GF Chamber of Commerce hosts FNSB Mayor Candidate Forum

Recording Transcript:
Lisa Cassino: All right, well, we have a full house and this is the first of our, um, candidate forums. So I want to, uh, before I introduce our, our panel up here, I wanted to give a thanks to Denali State Bank. Uh, Steve, thank you so much for your bank for supporting our 2024 candidate forum series. Um, local government is really the level of government that impacts us the most.

Um, I really want to thank the gentlemen that are up here on the stage as well as all of those that are in the audience for their. Willingness to put themselves forward and run and serve in public office. I encourage everyone here to engage with not only them, but those in the audience as well, to learn more about them, their philosophy, and their vision for the community at any time between now and voting day.

So I know that you guys are all still going through the lunch line, but we're already behind schedule and we have heard loud and clear that people want as much time as possible to hear from the candidates. So please join me in welcoming our candidates seeking to represent us as Borough Mayor. From left to right, we have Mr.

John Coghill, we have Mr. Grier Hopkins, and Mr. Robert Shields. Candidates, thank you so much for joining us. Uh, the chamber is a non partisan organization, proud to be the leading voice advocating for community by supporting business prosperity in the interior. Our goal today is to help our audience make an informed decision as they vote on election day, October 1st.

or anytime through early voting, which actually opens next week on, uh, the fall of the second week, September 16th. So let's review our format, uh, throughout the forum. Candidates are going to be asked a series of questions, both open ended and yes or no. Candidates will have the opportunity to ask their opponents questions.

The feedback that I've mentioned is that we repeatedly hear from those that we, there, they wish that there was more time for audience questions. So we are going to try to grant that wish today. Um, there are lots of question cards on each of the tables. Um, if you have a question, please fill that question card out.

Uh, Jacqueline has one up in the air over there. Um, when you have it filled out, just raise it up and she'll collect them throughout the forum and give them to our table up here, um, to help me sort those. Um, I would like to emphasize that questions that focus on topics that are relevant and important to the business community will be the ones that are prioritized.

And also please be sure to indicate which of the candidates or candidates you'd like the questions asked. Please help us respect our candidates in the chamber by refraining from any responses throughout the forum other than your applause at the conclusion so we can get through as many issues as we can facing our community today.

So to the candidates, I'd like to remind you that at the table directly facing you, you will notice a countdown clock on the screen that indicates how much time you have remaining. This is a little bit new. It's a new system, so John Huff has me trained up here as myself as the timer this year. So we'll see how this works with multitasking.

Um, so please stop talking when you see that flashing red in front of you. I ask, as I ask each of you a question, I'll indicate who will answer first, and also how much time you have to answer. We've got three candidates here, so we want to have some dialogue. So 60 to 90 seconds are going to be most of the answers.

We're going to begin with a two minute response to our opening question, hearing first, uh, from Mr. Coghill. 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?

[00:03:38] John Coghill: and thank you for the forum. Thank you all for showing up, and uh, it's good to see y'all. So, challenges in the borough. Uh, I've been saying all along that, uh, you have to let the borough function to serve the people. One of the places that's not serving well, in my view, at this point, is our legal team. I think we could probably do better there.

Uh, I've seen, uh, uh, some taxes going into, uh, some of our non profits, for example. Uh, some of the bargaining, uh, with, uh, contractors has been, uh, pretty tough. So I'd say that's one of them. Always, always, always, there's going to be energy issues. It's always going to be energy issues. So you always have to fight, fight, fight to do what you can to reduce the energy cost in the area.

So part of that is your voice and, uh, because we don't have our hand on all the switches. Uh, probably the next thing is, uh, we have an out migration, uh, that needs to be dealt with. And it's a quality of life question as well as an economic development question. The quality of life is, uh, how you keep your schools so that people see them as attractive.

Uh, quality of life is, can they find childcare when they get here? Uh, and then, uh, can they have a, a wage, uh, equal to what the, the energy costs in this community are? So I'd, I'd say the economic development has to be a big part of it. We're not in charge of it, but we can sure add to it. Uh, I think this is a wonderful place to stay, and every time people, uh, move here, they love it.

And when people love it, they make it better. So, I'd say let's invite some people in to work. Uh, there are many places we can do that. We have wonderful things with military, university. Uh, mining, tourism, the things that we have here that we can grow. And then we look for all the leaders in this town to give ideas on how to grow it better.

So that's, to me, the challenge is working together to build this economy.

[00:05:38] Lisa Cassino: Thank you. Mr. Hopkins.

[00:05:40] Grier Hopkins: Thank you very much. Hello, everybody. I'm Grier Hopkins. Really proud to be here today. Um, you know, I, I guess we're going to hear a lot of similar concerns up here, but how we address those issues, how we want to solve those topics.

Problems and issues facing our borough is going to be what the difference is between the three of us today. And, um, I agree, you know, on the front page of the Newsminer today, I just got it from the Newsminer here, out migration is absolutely going to be our number one issue that we need to address here in this community.

And I believe our borough mayor, the next borough mayor who's elected, has to take on that responsibility full on and grab it by the horns. And that's going to be attracting people to this community, finding reasons for them to stay. And that starts with strong economic development. As Borough Mayor, I want to listen to contractors and developers and builders and labor here in town to understand what can we do, what levers can our borough pull to make sure we're putting, uh, we're working with those individuals and companies and businesses here.

To start getting that new construction so that way we can better fund our schools. And if we can better fund our schools, we won't have programs getting cut on the front page of the Fairbanks Daily Newsminder. We won't have schools closing in the future that we don't need to. Um, and we won't have concerns, um, about funding those schools to support our families here.

After that comes our quality of life. And that looks at our parks and rec, that looks at our outdoor opportunities here. You know, every, going door to door during this campaign, I've Every single person who's moved here, every military person who's retired and here, decided to stay here. I ask, what made you want to stay here?

What made you want to choose Fairbanks as your place of home to live and raise that family and grow old and retire on? And they say it's because of those opportunities here that they found nowhere else in any of their basing decisions. So let's listen to those military families and ask, was, what did we bring to the table?

And from there, if we can create that excitement, create that energy, have people see new development and old buildings getting torn down and new ones getting constructed, we'll be able to set our borough on a strong path to the future and that's the next borough mayor's job.

[00:07:41] Lisa Cassino: Thank you. Mr. Shields.

[00:07:43] Robert Shields: Uh, yes.

Good afternoon. Thank you for having me. Thank you for putting on this forum. My name is Robert Shields. I'm running for Fairbanks North Star Borough Mayor because I believe that you deserve choices and options that you're not being presented. Simply my experience and my record in this community is pretty clear.

You can just check the newspaper or you can check the TV archives and that I have been working the since 2010 To bring forth viable options that are working in other places to lower our cost of energy, to lower our cost of living and improve the quality of life for everyone. I ran in 2016 against Carl Castle because he lives in a net zero house.

Imagine what we could do if all of our borough buildings were net zero. And I know solar doesn't work in the wintertime, but we have other options. This right here, this is a thermoelectric generator. You put it in your window and at 50 below outside and 80 above inside, you're generating electricity all year long.

There are so many simple options we're not exploring because unfortunately American politicians are like American doctors. They don't tell you, they don't know the answer. They tell you the answer doesn't exist. And we can no longer afford to continue accepting that these answers that are being developed in other places simply don't exist or can't work in Alaska.

All of the challenges that we face can be boiled down to how we address our energy issues. As Borough Mayor, what we can do is, first of all, address the energy issues on the borough buildings, on the schools, and these would generate millions of dollars of avoided cost. These can be redirected into other programs like Real recycling that turns our trash into treasure as a basis for manufacturing.

One of the things that we don't have here. There are a lot of quality of life issues to address and they all base around being able to afford to live here. So if we want people to come here, if we want people to raise their families and retire here, then we have to be able to demonstrate to them how they can afford energy and how they can afford to live here.

And I think that is the basis of creating a thriving economy for now and for future generations. Thank you.

[00:09:38] Lisa Cassino: Thank you. Um, our next question will also have a 90 second response beginning with Mr. Hopkins. Um, you all touched on energy and your opening statements. Uh, so cheap energy remains the chamber's top priority.

I put the chamber's top priority cards up there for you. Um, in June, the Borough Assembly approved a Climate Action Adaptation Plan that emphasizes transitioning to renewable energy sources for borough facilities and vehicles. In an article on Fairbanks, where energy reliability and affordability are critical, there are concerns that if the borough transitions to renewable energy, taxpayers may be on the hook to pick up those additional costs even though renewables aren't able to provide the same level of reliability or cost effectiveness as traditional energy sources.

How do you plan to ensure that the push for renewable energy for borough buildings and a vehicle fleet won't become a financial burden to the taxpayers? Mr. Hopkins, 90 seconds.

[00:10:27] Grier Hopkins: Thank you for that. for that. Um You know, here in our community, the price of energy has doubled in the last seven years. Alaska Center for Energy and Power did a study and said in the last seven years it's doubled.

We've also had the largest out migration of any community in the entire state. We have to get a handle on that here. And when the borough taxpayers are on the hook for paying the borough building's energy costs, how do we lower that? I have solar panels on my house. Um, I got them, uh, built up and installed by Renewable Energy Systems, a chamber member.

And they work fantastic in the summer, and they do absolutely cut my power costs. And that's a huge benefit. The borough should look at grants. The borough should look at, uh, ways to work with the federal government to bring those grants here to help lower those costs, um, to get renewable energy onto our borough buildings and our schools to lower those costs.

But we cannot rely only on those. We have to have a diverse mix of energy sources for our, our borough buildings across the area. And that does look at expansion of natural gas here. How can we make sure the borough is getting on natural gas? Right now it's about 3. 90, 3. 85 per gallon equivalent for the, uh, natural gas versus a, um, barrel of oil, or a gallon of oil.

And so we do save money by getting on that. And let's make sure the borough is looking at grant opportunities there to clean our air and use those TAGs, those Targeted Airshed Grants. So that we can, um, lower the cost to taxpayers, make our borough buildings run more cleanly, and start addressing a lot of the solutions.

And then we'll also lead by example. If the borough can show this community how we can solve these problems and be the leader and not an obstacle in these solutions, then the community can start following and understanding that we can do it here.

[00:12:05] Lisa Cassino: Thank you. Mr. Shields.

[00:12:10] Robert Shields: To lower the cost and clean up the air, upgrading our grid will get us there.

This is a little rhyme that I have been consistently talking about since 2011 when Scott Kawasaki and I were first on the news talking about how we could turn our schools into solar power plants. While we're shutting our schools, there are other school districts in northern regions of the United States that are paying their teachers bonuses.

I've already demonstrated to you one way that we could be generating electricity in a non traditional fashion. The financing that's available basically make it avoided cost. It's signature financing for renewables, for borough buildings, for churches, for schools. It doesn't just apply to solar. It applies to solar, wind, geothermal, biofuels.

And I agree, 20 years ago, renewables were really expensive and they were very challenging to make economical. 10 years ago, they were cost, they were cost neutral. Now, they are profitable. And I also challenge the idea that car, that renewables are not reliable year round because 82 percent of renewable energy systems are hybrid.

You don't just run a car with one reel, you run them with four. And that's exactly how we needed to diversify and dis diversify our energy systems. Just last year we brought up a, um, a professional from Australia who was, who demonstrated how we could cut our energy costs by 10%, 50% if we, if we distributed our energy systems, instead of continuing to try to push this centralized energy matrix, which is never going to be cost effective here, nor is expecting natural gas is somehow just gonna magically save us.

We have all the renewable energy we need here to power and heat our homes. 24 7, 365.

[00:13:48] Lisa Cassino: Thank you. Mr. Coghill.

[00:13:52] John Coghill: So renewables are going to be an important part of it. However, you're going to have to have your base load stay stable and predictable and consistent. And right now, there's two ways we're getting stable power that's consistent, uh, that's reliable.

One is from a hydro unit down in Kenai and one is from our coal Healy. You can't get rid of those while you're working out, uh, the renewables. You just can't. I don't think this town can afford to, uh, take the renewables, destabilize us enough to, uh, to do that. So, whatever Alaska's doing, we've got to get in on, uh, hydro and, uh, keep our coal going.

I, I personally think we're going to have to do that. So, for the next, uh, decade or two, we're going to have to work that. Uh, I agree that we can do some renewables. What I don't know, and we need to find out, is what is the replacement, uh, cost of those renewables as we move forward over the next 20 years.

And so, I think. Those are things that we're going to have to watch. Uh, in the meanwhile, uh, I know that, uh, uh, Congress is dealing with, uh, nuclear power issues. Uh, I think that's okay. Uh, for us, natural gas coming off the North Slope is, uh, coming our way. Cleaning our air is going to be an important part, but the cost also a part of it.

So I'd say keep your stable power and go ahead and work with your renewables on the edges of it to add into it. I'm okay with that. I think it's a good thing.

[00:15:23] Lisa Cassino: Thank you. Our next question is also a, uh, this one's going to be a 60 second response. Um, I believe since we've already kind of been talking about energy, um, you guys can probably expand on this, but, um, the interior has the highest utility costs of the three major economic centers in Alaska.

Uh, in our region. has experienced higher outmigration than any other area in the state. As mayor, what specific steps, and we mean specific, would you like to take to reduce the cost of living and make the Fairbanks North Star Borough a more attractive place for people to live and to work? Mr. Shields, 60 seconds to you.

[00:16:02] Robert Shields: Well, that should be simple enough to sum up in 60 seconds. Um, so, essentially, the way that we keep our cost of energy low is Diversifying our portfolio. It is completely plausible that we have. Um, all the energy that we need here, but we need to develop it correctly. And basically we already have experience with the Wood Wood Stove Change Out program.

And one specific thing that I've been working with existing assembly members on is to explore how we could use the Wood Change Out program as a model for Powerwalls and for other things that would allow us to store the energy that we're generating on site. Rather than trying to negotiate with Golden Valley and transfer power back there and rely on them to keep us in power 24 7.

Power systems and storage are viable, especially in this area when we consider how it's done. And I think that those are the exact types of things that would allow us to, as a borough, help our citizens reduce their cost of energy and improve their quality of life. And I think this will attract more people to the area.

[00:17:06] Lisa Cassino: Thank you. Do you, and if you do need me to repeat a question, you can ask that too at any point in time. Uh, Mr. Coghill.

[00:17:13] John Coghill: The out migration, uh, can be helped by keeping our taxes low. That's why I'm supporting our tax cap. Because if you think about it, the people that are the most productive in our community And they're going to be the younger ones that are looking for other places where they can apply their trade.

If we're going to invite people into town that are professionals, they're going to be looking at our housing costs, our energy costs, for sure. But they're also going to look at the quality of life issues. And the nice thing is, we have the geography. That's a given. It's a beautiful, beautiful place. And so we need to, uh, be, uh, talking about that attractiveness, uh, because we're gonna have to overcome those costs of living in, uh, facility costs, basically.

And then they look at our education system and the quality of the education that happens there. Uh, we're, we're moving up, but we got ways to go yet. So I'd say, uh, those are things that we can do to work on attractive, uh, for our community.

[00:18:12] Lisa Cassino: Thank you. Mr. Hopkins.

[00:18:14] Grier Hopkins: Can I take you up on that, repeating the question?

[00:18:15] Lisa Cassino: Yes. Thanks. The interior has the highest utility cost of the three major economic centers in Alaska, and our region has experienced higher out migration than any other area in the state. As mayor, what specific steps would you take to reduce the cost of living and make the Fairbanks North Star Borough a more attractive place for people to live and work?

[00:18:37] Grier Hopkins: I wake up every single day just a huge optimist for what this town can do. I love this town. I'm our biggest cheerleader. I'm always trying to Bring people here just one on one. Hey, come to Fairbanks. It's awesome. Come to Fairbanks. There's this job. Come to Fairbanks. There's these homes I'm from I go down to Anchorage and I poke my friends in the chest and I say Fairbanks is better than Anchorage and As mayor, I want to put that foot forward.

I want to say this community is Fantastic. We should invest in it. Let's talk positive about our community. Let's talk about the solutions that And let's grab those ideas, find creative solutions, and have the borough be a leader in these ideas instead of an obstacle that we so constantly run into. So I want to work, uh, to create tax incentives to create new development, commercial development, industrial development, and residential construction.

And I want to create, uh, if you tear down an old piece of property and you build a new one, then you don't have to pay more property taxes than what was currently being paid there so that all of us as property taxpayers don't see them rise. But that new development has that tax incentive to help reduce the risk of getting that new construction.

The more people we get paying into that tax pool, the lower all of our costs are going to be here in this community.

[00:19:44] Lisa Cassino: Thank you. Okay, we're going to move into what our audience loves is these candidate to candidate back and forth dialogue discussions. Um, Mr. Coghill, you are going to have the opportunity to ask either of your opponents a question.

You're going to have 20 seconds to ask. Your opponent will have 45 seconds to answer. If needed, Mr. Coghill, you'll have 20 seconds to redress, and then your opponent will have 30 seconds to close. So, Mr. Coghill, 20 seconds to you to ask your question.

[00:20:14] John Coghill: So the renewable issue is obviously an important issue, but when I was looking at the climate action plan, they were talking about a net zero in a certain amount of time.

Would you head for net zero, and in what kind of time frame?

[00:20:27] Grier Hopkins: That question for me? Yeah. Oh, thank you very much. Um, you know, I think trying to improve the energy infrastructure, as I was talking about at Borough Buildings, should always be our goal. Whether we're building a new one, buying a new facility, or trying to eliminate some of the footprint for our community, um, because the borough has a lot of extra space that we might be trying to reduce here in the next couple years.

Whether it's two schools that we're closing, whether it's the new transportation bus barn, uh, or the old one that we want to get rid of. So how do we improve the, uh, energy efficiency of all of those buildings? And, you know, achieving net zero is gonna be nearly impossible here in town. And we don't think, but it's a laudable goal.

So let's always try to improve what we're doing, solve each problem as it comes up to us, with creative solutions, with working with the interior gas utility, with working with the city instead of fighting them. So, I think that should be a target, is to lower the energy costs, lower the energy uses every time we have that decision to make.

[00:21:21] Lisa Cassino: Thanks, Mr. 20 seconds to redress.

[00:21:24] John Coghill: Sure, I think, uh, for you, Greyer, uh, so the net zero actually is going to want to shut our coal down. Is that something that you're, uh, okay with?

[00:21:36] Grier Hopkins: I don't want to shut the Aurora plant down or Healy 1. We already are closing Healy 2, you know, and how are we going to bring that baseload power on I think is important.

So no, I'm not going to be sitting here and saying we should close Healy 1. That's our lowest cost of power in town. Can we get ourselves off of the diesel? And the naphtha fuel that we have to do when the peak time of energy cost is our most expensive source? Heck yeah, let's find a way to do that.

Senator Coghill and I worked together down in Juneau to pass large energy rewrites, utility rewrites, some of the most advanced in decades here in Alaska. to be able to bring more power up. And now we have open access tariff. So if there's a plant down in Homer that we want to bring power up to, we don't have to pay additional tariffs off the way up.

[00:22:14] Lisa Cassino: Thank you. Um, our next prepared question from the chamber. We'll hear first from Mr Coghill with a 90 second response. And that question is with a significant gap between job openings and available workers. What role do you believe the Borough Mayor should play in developing, implementing, and promoting workforce development?

Specifically, what actions would you take to address this workforce shortage and ensure our community is equipped with the skills needed to fill high demand jobs? 90 seconds.

[00:22:46] John Coghill: Probably three, three pronged approach. First of all, you talk to the leaders in town, and that's the leaders with businesses, uh, the unions, and our schools.

So you have to talk to the schools. Our, our CTC program here is wonderful. Uh, what we, uh, manage with our schools and, uh, university is excellent. Uh, some of our, our labor training is excellent. Uh, a lot of it is getting them together as team, uh, as leaders to try to figure out, uh, how do you attract more people.

But a lot of it is the community. The community is a good community, but it's expensive. So lowering those expenses, I think, is going to be a big part of it. And as all of us have talked here, uh, you have to figure out how do you get your facility cost down as much as you can. So getting that gas from the north slope is going to be important.

Uh, almost anything that we can do to increase the economic development in town is going to make it more attractive. So, but our kids right now are wanting to go out because, uh, The availability of professional, uh, uh, growth is, is somewhat limited here. So I'd say you work with our universities, uh, to try to get more internships here in town.

I think there's a lot of things. Not one mayor is going to be able to do this. What you have to do is you have to be able to convene people that are going to be able to put their heads together and grow the community for that.

[00:24:12] Lisa Cassino: Thank you. Mr. Hopkins.

[00:24:17] Grier Hopkins: Good. Chamber left our number, our top two priorities, and number two is workforce development.

It says there's going to be 5, 400 jobs in Alaska in the next year. Just this year created alone. A lot of those are those professional jobs. A lot of those teacher vacancies. There's, I mean, how many of you here raise your hand. If you have a professional job, that's a vacancy, a vacant position in your business, they're going to be across the board everywhere.

And those are high paying jobs. Those attract people here, but also look at the opportunities for, uh, trades, jobs in the trades. You can come out of with an AA and as a diesel mechanic here in town and make six figures on Eielson. And Eielson's not going anywhere, and Fort Wainwright's not going anywhere.

Those opportunities are going to expand. And I'm proud to have the support of the Central Labor Council and those unions who run those apprenticeship programs here in town. Because we as mayor, or I as mayor when I'm elected October 1st,

[00:25:08] Robert Shields: Um,

[00:25:12] Grier Hopkins: we only get one mayor, I guess we have three in town, so all three mayors should do that.

We need to listen. We need to listen to what all of you as chamber members are saying. We should listen to what the labor organizations are saying. And we should listen to what high school graduates are saying that they want to do. So a mayor needs to go out into the community. We can't sit in the borough building for, you know, 12 hour days and pretend like we know what this community is doing.

The next Borough Mayor has to listen to this community and go to where the people are and go to where the questions are and understand how can I use my pulpit and my loudspeaker to make sure that people know about those opportunities and know that Fairbanks is ripe for growth. Fairbanks is ripe for a place to start a family and a business.

[00:25:50] Lisa Cassino: Uh, Mr. Shields.

[00:25:53] Robert Shields: So, most of the day I spend working with a non profit that focuses on workforce development. And that focus is on, uh, re entry programs and wraparound services. We've been fortunate to work with a group out of, uh, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Which we're trying to bring into what will come next after the Polaris Hotel to provide not only workforce development for marginalized citizens, but the wraparound services that allow them to develop the skills that they need, address the issues that they have and become assets to the community.

These are the things that allow us to be able to bring more, to help the people that live here find a greater quality of life. When people get incarcerated, they make a mistake. When they're there, they pay for that mistake, and they need to be given the opportunity and the tools to rejoin the community, to be part of a productive society.

And that is something that we struggle with here. And I think one of the things that we need to address is more workforce development for marginalized individuals, more workforce development for disabled individuals. I saw DVR back there someplace. And basically, Yeah, and basically helping the marginalized citizens that already live here find a higher quality of life because it is, our wealth is not measured by how well the upper class is doing.

It's how well we take care of those, and I think that was also on the paper today, how well we take care of those who need us the most. And those are the solutions that I think will improve the quality of life for those that live here and make it an attractive place for people to come here. We have to be very careful and very strategic and we need planning to do that.

We do not plan our cities. We plan our buildings. We need to plan our cities because they're connected, just like our buildings are connected with plumbing and electricity. And that's where I can thrive.

[00:27:25] Lisa Cassino: Thank you. Hey, uh, if you have any questions from the audience, um, please go ahead and raise those up.

Um, Jacqueline is walking around and Amanda are walking around to grab those. Um, our next question here is also going to be a 90 second response. Mr. Hopkins, you'll go first. And the question is, Many property owners have expressed concerns that the borough's assessing department has been overly aggressive in its property valuations.

As mayor, what is your philosophy on property assessments and how would you ensure that the process is fair and transparent for all residents? While balancing the need for sufficient revenue to support community services. 90 seconds.

[00:28:04] Grier Hopkins: Well, I, my philosophy on borough assessing is I hope my property taxes don't jump too much every year.

Um, but, you know, when you have a borough that is almost predominantly and exclusively funded by property taxes, you have to look at ways. You have to think, ask yourself, is this the healthiest mode of funding our community? And it's not. You know, we need a diversification of revenue sources. We need to find different ways to bring in new revenue that lowers the property tax impact.

I'm going to be voting yes on the tax cap, because I believe it's good for our community to have that constraint on government. It's good to make sure we know what those, that level is going to be, but we have to do it through, you know, Um, we have to utilize that tax cap with economic development to make sure our community is growing on it and we're growing with it and within the formula of that tax cap in terms of assessing, you know, the state legislature just passed a law to start putting standards into assessments and assessors here in our state.

Uh, in our borough and across the state and I think that's going to help build the trust to make sure we're implementing that locally to build the trust within our assessing department because all of us know that is one of the main ways that all of us interact with the borough is through that assessing department, making sure appeals are available and accessible, making sure they understand that there's transparency and clarity and why an assessment happened on my home and what Um, and why it went up or why it went down or what that tax rate is and making sure we are always working to try to make sure the taxes are put to the best use and the services are what worth what we are paying for.

[00:29:36] Lisa Cassino: Thank you. Mr. Shields.

[00:29:39] Robert Shields: Well, I've always believed the borough has revenue issues. With more revenue, there's less issues. And essentially, if we want to protect our tax cap, we have to broaden our tax base. Uh, how we assess our properties really should be focused on the value that they add to the community.

And right now, we are not. Uh, basically, we have an opportunity here to look at how we assess our buildings and how we assess our properties, um, as part of investments. And that's what properties are. They're investment for individuals. They're investment for our community. And there are, there are several opportunities, including property excess clean energy that allows individuals to tie their clean energy improvements, which improves the quality, not only improves the, or lowers the cost of living, but improves the value of their property as a way to maintain those tax, uh, tax brackets.

And basically looking at diversifying our economy, attracting more manufacturing, attracting more industrial base allows us to have a broader base. It's just like the electricity, the more people that use the electricity, The cheaper it is for all of us, and that's the way we need to be able to assess the property taxes is with that in mind of economic development and added value.

[00:30:48] Lisa Cassino: Thank you. Mr. Cockell.

[00:30:52] John Coghill: Well, I've heard the same question, and the best I could look into it. Part of the, I think the issue is, could you actually sell a house for what they assess it for? And I don't know that that's, uh, really what we're, where we're at right now. So I, I'd say, uh, with the state law, we're gonna have to, uh, put some downward pressure on that.

Um, and then in our community, because of the, our freedom loving nature, uh, we will have houses that are, uh, very well built and expensive next to people that have less than, uh, stellar property. So I'd say the assessing, uh, has to be, uh, a little more, uh, involved in that. So the answer to me, from me personally, is I'd have to look into it.

I don't know everything I know about it. I know that people can go to the, uh, the Board of Appeals. However, uh, do they know they can go? I don't know. Uh, so those are things that I think property owners need to know more about. So, um, that's an area that, uh, I need to learn on, but I think downward pressure is important.

But the context is also important. We just came out of a pandemic and everything got Put on the table for cost. Holy mackerel. So I'm open to discussion on that downward pressure. I think our legal team has a lot to do with it as well. And I think those are two areas where I think probably some, uh, cost containment and management is going to have to happen.

[00:32:24] Lisa Cassino: Okay. Thank you for that. As a follow up question to that. Do you believe that the current mill rate is too low? Cool. Too high or appropriately, appropriately set. Please explain your reasoning to us. 60 seconds to you, Mr. Shields.

[00:32:42] Robert Shields: I think the tax mill rate is a little high, but I wasn't working on changing it until we can identify and solidify the other alternative revenue sources that we have.

Essentially, as I've said before, um, we have a lot of opportunities. Some of you may know in 2023, as a private citizen, I was able to actually bring the assembly, the city council, and the utility together. To pass the North Star Economic Development District. This progressive model brings in private equity development to improve our infrastructure and allows us to create more opportunities for manufacturing, which we do not have now because of how we generate our energy.

So by implementing this into a comprehensive economic development strategy, that is how we are able to lower the lower the cost of energy and improve the way for people to come here. And that's way. And once we are able to get that in place, then we can reassess how we assess our Um, how we go about assessing our properties because I don't think developing and relying the borough, building a borough on the backs of landowners is the appropriate way to do it.

[00:33:44] Lisa Cassino: Thank you. Mr. Coghill.

[00:33:45] John Coghill: At this point, I'm okay with our mill rate. Uh, I don't mind paying taxes to get the services that we have in our community. And uh, if you look at the, the services that the, the borough offer, uh, they have to deal with the same thing you do in a household and that is, uh, the continued upward pressure of, uh, uh, cost.

However, uh, once again, it goes to the last question and that is the assessment. Uh, that's the sliding scale that puts upward pressure on that. So, uh, I don't mind paying for our schools. I don't mind paying for our, uh, collection of our, uh, garbage. Uh, I think that people need to know that they're getting value for it.

And, uh, if I get to be the mayor, one of the first things I'm going to look for is, do people feel they're getting a value for what they're paying taxes on? I don't mind paying taxes at all. And I probably don't have an issue with the mill rate. I have probably more of an issue with, uh, how valuation goes on.

So those are things I would look at as a mayor and I can tell you, uh, uh,

[00:34:48] Lisa Cassino: Thank you.

[00:34:50] John Coghill: That's what i'm not going to tell you.

[00:34:52] Lisa Cassino: I hate to be that person Um, mr. Hopkins.

[00:34:56] Grier Hopkins: Thank you Like I said, our property taxes pay 80 percent of our borough revenue. So how do we diversify it? But right now, we've seen our mill rate come down, uh, about 30 percent in the last six years.

It's come down quite a bit. Now your assessments have gone up, but you've looked at the budget coming down also. Um, and it's based, you know, we're paying the same budget. 1020 years ago right now if you account for inflation, which hitting us all at home and in the business is for sure But we have to invest in our community We can't just say the number one thing we're always going to do is try to shut things down Let's try to stop things from happening so that we don't have that investment don't have that growth as borough mayor I want to find those creative solutions.

I was I'm going to have to read this. Permission to read. Um, so, when I was a state legislator, I worked with the borough to expand our economic development powers by changing the definition of what a second class borough can do. It is amended to adding a new paragraph to read, economic development means an action intended to result in an outcome that causes an increase in or avoids a decrease of economic activity, gross domestic product, or to the tax base.

Thank you. I'll come back to that one too.

[00:36:02] Lisa Cassino: Permission may be granted later. Um, as a, uh, we're going to move into our next, um, candidate to candidate question, Mr. Shields, you have the opportunity to ask your opponent, uh, either of your opponent, a question. You'll have 20 seconds to answer, uh, 20 seconds to ask, 45 seconds to answer, and, uh, we'll start with that process.

So 20 seconds to you, Mr. Shields. Please let the candidate know who you're asking.

[00:36:26] Robert Shields: So this will be a question to both candidates, um, One

[00:36:30] Lisa Cassino: candidate. Only one candidate? One candidate.

[00:36:32] Robert Shields: Okay. Well, then, uh, I'll ask, uh, I'll ask Greer then. So how will you work with Citizen Shields? As you know, I have been advocated and advocate in this community for almost, for over a decade now, and I have no intentions of quitting, so I would like to know how you would, as mayor, how would you create the opportunities you've been talking to that Mr.

Shields has been advocating for?

[00:36:57] Grier Hopkins: Oh, thank you, Robert. Um, you know, we've met a couple times, uh, during this campaign and talked about those issues and what you want to move forward with, and what I have said is, like, if you can bring in 4 billion worth of private investment into this community, Bring that to the table.

Heck yeah, that sounds like an investment that I want to see. So bring them to the community. Talk to us about where they want to take those blocks within our downtown corridor and create that new neighborhood. Show that that investment and that those dollars spent. Absolutely. Let's move to that. I would love to see four billion dollars come into this community.

And with same promise to you, Mr. Shields, as I make to anybody in this room, give me a call. My cell phone number is out there on my website, on my Facebook page, on the thousands of pieces of literature I've spread during this campaign. Give me a call on my cell phone and I'd be happy to meet with anybody about any topic that's going to help our borough grow and thrive.

[00:37:45] Lisa Cassino: Thank you. 20 seconds back to you if you would like to.

[00:37:48] Robert Shields: Yeah, so for clarification, the last year I've had three different investors offer five billion dollars each to move us forward and basically the only thing holding us up is integrating this with the plant plan. So would you, would you approve of integrating the Economic Development District into the next version of the, uh, Comprehensive economic development strategy, which is basically our borough's master plan.

[00:38:10] Grier Hopkins: If they come forward to our community and say, here's our five billion dollars in my plan and they come to town and they meet with me, here's my card. Have them give me a call. I got your number.

[00:38:20] Lisa Cassino: Thank you.

All right. Our next question is going to begin with Mr. Coghill. You will have 60 seconds to respond.

There are areas within the borough that are ideal for new housing development, but remain underutilized. Recognizing that government can be a tool to meet economic needs. Would you support implementing tax incentives or other financial incentives to encourage housing develops in these areas?

Specifically, what policies or recommendations would you propose to stimulate growth in that area? And Mr. Coggle, you're up with 60 seconds.

[00:38:57] John Coghill: Tax incentives are a tricky issue. You've got to remember, somebody's going to pay the tax. So, uh, the community, if we're going to live under a cap, and you give somebody a tax break, it better bring real value.

So, the land issue, the platting issue, the subdivision issue is an important question. So I think technically, uh, you have to look at is it going to bring that kind of value. If it's going to, uh, draw cost but not return value, then no. Land, obviously, is going to be an important thing. We have to work with the state.

We haven't got the land, uh, locked up, uh, from the state, uh, uh, yet. So I'd say there are things that, uh, look at, but if it brings value, yes. If it's going to cost us more, if it's going to create, uh, bottlenecks, then yes. You gotta work with the state, you gotta work with the federal government, but yeah, I'm open to that discussion, but it has to bring real value.

[00:39:54] Lisa Cassino: Thank you, Mr. Hopkins.

[00:39:55] Grier Hopkins: Thank you very much. You know, I want to congratulate, start this question by congratulating and thanking the city council members and the city mayor, uh, here for the work you've done on trying to revitalize the dilapidated properties and the problem properties across our borough.

Going door to door, that has been one of the top three issues I've heard, no matter what neighborhood I'm in. That house is a problem. I don't like the, uh, College Inn on Geist Road that's burned now five times. Well, that was foreclosed by the borough, and then when the borough sold that to a private homeowner who wanted to buy it and do something with it, the borough put no stipulations on that piece of property to that they have to tear it down, they have to remove the safety hazards, and they have to have an idea of what they're going to do to build it up.

Well, as mayor, I want to say, if we're selling a burned out husk like that, that is a safety hazard, that's housing crime and drug use. Let's give an incentive to clean that up. I'll waive your tipping fees at the landfill if you tear it down to help make demolition faster and lower cost. I'll help lower your property taxes afterwards to make sure that we have those creative solutions with that economic development definition because our intent is to increase the tax base and more money that everybody puts in is going to be better for us all.

Mr.

[00:41:01] Lisa Cassino: Shields.

[00:41:02] Grier Hopkins: Can you repeat the question please?

[00:41:03] Lisa Cassino: Uh, yes sir. There are areas within the borough that are ideal for new housing development but remain underutilized. Recognizing that government can be a tool to meet economic needs, would you support implementing tax incentives or other financial incentives to encourage housing development in these areas?

What specific policies would you propose to stimulate that growth?

[00:41:23] Robert Shields: So the short answer is yes. Uh, the longer answer is one of the investors that I spoke of a moment ago is actually former city council member Mark Hewitt. And one of the things that he did is he's out doing micro cities. He's actually funding and developing micro cities.

And one of them was the Babcock Ranch down in Florida. It's a closed community. They experienced a cat 5 hurricane. Their lights didn't even go out. Because they developed all their utilities underground. I recently learned that the borough has opened up Chattanooga as an area for, for recreational cabins.

And I think that if we're looking at developing a proper infrastructure and planning a city correctly, that is a great opportunity to actually build an intentional city that's net zero, produces its own food, and can demonstrate how to recycle its waste on site as a basis for manufacturing. These are the things that we can thrive in.

These are areas that we can demonstrate that Alaska can be a leader for the rest of the world and become a training center for how these developments occur around the world. So those are the kind of incentives that I think that specifically will allow us to attract more investors and build more homes.

[00:42:27] Lisa Cassino: Thank you. Okay, our next one is also 60 seconds. We're going to begin with Mr. Hopkins. Do you believe there is a role for nonprofits in our community to assist with services that have traditionally been provided by the borough. If so, can you provide specific examples of how these nonprofits could partner with the borough to enhance or supplement these services?

[00:42:47] Grier Hopkins: Thank you very much. That our nonprofit sector in this community is an incredible driver and a supporter of our community and statewide. I was here a couple years ago to hear a, uh, uh, presentation by the four acre group where they said nonprofit sector is the number two indirect jobs creator in the entire state of Alaska after the oil and gas industry.

They do a lot here, whether it's my wife who sits on the, uh, she's the president of the breadline board here and the services that they provide every single day, or, uh, the golden heart community foundation that I stood on that helps give grants to nonprofits that they need and the support that they give out.

But looking at ways that non profits can partner with the borough, I look at Parks and Rec as our first opportunity. Growing up here, I played youth soccer my entire life. And that youth soccer is a borough facility that is entirely managed by our youth soccer, um, FYSA. The Borough Assembly just created the park out in North Pole to partner with the local Lions Club out there to maintain that.

Let's do more subdivisions around parks and work with the cross country ski club to make sure they're supporting those parks and things like that. Thank you, Mr. Shields.

[00:43:52] Robert Shields: I think working with the civic organizations around town to enhance our quality of life is key to keeping our, our government small, um, because like for profit businesses, non profits are a large, um, revenue, well not, a job creator.

And essentially, The challenge, I think, as a borough mayor, uh, would be to identify what's out there, where the gaps are, and helping to fill those gaps. Because obviously, we still have, um, hundreds of people sleeping on the street. We still have people that are going hungry. We still have people that are struggling to pay their electric bill.

So obviously, there are still needs that need to be met. Um, addressed and there's obviously some gaps in the system and as mayor, I will work to with non profits and other organizations, federal and state, to be able to identify where those gaps are and how we can fill them, whether it's great, whether it's encouraging more businesses.

Or it's something that the borough can directly take on. The idea is that we have to work together to create quality of life. And this isn't just the borough telling people what to do and expecting them to, to appear, but to create a collaborative environment where we all feel safe working together.

[00:44:57] Lisa Cassino: Thank you, Mr. Coghill.

[00:44:59] John Coghill: Well, nonprofits will certainly, uh, show the community, uh, with its heart and its spirit. And what the first thing you can do as a borough mayor is not tax them the way that we have just recently. So I'd say, yes, I've been on the, uh, I've been a director of the Fairbanks West Commission, so I get to see the neediest among us in many, many ways.

And the people just give and give and give to keep a place like that going. That's true of the food bank. But it's also true in the sports arena. Uh, the quality of life here and the people who lift it on their shoulders is just significant and great. But if you look at who donates to them, it's people who produce.

And you have to have both of them in a community. You just have to have both of them. So, uh, economic development and service industry, and I'll tell you what, uh, the non profits show the heart of the community, I can tell you, it's just wonderful to behold.

[00:45:54] Lisa Cassino: Thank you. Um, I'm going to start sprinkling in some audience questions, so Donald, I'm going to go off script a minute here.

Um, the military is a large part of our economy, what, what would you do to foster a positive relationship and encourage military growth? 30 seconds to each candidate and we're going to start with Mr. Hopkins.

[00:46:17] Grier Hopkins: Thank you very much for that. You know, we are a military community here with a military state as well, but if we're going to foster military growth, it starts with the military spouses and military families and being welcoming to them and supporting them with jobs.

We had a forum and a panel here, uh, run by Lisa Slaba of Fedco that talked exactly about what we as a borough can do better. What does that mean? What does it mean to have a community that is ready to work with those families? To make sure they're ready with, um, with occupational licensing when they hit the ground running here.

Making sure their students have a welcoming community and schools with activities and energy. Making sure they have child care and ways that they can then return back and support our community.

[00:46:52] Lisa Cassino: Thank you. Mr. Coghill.

[00:46:56] John Coghill: The answer is, uh, you work with the top leadership because as a cohort, uh, there's, uh, a national and international thing.

We get to host that community. for the whole world for the United States. But he's right. You got to work with those who show up here. And you think about people come here, they love it. They set up house here and they have their Children here. Child care is gonna be one of the issues we're gonna have to work with.

No doubt about it.

[00:47:21] Lisa Cassino: Thank you, Mr. Shields.

[00:47:23] Robert Shields: I had an opportunity a couple years ago to work in the school district as a STEAM advisor. And this is a DOD contract, basically for military students. And the challenges they faced were that this is a transient community for them. They come here, then they leave, and then they gotta start all over.

Well, I think one of the things that we can do, It's basically to help them create this continuity where they have the support that they need moving from one school to another. And I think that these kind of continuities can also be provided to military families. I know that they have a lot of challenges when they move to an area and there's not necessarily always availability of services.

[00:47:56] Lisa Cassino: Thank you. Okay, this next one is Uh, address to, looks like it says Hopkins and,

[00:48:08] Grier Hopkins: it

[00:48:10] Lisa Cassino: says Hopkins and Cog Hill. Um, many people are struggling to understand, there's, there's a couple of questions on, um, the KIPP, lots of questions on the KIPP. Um, whether it's, uh, schools, youths, buildings, I'm trying to combine so we can get through as many questions as possible, but, um, it says many people are struggling to understand why the borough is pushing to spend over 33 million on a new animal control center.

A project that many feel could be built for a fraction of the cost. How do you feel about the thirty, thirty three million dollar proposal? Um, Mr. Coghill, first to you, thirty seconds.

[00:48:45] John Coghill: Yeah, I've been critical of it, and I understand why, but I think we just gotta stay within what we originally started off with, and that is animal control.

This goes beyond animal control into animal care. Uh, that's what a community is looking for, obviously, but at this time, uh, the affordability. So what I've been saying all along the way is you have to keep things in order, and that is your order of priority, and school probably is a bigger priority than an animal, uh, shelter at this point.

[00:49:16] Lisa Cassino: Thank you. Uh, Mr. Hopkins?

[00:49:18] Grier Hopkins: We need a new animal shelter. That thing is 60 years old, and it's run down. Whatever level of care you want to give, we need new animal shelter. 33 Bettysworth North, the designers of that animal shelter. And I asked them, what different, what efficiencies can we find? What ways can we cut this cost down?

I asked them about, can we stop cremating the animals there? Contract that out to local animal shelters. So that way we have more opportunities and places we can put the animal shelter. Is there a place that doesn't cost 7 million in just connecting the utilities? Can we find different land that's going to save 7 million off the cost of that for just connecting utilities?

There are efficiencies to find, but we need it.

[00:50:00] Lisa Cassino: Thank you. Uh, Mr. Shields, we're going to have you answer that question too.

[00:50:04] Robert Shields: That's great. So one of my first jobs out of high school was actually working in the animal shelter. So I'm familiar with what they did and recently I just learned that one of the reasons that they have the animal shelter set up as a kill shelter is because it's how they heat the building.

Now, I got laughed out of an economic development forum because I suggested that dog waste, which is being used in other places, could also be an energy source. And we collect a lot of it since we have both the animal shelter and the dog parks. Essentially, as far as the 33 million dollars, I think we need to make sure that we're getting more value out of it.

There's a lot of services instead of just housing animals that we can do. There are, uh, daycare situations, there's training. I've been fortunate to work with Nicolaginus on evaluating what kind of opportunities we could to increase the value that we get out of that, the services that come from that facility and ultimately be able to get a better return on that investment.

I think the price right now is too high, but again, I think there's a lot of opportunities we could do, use to, um, basically enhance the services, provide new services to care for the, for the animals in our community, just like we care for the people.

[00:51:06] Lisa Cassino: Thank you. Okay. We're going to do, um, some yes, no questions.

So each of you have, um, a little yes, no cards in front of you. Um, hold them loud or, uh, high and, uh, tall so everybody in the back can see your responses. We'll do a little softball warm up question here that says, Do you know the Fairbanks Chamber hosts an annual leadership Fairbanks program to empower emerging and established leaders?

It's true, and the deadline for this year's class is rapidly approaching. It's this Friday, September 13th. So if you have emerging leaders within your organization, please Please encourage them to sign up for Leadership Fairbanks. There's about 20 to 27 people that participate in that program each year.

All right, a bill before, um, nope, sorry, that one does not apply. Do you support, uh, this comes up every year from an audience question, what are your thoughts on combining the Fairbanks City and the Borough and North Pole to reduce overhead and achieve qualities of scale? Yes or no to unification?

[00:52:11] John Coghill: Yes or no question.

[00:52:16] Lisa Cassino: Um, how do you plan to vote on Proposition 1, an ordinance establishing maximum allowable tax revenues? Um, as a reminder to our audience that a yes vote means that current tax cap will remain in place. A no vote means that it will be modified or negated by the borough assembly. Yes or no?

Trying to go back and forth through all of these yes, no's. Okay, there was another question on um, Assemblywoman Fletcher has an ordinance to form a task force to move the borough to a mail in voting system. Um, a system where ballots would be mailed to all registered voters. Do you support this? Yes or no?

[00:52:59] Grier Hopkins: Is it support for the study of looking at possibly going to vote or

[00:53:03] Lisa Cassino: is it go vote by

[00:53:05] Grier Hopkins: mail?

[00:53:05] Lisa Cassino: It says to go vote by mail. Not the ordinance. It's the system. It says Assemblywoman Fletcher has an ordinance to form a task force. So the task force, the ordinance is there. And then the follow up is a system where a voting where ballots are mailed to all registered voters.

voters in the borough. Do you support this system of voting?

[00:53:26] Grier Hopkins: So it's the question, do we support vote by mail only? Yes.

[00:53:31] Lisa Cassino: I am not the author of some of these

[00:53:36] Grier Hopkins: questions.

[00:53:37] Lisa Cassino: Yes. Okay. Well, there might be some other yes, no's as I'm scrolling through these, but we're going to go back to our questions here that we have and Should the borough, this is an explain question.

It's a yes no. And explain. Okay. Um, should the borough support divine benefits or defined contributions? Explain your answer, Mr. Coghill. We will do 30 seconds to you.

I'm gonna do 60 seconds. That's a big topic.

[00:54:10] John Coghill: Yeah. Uh. So, defined contribution would be my, uh, uh, favorite one, but can we afford, uh, defined contribution? I don't know the answer to that. So, uh, I think what you have to look at is what happens, uh, to the next generation. So, you, you start loading up, uh, this generation for the next generation.

Uh, when we were at the state looking at it, uh, it was a very, very difficult thing. The cost just got out of hand. Certainly the actuarial had a big part of it. There's no doubt about that. So I'd say if the risk is low, I'm open to discussion on it. But a defined benefit, I don't think we can get there. I just don't think we can get there for a long period of time.

Sorry.

[00:55:07] Lisa Cassino: Thank you. Mr. Shields.

[00:55:11] Robert Shields: I think competitive compensation packets are incredibly important for retaining workforce development. But I don't know if that is the, how that's going to work out in the borough. Frankly, I've never been in public office, neither at the state or the local level. My focus has really just been on generating energy and generating revenue and finding new ways to attract people and make this an affordable place for living.

So I don't have a lot of information about the defined benefits or how that program works and I'm not going to try to, I'm not going to try to send you with a bunch of BS. I'm not a politician. Thank you.

[00:55:46] Grier Hopkins: Amen.

[00:55:46] Lisa Cassino: Thank you, Mr. Hopkins. Well, sometimes there's BS

[00:55:49] Grier Hopkins: and sometimes there's numbers. I was a proud sponsor of the legislation to return to a defined benefit when I was a representative.

The Dunleavy fiscal note for that bill saves the state 77 million dollars next year. That bill then also saves every school district over 20, 000 for every teacher that decides to stay and instead of leave. If you're looking at the health care costs, insurance costs that just dropped on our teachers last year, I'm hearing daily and hourly from teachers that want to leave because they say, I don't have a pension and my insurance costs just went up.

Four thousand percent. You listen to the direct, the commissioner of public safety for Dunleavy and he says the number one thing we don't have that is impacting our public safety and our troopers is the lack of a defined benefit. You listen to our firefighters and they say we train them and in five years after we've spent hundreds of thousands of dollars preparing these firefighters to be ready, they leave our state taking those hundreds of thousands of dollars with them.

And then we have to get another kid into it. Save the state 77 million dollars a year. We'll start saving our local municipalities money also when we are able to pay down the current defined benefit, which was because of actuaries like, uh, Senator Coghill said, when in the same date of 2039 that has not changed with the new pension reform legislation.

It's good for Alaska.

[00:56:59] Lisa Cassino: Thank you. Going back to an audience question, what deferred maintenance projects do you think are the most pressing for the borough? We're going to do 30 seconds for that one and we're going to have all candidates answer. Mr. Shields, you'll be first.

[00:57:14] Robert Shields: Can you state that again?

[00:57:15] Lisa Cassino: Yes.

What deferred maintenance projects do you think are the most pressing for the borough?

[00:57:23] Robert Shields: Well, I was a big advocate for upgrading the, not the J. P. Jones, the Maryside Center. That was one of the deferred maintenance issues that we had a long, that we've been dealing with a long time ago. And essentially, we have, we failed to invest in our maintaining our infrastructure. We've invested, we've failed to maintain our maintenance.

And so it costs, it's bringing us higher costs. Both in energy cost as well as of usability of the buildings. So we need to address them and that's part of the economic development plan.

[00:57:53] Lisa Cassino: Thank you. Mr. Hopkins.

[00:57:56] Grier Hopkins: Thank you very much. Um, I agree with Mr. Shields here. Uh, because Maryside is 60 years old and completely out of code and costing us a ton in maintenance and construction.

But the solution to it? It's to build a new facility so we can start getting excitement and new alternatives for families in the dead of winter to go recreate. I want to see a turf field here in this town. I want to see an indoor recreation facility because Anchorage has half a dozen of them. And our students don't have an opportunity to play sports on grass throughout the winter.

That would have gotten me in college, and it would have gotten so many more of my friends. Into college, and that's a big facility that includes pools and also other things that are good for our town. Mr. Ell,

[00:58:32] John Coghill: I would probably put it on our schools, even though we're gonna have to contract a little bit. I would still put the effort into our schools.

We've talked already about how to, uh, maybe put uh, uh, some renewables on them, but at, at this point, uh, our schools, I would probably put the effort into.

[00:58:49] Lisa Cassino: Thank you. Okay. This next question is for all candidates as well. Mayor Ward did a fantastic job supporting natural resources development. How are you going to keep that support moving forward?

And we are going to do Mr. Hopkins first with a 30 second response.

[00:59:11] Grier Hopkins: Well, thank you for this. You know, um, you've seen the economic development from, uh, the Willow right here in town. I've got an economic development fundraiser this Thursday, uh, from a community, a member here who's seen that direct impact.

Whether it's, um, the Ambler Road, whether it's Willow, whether it's, you know. the mining opportunities and setting up remote logistics around town. It is absolutely an economic driver in our community. And finding ways to find new deposits that are small and can be developed quickly, as opposed to multinational ones that take decades, I was proud to have sponsored that effort in the legislature.

So we can keep doing it here. Thank you,

[00:59:45] Lisa Cassino: Mr. Coghill.

[00:59:47] John Coghill: Probably our transportation system is going to be the most important thing, uh, that we work with, so we have to work with the state and, uh, with our, uh, FAST committee. But I can tell you, uh, right now we're, we're trucking up from, uh, uh, Toke area and that's an important part, uh, to keep the mine up here going.

And so, uh, we're rich in minerals right here in the, in the interior. So, uh, working with the state, uh, our transportation system probably is where we would probably put our most

[01:00:17] Lisa Cassino: effort. Mr. Shields. On October 5th.

[01:00:22] Robert Shields: You're all invited to the second annual tour of Future Cities, where we will be bringing back up, uh, courtesy of the Pipefitters Union, uh, Daryl Oster, to speak about high speed transit and how that can help us responsibly develop and manage our natural resources, both here and urban.

It's designed, it's called TAPS 2. 0 because it's both, it's designed to be an upgrade. to our transmission system for minerals and oil and allow us to be responsible in developing new areas. This is one of the ways that we can develop a system.

[01:00:53] Lisa Cassino: Thank you. And speaking of transportation, we have a transportation question.

How will you advocate for and allocate adequate funding for our transportation at the borough level? 30 seconds. We are going to begin with Mr. Shields.

[01:01:10] Robert Shields: Well, I just kind of mentioned a little bit ago that we're focusing on bringing high speed transit as an opportunity to be able to bring more manufacturing to the interior, to address our energy costs and to be able to, uh, diversify our portfolio of economic opportunities.

And so that's basically the best way that we can invest in transportation is to bring private partners in because ET3, The transportation technology being developed is, provides 10 percent more, uh, transportation at a fourth of the cost. There's a lot of opportunities out there we need to explore.

[01:01:44] Lisa Cassino: Thank you.

Um, Mr. Hopkins.

[01:01:46] Grier Hopkins: Thank you. Our borough transportation department here has seen a 40 percent turnover in the last six months alone. You get pretty, paid decently well for being a bus driver here, but what is the morale issues? What are the issues that are driving away those employees? Because a few weeks ago in our news minor, there was an article about us reducing the number of routes in our Mack transit system because of staffing issues.

As borough mayor, I need to go in there and address that head on and work with the, and the employees to say. What can we do better from the top down to support those positions so we can make the taxpayer dollars well used to very good transit system?

[01:02:20] Lisa Cassino: Thank you. Mr. Coghill.

[01:02:22] John Coghill: I'll agree with that because our transportation system locally is going to be dependent.

We've left a lot of money on the table because of, uh, of some of our attainment issues. There's no doubt about that. Uh, certainly we're in charge of speaking up for the Dalton Highway and the, uh, Richardson Highway. And it's important that we speak well for that, but probably what the borough can do most is try to get our road systems within our service areas, uh, a little better management.

Getting contractors is going to be a big, big deal for us.

[01:02:53] Lisa Cassino: Thank you. Okay. Our next audience question is, uh, consumer credit card debt is at record highs. Auto repossession rates are rising in our community, showing that there is a growing number of families that cannot make ends meet. What assurances can you give voters that you will not support policies that make things harder on our communities families?

All candidates, 30 seconds, beginning with Mr. Cockhill.

[01:03:19] John Coghill: Probably keep your taxes low, first of all, and do what you can to reduce your energy costs, and I, I think, uh, that's working with the state the best we can, uh, to reduce those. Uh, so, and then higher pay and jobs, and the nice thing is there's a lot of jobs out there.

So, uh, Beyond that, uh, probably just keeping our taxes low.

[01:03:43] Lisa Cassino: Thank you, Mr. Hopkins.

[01:03:45] Grier Hopkins: What we've been hitting on this whole time is creating a community that is exciting, that is growing, that has those new opportunities and those new developments. Because when somebody can get a good job, when somebody is excited about creating a new community that has opportunities, then they can also then go start their business and create and be a creator for more jobs here, for more development.

And I want to be a mayor that listens to understand what are the levers we have How can we work with the private sector to create those partnerships that's going to make this community thrive and create those opportunities so people aren't leaving and

[01:04:16] Robert Shields: having those cars we've possessed?

[01:04:18] Lisa Cassino: Thank you, Mr.

Shields.

[01:04:20] Robert Shields: Generating clean energy is going to lower the cost of living. Growing our own food is going to lower the cost of food and increase our nutritional value that we get from it because most food that comes here is a week to a month old and it's already nutrient deficient. And three, Learning to treasure our trash is the best economic engine that we have.

I've actually known people who have put their kids through college just recycling stuff that we throw away. These are huge opportunities that we can use to improve the quality of life and lower the cost of living for everyone.

[01:04:53] Lisa Cassino: Thank you.

I am way off script, so I am trying to get us back on on here, but I, I, we've got some really good audience questions, so, um, I want to include as many as we can. Um, a lot of these are on economic developments, um, that I have here left in my hand. So we're going to kind of maybe try to break these down. How do you plan to maintain, build, and rebuild relationships with key community partners to ensure that we can keep moving forward?

So plan, maintain, build, and rebuild relationships within our community with key partners and identify what those key partners are. So 30 seconds to discuss, plan, maintain, build relationships, and then I'll move on to Part B. 30 seconds, Mr. Shields.

[01:05:47] Robert Shields: Well, one of our healthcare partners, I think, is a critical one to work with.

And that's not just providing better access to pharmaceuticals, but it's also addressing the quality of life issues. Um, like food, exercise, uh, availability of, uh, community, things that actually improve not just your, your physical health, but your mental and spiritual health as well. And I think that the, this is one of the community health partners, especially with an aging population that if we can work with, we'll improve, it will improve the quality of life for those who live here now and who, those who are looking to attract.

[01:06:17] Lisa Cassino: Thank you. Mr. Hopkins?

[01:06:19] Grier Hopkins: You know, I think that relationship starts with the intergovernmental right here in town. We have three mayors. I think the borough and the city need to heal their tiff that they've been having lately. And in my job, I have a adversarial relationship with every single person because we're trying to solve problems.

But we have to come to work the next day, put our big kid pants on and our professional hat, and put those problems aside and solve the next problem. So I want to wipe the slate clean as the new mayor, walk down to the city hall and say, let's start working on that downtown plan. Let's start working on how we can revitalize the downtown core, get new housing, new development, tourism opportunities.

[01:06:52] Lisa Cassino: Thank you. That's how

[01:06:52] Grier Hopkins: we'll do it.

[01:06:53] Lisa Cassino: Mr. Coghill.

[01:06:54] John Coghill: Yeah, that's exactly right. You work with the mayors in town because, uh, Uh, that has to be a synergistic, we're a small community, we're a community, we have to work together. But you also have to include the economic leaders in town, you have to include the university uh, from the top leadership, you have to include the military from their leadership, you have to include the mining, so what you do on economic development is you include a cohort of leadership meaning that you have on a regular basis.

Certainly working with the governance community, in this community, with the mayors is a very very important thing and not to let it become uh, a burden.

[01:07:28] Lisa Cassino: Thank you. Okay. As a follow up to that, um, talking about economic development, what are the top three organizations that you believe should be at the forefront of discussions when it comes to economic development?

Top three organizations. And Mr. Hopkins, you're will be first, 30 seconds.

[01:07:48] Grier Hopkins: I'm sick and tired of seeing our borough be an obstacle. In that economic development. I want us to come to the table with ideas and solutions and open to ideas and solutions that are creative with our new economic development powers that have happened.

So what I would say is, number one, should be the borough mayor. Number two should be the city mayor and number three should be the North Pole mayor to make sure that we are starting to listen to the private sector and understand the public private partnerships we can create to make sure that our community is growing and thriving and we're listening in the top down.

[01:08:18] Lisa Cassino: Uh, Mr. Coghill, top three organizations at the forefront of economic development discussions.

[01:08:23] John Coghill: Certainly, if you think about the military and the, the things that it brings to the community, it's important that you talk to them and the, uh, uh, congressional leadership. You talk to the university, you talk to the mining people, and you talk about what can be invested in this community to make it thrive better.

So that's where you start, and in the governance of it, he's right. You, you work with the, the people who are elected leaders. But you also have to work with those who are leaders in our economic, uh, movement, like our banks, uh, our, uh, contractors, because they're the people that bear the weight of it.

[01:08:55] Lisa Cassino: Thank you.

Mr. Shields.

[01:08:57] Robert Shields: DVR, Golden Valley Electric Association, and the university. These are the three organizations that can be brought to the table and address some of the key issues about how we, together, are able to keep our costs low. Our quality of life high and creating opportunities for the citizens who live here now and for generations to come.

The interior is the golden heart of Alaska and a core of our state. We can be a model, an example of how life can be abundant and thrive developing economic opportunities.

[01:09:31] Lisa Cassino: Thank you. Well, I'm just shocked that nobody said the Fairbanks Chamber of Commerce. I like globbed it out there for someone to like crush a home run.

Darn it. All right, moving on.

[01:09:46] John Coghill: Duly beaten.

[01:09:48] Lisa Cassino: As mayor, how will you work to bring respect and decorum back to the assembly meetings? I don't think I'm going to reword this question. How, because there's an there, the second question is how will you address turnover and shortages at the borough? So how, what is your, what is your leadership style?

How do you bring people to the table and how can you get, or how can you help people get along for the greater good of our community? Mr. Coghill.

[01:10:21] John Coghill: You first, you start by respecting each other and you respect those that have gone before us. And so I, I think, uh, The people who are actually pulling the weight, doing the work in the borough, and in our town.

You have to show them due respect. And then, uh, you lead by example. Uh, you don't start calling them down. Uh, you start building them up. So, I'd say respect has to be, uh, the biggest part of it. And then appreciation for when the job is well done. And, uh, and then encouragement when it needs to be done better.

Respect.

[01:10:52] Lisa Cassino: Thank you. Mr. Hopkins.

[01:10:53] Grier Hopkins: Thanks for that. Our borough staffing issues are a big problem right now because when we want our services good for the taxes that we pay, we have to look down at the vacancy rate down at the borough. And we're paying for those vacant positions. But as borough mayor, I want to make sure they get filled.

And that starts with respect. My leadership style is not one that is a top down. It is a very flat, organization where I, because the buck's going to have to stop with the mayor, unquestionably. But how can I say, you know what, I was raised to understand that the custodian and the secretary and the people who do the everyday jobs there, the essential workers, are more important than the mayor because they're how the people interact

[01:11:29] Robert Shields: with the borough.

Mr. Shields. In one word I would say potlucks. I think it's important that we start coming together as a community. The challenge with these borough assembly meetings is they're all business. They're all conflict, they're all contesting. We need a space where we can grow and heal together as a community and address some of these issues outside of the borough's assembly chamber where it's just hotly contested yes or no.

There are a lot of opportunities for us to develop a real sense of community. When stuff, when stuff hits the fan, we're not going to ask what our political denominations are. We're going to ask, can you help us and can we work together?

[01:12:02] Lisa Cassino: Thank you. Okay, our next question is, um, I'm going to do our chamber question and then follow it with an audience question.

As mayor, what are your specific priorities regarding education? Top two priorities regarding education and how do you plan to address the concerns of various stakeholders while ensuring the needs of students are met? We're going to do 90 seconds for this answer. Do you need me to repeat that?

[01:12:28] Grier Hopkins: Can you just repeat it anyway?

[01:12:29] Lisa Cassino: As mayor, what are your specific priorities? Top two regarding education and how do you plan to address the concerns of stakeholders to ensure that the needs of students are met? 90 seconds. We're going to begin with Mr. Coghill and work our way down this way.

[01:12:45] John Coghill: The top priority, first of all, as we are talking about our cities, you have to work with your school board.

You have to work with your superintendent. So what you do is you go to find out what is actually going on that you can encourage and grow with. I think our students need to, uh, uh, grow in their capacity. Uh, I think our, our scores are lower than they should be, but we're making progress. So what you do is you try to fan that flame as much as you can.

Uh, certainly funding is going to be one of the issues. There's no doubt about it. Uh, if you can't do it all, you have to figure out where do we do it best. And then target that money to where it is best used. So I'd say take the priority of money and make it as useful as you can in a population that is shrinking.

But at the same time we want economic development. So we want to increase our capacity. So what do you do with these buildings if you have to shutter them for a little while? I mean, I think you have to look at that as a priority question as well. So raising the level of our student population education.

And then, transportation in this town is still tough, tough, tough, and that's true with our busing system, uh, for the school district, and it's also true with our busing system at the municipal level. That's going to be helping both our schools and our economic development, I think. So, uh, transportation is going to be a big part of it.

And then you work like crazy with your superintendent and the school board. And, uh, I think that's probably where I'd start.

[01:14:13] Lisa Cassino: Thank you. Uh, Mr. Hopkins.

[01:14:15] Grier Hopkins: So top priority is going to go down to Juneau and advocate for them to start fully funding and better funding our base student allocation within the education formula.

Every single time that the legislature down there flat funds education or gives one time funding and not a permanent increase to our schools, that raises our taxes right here because we have to step up and backfill that. And that's just hurting our community and hurting our ability to grow. Um, and if we can get down there to Juneau and partner with the other municipalities and school districts and say with one unified voice, raise the BSA, we're going to be able to keep our taxes lower here and then we're going to start getting that money directly into the classroom.

And that needs to be our number two priority because we have seen 200 teaching positions eliminated in our school district in the last 10 years. I was asked by my campaign manager why are we having a declining student population but increasing class size? There's first grade classes with 35 kids in them.

It's because the school district has seen flat funding and cuts for an entire decade now and those 200 teaching positions That's a much bigger loss, percentage wise, it's 25 percent of the teaching task force, than our actual decline in student population, which is about 10%. Yeah, it's a loss, but it is those impacts on the classroom.

Anne Wayne, or sorry, Arctic Light Elementary School on Fort Wainwright, we're talking about military families. That school, because of funding cuts, does not have science fair, does not have Battle of the Books, has no student activity opportunities anymore. Hockey costs thousands of dollars to play, football costs thousands of dollars to play.

Those are prohibitive opportunities for families to see our community as a welcoming place.

[01:15:49] Lisa Cassino: Thank you. Mr. Shields.

[01:15:52] Robert Shields: I currently have a resolution working its way through the borough that addresses some of this issue because it, It's designed to designate all of our school campuses as STEAM campuses.

Science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics. The value of this is to make science club and science fairs just as popular and fundable as a sports, as a sports page. The newspaper gets a whole page for sports. Why we can't we use something for like that for science. The steam resolution will attract private equity funding allow us to participate in competitions as another thing coming up on October 5th.

The reason we call it the tour of future cities is because it'll be introducing the future cities competition where kids are designed. They're engaged to design what their city is going to look like in a hundred years. And that's very important to future engineers and future planners in order to be able to provide quality, provide a quality workforce.

So basically this, this steam resolution will allow us to basically turn our schools into living laboratories, be able, allow us to attract private equity funding, address their energy issues, address their food issues, and turn their waste into a revenue stream. The, as, when I was a STEAM coach, I was able to get a group of students to second place in the Arctic Innovation Competition where you were a, where you were a presenter on the idea that every year the schools throw away 125, 000 in those little plastic trays that they use for the disposable luncheons.

Those could be transformed on site into 3D printing filament which could be sold or used in the schools.

[01:17:23] Lisa Cassino: Thank you. And with that, we are moving into our closing question. I want to thank the audience because, um, we had some really great audience questions this year. And, um, the last one that I got is actually our closing question.

So, um, kind of fitting. Um, each candidate is now going to have 90 seconds to answer the closing question. Um, we're going to go in the reverse order of which we started today. So, Mr. Shields, you'll be first. And we'll finish with Mr. Coghill, um, given your experience and knowledge, please tell us what sets you apart from your opponent and why voters should cast their vote for you.

90 seconds.

[01:18:00] Robert Shields: I'm running not, not to give people a choice between Democrat, Republican and Green, but to give a choice between staying where we are and moving forward. I like visual aids. Many of you will recognize a calculator. This is far better of a tool than an abacus. But this is not the best tool that we have and continuing to use these tools expecting that we can get quality results is not going to move us forward.

This is what moves us forward. Adaptive thinking, constant learning, embracing innovation. These are the ways that we are able to move forward as a community. This is what differentiates me from other, from other candidates, both on the mayor and as well in the community, is that I have been advocating for the last decade the mainstream regenerative economy.

A way to turn the divide between the economy and the environment into a multiplier. For This idea that the Democrats have weaponized the environment and turned it against the Republicans who only can fight back has led to this extreme particism and what we have in part of the reason that we have some trouble getting along.

I have worked with both, I have worked with conservatives and progressives and moderates all around the country to bring together common solutions, common sense solutions that are being deployed and that's all I want to do here. I haven't run for other positions, I'm not looking for other, running for other positions.

I just want to help this community write a business plan that will allow us to ensure 120 years from now This is still a good place to raise a family and that is my professional background and experience. Thank you.

[01:19:30] Lisa Cassino: Thank you. Mr. Hopkins

[01:19:32] Grier Hopkins: Well, these two got off lucky. I didn't get to ask my question of them.

[01:19:35] Lisa Cassino: Oh shoot. We are gonna do that

[01:19:36] Grier Hopkins: It is it we don't see I got off

[01:19:38] Lisa Cassino: script

[01:19:39] Grier Hopkins: But you know, it's it's really okay Because I think sometimes those questions can be divisive, and I believe that we need to look at a way to unify this community going forward. Like I said, I wake up every day an eternal optimist here.

And I believe a borough mayor needs to run a campaign that is clean, needs to run a campaign that brings, that starts bringing this community together. I'm running because I love this community. And you should vote for me because I promise I will wake up every day after October 1st and be the hardest working Fairbanks resident of this borough that I can be.

To make sure that all of your opportunities are put forward first. I want to put that there because I, I'm not going anywhere. I'm four generations here. I'm born and raised here. My wife is born and raised here. My three year old daughter is born and raised here. And I want all of my friends who I've grown up knowing to have an opportunity to move back here, for their parents to grow older and have places to retire, to have a housing market that welcomes those people that I've known my entire life to come back here.

And so I want you, I'm asking for your vote on October 1st because I believe our borough needs that unification of a mayor. Who's going to bring us together, who's going to work incredibly hard because we believe in our community and not going to tear us down and not going to worry about divisive comments at the borough assembly.

We have to get past that. And so I'm asking for your vote because I think it's time we had a mayor that's going to put our community on a bright path to the future and come up with creative solutions. And that starts with all of us in this room. So

[01:21:03] Lisa Cassino: Thank you. And Grier, would you like to ask your opponent a question?

Okay, we've all

[01:21:08] Grier Hopkins: got to get back to work. Thank you, though.

[01:21:12] Lisa Cassino: Mr. Coghill?

[01:21:14] John Coghill: Probably what sets us apart a little bit is, uh, experience. And so, uh, what you see is what you get on both of us. Uh, all three of us, actually. Uh, we've all put our effort into building the community. And I agree with, uh, Mr. Hopkins that, uh, Respect is how you move forward.

It's a community. We're just people. We're trying to make it work here. And so I, I kind of headed under three different categories of what I think I can bring to the table. First of all, you have to have, uh, your, you have to be able to say your government is actually serving you. instead of you having to serve it.

And, and I think in government, it tends to grow the weeds just like a garden does. You have to continually turn it back to serving the people. And the servant part is, uh, what I've been good at down through the years. Uh, so it takes management within the assembly and, and then leadership in the community.

And so I think I can bring both of those to the table. Uh, and then orderly because orderly means you have to keep your priority on what you do. If you can't do it all, you do what you do well. And so I think, uh, I've got a proven track record on that.

[01:22:26] Lisa Cassino: Thank you.

Okay. Well, Mr. Hopkins, I'm very sorry that I went off script, but I feel like we covered a lot of topics today and there was a lot of conversation up here on energy, on economic development, on workforce development, on quality of life, on education. So I feel like we've for allowing me the flexibility to get to as many audience questions as we did with that.

Before we conclude, would you please join me in giving our candidates a round of applause for sitting up here today and sharing their thoughts.