. Um. I, uh, today I work for Alaska's Educators and have in the private sector for the last 10 years and some of those, that means working with our teachers and support staff here in Fairbanks at the school district here on the North Slope, Yukon, Koyukuk, Denali, and Nenana, and listening to what a lot of those educators say they need to support the students, whether it's pre K, pre Elementary school or at the high school level.
[00:14:40] So, understanding what they need and when I was a state legislator, is a big accomplishment to help support our students. Um, trying to help their turnover, to reduce their turnover rates, which allows our students to get better support that they need. When I was a state legislator as a representative for this area for four years in Juneau, finding education funding increases was a big deal.
[00:15:00] That's a passion of mine sitting on the House Education Committee. Also passing legislation that helps the Department of Defense with families in need of services for the youngest that they have is something I was really proud of. That it not only helps our Fairbanks economy by supporting those military basing decisions because that's what the Department of Defense wants, but also really helping those families and those kids one on one get the services that they really need.
[00:15:23] So those are some of my accomplishments and I look forward to finding more answers. Thank you.
[00:15:27] Trevor Storrs: Mr. Shields.
[00:15:29] Robert Shields: Uh, yes, good evening. My name is Robert Shields. I'm actually from Indiana, but I moved up here in 1990, and I attended Lathrop High School where I graduated with honors and a member of the Environmental Club.
[00:15:40] I saw the challenges that we were facing as a community, especially in child care and preparing our kids for the next generation. And so I spent, uh, got my education in a school in Vermont and then spent 10 years working in the mecca of sustainability in Portland, Oregon, learning how we could develop solutions around green energy.
[00:15:59] Green buildings and basically make a more prosperous world for the next generation. So basically I came back up here in 2010 after completing a PHC project which is an 858 kilowatt solar array on a public, um, non profit. And basically for the last 10 years I've been working to try to institute That kind of same thinking here because in other areas, teachers are getting paid 16, 000 bonuses for having solar on their schools.
[00:16:24] We're shutting schools down. My biggest accomplishment is in 2022, I managed to work with a group of kids from Midnight Sun Elementary, got them to the second place in the Arctic Innovation Competition for basically learning how to recycle their trash. Those little plastic trays that we throw away, that's 125, 000 a year.
[00:16:41] We could be generating, converting that kind of material into filament for 3D printings. That is the kind of innovation I think that we need, and you will find resolutions out there on the table for working to do that. Thank you.
[00:16:54] Trevor Storrs: Fantastic, thank you. All right, now we're going to get into more of the difficult questions.
[00:16:58] Less about you and more about the community. We're going to start with Mr. Hopkins. Research shows that getting exercise and being outdoors is vital for physical and mental health. How can you, as mayor, help ensure the borough supports and promotes children and youth's access to the facilities, pathways, and other play spaces that promote exercise and time outdoors?
[00:17:24] Grier Hopkins: As I've seen my daughter grow up, it's certainly been good to find out where some of the shortcomings and success are that our community has for, um, young children to be able to exercise throughout the winter and the summer and, and where those are free and where they cost money. You know, the borough changing its Carlson Center over to a, uh, more available to the public has been a, a strong advancement.
[00:17:44] And one of their capital improvement projects looking at, uh, going forward is a. Indoor playground to help allow the on the coldest days for families to come and pay a small fee To get access to that and I think that'd be a very important progress Project to move forward with but it's just also more than that because a lot of the time it's funding at our schools That's so important.
[00:18:05] How do we as a borough mayor increase the funding to? At our schools so they can help maintain those after school programs. They can help maintain those student activity sponsorships. What are called SAS contracts here. For running club. For after school activities. For sports. So many of those are getting cut at our schools because they don't have the funding coming from the borough.
[00:18:25] And if we want to see those funding increase to provide those opportunities. The fastest way to make room within our tax cap within our, to see that revenue cap grow. Is to create more economic activity. New construction in our borough is the fastest way to increase that revenue cap, which will allow our borough to prioritize education funding to get those students what they need.
[00:18:44] And it's not just going to be outdoor activities through Parks and Rec and those important things that we all love here, trails, parks, things like that. But it's also going to be a lot of those statistics that we saw up on the screen will be supported and positively impacted with additional education funding.
[00:18:57] It's okay, we can see what you're doing. Fantastic.
[00:19:01] Trevor Storrs: Mr. Shields.
[00:19:03] Robert Shields: Yeah, essentially, I believe if we're not investing heavily in education, there's no point in investing in anything else. As far as physical activities, I think one of the greatest things that we could be doing to encourage more, uh, kids to be involved in things is gardening.
[00:19:16] Is the community garden programs and getting the students involved. Schools to actually grow food all year long and incorporate that into, um, their curriculum. Basically, engaging kids fully and not just getting them to sit and stare at a screen or stare at a book is part of their physical, emotional, and physical, uh, mental support.
[00:19:35] And I think that we need to be encouraging more activities like this. That engage kids and at all levels and not just in book learning. So I think one of the best things that we have done and can continue to do is to support the idea of community gardens as well as other STEM activities that allow them to become critical thinkers.
[00:19:51] You will find a resolution out there on the desk to designate all of our schools as STEM campuses because I believe this is the quickest and easiest way for within our capacities to attract revenue and to attract opportunities to engage kids from K all the way through 12. Thank you.
[00:20:09] Trevor Storrs: Mr. Coghill.
[00:20:11] John Coghill: The borough has the Parks and Rec Department, and that's one of the best things going for the interior for quality of life issues.
[00:20:18] And it is true that education is going to be an important part of that. That's, uh, year round. And it's also true that food security is a big issue, so I'm going to agree with those. But what can't be overlooked is the amount of non profits in this town that put together, uh, Groups, organizations, and, uh, the various different groups, whether it's Lions Club, or just name the issue, uh, that really tax themselves to help our kids.
[00:20:44] That's a quality of life issue. It needs to be promoted. It needs to be talked about from the mayor's office while we have the Parks and Rec available to them. So, I would say at this point, um, uh, The drumbeat from the mayor should be to highlight what the, uh, what the community is doing. They are literally digging deep and making it work for the kids in this community.
[00:21:06] And that is a quality of life that will attract other businesses into this town. When a business look at Fairbanks, they'll look at the schools, they'll look at the quality of life here, and that's a big part of it, winter and summer.
[00:21:18] Trevor Storrs: Thank you. Alright, moving on to our third question, and we'll start with Mr.
[00:21:23] Shields. And we're going to focus in on youth. They're experiencing homelessness that has been a continual challenge for the community. What are the ways the borough can support these youth and the organizations that provide critical youth services?
[00:21:39] Robert Shields: Well, we have the door, and I think that's really helpful with getting a lot of kids the services that they need.
[00:21:44] Um, we have a lot of opportunities as far as building tiny homes. There's a lot of waste in this community. Uh, we've actually been working with Habitat for Humanity to explore how we could be utilizing more of our waste to build tiny homes, teach more people to build tiny homes, and get kids engaged, and basically helping them get the support they need.
[00:22:01] Permit and support services that they need in order to be able to function as adults and deal with the trauma that put them in the situation that they're in. Essentially housing is critical to being able to provide stability, whether you're a child or you're an adult. And so we've been focusing on innovative ways to be able to address housing issues here as a key point to developing stability.
[00:22:22] Stability for students and for youth. We understand that a lot of these communities or a lot of these students come from broken homes and those families need support too. So a large part of our work focuses on workforce development for marginalized individuals that provide the wraparound services so they can not only take care of themselves, but take care of their families as well.
[00:22:40] Because without the support of a family, we all need a village, even adults. And I think it's critical that when we're trying to address challenges for our youth, That we're also remembering that they will grow up, and we can't say that once you turn 18, you're on your own. I think we need to make sure that we're taking care of and providing for all of our citizens and our community, just like we would if we were living on an island.
[00:23:01] Thank you. Mr. Coghill
[00:23:03] John Coghill: Once again, I'm gonna, uh, thank the non profits in town here. Uh, there's a couple of non profits in town that take care of, uh, uh, children that are homeless, away from home. And, uh, the borough can help them with, uh, zoning. They can help them with, uh, Uh, talking about it, uh, to various different, uh, groups.
[00:23:22] The right to convene or the ability to convene is one of the things that a mayor can do. Uh, bring people to the table and talk about what's there. But I can tell you broken families are a big part of it. Uh, I see it there at the Rescue Mission over and over and over again. Where, uh, parents will come in with children.
[00:23:38] Men with children, women with children. And the resources in this town can be scarce. Housing is tough. If you're a broken family and you, uh, are living on welfare, uh, it's tough business for, uh, children. So they, uh, and then there's, uh, sexual assault issues going on. So Behavioral Health, our, uh, police force, uh, all need to be recognized as well as the non profits who have really reached out their hands to people in need.
[00:24:06] You just gotta hand it to them. So a mayor can highlight that and then, uh, work with whatever zoning, whatever property management you can do. Uh, we do have a health and social services commission, which is light duty, but it can at least bring people together. And there's some things I think we can solve.
[00:24:21] So solution oriented is what you look for when it's uh, dealing with people that are just hurting.
[00:24:28] Trevor Storrs: Thank you. Mr. Hopkins, can
[00:24:30] Grier Hopkins: you just repeat the question?
[00:24:31] Trevor Storrs: Absolutely. Fairbanks youth that are experiencing homelessness has been a continual challenge for the community. What are the ways the borough can support these youth and the organizations that provide critical youth services?
[00:24:48] Grier Hopkins: About 10 years ago or so, I heard a statistic that the average age of a homeless person in Alaska was 9 years old. And I don't think that's changed much in the last 10 years. If you saw the stat up on the slideshow before, from 2014 to 2017, we went from about 27th to 48th in ranking of healthiness for our children.
[00:25:06] Our Borough Mayor needs to take that leadership role to say, How can we Bring people together. How can we create those partnerships and put ourselves into the conversation, whether we have those powers or not, to find what those solutions are. They both, my colleagues up here have talked about planning and zoning and tiny homes.
[00:25:23] I agree. There was a health and social service direct leader here in town who wanted to create a small set of tiny homes for transitional housing to get people out of homelessness and into a home so they can get their feet underneath them. The borough said, sorry, we don't have those planning and zoning abilities.
[00:25:40] That's the wrong answer from our borough. Our borough mayor needs to find a way to say, Okay, so how are we going to solve that? How are we going to come together to find that solution that's specifically available to us, and not just say, Sorry, we can't do that. For too often our borough has said, We can't do that.
[00:25:56] We need a mayor that's going to find a way to solve that problem creatively, bring people together, and always come to that table with a, a solution. Okay, how are we going to solve this problem versus throwing our hands up? We might be a second class borough, as Mr. Storrs said, but there's a lot that we can do that we aren't trying to do by simply finding solutions, partnerships, whether it's with the city, the
[00:26:15] Trevor Storrs: non profit, or the private sector.
[00:26:17] Fantastic. Just a reminder, that's three questions. If you have a question, please raise your hand. Jen will pass you a card for the question period. All right, we're going to start with Mr. Coghill again. Our fourth question is, The average annual cost of licensed early education child care is over 15, 000 in the borough, annually, and 22 percent of households with children in the area are still in need of these services.
[00:26:46] How will you approach increasing affordable early education opportunities for all borough families?
[00:26:55] John Coghill: You bring people together and try to find a solution, as the rep said here. Uh, it's just gonna be a tough sled because you have to have an economic driving community. And in order to do that, you've got to be able to get the paying jobs. We're heavily loaded with government workers in this town, and they will make their part.
[00:27:14] But you have to have new money in town as well, uh, for people to be able to afford. Like you said earlier, uh, a lot of people are just beyond the welfare line. But they can't do it. They're buying a car. They're buying a house. They're buying insurance. They're having to do child care. Both parents having to work.
[00:27:31] And so what we can do, probably at this point, is any surplus buildings that we find ourselves in, in charge of, as a borough, you take the leadership and say, how do we use those, repurpose them for family use? Because that's going to be one of the quality of life issues right here in Fairbanks. Uh, if you're going to grow a community, you've got to invite people in who are, uh, childbearing age and have children.
[00:27:55] Uh, right now we're losing them, uh, by the numbers. Uh, older guys are staying here. Younger people are leaving. And we just got to figure out a way to make that quality of life better. And repurposing buildings or encouraging non profits is going to be one of the ways we do it. Uh, it's always going to be expensive here.
[00:28:12] So we just got to figure out what's worth it. And I think children are worth it.
[00:28:17] Trevor Storrs: Thank you, Mr.
[00:28:17] Grier Hopkins: Hopkins. Thank you very much for that. And that 15, 000 cost is certainly hitting home as my daughter started preschool just last week at 1, 200 a month and that is not something at all that many many families can afford.
[00:28:29] Not every family can buy a car. So how do we make sure our bus system is running so they get access to that daycare if they need? Our transit program here 40 percent turnover in the last six months alone. Those vacancies are huge as we all saw on the Fairbanks Daily News Minor coverage saying the borough's cutting those, the, the number of bus lines we have because of staffing issues.
[00:28:48] As mayor, I will work with them to re, uh, to improve the morale, to improve the, that turnover rates, to, to make sure we have that access to it. Uh, Mr. Coghill mentioned something. I've been knocking on every single, when I'm knocking on every door, I'm talking about, and it's, We have schools, right? We don't want to close them, but if we're going to have to because of budget cuts, because of budget situations, let's use those facilities wisely.
[00:29:09] And the borough needs to partner with the district in their long term planning. One of the few things the school district did increase their budget for was that long term plan. And the borough needs to be at that table saying, which schools can we look at? Because when we close one of those schools from the school district, let's use it as a rentable child care facility.
[00:29:25] You can become a state licensed child care provider and rent a room. Uh, a classroom, instead of leaving it empty, use it, rent it out to you at a nominal fee to start making more child care opportunities successful. If we're going to have to close on the North Pole, we've already got Joy closed, that's a lot of our community covered right there alone.
[00:29:44] Um, I think, you know, partnering with military families also, when they live off base, when they live around our community, to make sure they have that ability is going to be important for those families as well.
[00:29:53] Robert Shields: Thank you.
[00:29:53] Trevor Storrs: Mr. Shields.
[00:29:55] Robert Shields: Well, it wasn't that long ago that the best child care support we had was grandma and grandpa, or your uncle.
[00:30:03] We used to have multi generational households, and we used to look after each other. Now we've become increasingly isolated. Now we've become increasingly turned toward professionals, which increases the license, which increases insurance, which increases the regulations. There's a lot of things that we could be doing as a community that the government has no need to be involved in.
[00:30:20] Child care is one of them. We used to look after each other. We used to work with each other. And we need to find a way to get back to that. We need to find a way we can engage our silver citizens in imparting the knowledge that they share to the younger generation and we need to find a way to connect the young people to these older generations so they can learn what it's like to be a functioning adult, what it's like to be part of a community.
[00:30:41] It used to be a key part of our livelihood to work intergenerationally, now we've all become isolated and we need to get back to where we're sharing and working together. Real community takes work. Family takes work, and we can't just keep disposing of what's easy and convenient for us, and hoping that the next best thing will come along.
[00:31:00] I think one of the best things that we can do is provide incentives at our university for people who want to get into these services, who want to get into teaching, and provide incentives for, uh, businesses to also support the idea of providing for childcare. If they want the people at work and focus on their work, they have to realize they have to be able to take care of their situation at home.
[00:31:19] Great.
[00:31:20] Trevor Storrs: I'm going to do a little bit of a follow up and we'll still follow the same order. Is it's been about a year, maybe a little bit more, that the borough actually stopped having an early childhood commission. Would love to know your thoughts on re establishing that. These are the critical times.
[00:31:41] Brain development is most critical during this. Uh, getting kindergarten readiness, it really sets that foundation. What are your thoughts about reestablishing that commission and getting them and the experts to really support you in addressing this?
[00:31:57] John Coghill: Who goes first? Um, I think I do.
[00:31:59] Trevor Storrs: Coghill.
[00:32:00] John Coghill: Coghill goes first?
[00:32:01] I think, yes. I'm game to that discussion. Uh, having experts, uh, that's part of the convening process, uh, but most of us have established what the need is, then it's a matter of what are the solutions. So Um, it's a, it's a leadership question. Um, so, uh, I'm game because what you do is you convene people who have, uh, uh, what you would call their, they're deeply invested in the issue and in the need, uh, then it's a matter of can we implement?
[00:32:28] And I think that's where the leadership comes in. So yeah, I'm, I'm game to, to talk about that, but not if it's just to create more discussion without a solution.
[00:32:37] Trevor Storrs: Thank you. Hopkins.
[00:32:39] Grier Hopkins: Thank you. This is something I certainly have a lot of feelings about and, um, I strongly disagree with the action that the, um, the mayor and the assembly took on cutting down on those commissions that they have.
[00:32:50] They cut down on the number of times commissions can meet a year. They met down on the number of times and ways that a commission can decide where they meet. And dissolving the early child care commission, I think, was absolutely the wrong direction to move. What the mayor needs to do is say, How can we direct the mission of this commission to find a way to actually solve these problems?
[00:33:10] Not dissolve it when one of these, these are one of the biggest issues facing our community. Asking the right question needs to be what we're looking at. Not saying, Sorry, this didn't work and get rid of it. And dissolving the early child care commission is exactly one of those perfect examples. I guess I disagree strongly with Mr.
[00:33:28] Shields when he said sometimes the government needs to get out of the way. The borough needs to be a leader. In these solutions, the borough needs to be the leader that can bring people together and the borough needs to say, how can we solve those solutions and dissolving commissions like the Early Childhood Commission or making it harder for the, the public library commission to meet to solve solutions that they need and find solutions that they need or, um, address problems strategically and quickly and flexibly is something our community needs.
[00:33:53] We need more yes and how, not no, let's throw our hands up.
[00:33:59] Robert Shields: Mr. Shields. So community engagement is important to quality of life. My first foray into government was actually working on the Citizens Advisory Committee for a small community in Oregon called Troutdale. Basically just reviewing all the procedures and making sure that the rules and the, um, Education or the policies and stuff are all up to date and as far as early childhood development, we certainly need a group of experts in the community that can help provide insight to our government agencies on how best to provide for those children's needs because we don't have all the answers and we need to be open to those engagements but we need to have that space for it.
[00:34:37] If we keep cutting off the space for conversations, if we keep preventing people from engaging in their community, then it's basically you either like what we do or you go away. And that is not what's going to endear us to building a better community for our children and for anyone. We need to have these committees in order to be able to focus on getting more of this work done because as volunteers we can't do it.
[00:34:57] Even as a mayor, a full time employee, we can't do it all. We need to be working with the community. We need an engaged community and we need to continue finding ways that will encourage the community to want to work with us and to want to work with each other. Because I do believe the government has a role, but I also believe that the smaller government governs best.
[00:35:15] And that means that people have to start working together as individuals and as organizations to address this, this concern. Thank you.
[00:35:23] Trevor Storrs: Fabulous. All right, we're getting down to the last question. So if you have yours, raise your hand for Jen. Uh, and it's going to start with Mr. Hopkins. All of you have talked about this.
[00:35:35] Families are juggling high costs, whether we're talking housing, heating, groceries, and all the other essentials, which can increase the stress on the families, both economically and socially, leading to out migration, as you talked about, homelessness, and other impacts on the community, including child abuse and neglect.
[00:35:54] What are your strategies for helping Fairbanks children and families have access to what they need to make those ends meet? Mr. Hopkins?
[00:36:05] Grier Hopkins: This is one of the biggest questions I get going door to door throughout this whole campaign is, What are you going to do to lower my property taxes, lower my cost of energy, lower my cost of living here? And as we've seen our population decline over the last 10 years, a lot of that has to do with where is this community going to provide what I need for my family in the future that I love?
[00:36:25] We move, a lot of people move here because they choose to. Why, how are we as a borough giving them the opportunities to have new jobs, have the schools they want, attract military families when they retire? Attract doctors to our hospitals, attract professors to our universities. And that starts with a strong economy here.
[00:36:43] And as mayor, what I want to do is to say, how can I work with the boroughs, the developers, the contractors, labor force here in town to get more new construction growing in this community. So more people are putting into that property tax pool. That way we can grow our revenue cap. Help fund our schools here because like I said before new construction is the number one driver in our revenue cap here So we can get that strong economy going we get new commercial new industrial new Residential housing going and all of that new economic development will provide an exciting place where people want to move to And when you have that opportunity for a growing and thriving community, you can start addressing a lot of the underlying issues that are affecting our community.
[00:37:25] Whether it's bus access, whether it's planning and zoning for food resilience and food security. All those things have to come after we get an exciting community that is growing and not shrinking. And I believe that starts with a mayor that wants to address our economic development and prioritize education funding.
[00:37:39] Trevor Storrs: Thank
[00:37:40] Robert Shields: you. Mr. Shields. My first run for mayor was Nine years ago, and I sat in this very room running against Carl Castle. I like Carl. He was a good mayor, but the challenge and the reason that I ran was simply because even though he lived in a net zero house, he, like many other leaders, have failed to diversify our economy and challenge Golden Valley's assumption about how we generate and distribute power.
[00:38:06] There are other communities that basically are cutting their energy costs in half. We brought professionals from around the world to be able to demonstrate how we could do that here. And time and again over the last several years, we've tried to find ways to work with them. The borough, but they won't challenge Golden Valley.
[00:38:23] We, what the Golden Valley was doing to generate energy in the 60s may have worked then, but it doesn't work now. That high cost of energy filters down to everything. And we can address it. Like I said before, there are schools that are providing their teachers with bonuses. There are incentives for us to be able to develop power walls so we can have 24 power.
[00:38:42] Or we can incentivize geothermal systems so we can make it affordable for people to have energy here. And to grow their own food. And those kind of resources are what allow us to provide quality of life and a lower cost of living. And that trickles down to being able to provide for insurance for all of our schools and for our children.
[00:39:01] So I've been focusing on and I continue to focus on innovative ways that we can reduce our cost of energy so we can afford to live here.
[00:39:07] Trevor Storrs: Thank you. Mr. Coghill.
[00:39:10] John Coghill: Probably the three things that we need to look at, uh, for cost containment, uh, and changes. Electricity is going to be one, and, uh, both, uh, this representative and I worked on trying to figure out how to get the cost containment.
[00:39:22] Uh, that's a work in progress, but it's progressing. The other thing is how to get natural gas to help us diversify our heating systems. And then, uh, fire insurance. Uh, uh, one of the things that the borough gets to do is have fire engines and a volunteer fire department. And I think we need to keep those up because people need to feel safe.
[00:39:44] The other thing is, you need new money in town. You just need new money in town. Uh, that's tourism, uh, that's mining, uh, that's whatever you can build, uh, with what you got. Uh, recognizing that we have a lot of military cash coming into town. The contractors with the military. Uh, the university brings in a lot of money.
[00:40:02] Uh, so you fan the flame of growing those, so that you can afford, uh, a house that a family can live in. Uh, and, uh, Then it's a matter of property taxes. Keep them low. Broaden out your spectrum so that people will move here. One thing for sure, the people that are here, military that stay here, they love it here.
[00:40:22] And when people love it here, they make it better. So you gotta appreciate that. And then we just work on the cost of living here. That's gonna happen everywhere you go. It's just that happens It's pretty steep right here.
[00:40:33] Trevor Storrs: Well, thank you. That, uh, closes our questions. Uh, appreciate the audience. Uh, again, we're taking other questions.
[00:40:42] I will try to get most of them and or bunch them together. So probably not a surprise, one of the top questions or related topics being asked is around education, really K through 12. Uh, with, we know that, uh, it has been flat funded. Uh, this year the legislature did up, uh, Uh, give one time funding, uh, and the governor, uh, one time funding, but it is not permanent.
[00:41:06] Uh, well, let me rephrase that. They did up the BSA, uh, but It's still falling short. So there's a lot of questions just around Meeting the student needs and how you would work with the school district. So to be specific The question is how will you support the Fairbanks School District in meeting the needs of our children in the current?
[00:41:28] economic conditions Oh Mr. Shields actually, thank
[00:41:36] Robert Shields: you
[00:41:36] Trevor Storrs: so
[00:41:39] Robert Shields: You'll find out there on the table, uh, two things that you should look very closely at in regards to this question. One is a competition by future city. It's, uh, engaging middle school and high school students and with the Spice Foundation we can engage K 12.
[00:41:52] But the idea is to look into the future and figure out what your city looks like in the future. It engages engineers, it engages city planners, and it's something that we don't do here very well, is planning. We build a building, and then we build another one, and then we build another one. And after 50 years, we're living with the inefficiencies of that kind of stuff.
[00:42:09] And we need to be able to train future leaders to be able to address that. And I think that the best way we can do that, we see the last thing to ever get cuts, the football team. So why don't we get science engaged like sports teams and we can use these to be able to fund our schools? So basically I have a resolution out there that I've been working with Assemblymember Haney and Assemblymember LeGinnis to basically turn To designate all of our schools as STEAM campuses and thus creating the opportunity not only to put solar and wind and grow food and recycle our, our waste, but to be able to incorporate that into an education system that prepares critical learners for lifelong, um, opportunities.
[00:42:52] And I think that these kind of things are the things that we can do to move the community forward and get more of this attention on science, on art, because science teaches us how to think. Art teaches us why we think. And I think both of these are critical to raising a generation that will help lead us forward.
[00:43:08] Thank you, Mr. Coghill.
[00:43:10] John Coghill: So the world has some interesting challenges, there's no doubt. Uh, we have a wonderful education system in that it's broad, you can make some choices. Uh, but our overhead is high. And that's true with my house and that's true with our schools. We're going to have to change some of that because we have a little bit of a declining population, rising costs, and we're going to have to consolidate.
[00:43:31] And that means we're probably going to have to do what the school board is already talking about. Uh, and switch up how we use our schools. In my view, uh, our teachers need to be, uh, respected more. And the overhead needs to go from, go down so that the dollars can go into the teachers. We have wonderful teachers in this town, but we're not, we're not making the grade.
[00:43:55] If you look at what some of the statistics were up here, We're just not making the grades. So, it's not the teacher's fault, it's what we do is we put downward pressure on everything and the teachers get bottlenecked in this world. And, so, everything from classroom management to the cost of overhead. Uh, we're gonna have to consolidate some stuff and those are hard things to do and a borough mayor, Gets to be the real estate dude.
[00:44:18] You know, so, uh, we have to figure this one out. Uh, but I think we have to lower the overhead so that the classroom gets the dollars. That's just how we're going to have to do
[00:44:26] Grier Hopkins: it. Mr. Hopkins? I promised to prioritize education funding. That's what it really comes down to. We can talk about keeping the cuts out of the classrooms, but when you cut the management at the school district, and that's not the management I'm talking about, it's your support staff, it's your, um, teaching and learning staff, it's your curriculum development, it's your custodians, it's everything that gets cut at a school district comes down on the teachers, and when we say, Well, we, you know, our test scores are failing or not.
[00:44:56] Our test scores are not failing, by the way. We are right along the national average here in Fairbanks. So, if someone comes to you and says, our tests, our teachers and schools are failing our students, they are successful here at, in Fairbanks. Statewide average is a different question, but here in Fairbanks, we're doing well.
[00:45:09] But that is It's starting to erode, and if we don't prioritize education funding, if we don't work with an assembly and elect an assembly that will also prioritize education funding, we're not going to be able to support those schools, to grow the economy, to attract the doctors, to attract those military families, to attract the professors that we all have been up here talking about are so important to our community, and that starts with our schools, and I want to be known as the education mayor in three years from now, that I fought, I fought like hell to make sure that our schools were funded.
[00:45:39] I started kindergarten here, the school, Pro Creek, the day, uh, the month I was born was the day that school opened. It's 41 years old, just the same age as me now. And it's, it's an old school. But, when I was talking to a school board member, she went and said, I toured Pro Creek, and what that school provides is not just in the old walls, that are the same age as me, but they're in the community, in the parents, and in the, the passion that the teachers and the students give.
[00:46:02] And that's what we absolutely need to prioritize.
[00:46:05] Trevor Storrs: Great. Uh, two of the candidates, uh, you are past legislators. Um, and so the next question kind of relates to as mayor, how are you going to work with your state delegation in addressing about funding? Cause, uh, let's just be honest. Most of the school is funded through state, um, that kind of funding or other aspects.
[00:46:26] So how are you going to pull in the delegation and make changes on a state level or influence that? To then impact the overall community. And we start with Mr. Coghill.
[00:46:37] John Coghill: Yeah, certainly the Bay student allocation is one of the places you go to. And to be fair, I don't know that that Bay student allocation is, uh, sufficient, uh, for our time in history right now.
[00:46:48] So I, you know, one of the days you're going to have to rearrange that thing. But what you do is you advocate for your community, but you have to do that by showing what your community is willing to do. So you, you take what your community is willing to do to the legislature, and, and both of us have worked very well there, we know the ins and outs of it.
[00:47:06] One time funding is not going to work. You can't do prior, you can't do two years in a row funding, but you can't set some aside. Community revenue sharing has gone down, uh, so the, uh, uh, the state is, uh, feeling the buckle as well. So I think what we do is show, uh, Our own responsibility to our students here.
[00:47:29] That's the first thing we do. And then we take it to Juneau, and we take it to the federal government, by the way, which has a high expectation, uh, for students here as well. So, uh, I work well with, uh, both delegations, both the national and internet, and, uh, the state, uh, delegation. So, uh, the BSA is gonna be one of the important parts, but we also have to show how that lands, uh, with the teachers.
[00:47:53] And I can tell you right now, that doesn't always fit. Thank you. If
[00:47:58] Trevor Storrs: people forgot, I think we're hearing some noise, so silence your cell phones, please. Mr. Hopkins.
[00:48:05] Grier Hopkins: Thank you. The 680 base student allocation that was one time funded in this This past budget is less than half of what school districts are saying they need now to keep up with inflation since the last time we had a substantial increase.
[00:48:18] 680 is what they proposed, over 1, 400 is what we would have needed to have kept up with inflation. The governor, the mayor, and the assembly work and create a list of legislative priorities every year. I want to work with that assembly to put the base student allocation funding at the top of that chart right there, so when we go down to Juneau we can say, we're partnered with every school district in the state to say that this is what we need.
[00:48:39] But the Fairbanks borough is also 20 million dollars below the funding cap for our schools. We still have 20 million dollars in regular ongoing funding to get up to what we're legally allowed as a required local contribution to supply our school district. Us and Matt Hsu are the only two major school districts that don't provide up to that cap.
[00:48:59] And we don't have the ability right now to, within our revenue cap, to give that additional funding sustainably. Digging in and deficit spending is not an answer for that long term. So we need to find a way to grow that, our revenue here in town, get that new money here, so that we can prioritize that education funding, so when we do go down to Juneau, we say, we're doing our part, now it's your turn to do yours.
[00:49:20] I believe that's going to be essential, but also, when I, like I said, make it a priority for our, uh, our borough and borough assembly to partner with our school districts in saying, the BSA is going to be essential to keep up with inflation, so we don't have second grade classrooms with 35 and 40 kids like we're seeing.
[00:49:36] Right now if you look on the school district dashboard.
[00:49:38] Robert Shields: Thank you, Mr. Shields. As a private citizen, I have been able to attract The interest of social impact investors who want to put billions of dollars in this community. To develop our schools, to develop our infrastructure, to develop our manufacturing and address our quality, our energy issues.
[00:49:55] Basically, as a citizen, I was able to pull together both the conservative and the progressive members of the assembly, got unanimous resolutions passed between the assembly, the city council, and the utility to advance economic developments centered around what might come next after the Polaris Hotel comes down.
[00:50:13] The opportunity to attract new revenue means positioning ourselves to be attracted to that. If we want to be socially impactful, we have to be open to social impact investors. If we want more oil and coal, then we stick with what we've been doing. But it hasn't been working out for us. And so, I've got, uh, Ashley Carrick was one of the first sponsors of our NED resolution.
[00:50:32] And so, I feel that as mayor, I will be, easily be able to work with, uh, Senators and legislature and a governor as we already have and the idea of turning our schools into power plants Isn't just solar because solar only works part of the year But that financing works for all kinds of renewables and we can use this to bet to balance and stabilize Our situations in our schools and turn them into profit centers for education We can work with the, um, we can work with the teachers associations to be able to facilitate some of this recycling and energy systems.
[00:51:07] But, in general, working with people is something that I've been able to do and will continue to do. Thank you.
[00:51:15] Trevor Storrs: Alright, next question. We've all been talking in different ways about development and resources, and this is going to relate to climate change. The question is, without a healthy planet, our children will have no future.
[00:51:28] What are you doing, or what will you do, to increase the well being of the planet, especially in our local area?
[00:51:38] My apologies, I lost track. Who started last? I think it's Mr. Hopkins that starts. My apologies. Alright,
[00:51:44] Grier Hopkins: thank you for that. You know, growing up in Goldstream Valley, you certainly see permafrost shifting, you see the roads being impacted, you see the infrastructure that we here have being impacted. Um, and finding ways to make sure that our community is ready, reviewing, looking through the recently implemented, um, climate action plan that we have here at the borough, and finding those things that we can work together on with our private sector.
[00:52:08] With the state and the federal government to make sure our community is ready for that, uh, as it's here now, and we're preparing for climate change. How do we create more incentives to get more, uh, small renewable energies onto our house? How do we work with GVEA to partner with them in their carbon reduction plan?
[00:52:25] Whether it's, uh, through natural gas or through large scale renewable plans. Um, like Senator Cago and I was talking about before, him and I worked on one of the biggest pieces of legislation for utility rewrite. Um, to allow more aggressive and more ways to bring renewable power here in Fairbanks with paving the way to eliminate renewable, uh, pollution.
[00:52:47] Open access tariff that they just passed legislation to implement that and also to have a long term planning. So the borough and GVEA and the five different Railboat utilities can start looking ahead and saying okay. Well, we're off of natural gas Let's start planning ahead and finding where we can develop more renewable energy where how we can lower Electricity and energy costs for people are all in businesses all along the rail belt is going to be a way that the borough can Stick their foot in the door and get their voice heard
[00:53:16] Trevor Storrs: Thank you.
[00:53:16] Grier Hopkins: Mr. Shields.
[00:53:19] Robert Shields: I think if you check, you'll see that my record is pretty clear and consistent over the last 20 years of looking at how we can take advantage of the fact that our climate is rapidly changing and we're not. You know, a lot of people think that this is an oil state or a development state, and what I like to argue that it's an innovation state, because it took a lot of innovation to figure out how to get that pipeline in the ground, how to get that oil to market, and how to develop a community when it's 50 and 60 below.
[00:53:44] We have a world class university, and I think that by investing in our education system, we can have a world class economy, a regenerative economy built on reliable innovation. Constantly making the best of what comes next is a way for us to be able to beat our base. Meet our basic needs and the success that other communities have had is looking at net zero buildings.
[00:54:05] Like I said, the solar we've been talking about is about financing and engaging kids and how they can be, um, engineers and scientists as a way to keep them engaged in their community, keep them coming back. But we have to lower our cost of energy, we have to diversify our economy, and those are the things that will allow us to provide for the families here now and in the future.
[00:54:26] My goal has always been simple, to ensure that seven generations from now, Fairbanks, Alaska, and the Earth are still a good place to raise a family. Thank you.
[00:54:36] John Coghill: When I was a young lad in Nenana, we would take mastodon bones out of the river. So climate's going to change. It's just going to change. And uh, we're not going to change it here in the interior.
[00:54:47] Now we can mitigate and we can manage what happens to us, but if you take the whole population of the state of Alaska, 750, 000 or somewhere in that neighborhood, uh, not even a suburb of L. A. We can't change anything. We just have to manage what we've got. I'll tell you this, I'm not for net zero for the interior.
[00:55:07] Because what you've got to do is shut down your coal plant, and then you're, you're going to skyrocket and, uh, your costs and destabilize your electricity. I'm all for, uh, solar, wind, and hydro. Whatever we can do to stabilize our energy. But we're not going to be able to cut off our coal at this point. And so the net zero thing scares me a little bit.
[00:55:29] Carbon myself, I don't see where it's the poison that a lot of people think it is. I think it's actually a healthy part to our planet. But I'm all for mitigating whatever changes come our way. We're going to have to do it. We adapt.
[00:55:43] Trevor Storrs: Fantastic. Thank you. One of the things I'm always excited to see in the audience is youth.
[00:55:51] They don't necessarily quote unquote have a voice because they don't get to vote, but it's great to see them in the audience And they ask questions so and one wrote a question said from a kid, so I do need to ask it so We just have a few more minutes. Let's keep this one to like about a minute if we can What will you do about extended learning programs?
[00:56:15] And we'll start with Mr. Shields.
[00:56:18] Robert Shields: After school programs, STEAM programs, all of the things that we can get kids engaged in I think are going to be good for them. Like I said, most of my focus has been on these STEM programs because it provides for kids to not just engage, there's But to look at their schools as a micro example of what their community is like.
[00:56:38] And engaging their school campus is a bigger, is a small step towards engaging your village campus. You know, I love, when I was a kid, I used to play Dungeons and Dragons. And now it has been a key point to developing my skills as a student. City planner, and I think those are the kind of activities that we need to encourage to create innovative thinkers, critical thinkers, and people who are not only going to be involved in a city while they're here, but think about how to improve life and quality of life for generations to come.
[00:57:04] I think that's something we've been missing and we need to get back into. Thank you. Mr. Coghill.
[00:57:09] John Coghill: I think extended learning programs give you a chance to relax a little bit and explore a lot, and as long as we have the ability with teachers and facilities to do it. But, uh, I don't know what that costs, quite frankly, uh, but I'm open to that discussion.
[00:57:22] I think extended learning gives you a little more, uh, uh, creativeness.
[00:57:28] Trevor Storrs: Thank you.
[00:57:30] Grier Hopkins: I loved extended learning programs. It was GT when I was here, it was all those electives and those different exciting things that you could have growing up here. And those have been eliminated from half of our schools here in town.
[00:57:41] The, uh, the budget that school districts had to pass because of reduced funding from the borough and from the state. Resulted in, um, extended learning programs being eliminated from secondary. And we no longer have other opportunities and electives in our schools. They don't have, uh, band and orchestra in elementary school now.
[00:58:01] You have to wait until middle school, sixth grade to be able to engage that at the schools. I started that at fourth grade. And if you don't think that learning to play cello at fourth grade in school or the piano or whatever it is really helps your brain and helps in all those other STEAM and math and reading and everything else, go look at the research because it is essential to helping our students grow.
[00:58:19] And we have an incredible amount of musical talent here. But if I look down the road and I see those ELP learning programs getting cut further, I don't think that that's going to happen and that starts with borough funding. That's why I've been talking about it because those programs are essential and that's why parents stay here.
[00:58:34] Trevor Storrs: All right, this is going to be our last question. We're a couple minutes over because we started a couple minutes late. Each of you at some point have talked about the role of nonprofits. As a person that's been working in the nonprofit, we find that government many times will go, well, the nonprofit will take care of it.
[00:58:50] Sometimes because, well, we just give them less and they can extend the dollar. The expectation is the employees will work for less and or do more and more and more we cannot do. Uh, many times it's a burden placed on the non profits. As mayor, go beyond of just talking about partnering with non profits.
[00:59:09] What does that really look like and how will you truly support them, no different than you would support oil development or mining? And we'll start with you, Mr. Coghill.
[00:59:20] John Coghill: That's a good question. I don't know the answer to that, quite frankly. The non profits in this town, uh, at this point, uh, probably taxation is going to be one of the first places you look at.
[00:59:31] Uh, and uh, uh, I think at this point we're risk averse in our, in our community. So I'd probably start there. Then the other thing is the commissions that we talked about, uh, how do you rev those up? But I'll tell you this, uh, the government, uh, doesn't do a good as good a job as nonprofits, primarily because one is a labor that's highly focused and a labor of love.
[00:59:53] And one is a, uh, it's a, uh, it's a job. And so, how do you, in, uh, enliven that particular part of it, I think is part of the leadership. And so I think you beat that drum where you can. What's needed in our community, uh, and non profits, quite frankly, are pretty good voices for that.
[01:00:13] Trevor Storrs: Thank you. Mr. Hopkins?
[01:00:15] Grier Hopkins: Non profits are a good voice of our community and our state because we have one of the highest non profit per capitas of any state in the nation.
[01:00:22] It's easy to have a high per capita level here in Alaska because of our small population. But it's amazing the things that they provide because so much of our state and our local municipalities don't provide a lot of those services. So a mayor needs to listen. To what our non profit sector has and one of the things we can start with is working closely with a non private sector on exclusive use Ratings and taxation at the borough level recently the borough said that they started re evaluating and reassessing how non profits regulate their exclusive use Uh, within the state constitution to make sure they're a non profit.
[01:00:54] We're now looking at specific parking lots, uh, and parking, a number of parking spots in our non profit sector here in town. To be, to tax them for the, the parking spots. And I believe that's the wrong approach. We need to be working with them to, to find solutions. Uh, and that's again something I would disagree with it.
[01:01:09] And I hear a lot about this everyday because I'd be remiss if I didn't say my wife is the chair of the breadline commission, the, the breadline here in Fairbanks. She's the chair of that board. So I do hear a lot about what is needed. And that's definitely something we need to prioritize as mayor.
[01:01:21] Robert Shields: Thank you.
[01:01:21] Mr. Shields. Well, my day to day job is working with a non profit. And so we work with other non profits like the Peace Centre and coordinate on activities because that's just how things get done. We work together as a community. We don't necessarily engage and involve the government in everything that we need to do.
[01:01:37] But essentially, as mayor, one of the things that I would do to support our non profits is to provide them with the resources to connect with each other, and to overcome their gaps in funding, and a large part of that has to do with labor. Now, I know one of the things that we've had success with is working with the, uh, parole system, and being able to get those people who have to do community service, instead of getting them out there picking up trash along the side of the highway, volunteering with some of these non profits.
[01:02:02] Filling food boxes, helping plant community gardens, things that actually build skills and quality of life for themselves, not just the community they're involved in. I think that labor is a huge issue for nonprofits, and we can work a lot with them to be able to provide them with the resources to provide living wages for their employees so they can do a good job.
[01:02:19] Because a lot of these things, You can't do as a volunteer and be effective. Thank you.
[01:02:24] Trevor Storrs: Fantastic. Well, thank you, candidates. We really appreciate your time. Let's hear it for the candidates.
[01:02:34] I also want to say, uh, thank you to some key partners and co hosts for tonight. Fairbanks Youth Advocates. It's the Resource Center for Children and Parents, otherwise known as RCPC, the Alaska Center for Children and Adults, as well as Thread Alaska. They helped partner. Thank you to our technician in the school for their support.
[01:02:55] We might have rented it, but we still thank you for all your support. And I was amiss, and recognizing we should always start at the beginning, that we were holding this on unceded lands of the Dena'ina. Dina, sorry, people of the lower Tanana, Tanana River. My apologies. So again, thank you and thank you all.
[01:03:14] And as you can see, it's vote for kids. So anytime that you have interaction with candidates, ask questions about children and families. They don't have a voice, so let our voice be it. Thank you and have a wonderful evening.
KUAC appreciates corrections to typos in the above transcription.
