Assemblyman Joins Ballot to Continue in Seat

Kayla Desroches/KMXT

One community member who joined the Kodiak Island Borough Assembly this summer hopes to continue serving.

Scott Smiley joined the assembly in June, following Mel Stephen’s resignation in April. While Stephens did not explicitly state his reasons, he stepped down shortly after the assembly decided to hire current Borough Manager Michael Powers.

Smiley says more than a year ago several people approached him to run for borough assembly, but he didn’t know enough about the job. He says he therefore made a concentrated effort to learn about what he says is the borough’s biggest expenditure: the Kodiak Island Borough School District budget.

“I spent a fair amount of time attending school board meetings and was on one of the citizens budget councils and all of that – committees and all of that kind of stuff. And I did learn a fair amount about how the school budget works and what it was composed of and everything, and so I felt a little more equipped to approach the job of a borough assemblyman.”

He may be new to school budgets, but Smiley – who is retired – has a background in education. He was a professor for 24 years and was also in administration as director of the Kodiak Seafood and Marine Science Center for 11 years.

Now that Smiley has served on the assembly for a few months, he has an idea of what he would like to accomplish if elected.

“I think there’s been a dearth of communication between the assembly and the school board and the assembly and the city council. That’s one of my first goals is to try to improve that significantly.”

He says he believes that it’s important for citizens, like himself, to give back to their community.

The municipal election is set for October 4.

Check Also

Kodiak Island Borough’s assessor certified at highest level, one of five in the state of Alaska

Taxes – even just the word – can trigger a negative reaction in people. But …

%d bloggers like this: