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Civic Affairs sets fiscal-year 2026 priorities: housing sites, ethics ordinance, town hall on capacity and business-license changes
Summary
The Skagway Civic Affairs committee identified five priorities for FY26—Pius 10 site housing, the old clinic site, an ethics ordinance for assembly members, a town hall on visitor capacity, and business-license data collection tied to housing plans—and agreed to pursue bonding for utility installation and staff review of legal constraints.
At its Nov. 25 meeting the Skagway Civic Affairs committee narrowed its 2026 priorities to five items, with housing and an ethics ordinance taking center stage.
Chair Charity Pomeroy said the municipality needs "a very clear and concise, ethics policy for assembly members so that there is a route to ensure that we are not opening the municipality up to litigation." The comment followed public concerns from residents who told the committee current rules leave assembly behavior unchecked.
Committee members devoted substantial time to housing. Dan Henry urged expedited work on developable municipal lots, telling the group that, "we could put a fourplex up there tomorrow and house 2 police officers, 2 locums," and pressed the committee to get utilities installed sooner so lots move from vacant to shovel-ready. Members discussed the Pius 10 parcel and the old clinic site; the latter is complicated by earlier bond language that staff said legal is still reviewing.
Members discussed financing options for utility installation, including taking a bond to voters at a special election. "The smart money would bond the project," one member said, noting potential savings if interest rates change and the value of getting voter approval sooner rather than later.
The committee also backed exploring a town hall focused on visitor-capacity issues and a narrow agenda to keep discussion constructive. Sherry Corrington urged collecting more data from businesses via licenses, including employee counts and housing plans, to better understand crew and staff housing demand and to inform funding and road-use policy.
The committee agreed to keep these five priorities—Pius 10 site, clinic site, ethics ordinance, capacity/town-hall planning, and a comprehensive-plan review—on the civic affairs list for active work in FY26 and directed staff to return with legal and technical clarifications where needed.
Next steps include staff and legal follow-up on the clinic-site bond language, drafting an ethics ordinance for committee review, and scoping any bond measure for utility installation.
