The Seward City Council declined a request by the Seward Chamber of Commerce for more funding in their 2025 and 2026 budget, pending a work session in January where the council and chamber can refine their contract and goals for advertising in Seward.
The chamber first called on the council for more funding at a work session on Nov. 25, asking for a modification to Seward’s funding model for the chamber, and then later at a council meeting on Dec. 16, when the chamber called instead for a flat increase to their funding.
During the work session, Seward Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Samantha Allen called on the council to modify Seward’s funding from a current $300,000 per year to 2% of the annual bed tax revenue — a model used before the first years of the COVID-19 pandemic when that revenue plummeted.
Under Seward’s marketing agreement with the Seward Chamber, Allen said, the chamber provides “destination marketing services” for the city, as well as visitor center services and economic development support.
After the pandemic began, Allen said, the chamber saw “historically low funding” from Seward’s bed tax, the Mount Marathon Race and the Seward Silver Salmon Derby.
The Seward City Council, during those years, modified their funding structure from 2% of bed tax revenue to a flat $300,000, she said.
“While we do appreciate the support, it has not kept pace with the rising cost of delivering services and keeping employees.”
The chamber now has, after years spent operating at a deficit, “depleted our safety net.”
“Despite those challenges, we remained committed to serving the community,” she said. “No services were eliminated, and we operated as usual.”
In 2024, the chamber had to make major budget cuts, operating without a full staff and relying on volunteer support, she said. Those changes still leave the chamber “unsustainable,” and “deeper cuts” will be required without more support.
In 2023, she said, the chamber brought in $665,000, including the $300,000 from the City of Seward, and spent $671,500.
She asked the council to restore the chamber’s funding, returning to the previously defined 2% of bed tax revenue.
Without more funding, the most likely cuts to come would be the chamber’s support for the Alaska Small Business Development Center and then elimination of year-round positions like the events coordinator, which Allen said in turn means less attention paid to familiar chamber programming like the derby as those tasks fall to other staff members with other responsibilities.
Council members asked Allen about the services the chamber provides and the focuses of the marketing they’re tasked with. Member Robert Barnwell said that he wanted to see less advertising to tourists and more work done to establish Seward as a wintertime destination and a place to live.
“I don’t want visitors,” he said. “I want another welding shop or a boat building business.”
Member Casie Warner said that, because Seward’s contract with the chamber is up for renewal, they’re in a “unique position,” able to decide exactly how they want to see Seward marketed. The chamber could perhaps, she suggested, work to redefine the narrative about Seward’s housing struggles, which dissuade people from moving to the city.
Instead of reinstating the 2% bed tax revenue funding, Warner proposed funding tied to Seward’s revenue specifically in the winter months.
As the conversation shifted to larger questions about the chamber’s role and Seward’s marketing goals, Seward City Manager Kat Sorensen suggested that be the focus of another, larger conversation in the new year. “Recognizing that we’re on the crunch for time with the budget,” she suggested amending Seward’s budget to take full responsibility for the small business development center — pulling a $25,000 cost from the chamber, and then leaving the $300,000 contribution in the current budget. That change was effected when the council approved their budget during the Dec. 16 meeting.
“When we come to 2025, with some time, without the weight of the budget on us, we can revisit this,” she said.
During the Dec. 16 meeting, Chamber Executive Director Samantha Allen and other chamber supporters spoke on behalf of the chamber, extolling the benefits that the chamber brings to Seward and calling for increased support. Allen at that meeting called for a new flat funding allocation of $400,000, a total reached by considering a new breakdown of the cost of services “we feel are important to council and are important to our community.”
Barnwell at that meeting said that, before the council can decide how much or if any more money should be directed to the chamber, they need to complete a revamp of their goals. He again said that he’s “very concerned that we’re hyper focused on tourism.”
“We’re a little bit vague in what our needs are from you,” he said. “If we really nail that down, I think it would help all of us.”
Waiting to discuss the chamber funding until after that discussion, he said, “incentivizes both us and the chamber to get our ducks in a row.”
Sorensen said that the council could complete an appropriation next year to add the funds for the chamber next year even after the budget is effective.
Full recordings of the work session and council meeting can be found at “City of Seward” on YouTube.
Reach reporter Jake Dye at jacob.dye@peninsulaclarion.com.
