MEMORANDUM

TO:                  Ron Long, Assembly President

                        Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly Members

THRU:           John J. Williams, Mayor

Max Best, Planning Director

FROM:           Marcus A. Mueller, Land Management Officer

DATE:            May 1, 2006

SUBJECT:   Ordinance 2006-24 Authorizing Negotiated Leases of Space at the Kenai River Center Building With the State of Alaska, Department of Natural Resources, and the United States Environmental Protection Agency Through the General Services Administration.

The Kenai River Center has operated at its current location since 2000 primarily with government appropriations and under informal agreements with the non-borough agencies who co-occupy the borough facility. In July 2005, the funding sources which have supported the facilities operation were discontinued. The borough, the DNR and EPA realize that it is in the public best interest to arrange formal agreements for operation and also to share in the annual operation and management costs for the facility. The parties have also proposed to share in the long-term capital maintenance of the facilities, beginning in July 2006. Ordinance 2005-18 authorized the borough to enter into lease and shared services agreements with DNR and EPA. Since that time EPA has informed the borough that it must work through the General Services Administration (GSA), resulting in a significant delay and a reworking of the documents.

Attached for your consideration is an ordinance to authorize the lease of a negotiable amount of office space at the Kenai River Center to DNR and also to GSA on behalf of EPA. The ordinance would also provide authorization for the Mayor to negotiate a shared service agreement with the parties to allocate costs for shared operation, maintenance and projected long-term maintenance of the facilities. Although the resulting documents are not “substantially similar”, they are functionally equivalent to those approved by Ordinance 2005-18.