The Soldotna City Council enacted an ordinance that increases estimated revenues and appropriations by $7,500 in the General Fund for expenditures which could influence the outcome of the city’s ballot proposition at the October 4 regular municipal election.
With another ordinance previously being enacted which puts the proposition of $15 million in GO bond debt going before the voters for the Soldotna Field House, this allows the administration to describe, explain, and promote the project, but in order for that to happen, City Council needs to specifically appropriate funds for that purpose.
City Manager Stephanie Queen:
“This ordinance would appropriate funds if it was the council’s intention for staff to be proactive in educating the community and/or advocating for the success of this project. The state laws require that any funds used by government employees, or the entity be specifically appropriated for that purpose and then we would track and report them to APOC. We did similar activities three years ago and, as a way of tracking our time, tracking expenses and then reporting those, in any of our activities, it could be viewed as potentially influencing the outcome of that election.”
Queen elaborates on the amount being appropriated:
“I believe the amount the council appropriated three years ago was $5,000 for these activities. In putting a number in this ordinance, we reviewed recent outreach activities the city has done. For example, during COVID we mailed out informational postcards about some of the programs going on. We used that as a basis to wrap our brains around what it would cost if the city did something similar, if we sent out a postcard about this project as well as allowing for some staff time. There is a website that had previously been developed and three years ago we tracked and reported our staff time and in creating that website, it would be much less staff time this time to update that webpage with the current designs, the current cost estimates, but generally that’s how we approached the request for $7,500, it would allow for staff time and potentially some tangible materials like a postcard or flyers or a mailer.”
The vote was split among all six council members, which resulted in Mayor Paul Whitney casting the tie-breaking vote to enact the ordinance.