The Homer City Council held a special meeting last Tuesday, Jan. 7, with Rep. Sarah Vance, R-Homer, to facilitate a conversation prior to the start of the new session of the state Legislature.
In the agenda packet for the meeting, the council provided Memorandum CC-25-001, which outlined Homer’s existing legislative matters and other municipal interests including Capital Improvement Plan priority projects adopted by the council to date.
Vance said at the start of the meeting that she didn’t have a particular agenda, but that she wanted to make sure that she and the city were “speaking from the same sheet of music” as the Legislature entered the new session.
She provided some updates to the council, including that as a member of the legislative seafood industry task force, she has seen informal discussion on the potential for increasing the Municipal Harbor Grant Fund.
“At least from the coastal members, you’re going to see support for that fund being there,” she said. “The seafood task force members are looking at what we can do to assist (coastal) communities.”
Vance also said that conversations such as those on supporting coastal communities and addressing the seafood industry crisis will be “interesting” in light of Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s proposed budget.
“The budget, as you may have heard, is going to be very, very tight. There’s very, very limited capital budget funding … and I believe the governor’s proposed budget is decreased by 15% just in the capital budget,” she said. “And the operating budget is about a 5% decrease. He didn’t propose a balanced budget, so there’s a lot of frustration around that.
“But I think we’re going to have some good conversations about what we can do. The issues facing coastal communities is a high priority for leadership.”
Vance also mentioned the erosion issues and mitigation efforts on the Homer Spit.
“What my goal is over these next couple of years is to keep that at the forefront, but not let the harbor expansion fall by the wayside. They’re both very important,” she said.
Council member Donna Aderhold said that the city has been continuously conversing with the Alaska Department of Transportation with regard to the Spit erosion. However, while DOT is focused on the state-owned road and right of way, the issue of erosion on the Spit is much bigger.
“We’re going to have to take a bigger lens and look at support from other agencies,” Aderhold said.
Vance agreed, adding that now that U.S. Rep. Nick Begich has announced his staff, it would be timely to “get them plugged in on this conversation” as well.
Mayor Rachel Lord told Vance that the council will continue to share with her office resolutions and statements of position on situations happening at the state level that also impact the City of Homer. She asked that Vance similarly send the city “any information that you think we should know about of what’s happening down there (in Juneau).”
Both Vance and Sen. Gary Stevens will provide regular monthly updates to the council on happenings in the Legislature.
Find Memorandum CC-25-001 and the full recording of the Jan. 7 meeting on the City of Homer website at www.cityofhomer-ak.gov/citycouncil/city-council-special-meeting-142.
