Five candidates are running for four seats on Bethel City Council. This week, KYUK is airing interviews with each of the candidates.
Current council-member Rose “Sugar” Henderson is the only incumbent running for re-election.
Henderson spoke with KYUK’s Evan Erickson about her desire to remain on Bethel’s City Council on KYUK’s morning show, "Coffee at KYUK," on Sept. 26.
Find a transcript of the conversation below. It has been lightly edited for clarity, but may contain transcription errors.
Rose “Sugar” Henderson: Good morning.
KYUK (Evan Erickson): First off, would you prefer I go with Rose or Sugar here?
Henderson: Whichever you're most comfortable with?
KYUK: Alright, I'll go with Sugar then. So yeah, you're the only incumbent of these five candidates running for four seats on the council, and people are pretty familiar with you. But here's your chance to just tell us a little bit about yourself. Take as long as you want, and whatever you weren't able to mention in the candidate forum, go for it.
Henderson: Wonderful. Thank you. Well, I am, like you said, this is Sugar Henderson. I was born in Seattle, Washington, raised here in Bethel. My parents are Buster and Wally Richardson. My grandparents were Max and Sophie Lieb, and my grandparents had a restaurant here in Bethel years ago called The Tundra Shack. So I'm a lifelong resident of Bethel. I love my community here, and I just want to make it better.
KYUK: Yeah, so talk a little bit about what made you want to run for city council. You served a term as mayor and you’re a normal council member at this moment. What makes you want to stay on that council there? What sort of unfinished business do you have there?
Henderson: Well, I believe that our community can only be better with community involvement and with people involvement. My husband and I have been volunteering over the years. You know, we've done Cub Scouts, we've done Little League. I was involved with the VFW Auxiliary for many years, and I, you know, I'm only one person, but I feel like I'm making a difference by volunteering my time, by being involved, and I just feel it's very important that people who really care about our community get involved and play their part in making it better.
KYUK: Yeah, and so as for the forum that KYUK hosted on Sept. 11 – how many of those have you done so far?
Henderson: That was my second one.
KYUK: The second one. How do you feel like that went? Was it your first time meeting some of those candidates there?
Henderson: No, I knew them all. And I think it's fantastic. I think it went really well. It really showed me how well-informed the people who are running are in our community. So I enjoyed it.
KYUK: Yeah, and you had two minutes, and at one point you only had one minute to answer any questions. Was there anything you were thinking back immediately after the forum, or in the days after that you would like to expound on more?
Henderson: Well, I probably should have touched more on the boat harbor. There's a lot of work going on at the boat harbor. And, you know, I said, as a direct result of the commission meeting every month and working on issues there and probably I should have probably expressed how important it is to have the committee and commissions that the city currently has.
KYUK: Yeah, and I actually have heard there's, there's action being taken on the port at this moment, and I didn't know if council was going to take that up. But is that, is that part and parcel with the boat harbor improvements?
Henderson: Well, it is. It's all one department. There is a lot of construction going on, a repair that's happening, construction going on the long length of the dock itself. So, yes, that's all issues that have been brought to the council more as informative, but also, you know, needing to improve, funds that are needed for those improvements.
KYUK: Yeah, and I don't mean to bring up anything unsavory, but I know that the last council there wasn't actually a quorum, and I know that's been an issue with committees and commissions, from what I've heard. Is that something that you think is going to, you know, be addressed going forward?
Henderson: Well, I believe that if you're going to commit to a committee or a commission that you actually commit to it. You know, the meetings are only held once a month, and the important issues that are presented at those committees and commissions decide, you know what's going to go to council and what needs to be researched even more. And so I think it's really, really important that you know, if you're going to be on a committee or a commission or even a council, you know that you be there. Unfortunately, there were too many people that had other obligations for that for the last council meeting, and so we weren't able to have a meeting.
KYUK: Yeah. And so you touched on some issues. And when you were asked what the most pressing issues in Bethel where you talked about, I think, job retention, about the prices, about housing shortage, you touched on alcohol and things. Is anything on any of those, you know, issues at the forefront of the city of Bethel that you want to go into a little bit here?
Henderson: Well, I did talk about the housing issue and like I stated, I was told on the state level that we could probably never accomplish that, and we did. So we are bringing a few more houses, a few more apartments to our community, and that's always been an issue here in Bethel, housing has always been an issue. So I'm really proud to say I took part in bringing more housing to Bethel. Alcohol is a big issue here. I am saddened at the destruction that comes with it to both our community and to families themselves. So I would really, really love to get a handle on the alcohol issue, but it takes more than one person to be able to do that, and right now, I seem to be the only one that feels it's a big, big concern, and that's okay. Everybody has their own opinion and they're entitled to it. What else did I talk about? Crime is is on the uprise. I believe we have a new safety chief, and I'm confident that he's going to be able to organize our police department so that they can better serve our community.
KYUK: Yeah, and I know you're kind of outspoken about, you know, if you had your druthers, you would get rid of alcohol altogether, try to go back to that. That's probably not going to happen, but what could you do to mitigate the effects of alcohol?
Henderson: Well, I think if we went back to import only, that would reduce a lot of the crime that's currently happening. See, I'm not anti-alcohol. I don't have anything against anyone who likes to drink, but it's the way you drink. You know, there's responsible drinking, and then there's being so belligerent that you're wandering around town creating havoc and destroying families, and that's what I'm against. And I believe if we went back to import only, it would reduce a lot of the issues that we have now.
KYUK: And I've been asking candidates in these 'Coffee [at KYUK'] interviews, what is your knowledge of the [Yukon-Kuskokwim] Delta in general? Have you traveled around the region and seen how other communities are dealing with issues and kind of relative to Bethel's situation?
Henderson: Well, I have traveled to other communities, but it hasn't been for that issue, or, you know, I personally, for personal, personal reasons, gone to other communities I and it's always been during the day, so I've never seen what it is like at night in any of the villages, but I have no idea exactly how they're attacking all those issues.
KYUK: And I've been asking candidates as well, like, how is the best way to gather feedback? It's not people listening on the radio to city council meetings. They may show up at commissions and committees, but what will you do to personally get your finger on the pulse of what the what Bethel residents really want to see as far as change?
Henderson: On how I would get that information?
KYUK: Yeah, how you would go about getting that feedback.
Henderson: I, you know, I always encourage people to come to council meetings or go to the committee's mission meetings to express what they feel would be best, you know how to best serve our community for those commissions, and it's really hard getting people to come and express what they feel we need. And so I'm constantly when I get phone calls with issues or concerns from the community, I always encourage them to come to a council meeting and express their concerns, and then that way it's heard by everybody, not just me on the phone. I mean, I can truly bring their concern to council, but it's more effective if they would just come to the council meeting. We sit there and listen and take our notes and you move on. It's very simple. It's very easy. And it doesn't hurt to show up and tell us your concerns.
KYUK: Yeah, so show up at the 'people to be heard' segment of the council. The beginning of every council is that where you're –
Henderson: Yeah, yes.
KYUK: So when you, when you consider the long term economic future of the city of Bethel, do you have any thoughts? What is on your mind the most when you think about the long term?
Henderson: Taxes. Having the local businesses pay their taxes. We cannot run without the taxes and people. You know, some people have this idea that we get millions and millions and millions of dollars in taxes when we actually don't. So it's really important for the businesses that are open, pay their taxes. If you want to open a business, get a business license, pay your taxes. That's what keeps our city running.
KYUK: Yeah. And I mean is that? Does enforcing that go beyond the powers of the council?
Henderson: Well, it does. We, the finance director is responsible for auditing the files and making sure that each business is staying on top of paying their taxes. But it's going to take a full-time person to be able to sit and do that. It has gone, oh, I don't want to say ignored, but you know, it hasn't been at the top of the priority list in a while, and it needs to be prioritized, and somebody stay on top of all that.
KYUK: I haven't asked this question of other council members, but you are familiar with this. You've seen this issue play out of trying to find a new city manager, a new, was it finance director? Is that the other position that's open?
Henderson: Yes.
KYUK: Is the city getting by on that? Or is it needed more than ever?
Henderson: We're getting by. We have really good people in positions now. They're hard-working, very knowledgeable people, and I'm very appreciative of the job that they are doing. I never realized how difficult it would be to fill a position, and until I started working for the city, and it was like, well, not a lot of people are applying. Why is that? And so those are issues that we have as a council discussed and are trying to fix so that we are able to fill those positions. But I really, really do appreciate everybody that is working as hard as they can to keep us open.
KYUK: Yeah, keep the city running.
Henderson: Yeah.
KYUK: Yeah. So we have just a couple minutes left. It's your chance to tell listeners anything that would help them make a more informed decision when they go and vote because they're not. Yeah, why you would be the most appropriate and –
Henderson: Well, like I said earlier, I have lived here all but five years of my life. I love my community. I love the people in our community. My phone is always on. I never not answer my phone, and I think that's really important for our community to have that connection to the council. And so I'm always available. I've had many people contact me over the past four years that I've been on council and and I bring their concerns, whether it's to council or to the city manager to be addressed, and many issues have been resolved, not always in the favor of the person who called, but that's the nature of the beast when it comes to issues that we have to handle here at the city. I'm not going anywhere, and now I am pretty knowledgeable on how the city runs and the whole budget process and what's needed and what we need to do and can't do, and and all of that. So I believe I would be a great asset to stay on council.
KYUK: Well, it sounds like you're looking out for the city's best interest there.
Henderson: I do my best.
KYUK: All right. Well, thank you for joining us for this city council candidate, 'Coffee [at KYUK']with Rose “Sugar” Henderson, thanks so much for calling in this morning.
Henderson: Thank you, and you have a great day.
KYUK: You too, yep.
