Homer council, mayoral candidates talk city goals, development

Candidates for the Homer mayor and city council races discussed the city’s development and future during a forum moderated by reporters from KBBI AM 890 and the Peninsula Clarion at the Homer Public Library on Thursday, Aug. 29.

On the panel were Jim Anderson and Rachel Lord, both vying for the mayor’s seat, and incumbent council members Donna Aderhold and Shelly Erickson.

Aderhold and Erickson are both uncontested in their bids to retain their council seats.

Questions to both the council and mayoral candidates centered on issues that the city has been grappling with for the past year or more, including community recreation, short-term rentals, ongoing harbor expansion study and the comprehensive plan rewrite.

The forum started off with opening statements given by all four candidates.

Anderson was born and raised in Homer, but left after graduation to “gain new knowledge and skill sets.” He returned to Homer with his family nearly three years ago and now serves on the board of directors for the Homer Chamber of Commerce and Homer Council on the Arts.

Anderson said that he’s running for mayor to “be involved and make a difference.”

“The decisions that will be made in the next two years that launch the structural happenings that will happen in the next four to five years are going to be critical to our ability to see thriving growth and to see a community that comes together,” he said.

Lord has lived in Homer for nearly 20 years and has served on the city council since 2017.

“I’m running for mayor because I believe in the power of open, positive and proactive leadership,” she said. “With so many years of experience on the city council and in the community, and with the commitment that I have to our community, I am ready and excited about taking the next step to help lead the council, the community, and city staff together in some of these big things we have in front of us.”

Aderhold has been an Alaska resident since 1990, having lived in Homer for 16 years and served on the city council for nine. This will be her fourth term on the council.

“I decided to run again (because) we have several big things going — (on) city council, there’s always policy decisions to make, there’s always things going on,” she said. “But right now we are working on several … big picture things that I really want to be working on in the next three years.”

Aderhold also noted, however, several smaller projects that she intends to continue working on, including “trying to create Homer as a more walkable, bikeable, accessible community” and a climate action plan.

Erickson spoke to her “deep roots” in Homer and her experience as a local business owner and entrepreneur.

“My grandkids are fifth generation to live here. I care deeply about Homer,” she said. “I come with a vast area of business (expertise) and I’m bringing that to the table.”

Community recreation

The first question focused on the proposed multi-use community recreation center, which the council recently set aside funds for, and asked candidates how they would engage with the development of the center and community recreation.

Lord said that the rec center is one of the reasons why she chose to run for mayor. Since the city has received a lot of input from the community on the project, one of the council’s first “next steps” is to start a conversation on project budget, she said.

Lord also spoke to the shutdown HERC property, for which demolition plans have been put on indefinite hold.

“I do not want to let that property be left by the wayside,” she said. “We have to hold onto that as a community asset and, to some degree, a community liability … and really structure a timeline and (ask) how are we going to move forward in that.”

Aderhold is currently one of two champions for the new rec center project, alongside Erickson. She spoke to their efforts to date, including evaluating properties in Homer on which a new facility could be built, based on the characteristics that are wanted or needed for the center.

Erickson called the rec center project one of her “passions on the council.” She said she’s been focusing on who the city’s recreation clientele are and acknowledged the still-growing excitement for recreation in the community.

“I have spent the last couple years looking at our needs and where we need to go,” she said. “In doing that looking, we’re setting money aside … but how do we get from where we are right now to when that building is built? Where can we build something that we can actually expand? Because it’s easy to build small … but what we’re seeing is recreation is growing by leaps and bounds, so we need to be proactive.”

Anderson echoed the importance of recreation to Homer, also speaking on his experience with youth development and the need to deal with the HERC.

“The fact that (the HERC) is still there and the small building … has not been demolished … makes me scratch my head a little bit. I understand there’s a process, but … we have a lot of information. We need to take what we have and move forward,” he said.

Bed taxes and short-term rentals

All four candidates next discussed the borough’s recent consideration of a bed tax and the city’s role in the development and tracking of short-term rentals — both somewhat contentious issues that the city considered earlier this year.

Aderhold, Erickson and Lord all previously voted down a city resolution that would have supported the borough’s proposal to place on the October ballot a boroughwide bed tax of up to 12%.

Aderhold stated that she disagreed with the timing of the ballot proposal’s consideration during the peak summer season when the tourism and lodging industries are at their busiest.

Erickson spoke to how there is no cap on sales tax for the tourism industry, while other industries’ sales taxes are capped at $500.

“When it comes to a bed tax, I think if they’re going to do that then they better completely relook at the whole way that they’re collecting sales tax through the tourism industry,” she said.

Anderson called the bed tax “low-hanging fruit” and said that Homer needs to look at housing overall in the community.

Lord noted that as a first-class city, Homer does not have the authority to issue a bed tax. Rather, that authority lies with the borough.

“That being said, we are all citizens of the borough,” she said. “When I think about this from a council perspective, we’re not raising revenue to raise revenue. So (it’s) looking at, ‘What are the revenue streams that we have? What are the services that we are needing to fund? How is the community engaged in this conversation?’”

Regarding short-term rentals, Aderhold said she would like to “level the playing field” and make sure that everyone is paying the sales tax that is currently in place.

“That was part of what we were trying to do earlier this year,” she said. “The other part of it is zoning — where should we have short-term rentals, and where should we not?”

Lord had similar thoughts relating the short-term rental discussion to zoning, saying that it’s “not a great thing” to target one particular concern and that the city should understand the larger conversation on concerns with housing.

A mayor’s role

When asked their thoughts on the mayor’s role in leading the council and using their veto or tiebreaking powers, both Lord and Anderson said that they would aim to use the veto power as seldom as possible and not without consideration.

Lord said she saw the mayor’s role as a facilitator, helping the council to move through conversations in a productive way and making sure everyone knows what the issues are on the table.

“The way a meeting is facilitated and the voices of the people at the table are held and honored makes a huge impact not only on the decision-making that comes through that process, but also how everybody feels when they walk away,” she said.

Anderson gave three answers for the mayor’s responsibilities — the city’s ambassador and champion, an energy shifter, and the chief mediator.

“We have to have a strong identity as a city — and let’s face it, Homer is divided. There are times … we do come together as a community to support each other, but on a day-to-day basis, we are very divided, and I feel that we have an identity crisis here in Homer,” he said.

Anderson said that over the past couple weeks, he’s found that “less than 20 percent” of the Homer community is “truly informed” on the work that goes into making the community better.

“The mayor needs to be a champion cheerleader for what everyone, including the city council, is doing to make their life better,” he said.

Budget

On the subject of the city’s annual budget, both Erickson and Aderhold said that Homer is “doing well” and is “back on track.”

“We are getting quarterly and monthly reports where we can see what is happening, and we’ve been staying in the black, and that makes me really happy,” Erickson said.

She also noted that because of the way the city has been managing its money, they have been able to finish projects that had been left undone or partly finished.

Aderhold said that while the council deals more with capital spending than “day-to-day” spending, it’s important to be very cognizant of where the money is coming from. During her time on the council, she’s worked to get in front of the city’s large replacement and maintenance needs.

“We’ve been working on that from a policy perspective as a council for the last couple of years,” she said.

The future of the harbor

All four candidates spoke in favor of the ongoing Homer Harbor general investigation study and to Homer’s need for an expanded harbor to meet the current and growing demand for use and industry.

As one of the council champions, alongside council member Storm Hansen, for the harbor expansion study, Lord has worked directly with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the project development team and city staff to determine the viability of a harbor expansion. When the point comes where the corps gives a green or red light for the project, she said, she intends to hold a “community green light/red light” at the same time to determine whether Homer will commit to investing in the expansion.

Aderhold said that she wants to get through the GI study and “see what comes out of it.”

“I want to get through that study and be working with the community to figure out what’s next,” she said. “If the benefit-cost ratio is positive, then I think the corps and … hopefully the state will invest funds with us in this regional asset. If we don’t get that funding, if we don’t get that positive benefit-cost ratio, then we as a community will have to figure out what’s next.”

Erickson spoke further on the study’s purpose, saying that it will give the city the answers “to know what we can handle and how we have to proactively figure out how we can afford what we know that we do need.”

Engaging in comprehensive planning

In addition to their engagement to date with the process for rewriting the city’s comprehensive plan, all four candidates were asked their thoughts on the council’s and mayor’s role in helping achieve the vision laid out by the comp plan. All four answered in support of the comp plan rewrite, also noting the urgency of the topic in light of Homer’s ongoing and future development and the importance of rewriting Homer’s Title 21 Planning and Zoning code to bring it up to date.

Lord noted specifically that she “felt very strongly” about the phased approach of first rewriting the comp plan, then updating Title 21.

“The planning and zoning code is desperately needing updating,” she said. “We cannot do that without substantial community input into what we want to see the future of Homer look like — and that’s the comprehensive planning update process.”

She also said that the mayor’s role, she discovered recently after acting as mayor pro tem during the Aug. 26 council meeting, is to “have a handle on where we are in the process” and make sure everything is transparent not just to city staff, the council, contractors or task forces, but also the community.

Aderhold said that both the comp plan and Title 21 rewrites were important in the wake of COVID-19, housing issues and other changing dynamics in the Homer community. It’s also an important opportunity for the new generation who has grown up since the last comp plan rewrite.

“I’m a policymaker, but it’s the community, in my mind, that really needs to drive the comprehensive plan,” she said. “It’s the comments that we get from people engaging and saying what they want their community to look like in 20 years — and then from there, council can reflect on that.”

Erickson said, with her history in the planning department, that she’s particularly excited for the Title 21 updates and ensuring that the community “has the ability to speak into this plan.”

“For me, that was really important because everything that the City of Homer does affects everybody outside of the city limits also, just like the borough,” she said.

Anderson said that he could not stress enough the urgency of the comp plan topic, and that the city “cannot be passive in educating the community in the criticality of getting involved.”

“The city council, and especially the mayor, need to be a very loud voice in how important this initiative is to everyone,” he said.

Closing statements

In brief closing statements, Aderhold and Erickson both spoke to the honor they’ve experienced in being able to serve on the city council. They both look forward to representing residents of Homer for another three years.

Anderson reiterated that he’s “excited” to be a candidate for Homer mayor.

“Our city is full of … opinionated bleacher experts, people that sit on the sidelines and they complain about things that aren’t happening for them or that are happening to them,” he said. “We need to bring the experts — the citizens that are engaged in commerce, that are trying to make a change in this community — to the table, and we need to have consensus, and we need to not block these great ideas that are … trying to be heard. We need to facilitate their voice.”

Lord rebutted the idea of a divided Homer and spoke to the role that local government plays in the community.

“Our town is a 49/51 town. That doesn’t have to be a narrative of division, and I don’t see this community is full of people sitting on the sidelines,” she said. “I see a tremendous number of people who are working, doing the thing, excited, energized, entrepreneurial, making crazy things happen in this town. I want to help increase that voice in City Hall and help us move forward.

“I love local government. I believe so strongly that our job in local government is to form a strong foundation that is stable, that our families (and) businesses are able to grow and thrive on. That is the perspective that I have held since I started holding office in 2017,” she said.

Find the full forum recording on the Peninsula Clarion Facebook page at www.facebook.com/peninsulaclarion/.

A second Homer mayoral forum will be hosted by the Homer Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday, Sept. 10 from noon to 1:30 p.m. on Zoom or in person at Kachemak Bay Campus.