The Kenai City Council on Oct. 15 certified the Oct. 7, 2025 municipal election results, swore incoming officials and voted on a series of ordinances and resolutions, all of which were adopted either by unanimous consent or by roll call.

Why it matters: The actions finalize the city's most recent election, add donated facilities to the city inventory, make a code correction about purchases, extend the city's employee health insurance contract into 2026 and authorize pursuit of Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding to extend utilities to support a housing project. The council also declared a seat vacant and directed the clerk to begin recruitment as required by council policy.

Votes at a glance (items enacted/adopted)

- Certification of the Oct. 7, 2025 election results (motion to certify; unanimous consent requested and granted). Clerk read totals and declared the prevailing candidates for mayor and council; candidates will take office at midnight Sunday as noted in the record.

- Ordinance 3487-2025: Accepting and appropriating a donation from Hillcorp Alaska to assist with the annual area-wide senior Thanksgiving dinner (enacted; roll call: 7 yes).

- Ordinance 3488-2025: Accepting the donation of a pavilion from the Kenai Peninsula Soccer Club for the Kenai Sports Complex (motion as amended accepted; roll call: 7 yes). The council approved an amendment to insert the word “accept” in the whereas clause as described in the record before final enactment.

- Ordinance 3489-2025: Repealing Kenai Municipal Code 7.15.0.1 to prohibit purchases and sales of personal property between the city and certain officials/employees (enacted; roll call: 7 yes). The city attorney explained this corrects a previous inconsistency in code to maintain a prohibition on city personal-property purchases by employees while continuing prior rules on real property under set conditions.

- Resolution 2025-60: Authorizing a contract extension for employee health care effective Jan. 1, 2026 (adopted; unanimous consent requested and granted). Administration recommended renewing with the existing carrier under a negotiated renewal. Administration and the city’s benefits broker reported a renewal substantially below recent market trends and noted shared-savings mechanics in the current plan.

- Resolution 2025-61: Authorizing participation in the current CDBG solicitation to extend water, sewer and local roads to Sixth Street (adopted; unanimous consent requested and granted). The city will participate so it may act as grantee/co-applicant and partner with a local housing developer (KPHI) that cannot itself be the direct CDBG grantee.

- Action: Declaration of vacancy and recruitment to fill the council seat (motion to declare vacancy effective Oct. 20, 2025 and to direct the city clerk to initiate recruitment per council policy; motion carried by unanimous consent). The clerk presented timing options; the council chose immediate initiation of the recruitment process and discussed interview timing for mid-late November.

Meeting procedure notes: Several items were placed on or removed from the agenda by unanimous consent. The meeting included unscheduled public comment (Kenai Chamber presentation) and multiple commission reports (Council on Aging, Airport Commission, Parks & Recreation, etc.). Several items (for example, ordinance 3490-2025 related to wastewater digester blower upgrades) were introduced under the consent agenda and scheduled for public hearing on Nov. 5, 2025.

Sources: City clerk election readout and the council roll-call votes recorded in the Oct. 15 meeting transcript.