The Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly gathered with five new members Tuesday night to discuss amendments to a recent city ordinance and appropriate funds for upcoming projects.
Reorganization
The assembly reorganized at the beginning of the meeting. Ryan Tunseth, who represents Kenai, was unanimously named the new assembly president, replacing Peter Ribbens of Nikiski. Kelly Cooper remains vice president also by unanimous vote.
In a short acceptance speech, Tunseth said he’ll prioritize five things as assembly president: fairness, preparedness, transparency, vision and teamwork.
“It’s an honor to be in this position,” he said. “Our job here is to make sure we can improve the times of the 60,000 people who live on the Kenai Peninsula Borough and all of the people who have entrusted us with doing that job. Above all, that’s the task, and it’s one that I’m up for.”
Hospital updates
The assembly moved forward with items on the agenda after the reorganization. Central Peninsula Hospital Chief Operating Officer Karl Hertz presented the hospital’s quarterly report and gave a brief update on past and upcoming community events. For Breast Cancer Awareness month in October, CPH hosted three mammography walk-in days, screening a total of 81 women. Hertz said that abnormalities were detected in six women. Over the course of three events checking prostate-specific antigen, or PSA, levels in a total 277 men, 25 had elevated levels, suggesting prostate cancer or other complications.
Hertz also mentioned Walk with a Doc, the hospital’s partnership with Soldotna Field House. CPH sponsors the program, which hosts free walking sessions for seniors. Since Sept. 2, 165 seniors have registered, and the hospital has hosted 1,120 walking events.
“These events are important to attract patients from the Central Peninsula to items they normally wouldn’t come to,” Hertz said. “We’re really happy with that.”
Borough tax code amendment
Following the discussion of various ordinances, including one appropriating funds for a Central Peninsula landfill leachate evaporator project, which will come back for a public hearing on Nov. 18, and another amending an ordinance relating to solid waste disposal, which will undergo a public hearing on Dec. 2, the assembly began discussing Ordinance 2025-21, which divides a large chapter of code into four new chapters for real property, personal property, tax exemptions and tax appeals.
Cooper asked the assembly to reconsider during this week’s meeting an amendment memo passed on Oct. 14. Becuase borough code doesn’t allow reconsideration of an ordinance approved with three-fouths majority or more, she later said she planned to rescind the vote.
Kenai Peninsula Borough Mayor Peter Micciche opposed a cap on the senior citizens’ exemption because it detracted from the ordinance’s original intent, which he said was never about changing tax rates. He also suggested outgoing Soldotna representative Tyson Cox’s amendment to Ordinance 2025-21, which capped tax exemptions at $375,000 after voters passed a ballot proposition increasing the residential exemption by $25,000, had underhanded language that confused some assembly members.
South peninsula representative Willy Dunne disagreed, saying assembly members “had the ordinance right in front of them in black and white” and knew what they were signing.
Ultimately, the assembly unanimously adopted a laydown amendment from Micciche, which “strikes reference to a ‘stacking’ maximum and leaves that policy discussion for another day.”
Find Ordinance 2025-21 and supplemental materials, as well as the Oct. 28 assembly meeting recording, in full at kpb.legistar.com.
