The Kodiak City Council and Borough Assembly held a joint work session Tuesday night, on the heels of last week’s Southwest Alaska Municipal Conference (SWAMC).

“One thing we heard at SWAMC is that the Obama administration strongly supports catch shares. It’s time for Kodiak to adopt a concerted fisheries policy,” City Councilman Terry Haines said.

Borough Mayor Jerome Selby agreed Kodiak needs a community fishery policy statement.

“Then we can inject our policy into future fishery debates. Our policy could then be one of the alternatives considered,” he said.

Haines added, “Once we have a fisheries policy statement, the city and borough can together contract a fishery expert to represent Kodiak at these meetings.”

The concept of adopting a community fishery management policy was strongly endorsed, though no formal action was taken in the work session format.

A draft ordinance proposing the creation of a Kodiak Fisheries and Oceanic Research Advisory Board also received general approval. The purpose of the board would be to “support a sustainable Kodiak fishing industry and community interests, to enhance communication between Kodiak’s public officials and research sector and to facilitate communication among state, federal and university researchers in Kodiak.”

“I support this. I think we all learned at SWAMC that sustainable fishery stocks are not solely dependent on management. We also need research,” City Councilman Jack Maker said.

In other business, Borough Manager Rick Gifford gave an update on plans for the Near Island Research Building. The design phase is ongoing, and once completed, the city can proceed with official transfer of the land.

Presently, the project is $9.5 million short, but the combination of $6.4 million from the Exxon Valdez oil spill settlement, $3.1 million requested from the state and possible federal money is expected to make up the difference.

A dialogue on climate change between Kodiak and Homer was proposed by the Alaska Municipal League working group on climate change. The first step will be the creation of a planning group for each community.

Taunnie Boothby, state floodplane management coordinator, gave a presentation on the National Flood Insurance Program. Through this program, residents and businesses in participating communities are eligible to purchase flood insurance at rates determined by risk and local development standards.

Mutual aid agreements for city/borough fire departments, capital project review/coordination for the Juneau legislative trip and junk vehicle program updates were also discussed.

The next borough regular meeting is Feb. 19 at 7:30 p.m. in the borough chamber.

Mirror writer Harry Dodge can be reached at hdodge@kodiakdailymirror.com.