City and Borough of Sitka Assembly Special Meeting: Municipal Attorney Interviews - April 25, 2024
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City and Borough of Sitka Assembly Special Meeting: Municipal Attorney Interviews - April 25, 2024
The City and Borough of Sitka Assembly held a special meeting on April 25, 2024, beginning at 6:00 PM, to interview two candidates for the position of Municipal Attorney: Annmarie Billingsley (via Zoom) and Wayne Cary (via Zoom). The meeting included a flag salute, land acknowledgement, roll call, interviews, an executive session, and adjournment at 8:56 PM.
Public Comments & Testimony
- None.
Discussion Items
- Interview with Annmarie Billingsley (6:12 PM – 7:15 PM): Billingsley, a Fairbanks attorney, detailed her six years as a municipal attorney at the Fairbanks North Star Borough, where she handled zoning, union negotiations (three unions), collective bargaining, contract interpretation, ballot proposition lawsuits, and risk management. She expressed enthusiasm for Sitka's community, having visited via the Fine Arts Camp. She highlighted proactive systems like “quiet Fridays” for focused work and network-building with other municipal attorneys. Assembly members asked about her experience with Alaska Native communities, substance abuse issues, and ability to work with a small staff. She stated she could start with overlap before the current attorney's departure on June 30.
- Interview with Wayne Cary (7:30 PM – 8:25 PM): Cary, most recently Borough Attorney for the North Slope Borough (nine years), described his experience in municipal law, criminal prosecution, and defense. He noted no union experience but familiarity with home-rule boroughs, ballot propositions, and working with Alaska Native communities. He expressed readiness to relocate and settle in Sitka, citing his love for hunting and fishing. Assembly members asked about his legal philosophy, risk management, and ability to handle a heavy workload. Cary indicated he could start as early as May 16 if offered the job.
- Discussion/Direction/Decision on Interviews: After the interviews, the Assembly voted unanimously (7-0) to enter executive session at 8:25 PM to discuss the candidates' qualifications and potential prejudice to their character. The executive session included HR Generalist Denise Salter and, when desired, the candidates. The session lasted until 8:54 PM. The Assembly reconvened, and the meeting adjourned at 8:56 PM without a public decision.
Key Outcomes
- No hiring decision was made publicly. The Assembly plans to potentially conduct a second and third round of interviews, including an in-person meet-and-greet in Sitka, and to request writing samples and background checks, consistent with prior recruitment processes. The goal is to have a new attorney overlap with the retiring attorney by June 30.
Meeting Transcript
Under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. The assembly of the city and borough of Sitka would like to respectfully acknowledge the traditional first people of Sheetka. With gratitude, we proceed on Klinkatani. Sarah, roll call, please. Mayor Eisenbais present. Mr. Mosher. Here. Mr. Pike. Here. Mr. Yestad? Here. Mr. Christianson. Here. Miss Carlson. Here. And Mr. Celine. Here. Thank you. And Sarah, when we go through this introduction, I'm sorry I didn't realize it earlier, but this TV's not on. Thank you. Appreciate that. So tonight we are gathered to interview our two municipal attorney applicants that we move forward to the interview round. We do have an hour scheduled for each of their interviews tonight with a brief break in between. We have HR here to go over a few do's and don'ts about tonight because there are there is a list of prohibited questions that everybody got. So not only those, but things along those lines. So Denise, I'll turn it over to you for an introduction and a uh a roll through of tonight's festivities. Okay, uh good evening. Um Denny Salter, I'm the human resource generalist too with the city. And um assembly members and Mayor Eisenbeites. Um we do have um two interviews this evening, and just wanted to go over briefly. Um you have a hard copy of interview questions in front of you. Um from what I understand in talking with Mayor Eisenbeis, is that this will be more of a um not really a round table, but kind of a more free interview. So we provided some sample questions, and I hope you all had a a chance to review kind of the the do's and don'ts of questions. So basically any questions, prohibited questions that um are to avoid discrimination. Any questions regarding race, gender, religion, age, or disability, uh just a friendly reminder. Uh we want to stay away from those. Um that kind of give you an idea of with our first and second interview. Um, what I'll do is I'll we'll get them online on the Zoom meeting. Um, I'll introduce each and one of you to our applicants, and um, and then at that time I will hand it over to Mayor Eisenbeitz to to kick off the interview. Um, so I just wanted to go over that briefly and then see if there was any questions that any of you had prior to our first interview at about 12 minutes. At this time we have not. Um we that's that will come after I get direction from the assembly and the mayor in regards to kind of the second and the third phase of the interviews, and that's what we've done prior in prior attorney interviews. It's always the time when you allot a long time for questions that you have none, and then when you allot five minutes, everybody has something. So uh we just had this opportunity here in case there was any questions for HR, any questions for me about this process. Um we uh like I said earlier, we will have an hour um for this interview.
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