The Wrangell Borough Assembly hosted a public hearing on next year's budget Tuesday night, June 16. This was an opportunity for members of the public to voice their opinions and concerns regarding FY 2021, and how Wrangell's money is going to be allocated. Thanks in part to the COVID-19 pandemic, like many other communities, Wrangell is facing a lean financial year. There were several people who called in to the meeting, or wrote emails to the city, who wanted to state their support for continued contributions to the chamber of commerce and the local radio station.
For the most part, the majority of public comments came in the form of emails to the assembly. There was some debate amongst the assembly about whether or not Borough Clerk Kim Lane should read these emails into the record. Lane said she had no issue with reading the emails aloud, she had done so before in other meetings, but she said she was worried about setting a precedent. Several assembly members agreed with Lane, saying that members of the public should call in to voice their opinions themselves, and not have the clerk do so for them. If people just voiced their opinions through letters and emails for the clerk to read, the whole meeting process would be considerably slowed down.
Assembly Member Julie Decker suggested that the assembly allow Lane to read the emails for this meeting, as they already received them, but moving forward they should make it clear to the public that this practice will not continue. Community members should call into meetings to voice their own thoughts. Assembly Member David Powell made the suggestion that only one email be read, that Lane specifically heard from the author they wanted to have it read into the record. Assembly Member Patty Gilbert settled the discussion, in the end.
"At this point we're wasting more time debating it than we would if we just read the letters," she said. "So, I agree, let's read the letters and from now on ask that the public present their arguments by voice."
All of the written statements from the public were in defense of city funding for the Wrangell Chamber of Commerce. According to the meeting's budget packet, the chamber of commerce receives $23,000 from the city, out of the Community Service Organizations Budget. This particular budget has not been eliminated, but Borough Manager Lisa Von Bargen said it could be, potentially, if the assembly decided to further shrink its deficit in the general fund.
The city received six letters in total, all calling for the city to keep funding the chamber of commerce. These letters came from Jim and Brook Leslie, Darian Burley, John Taylor, April Hutchinson, and Caitlin Cardinell. They made similar cases in their letters. The chamber of commerce provides an important service for local businesses, and the community would be hurt by the chamber having less funding to do its job. Stephanie Cook, executive director of the chamber of commerce, logged into the meeting to read a statement in person.
"The Wrangell Chamber of Commerce is a crucial part of both the economy and community of Wrangell," she said. "The WCOC is a nonprofit entity and we function entirely off of an extremely limited budget, with every financial contribution from member companies and otherwise. To lose any bit of funding provided to the Wrangell Chamber of Commerce by the City of Wrangell would be catastrophic."
Another community organization that saw defense from the public was KSTK. The local radio station receives $8,500 from the city, from the same Community Service Organizations budget as the chamber of commerce.
Cindy Sweat, with KSTK, explained that this support comes in the form of utility credit for the station. The financial aid is greatly needed at the radio station, she said, especially with a loss of state funding over the years. Not only does the radio station provide news and entertainment to the Wrangell community, she also said that KSTK serves as Wrangell's primary contact for the Emergency Alert System.
"It's not our entire budget [the utility credit], we've already exhausted it for FY 20, but it does help substantially," she said. "This in-kind utility credit from the City and Borough of Wrangell really does help KSTK stay on the air, and help provide Wrangell with the Emergency Alert System, and news, and information."
As this was only a public hearing, no formal action was taken by the assembly at this time.
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