Early voting continues in Cordova ahead of the March 4 General Election, where two candidates are running for mayor, the city’s top position. Multiple other candidates are also vying for seats on the City Council, School Board, and Hospital Service Board.
Residents have just over a week to cast early ballots. Early voting is open daily until March 3, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Cordova Center.
Below are the mayoral candidate profiles.
Note: Responses may be edited or shortened for clarity and brevity.
Kristin Smith (Carpenter)
Q: Why did you decide to run for this seat?
A: What is my “why”? I believe so strongly in the power of partnerships and collaboration. I know Cordova has plenty of challenges ahead. To do the problem-solving we need to bring people together, get all the best thinking around the table to help work through solutions. Ours is a citizen-led government – our City Council, all the boards and commissions, and all the public planning processes we go through for land use, transportation, fishing, health care, education, and recreation programs – are all based on citizen participation. Everyone has a role to play and can make contributions, and I want to help facilitate those conversations. Another “why” is because of how much I love Cordova! The way people help each other every day, in ways big and small, is what makes our small but mighty town work.
Q: What is your professional background?
A: My first job after college was working in Washington, D.C. for four municipalities from around the country, and focusing on community development and transportation issues for them. After graduating from school and a stint in consulting, I came up from the Lower 48 for a summer vacation, worked on a trail project with the U.S. Forest Service on the Copper River Delta, and fell in love with Cordova. I ended up having a career here managing the Copper River Watershed Project, a regional nonprofit organization. That’s where I honed my skills in creating meaningful community partnerships. I am so proud of the work I led with CRWP staff to bring together community members from Mentasta to McCarthy, from Copper Center to Cordova, to think holistically about the needs of rural Alaska. As one example, we worked together to create a system for ranking barriers to fish passage throughout the Copper River drainage, a tool that later became widely used by state and federal agencies in the region. Once the problem sites were identified, my team and I found the funding to fix them, including restoring access to 70 miles of chinook habitat on the Little Tonsina River.
Q: What achievements or skills from your experience make you the best candidate for this seat?
A: What I can offer is a passionate commitment to bringing diverse minds and partners to the table for problem solving. With more than 20 years of experience working in Cordova, I have learned the skills to facilitate conversations that bring the best thinking together to talk about actionable solutions. And the work I’m most proud of in my career is where I’ve done that: Brought people together for crucial conversations. Diversity and inter-dependency make communities tick. We all have strengths and skills to share that make a thriving community possible.
Q: What are the top issues you want to address if elected?
A: Affordable housing, fisheries support, funding our schools, maintaining consistent and reliable ferry service, and the need for childcare services are primary needs. The city has quite a bit of aging infrastructure – water treatment systems, streets, public safety and recreation buildings – that needs replacing. Workforce recruitment for the city (and many other businesses in town) and the cost of employee health care (49% increase in two years, for the municipality) are also big challenges. You hear so often “Cordova is split 50/50,” yet I think one thing we can and do all agree on is how special a place this is to live. Let’s build on that common ground to work together on these challenges.
Jason Barnes
Q: Why did you decide to run for this seat?
A: A friend said that I should. I laughed it off but a small, still voice that kept speaking “service” into my spirit kept repeating. I believe God was speaking to me, just to be obedient, to hear His voice, believe and then follow through, so I did. When I went to put my name in the hat at the City Hall, I was nearly hyperventilating, nervous but doing my best to be obedient and follow the call.
I love Cordova, was born and raised here, I love people from all walks of life and try my best to listen to whoever wishes to share. As mayor I would love to serve the good folks of Cordova. My desire is to see every citizen, no matter their personal challenges, strive with continuing opportunity in Cordova.
Q: What is your professional background?
A: I’ve been owner-operator in the Commercial Gillnet Fisheries from 1997 to 2015, and owned and operated a fish tender 2015 and 2016. I owned a small restaurant, Barnesy’s, in Cordova from 2003-2006, and in Oregon in 2009.
I currently work for the Native Village of Eyak Tribal Family Services as a case management/non-clinical social worker for victims of violence. I served on the Eyak Corporation Board of Directors for seven years, and I’m currently in my first year as a board director with the Chugach Alaska Corporation. Also, I’m the president of a startup nonprofit, Prince William Sound Living, that will work with environmental, conservation and wildlife issues.
Q: What achievements or skills from your experience make you the best candidate for this seat?
A: In no way will I try to take away from the other mayoral candidate. We all have hearts, ideas and differing experience and I can only speak of mine.
Working with TEC for seven years, at one time a half billion-dollar corporation, the experience managing as a director has been invaluable. As a newly elected director for the CAC, a billion-dollar corporation that inevitably will continue to grow, I am very excited looking toward the future with a new executive management team and an engaging board of directors. My contacts are growing in the ANC arena as well as the state government and probably the federal government.
The skills, experience and values that I have learned in working with TEC and CAC combined with running my own businesses, having the heart of a servant, listening for that still, soft voice, and being obedient to the Lord put me in a position to work well with the council and our city employees and for the citizens of Cordova.
Q: What are the top issues you want to address if elected?
A: Revenue. Cordova desperately needs new and innovative revenue sources. Our local government needs to figure out ways to create new revenue sources without relying on sole taxation. I believe there are ways we can create revenue and develop city business while not competing with local businesses. It’s time for strategic planning, working with other businesses that have vested interests in Cordova. Together, let’s think outside of the box and develop vision, people perish for a lack of vision.
Housing. The lack of housing in this town is literally costing Cordova dearly. It is hard for that tax base to grow if there are no housing options in Cordova. Again, thinking out of the box, we need to identify people and businesses that have a vested interest in Cordova and engage. A couple big, yet silent, entities that have a vested interest in Cordova are the Eyak Corporation and the Chugach Alaska Corporation. How can we work together and possibly come up with some solutions to the housing issues in Cordova? The Native Village of Eyak, in which I am a tribal member, is a growing and powerful player in Cordova, which provides many services with a charitable heart – not only for their tribal members but the entire community of Cordova.
Currently, our country seems to be getting bat-dung crazy. People are doing their best to change the fabric of the country that we grew up in, a country with family values, community values and levelheaded, common-sense values. Cordova should stay Cordova, it has always been a great place to live, raise children and feel safe. Let’s keep Cordova a place that strives with family values and schools that focus on teaching our children by keeping out of divisive issues that ultimately divide. Cordova just needs to keep doing Cordova. It has always worked, if it is not broke, don’t fix it.
The municipal election is on March 4. The Cordova Center Community Room A polling site will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Election Day. For more information, visit the city’s election page.
