Setting rental rates for the City’s new 8-plex generated some controversy at last night’s Council meeting.

Council ultimately adopted the rates proposed by the City Manger’s office, but not without considerable discussion.  The main debate focused on whether the City should try to recover the cost of construction in the rental rates.  The project totaled $5.5 million dollars.  The city covered $1.7 million and a grant from the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation picked up the rest.

Councilmember Dennis Robinson said the proposed rates of $1300 for a 2-bedroom and $1600 for a 3-bedroom didn’t reflect the cost.

 “If the private sector built this unit, for that cost, the rents would have to be over $4000 a month.”

Councilmember Roger Rowland seconded Robinson’s call for higher rents and introduced a motion to raise the respective rents to $1400 and $1800.  The motion was voted down 3-2. 

Council members in support of the proposed numbers cited affordability and incentive as reasons for keeping the rent at market rate.  Councilor Zac Schasteen said Council should take into consideration the salaries of potential tenants, namely teachers, public safety personnel and city employees.

“At lot of the industry in this community provides housing of equal or greater value for their employees at no additional cost.  And has a comparable wage to what we’re paying our employees.”

The un-amended resolution passed 4-1.

In other new business, Council passed the first reading of an ordinance changing the Carl E. Moses Small Boat Harbor fee schedule without coming to agreement on several key issues.

The question of how to handle multiple vessels under the same ownership remains undecided, although several alternatives were discussed.  The existing operational policy allows an owner to have only one permanent slip, which can be used by only one vessel. 

Some of the proposed alternatives include allowing an owner to have more than one permanent slip, guaranteeing hot-slipping privileges, or charging a premium rate for rotating occupancy of a single slip. 

Councilors cited a request by the Community Development Quota group Coastal Villages to have three permanent slips for nine rotating vessels as an example of why a policy needs to be agreed on.

A revised copy of the ordinance will be presented at the next Council meeting on November 8th. 

The final resolution before Council last night, to appropriate $823,000 for repairs to the Unalaska Marine Center Dock passed 5-0 with no discussion.

In other business, City Council member Zoya Johnson was sworn in last night and incumbent Dennis Robinson renewed his pledge of service.  City councilors serve three-year terms. 

Unalaska also became the eighth Alaskan city to be declared “Tsunami Ready” by the National Weather Service.  Tsunami Coordinator Cindi Preller says Unalaska is a model community for tsunami and storm preparedness.

Council also met in executive session to hear updates on the ongoing wastewater case against the city and to conduct an evaluation of the city manager.