Forum series debuts with Kenai City Council candidates

The two candidates running for the two open spots on the Kenai City Council this year met Monday to discuss their visions for Kenai’s future as part of a candidate forum moderated by the Peninsula Clarion and KDLL 91.9 FM public radio.

Kenai voters will this year cast ballots for two candidates to fill the two open seats. With only two candidates running on the ballot, both are likely to secure the seats.

Incumbent candidate Deborah Sounart has filed, as well as Sovala Kisena, a risk manager for the Kenai Peninsula Borough. James Baisden, the other incumbent, is running for a seat on the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly rather than for reelection to the Kenai City Council.

The forum, hosted in partnership with the Central Peninsula League of Women Voters and KSRM Radio Group at the Kenai Community Library, is only the first in a series of forums set throughout the coming months. Forums will be held in September leading up to the Oct. 1 municipal election and in October leading up to the Nov. 5 statewide election.

Over about an hour, the candidates fielded questions from forum moderators Ashlyn O’Hara, a reporter at KDLL, and Jake Dye, the Peninsula Clarion’s general assignment reporter.

Sounart said she’s been a Kenai resident since 1994, when she came up to Alaska for a job at Kenai Central High School and Kenai Middle School. She planned to stay at that job for one year — “it’s been a really long year, but I fell in love with Kenai,” she said. After 26 years teaching in Kenai, a total of 34 years as a public school band director, she now serves as a private music teacher in addition to her role on the council.

“I have enjoyed serving my city,” she said. “I like the direction that our city is going in, and I hope to be a part of it in the future.”

Kisena said that he was raised in Kenai and graduated from Kenai Central — Sounart was one of his teachers. His grandparents came to Kenai in the 1970s, quickly growing “heavily involved” in the community through the Peninsula Oilers and Peninsula Clarion.

The two both said they’re supportive of the City of Kenai’s effort to see expanded air service, like a direct Seattle route, added to the Kenai Municipal Airport. Sovala said that such a move could further Kenai “as a destination and not just a pass through,” while Sounart said that she had been reassured by the data and through conversations that there is traffic “currently not being tapped” that could be leveraged without hindering existing service.

Another major project on the horizon is Kenai’s riverfront redevelopment effort. Sounart said the city’s efforts are correctly focused on bluff stabilization. Without that project, she said, “you’re not going to see businesses invest in the waterfront or even in Old Town.” Now that stabilization project has begun, with local construction expected to begin next summer, there will be a wait to see if the wall works and the bluff is stabilized. If it does, “then it’s open season for businesses to come in, and invest, and bring it to Kenai.”

Similarly, Kisena pointed to stabilization as the critical infrastructure piece that “everything else will build off.” Looking to the future, he said he wanted to see campgrounds, walkable areas and development of an event space that can get people out, active and engaged.

“We need as many opportunities to do stuff as we can.”

Creating those opportunities and making Kenai the “destination” that he referred to throughout the forum, Kisena said, is about making Kenai a place to work, live and play that his children will want to come back to. He pointed to familiar outmigration statistics, saying that he wants to see more reasons for people to come back after college and start their families.

“This is a wonderful place to live,” he said. “It’s a safe place to live, and I think it’s going to thrive.”

The future of Kenai, Sounart said, is one where the stabilization wall is working and investors are knocking at the door wanting to come in and build. The next five to 10 years, she said, “could be very exciting.” Already, she said she envisions sitting at a waterfront brewery for a drink with her husband.

To reach Kenai residents with news about the city and its goings on, including to drive people to get involved and vote, both Sounart and Kisena said that the city needs to adapt to meet people where they’re at. That means finding people online in spaces like social media.

Sounart said that work is underway. People have adapted, consuming news and information differently than they did even just years ago. The city, too needs to adapt by modifying its code, which still requires some public notices to go through the newspaper.

“We need to figure out where people are consuming their news,” she said. “That’s where we need to meet them at and get that information to them.”

Sounart said that as a Kenai City Council member, she brings the same level-headed sense of compromise that she brought as a school teacher. That means solving problems, making sure people are heard, and finding a decision that everyone can live with.

Government, she said, is by the people. That means that citizens, like herself, are meant to be part of it. She said she encourages people to get involved, whether by working at a voting precinct or taking on a role in government, charity or just a local group.

Kisena said that, as a risk manager, he’s familiar with making rational decisions that aren’t always well received. He said being the newest city council member means entering with less experience — but he’s eager and open to constructive criticism.

Even though there are only two candidates running for two seats, Kisena said, it’s still important to get out, vote and make your voice heard while performing a civic duty.

Election Day is Oct. 1. The deadline to register to vote is Saturday, Aug. 31. Absentee and early voting begins on Sept. 16.

A full recording of the forum can be streamed on the Clarion’s Facebook page or on KDLL’s website at kdll.org. A forum with candidates for Homer City Council and mayor will be held Thursday, Aug. 29 at the Homer Public Library. Forums will return to the central peninsula on Sept. 5, with candidates for Soldotna City Council at the Soldotna Public Library.

Reach reporter Jake Dye at jacob.dye@peninsulaclarion.com.