Kodiak City Council Candidates Square Off

Jay Barrett/KMXT
Candidates for Kodiak City Council faced questions about a variety of topics last night in a candidate forum in advance of next Tuesday’s municipal elections.
There are only two candidates for school board – Debra Kirk and Norm Wooten, neither of whom attended the forum. Instead statements were read by Trevor Dunbar and Joe Baylor on their behalf.
There are two seats on the assembly. The challenger is current school board member Aaron Griffin, facing incumbent Chris Lynch. Assemblyman Jerrol Friend has withdrawn, though too late to have his name stricken from the ballot.
For the city council, Rich Walker is the challenger for one of the two open seats. The incumbents are nine-year Councilman Gabriel Saravia and Mark Vizcocho, who was appointed to a vacated seat earlier this year.
Each candidate started by giving a little background on themselves and their community involvement.

Taxes have been a hot-button topic in the city over the past year. Each candidate was asked if they supported an increase in the tax cap, which did not pass the council when a one percentage point sales tax increase did.