City council interviews candidate for vacant seat

Mitch Borden/KMXT

A replacement needs to be chosen by the Kodiak City Council to serve out the remainder of Councilman Gabe Saravia’s term. Saravia recently submitted a letter of resignation because he’s moving away from Kodiak. The council has to fill the seat soon, and at its work session last night, the first and only candidate was interviewed.

The Kodiak city council began its work session by calling Daniel Mckenna-Foster forward and asking him why he wants to join the council. The council needs to appoint a resident of the City of Kodiak to join the council until its municipal election later this year because the seat will be vacant once Councilman Gabe Saravia leaves it in early May.

Mckenna-Foster was the only eligible person to apply for the position and says his biggest focus if appointed, would be doing what he can to improve the quality of life of those who live in Kodiak.

“What people can see is, is your life getting easier or at least not getting more difficult every year. You know the city might not play a huge role in that, but what can the city or the borough or any local government do to make it so that people are finding it’s easier to get by or at least more comfortable to live.”

Currently, the Kodiak Island Borough employs Mckinna-Foster, and he says he’d declare any conflict of interest if he felt there was one between his job and his duties as a council member.

Mckinna-Foster says he’d like to see the council do a better job at communicating with city residents, whether that be through a better presence on social media or allowing people to subscribe to notifications for city meetings. He believes this would foster more public engagement with the council.  He’d also like to see the city better utilize Near Island and promote development there.

Councilman Charlie Davidson, along with other council members, seemed to approve of a lot of what Mckinna-Foster had to say.

“I appreciate your enthusiasm and I think you have some good, positive ideas that would certainly be needed on this council.”

The council agreed they’d move forward in the process of approving Mckinna-Foster to Councilman Saravia’s seat later in May.