Two of the three candidates for the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly’s Kalifornsky seat met last week to discuss their visions for the future of the borough as part of a candidate forum moderated by the Peninsula Clarion and KDLL 91.9 FM public radio.

Teresa Mullican, Joan Corr and Scott Griebel are all vying for the seat, which represents the area between Kenai and Soldotna on the western side of the Kenai Peninsula. This year, voters will elect a candidate to fill out the two remaining years in a term won last year by James Baisden — who is resigning.

The forum, hosted in partnership with the Central Peninsula League of Women Voters and KSRM Radio Group at the Soldotna Public Library, is only the first in a series of forums set throughout the coming months. Forums will be held in September leading up to the Oct. 7 municipal election.

Over about an hour, the candidates fielded questions from forum moderators Ashlyn O’Hara, a reporter at KDLL, and Jake Dye, the Peninsula Clarion’s senior reporter.

Mullican said she currently works for Kendall Auto in Soldotna as a human resources manager and has lived on the Kenai Peninsula since 2014. She previously served eight terms as mayor of Elk City, Oklahoma. She said that she has the requisite skills and experience for the position, and an interest in becoming more involved in her community.

Corr said she came to the Kenai Peninsula in 1957 and has lived in Soldotna since 1960. She said that in the past decade she has increasingly been involved in “community affairs” as a member of both the local chapter of Moms for Liberty and the local Republican Party. She said friends encouraged her to run and that her top concerns are “property rights” and schools.

Griebel was unable to attend, but provided a written statement in which he described himself as a longtime Kenai Peninsula resident with a long history of community and public service — including 25 years working for the borough.

“I still wish to be involved, and believe that I can utilize my historical knowledge and experiences to aid in a quality path forward.”

Corr said her first and primary goal would be to eliminate property taxes, though she said she didn’t know how such a system would work. In the budget adopted by the assembly for the current fiscal year, property taxes account for nearly $90 million in projected revenues while the borough’s sales tax accounts for only $48 million in projected revenue. The borough is expecting to bring in around $184 million this year — leaving a significant deficit without property tax revenues.

Mullican said she would be interested in exploring the borough budget and seeing if anything could be cut to reduce the property tax burden on residents.

Neither candidate said they would support the proposed seasonal sales tax structure that would raise the borough’s 3% sales tax to 4% in summer months and reduce it to 2% in winter months.

To bring young families to the Kenai Peninsula Borough, Mullican said more should be done to market the peninsula to people who might move here, but also that the price of homes can be an obstacle. Corr similarly pointed to high — “ridiculous” costs of housing and cited issues with finding jobs and with perceived quality of local schools.

On the topic of schools, Corr said that she’s testified to the assembly and school board multiple times that she wants to see less funding to schools because she hasn’t seen “results.” Mullican said, assuming the borough can afford to, she’d vote to “support schools the best way that we can.”

The candidates also split when discussing the citizen’s initiative that will be considered by borough voters this fall that seeks to require hand counting of all ballots in borough elections.

Mullican said that she was concerned about the financial or time cost of such a change — “that is really a tricky one.”

Corr says “there’s a lot of people, me included, that don’t trust the machines.”

Election Day is Oct. 7. The deadline to register to vote is Sept. 7. Absentee and early voting begins on Sept. 22.

A full recording of the forum can be streamed on the Clarion’s Facebook page or on KDLL’s website at kdll.org. A forum with candidates for the assembly’s Sterling/Funny River seat will be held Thursday, Aug. 28, at the Soldotna Public Library. A forum with candidates for Kenai City Council and Kenai mayor will be held at the Kenai Community Library on Sept. 4. All forums are held from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Reach reporter Jake Dye at jacob.dye@peninsulaclarion.com.

Teresa Mullican, a candidate for the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly’s Kalifornsky seat, participates in a forum at the Soldotna Public Library in Soldotna, Alaska, on Thursday, Aug. 21, 2025. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)