Kenai council interviews four candidates to fill vacant seat; vote moved to 6 p.m. regular meeting

KENAI, Alaska — The Kenai City Council interviewed four candidates in a November 2025 work session to fill a council seat declared vacant in mid-October. The council presiding officer explained the process and said the appointment vote will be taken during the regular meeting at 6:00 p.m.

Each applicant had five minutes for an opening statement and up to three minutes to answer a standard set of council questions. Candidates presented distinct priorities: former council member Alex Douthat emphasized using incoming data before proposing new initiatives, community volunteer Michelle Miller Obey pitched stronger public outreach and an app to share local news and events, Glenise Petty highlighted expanding senior housing to meet a waiting list she described as "over 60 people," and Dwayne Banach sharply criticized the city's budgeting and business climate, saying, "Kenai, where businesses go to die."

The vacancy was declared by the council on Oct. 15, effective Oct. 20, and municipal charter provisions cited at the meeting assign appointment authority to remaining council members. The council followed city policy on appointment order and interview timing. The presiding official reminded candidates that if they object to the public interview format they may remain in the chambers; otherwise applicants were asked to wait in a separate conference room while others interviewed.

Candidate platforms and notable exchanges

Alex Douthat, who said he was born and raised in Kenai and operates a small business with "approximately 20 plus employees," told the council he would "wait till we get that data" from an array of surveys and studies before advancing specific policy proposals. Douthat cited recent and upcoming studies — public opinion surveys, road and streetlight assessments and a public safety building study — as the evidence base he wants to use in decisions.

Michelle Miller Obey, who described work in health care and community programs, urged steps to improve civic participation and outreach. "I think there should be an app," she said, proposing a more interactive way to share local events and a monthly highlight for businesses to boost engagement. When pressed about rumors that businesses were relocating to nearby Soldotna, Miller Obey said she had heard the claim in conversations but could not name specific businesses that had moved.

Glenise Petty, a former council member and planning-and-zoning participant, focused on housing for older residents. Petty suggested the city pursue a project mirroring recent bluff stabilization work and noted that Vintage Point currently carries a waiting list of "over 60 people." She recommended pursuing low-interest financing or market-driven development to meet that demand.

Dwayne Banach framed his remarks as "the good, the bad and the ugly," praising private-sector home construction while criticizing an 11% year-over-year increase in general fund spending cited in his remarks and questioning whether the council had sufficiently supported local businesses. He said one of his first actions if appointed would be to move for an executive session to reevaluate the city manager.

Process and next steps

The council followed Kenai City Council policy 20.22 on the order of applicants and the Alaska open-meetings requirement was cited as the basis for holding interviews in public. No appointment vote was taken during the work session; the mayor said the council will take up voting at the regular meeting that begins at 6:00 p.m., and the winner, if any, will take the oath and fill the seat during that meeting.

Reporting note: The council and candidates referenced local studies and financial figures in the session; figures cited in candidates' remarks (for example, a candidate's statement that the budget was "up 11%") were asserted in the interviews and not verified during the session.