September 11, 2025 by Michael Armstrong

Special to The Seward Folly

Note: Mayoral candidate forum on Thursday, 6 p.m. at the Library. Broadcast on FM88.1

The Seward City Council at its Sept. 8 meeting held two consecutive executive sessions, one to discuss purchase of a lot that could be the new site of the Seward Police Department and another evaluating the performance and amending the contract of Seward City Manager Kat Sorensen.

Discussion of the lot purchase came after the council passed Resolution 2025-084 authorizing Sorensen to negotiate the purchase of a 2.7-acre lot at 104 Benson Drive that could be the site of the new Seward Police Department building. Located near Seward High School, the lot is one of several sites considered during Public Safety Feasibility Study discussions. It would house the police department, dispatch and the Emergency Operations Center or EOC.

But discussion of that purchase after the resolution passed was shrouded in secrecy when the council voted to go into executive session. Alaska’s Open Meetings Law allows executive sessions to discuss “matters, the immediate knowledge of which would clearly have an adverse effect upon the finances of the government unit.” In moving to go into executive session, the council did not state its reason. 

The council also did not state its reason for going into executive session to discuss Sorensen’s evaluation and contract amendment. The open meetings law allows executive sessions for “subjects that tend to prejudice the reputation and character of any person.”

After the confidential evaluation of Sorensen, the council voted to extend Sorensen’s contract to five years, increase her salary by 2.5% from $156,600 to $160,515 and increase her leave accrual to 347.1 hours a year. It also eliminated a moving expense reimbursement since Sorensen already lived in Seward when she was hired. With Council Member Robert Barnwell absent and Council Member Kevin Finch voting no, Resolution 2025-087 passed with five yes votes.

Vice-Mayor John Osenga asked to step away from the table because his family has an interest in the lot. Kenai Peninsula Borough records show the lot is owned by Cara Osenga with an assessed value of $283,900, including an 890-square-foot home that had once been the caretaker’s residence for the Jesse Lee Home. The sale price for the property is listed at $595,000. Osenga also did not attend the executive session on that issue.

In opposing Resolution 2025-084, Finch said he felt it could be better used for housing near a school, saying from 12 to 18 homes could be built there. One justification for putting the police station there was that it would be out of tsunami zone.

“I find it hard to use the ‘it’s out of the tsunami zone’ when we’re putting a fire department in the tsunami zone,” Finch said.

In a public hearing on the resolution, Becky Dunn spoke in favor of putting the police station on Benson Drive.

“I would love this, please. That’s a great location,” she said. “… I think that’s a great idea, but it’s out of tsunami zone. It is next to the school. It’s — that’s an excellent place, so yes, please,” she said.

Seward Mayor Sue McClure emphasized that the resolution did not authorize a purchase but only for the city manager to negotiate a price.

“The price is pretty steep, if you looked into it at this point, but if there’s an agreed-upon price, it will have to come back to us as a public hearing item, correct?” she said. “… So, it’s not a given that we pass this, that we’re going to do this. It’s just saying, ‘well, let’s look into it.’”

The council also discussed a recommendation from the Planning and Zoning Commission that the city hire a zoning enforcement officer. 

“The Planning & Zoning Commission believes that hiring a dedicated code compliance officer is a necessary step to support long-term community goals, protect property values, and promote accountability among property owners and developers,” it said in its recommendation.

McClure said that currently departments enforce zoning code in their areas, “which is time consuming for most of the departments.” A previous city manager had appointed a code enforcement officer, but that upset a lot of people, she said, because a lot of little things were being looked at.

Council Member Randy Wells said he was “100% against” the idea.

“I have concerns about straining community relations. I have concerns about selective enforcement and the negative impact on vulnerable, financially insecure residents,” he said. “… Do we want to be a police state? Is that what we’re really, really looking for here?”

Finch spoke of his experience working with zoning enforcement at his mother’s house in the Lower 48. 

“They weren’t running around saying, ‘you need to mow your grass.’ They’re not an HOA. It’s not a police state,” he said. “ … It’s the basic, you know, you got limbs hanging over the sidewalk … basic code, stuff like that. I would support looking into seeing the cost effect.”

Council Member Casie Warner said she has gone back and forth on the need for an enforcement officer. 

“I really feel like I can see both sides of this. I do share some of the concerns of maybe a little bit of the nit-picky pieces of it,” she said. “… I can see this being really beneficial at the beginning to address some of those larger issues that we see with individuals that continue to be out of compliance and just continuing to blatantly ignore our city code. But I worry about what happens in two, three years when we’re not having those bigger problems anymore, and what is this full-time position going to be doing?”

McClure said she didn’t see a consensus yet on presenting a full resolution and suggested that city administration come back with a cost for the position and open it up to more discussion by the council and the public.

“What if we move forward with bringing back a brief job description, cost analysis and some input from those departments as well, and see where that goes, and see what public input comes as well?” Sorensen suggested. “So we won’t go to the next step of a full resolution, but just a little bit more detail.”

Michael Armstrong is a retired Homer News reporter and editor. Reach him at wordfolk@gmail.com.

The Seward Folly publisher Robert Barnwell is a current member of the Seward City Council, but he did not participate in the editing of this story.