Unalaska, AK – On October 2, Unalaskans will go to the polls to pick a mayor and two city council members. Nine candidates are vying for the three positions and next week, Unalaska Community Broadcasting will be giving you a chance to ask them the questions that matter to you as a voter at our Candidate's Forum. That event will be held live in the Burma Road Chapel on September 27 and broadcast on Channel 8. If you have questions for the candidates, you can ask them in person that evening, or you can submit them ahead of time by e-mailing us at news@kial.org.

This week here at KIAL News we're briefly introducing you to the candidates in the mayor's race. Incumbent Shirley Marquardt is facing off against challengers Katherine McGlashan and Shannon Morrison. We profiled Marquardt and McGlashan earlier this week. Today, we look at Shannon Morrison.

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Shannon Morrison has lived in Unalaska since 1989. He currently works for TelAlaska and previously spent 10 years as the city's powerhouse supervisor, as well as shorter stints in construction and stevedoring. He is alone among the mayoral candidates in that he has not served on the Unalaska City Council, although he has been on the school board and the city's capital improvements committee and currently chairs the planning and zoning board.

Morrison says that as mayor he would improve the city government's openness, and work against the impression he says many in the community have, that the most important decisions are made outside of the City Council chambers.

"There seems to be a lack of communication from current council members during council meetings," he says. "The decisions seem to be made prior to getting to the meetings--we've all voted them in for their insight, and we'd like to see that insight in a public forum."

Morrison has been endorsed by the Unalaska Union Coalition, which is made up of the public safety and city employees' unions and the local chapter of the International Longshore & Warehouse Union. All three unions have had prickly relations with the current city government recently, the first two over contract negotiations and the third over the city's support for the new Pacific Stevedoring cold storage project.

Morrison says the unions support him mostly because of his background as a city employee and dock worker. As far as the contract negotiations go, he's simply says the city needs to focus more on retaining its employees, which he says would save the city money on expensive recruiting.

"We need to be able to keep the quality employees that we have, and we also need to maintain budgets," he says. "So in the process of doing that there's a fine line that we're walking."

As mayor, Morrison says he would also work to create a more attractive environment for businesses that might relocate to Unalaska.

The election is October 2. The Unalaska Community Broadcasting Candidates Forum will be next Thursday, September 27.