KIB Assembly Election Profile: Monique Lewis

Kayla Desroches/KMXT

Monique Lewis is running in Tuesday’s municipal election and wants to add the position of Kodiak Island Borough Assemblywoman to her current public service, which includes volunteering as a firefighter and sitting on the Chiniak library board of directors. Lewis says she has a desire to serve, and she wants to help the borough assembly be accessible to the public.

An area of improvement Lewis identifies is the code change process.

“One of the problems I think we’ve got right now is the codes are so complicated that when they try to do something simple like take an engineering requirement out, it’s not simple at all, so it turns into this big, huge ordeal. And that’s because government is too complicated. So that obviously tells me that there are some areas where government needs to simplify itself and be easier to deal with.”

Lewis also says the borough assembly and staff need to trust one another.

“Because that I believe will be a big step in some of these thing is, when the assembly says hey we need your expertise on figuring this out and simplifying it and making it better for the community, instead of staff baulking at it or the assembly believing that staff is baulking at it, there’s a two-way relationship there.”

She also wants to improve the relationship between the government and the voters. If she wins a seat, Lewis wants to make sure that the assembly is representing the community’s desires.

“Personally, I will reach out to the community members. I have a Facebook page. I didn’t start it for the sole purpose of campaigning. I started it so that during the campaign I could get people involved in conversations and then after the campaign, I could continue to have that involvement.”

But Lewis says there’s no substitute for face-to-face conversations.

“I attempted to try something that I would like to continue if I get elected and that’s once a week having dinner down at the Safeway deli or down the Subway café or something and just people getting to know that I’m gonna be there and knowing that that’s an opportunity for them to come and talk to me.”

Monique Lewis is running for Kodiak Island Borough Assembly. The other candidates for the two seats are Scott Smiley, James Turner, and Matt Van Daele. Tune in Monday for more election coverage.