A second candidate has filed for a seat on the Ketchikan City Council. Michael Briggs entered the race on Wednesday for one of two open seats. Councilmembers Janalee Gage and Jai Mahtani’s three-year terms are up this fall.
Briggs is currently the manager of Cape Fox Lodge. He ran for the City Council once before back in 2018 but was unsuccessful. He’s lived in Ketchikan for 14 years and before he was in hotel management, he sold trips for Alaska Sportfishing Expeditions.
Briggs said in a phone call that he’s running for the seat as a way to give back to the community. As far as issues he’ll focus on if elected, Briggs didn’t mention specifics. He said he wants to listen to the community, establish an end goal, and then make baby steps.
“There’s a lot of different pieces of the puzzle in the community – with people on the city council, with the people in the borough, and with the community in general – to sort of come up with a game plan to tackle some of these issues, because you can’t really solve a problem in one fell swoop,” said Briggs.
Jai Mahtani has also filed for reelection. Mahtani owns a jewelry store downtown. Mahtani said the reason he’s seeking reelection is to maintain a handle on the city’s budget and tour industry.
“If you look at the tours downtown, corporations are taking over,” Mahtani said over the phone. “Somebody needs to protect the small tour operators.”
Mahtani said during his first term, he worked to place a tighter cap on the city’s yearly budget increases.
“If our expenses run away, the rates and the taxes are going up,” said Mahtani. “To control the taxes – it affects everybody. And if you look at my record, I’ve fought against every rate increase and every tax increase. I know sometimes they are needed because we go through emergencies, but we’ve got to be prudent and transparent.”
The filing deadline to run for city council is next Monday at noon. If no one else files, Briggs and Mahtani would be running unopposed for the two open seats.
Election day for the City Council seats is October 1.
Disclosure: Jai Mahtani is a member of KRBD’s volunteer board of directors. He has no connection to the newsroom.
