All right, well, good evening, everybody.

Um, I will call to order the special meeting of Thursday, April 9th, 2026.

Please join me for a flag salute.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation 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 Klinketani.

Sarah Roll Call, please.

Mayor Isenbeis.

Present.

Mr.

Pike.

Here.

Ms.

Carlson.

Here.

Ms.

Riley.

Here.

Mr.

Christensen.

Here.

Mr.

Mosher.

Here.

And Mr.

Stelene.

Here.

Thank you.

This evening the assembly is gathered to do interviews with a municipal administrator candidates.

Unfortunately, one of our candidates withdrew from the application process.

Josh, I understand they received a job somewhere else.

Was that correct?

Yeah.

So we got uh two interviews tonight, um, so we have been able to condense this down just a little bit.

Um, but excited to get the interviews started, excited to get this process going.

I think John's excited for us to get this process moving as well.

Um, because it does seem like it's been a little bit since we said we'd close applications for us to get to this point.

So looking happy, looking forward to to meeting everybody and uh seeing how they may fit into our organization.

Uh with that, Josh has an introduction for us, um, kind of some do's and some don'ts.

Um, I will add, uh, and he um will most likely mention this as well.

But in your email, uh, we have a another list of uh potential questions for municipal administrators in case the the uh other ones that Josh provided here didn't quite suit your needs.

There's another list of quite a few in the email.

So uh Josh, please good evening, Mr.

Mayor and Assembly.

Um first thing I want to start with is the uh the packet that I sent out regarding interview guidance.

Um if we can turn to page five.

Um actually let's turn to page four.

Um page four has what uh you know we'll we'll call the prohibited questions, and it is federally um federally protected categories, um, race, color, religion, sex, age, uh, physical mental disability, marital status, veteran status, things like that that result in uh prohibited questions that we have to absolutely avoid and not put the applicants in a position to have to answer.

Some examples of those questions are on page five.

Um, and uh so if you if you were planning on asking anything related to those, please uh nix them off your list.

Um not uh as um prevalent, you know, it's a little bit uh stuff that kind of happens behind the scenes sometimes is that small talk.

Um so be careful in introductions or whatever um at the close of the interview from asking anything that you might not consider an official question, but it could elicit responses that would fall underneath those prohibited categories.

Um at the bottom of their page uh six, it talks about statements for implied contracts.

Um so be careful about things that you say that might imply something for the future.

Okay.

Um, have any questions about anything that's in that packet that uh before I go into kind of the process for tonight?

All right, it's yeah, it's pretty straightforward stuff.

Um I think the the process for tonight uh I've got the first applicant that is standing by right now.

Um, as soon as the assembly is ready, I will give them a text and they will uh join in.

Umce they are in um then the mayor will start with uh introductions and go kind of around Robin for introductions from the assembly.

Um we'll allow the applicant to provide a uh quick introduction as well, and then from there be round robin questions, um, starting wherever the mayor would like and including Katie uh in the process to make sure we don't miss Miss Her.

And um roughly 45 minutes total for the interview from the time we start, and then uh we're gonna you know mayor's gonna be guiding this, but attempting to make sure we have enough time at the end for um for the applicant to ask questions of you guys as well.

That's all I got.

Great, thank you.

And everybody kind of understand the process this evening.

Questions on any of that?

Uh Kevin, just because Katie is out of the room.

Do you mind starting out the the questions round robins this evening?

Sure.

Perfect.

That'd be great.

Um that way I can make sure we hit everybody except for started with Tor and it just wouldn't work quite as well.

So appreciate that.

Um, if there's nothing further from the body, we can get uh Jenny on the line, please.

I guess I will add while uh while Jenny's getting online here.

Um in the past we have viewed round one as kind of introductory uh meet and greet type questions.

Uh doesn't mean it has to be, um, but this is our opportunity to get to know the person, see if that they would be a fit in our organization.

Uh further down questionings often dig deeper into work history and work performance and and stuff like that.

Again, not limiting, but just kind of some thoughts there.

Uh Mr.

Mayor, you also just reminded me we try to be as consistent across both interviews tonight as well.

Um so if we ask something in the first in the first interview, let's try to ask it in the second one as well.

Jenny, did I see you join?

Yes, sir.

Hi, Jenny.

This is Josh Brantuover.

Glad to welcome you here tonight.

Um can you can you hear us just fine?

I can.

Um, I want to make sure my video is working because I'm like blank on my screen, so that makes me a little nervous.

You are what we see too.

Oh no.

Oh, okay.

She got to take a couple moments, get it uh get her figured out, and then we'll be right back.

Yes, please.

If you don't mind, I'm so sorry.

Yeah, no worries.

I'm actually gonna leave and come back in and see if that will fix it.

See, we'll see you back here in a second.

Yes, sir.

Yay, there we go.

Hi, Jenny.

Can you can you still hear us good?

Yes, sir.

Okay.

Um I'm gonna pass it off to the mayor here in just a moment.

Uh, but the kind of the process for tonight is gonna be an introduction from the assembly members.

Um they'll give you the opportunity to introduce yourself, and then they're gonna do a round robin um for roughly 45 minutes of questions, and then at the end, uh there'll be the opportunity for you to ask any questions of them.

Okay, do you have any questions before we start?

No, sir.

All right, thank you, Jenny.

Great.

Thank you, Jenny, for joining us tonight, and thank you for your application.

Um, as you know, we are looking for someone to lead our municipality forward into the future.

Uh, my name is Steven Eisenbeis.

Um here in the center.

Um, I serve as the mayor currently.

Um, we'll pass it off to my deputy mayor for an introduction, and then we'll go um around the room this way with our vice deputy mayor and do introductions.

Good evening.

Thank you for uh giving us your time.

Um my name's Tim Pike.

I'm serving as a deputy mayor at this time.

Welcome, Jenny.

So you can see my head from the screen.

Hi.

JJ Carlson, Vice Deputy Mayor.

Um thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you for your application.

Thank you for joining us tonight.

And I look forward to sharing an hour with you.

Great.

Thank you.

Oh, see you.

Hello, I'm Scotty Saline, assembly member.

Try to figure out an unprohibited question to ask you coming up here.

Okay.

Hi, Jenny.

Let's make uh my name's Kevin Mosher, uh on the assembly.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And I'm Tor Christensen, also an assembly member.

Um so look forward to hearing from you tonight.

Great.

Well, thank you all very much.

Hi Jenny, my name is Katie Riley.

I'm an assembly member as well.

I'm uh the newest elected of the crew.

Thanks for joining us tonight.

Thanks for watching.

Other Jenny, I want to give you an uh opportunity for an introduction of yourself and uh, you know, kind of some thoughts on why you applied and a little bit of uh a background for us before we jump into some questions for you.

Sure, no problem.

Um well, hello everybody.

Um good evening.

Um my name is Jenny Albert.

I am currently living in New Orleans.

Um I these questions always throws me a little bit because I'm always like, what do I say?

Um I I full disclosure, I actually went to college in in Sitka.

I went to SJ for about two years, way back in the 90s before they closed.

Um I have been in Colorado for probably the last 20 years.

I just moved to not just moved, feels like just moved new to new moved to New Orleans about five years ago.

Um I have been working in politics and government and state government for the last 20 something years.

Um why am I interested in this position?

Ironically, I have had thought about we just had a changeover in our administration.

Um, just had a new mayor.

I was luckily enough one of the few people that got kept on in the new administration.

Um, but there, you know, you there's always that time frame where you're like, oh, what's gonna happen?

What you know, are you gonna be kept on?

Are you gonna be let go?

Um, and then around that time, someone that I graduated with, who I think just retired as the fire from the fire department, uh, Craig, I saw he had posted about it, and I was like, oh my God, I haven't thought of Sitka in so long.

Let me see what's going on up there, you know.

So it was really just kind of a very welcome opportunity that kind of arose at the right time.

And I was just like, you know what, let's let's try it and see what happens.

Um so yeah, that's that's kind of me in a nutshell, I guess.

Uh great, thank you.

Appreciate that.

Um as this process gets uh as we get through this process, we'll get to know you much better, I am assuming.

So I appreciate that introduction.

Uh with that, we'll turn it over to Kevin Mosier for our first round of interview questions.

Hi, Jenny.

Uh Kevin again.

Um here's the question.

Uh Alaska municipalities depend heavily on state and federal resource revenues, which can be unpredictable.

Have you maintained or manage budget?

I'm sorry, how have you managed budget stability when expected revenues didn't come through?

And what strategies would uh you bring here, uh including any experience with community assistance programs and also how have you handled a mid-year shortfall.

I can repeat that question again if you'd like.

Okay, I think I got most of it.

Um wow, I would I would say ironically, I don't I don't know if you guys know very much about New Orleans, but we were actually in a 260 million dollar deficit right now.

Um so that's kind of was uh a big push from the new administration.

So all of our departments, and I'm the deputy director of safety and permits.

Um we just got our new director about three weeks ago.

So I've kind of been running that program of 105 people for the last two and a half, three months.

Um so the big challenge has been where can you cut hiring freezes?

Um where can you cut?

What can you do better?

How can you do it better with less money?

Um, and then also she kind of our new mayor gave us the the get go ahead and said, you know, you can't hire anybody, but if you can find grant funds to pay for them, feel free.

Um so we've kind of or I have been trying to find federal funds and just found a couple of grants that we're applying for currently that will hopefully allow us to bring in building inspectors and get supplies.

Um, some things that are very needed in our office because we're very short staffed in general.

Um and I think historically, my during my whole career I've I've usually worked for um nonprofits or government agencies and a usually I would say except for maybe probably the last one was always grant funded.

So that was a big big push in every position is you know, um have do more with less, but make sure you know people don't feel like you're doing less with more without more kind of thing, if that makes sense.

That's a little backwards in my brain.

Um, and then grant funding and doing what you can do to find grants.

Um, I think when it comes to state and state funding and state relationships, that is a key thing.

Um currently and working, well, let me backtrack when I worked in Colorado, I worked for the state.

Um, so it was a different side view.

Um, where I am now, we have to go to the state and do presentations and do ask, and when ledge session is in, try to corner staff, help help admit help the um legislators kind of go, okay, we really want to do this in New Orleans, you know, because you're you're constantly doing the elevator pitch to a legislator session, you know, you're trying to get them on your side, you're trying to build those relationships.

And what I have seen just from living here, I saw it a little bit in Denver.

Um, very much in New Orleans is a very political city.

It's a very um political city, it's a very communication-based city, and it's a very relation city.

So it's very much who you know, you know, who you went to college with, who you went to high school with is very big here.

Um, and so you have to kind of find that boundary or find that not boundary, that's not the right word, find that connection with someone, and then try to use that to help your own city or help your department.

Um, so everything is relationship-based, and I would think being this position that would for me would be very heavy because I'm coming back into the that society into the city, um, not having been there in 20 something years, um, and then into a new state.

So it's going to be a matter of picking as many brains as I could, asking as many questions, taking people out to coffee, having um conversations with anybody who will talk to me, um, and just kind of building that relationship.

Because I think if you have that, when you're in that crunch in the middle of middle of the year, which I think was your last part of your question, what do you do if all of a sudden you're in a shortfall?

If you have built those relationships, it's much easier to go to a legislative session or a legislature and say, hey, I'm I'm in a bind.

Can we is there some way that we can figure this out?

Is there is there a grant program?

Is there a loan?

That's one thing the city had to do was go to the state and actually request money to keep us open to and to pay bills um for the next couple of months.

So did I hit everything that you asked me?

I think I did.

I think you did just one follow-up kind of thing uh regarding the I don't know if um we have a list kind of list of uh pre-made list of questions to kind of guide us here.

Um experience with community assistance programs.

Are have you had experience uh liaison with um you know community nonprofits and organizations and trying to partner with uh city of New Orleans and any nonprofits that they have there?

Um here, not so much.

Well, yeah, not so much in my current position.

When I first came to New Orleans, I worked for criminal justice association in the city.

So our main goal or my main goal was the grants administrator.

Um so I had to reach out to the police departments and some nonprofits and kind of get them all to play together in the sandbox and kind of go, okay, we we I can I have this federal dollars.

What's the best way to use it that's going to not only increase services that the police can offer, um, but how is that going to impact and be helpful to the nonprofits and the NGOs that were in the area?

Um I I have to be honest, I started my career in nonprofits, you know.

So it's it's those connections is not anything new to me.

Um, you know, I mean, I I remember years ago when we were in a similar crunch when I was in a smaller nonprofit in Denver, it was, you know, you had to you the question would always be are is the lights gonna come on today, you know, or did we pay we make enough to pay the bills?

So I mean you're always cognizant of that sort of stuff when you work in nonprofits, so you're always looking for money, you're always making connections.

You're always trying to figure out what's the best way that I can serve the people that are depending on me.

So thank you.

Scotty Selene here.

I'm I'm kind of looking for somebody that uh, you know, like the city spends a lot of money training people on commercial driver's licenses, and it's kind of like a locked-in deal of throwing money at the curriculum and you got to travel and stuff, and then not too long after getting that, a better job comes up, whether you're gonna be on ice road truckers or whatever, but you're out of here.

And you know, like for the city to be able to uh have the administrator figure out how to get a credited by teaching it here in town from the city, and then like not spending that money, but having somebody at the city that could pass that curriculum, you know, because they are our drivers anyway.

But would you, you know, like when you're talking about the grant funding and then like the police and you know, grant to get a bulletproof vest or whatever, but uh, you know, I don't know how to make an analogy on that from the police to you know commercial driving education, but uh, you know, with everything going on here with you know our schools and every little bit of money that we can save by fixing it ourselves or teaching it ourselves.

I just wondering if uh you're catching my drift as far as where you can look for uh doing stuff in in-house, you know, and it's it's a whole industry here in Alaska for commercial continuing education.

It's pretty pathetic, and it'd be a breakaway move for a borough to or for a city to take care of that curriculum themselves and be able to chart that and then spend the money other places in town.

Hoping you heard me there.

I'm not too thank you.

No, you're fine.

Um off the top of my head, I kind of am comparing that to a situation I have right now in safety and permits, is that we have inspectors, building inspectors, and commercial inspectors, and we're trying to get them all certified in everything.

So the building code and the commercial code, um, because that way we're not competing with third party inspectors.

I don't know if y'all have those there.

Um so we can do everything.

We can send one inspector out and and kind of get them to cover the entire house and everything that's occurring in the house.

How we're doing that is there's actually a um in our state constitution here in Louisiana, there's you can apprentice almost to if you have a certified building official on staff, if someone can apprentice for a year um under them, they actually get that secondary license.

So it's kind of a provisional for six months, and then after six months of just working, they get that license.

Um, and I say all that because I'm kind of wondering if there wouldn't be a something similar.

Um, I would clearly would have to look into the law and see what you have available.

I think that's one option.

Is there somebody on staff that would be willing to and we it would have to be a spend out, obviously.

I mean, you'd have to spend out a little bit of money to get that that accreditation for that one staff member or two staff members, um, and kind of do a train the trainer.

And if you have a accredited staff person, then you can run the class right there on site, you know, and do the training right there on site.

So that way you're not losing people or not spending the money to send them, you know, to another city or to get that education somewhere else.

Um so I think that's a I mean it's a it's a great question.

I mean, it's a I was gonna say it's a great problem, but it's really not, I mean, no problem is great, but I think it's a great avenue to kind of think outside the box a little bit.

Um I I'm off the top of my head, real quick, I'm thinking I like the train the trainer idea.

Um I think you can get, and again, different different area of the country, so it would have to pend on what's around.

Um people like we have now, we will pay a small fee or get people to know they donate their time to come in and do CLEs to our inspectors, um, usually for free or for a very well now we can't afford it, but at a minimal minimal cost.

Um, so I think there's always, and there's unusually with some of the companies a little bit of a sales pitch, so you kind of have to take that on, you know, when they're coming in.

So you could have somebody come in and say, Oh, I can do this portion of the CL of your CDL, right?

But you're also kind of like how you in the old days when you would go to um a condo or a uh timeshare, time share.

That's what I'm thinking of of a timeshare, you know, you've got you're there and you see this gorgeous timeshare, but you have to sit through the the presentation to you know have the cool weekend.

So it's kind of like listen to the presentation and then use what they give you to train your own people from that.

It's kind of a long-winded answer.

So I my apologies for that, but that's kind of where my brain went.

No, good enough.

You took me right to the flaggers, you know, like the road flaggers and that certification.

And I think that's where I'm gonna pick up my trail and then try to branch off into this other stuff.

Thank you for helping me focus in on my tunnel.

No problem.

No problem.

Hopefully it'll work.

Hey Jenny, JJ here.

Um kind of picking up a little bit on the on that on, you know, SICA's a remote island in Southeast Alaska.

We don't have a road system to connect us to the next town over.

Um, so as a municipality, um, we do a lot.

And connecting that to also this time of year, April, we're in our you know, fiscal planning process.

So you got one question about budget.

Uh the other big piece of our fiscal planning is the capital plan.

Um, because we have assets, we have roads, we have buildings, um, we have systems, water, sewer, um, electric department, all of that is within the municipality.

Um, so in infrastructure in Alaska is expensive and complicated.

So with your experience, you mentioned nonprofits, um, safety and permits.

Um, what like large scale um significant capital project planning or just project management experience do you have?

Um, well, I I will be up front.

I have not done capital project planning.

Um in the larger cities that I've I've worked at in Denver and in New Orleans, there's always a separate division or a separate department that handles capital.

Um, so they really don't I think to a little bit to a detriment kind of silo themselves in that in that way.

Um but I can tell you for just project planning, I have done that throughout my career.

Um example that that I could use was from Colorado before I left the regulation office.

We were looking at or they were throwing out they wanted to redo our whole computer system.

Um great, sure, you know, get pulled into these meetings with with these executives, and they're like, Well, we want to do this, we want to do that.

And so I just kind of raised my hand and I'm like, um, question have y'all y'all are making these decisions, but has anybody talked to the people doing the job?

And they're like, Well, what do you mean?

I was like, how do you know this is gonna work?

You know, you're not you haven't gotten feedback from anybody.

Um probably not the brightest point of my career because next thing I know, I was given, hey, this is now your project, make it work, you know, because they you came up with this idea.

So basically I had to take eight months and sit down with over 200 staff members, and we would pick um all levels, you know, from the the case managers up to attorneys up to program directors and kind of find out what worked for each of them, what did not work in the current system, and we kind of use that feedback to develop the system that they have now.

Um and the project management of that came in because it was weekly meetings, it was weekly getting people to play together in the sandbox um and do that quite a bit because you had you know, everybody unfortunately can get naturally a little territorial about what they do and how they do it.

Um so kind of working people through that and realizing that you know if if you if you just focus on what you do, that's great, that area will be good.

But if you win the lottery tomorrow, what's gonna happen to all your colleagues because they don't have that knowledge that you have.

So let's you know, make sure everybody hears it, everybody shares it.

Um because that in the in itself, you know, if if you can break down silos and get people to work together, that's really what happens and what makes it work.

Um, so it was a lot of getting them eight months of getting them to an agreement, which took some time, and then working with the developers and staying on top of the developers because it was a multi multi-million dollar investment for the state, and you know, at one year and one year and a half, the state with the governor was like, Okay, where are you at?

You know, you took my money.

Where's where's my program?

You know, so we were had to, I was one of the point people to make sure with the developers that we stayed on track and that everything got done.

And is there anything you can share with the outcome of that project?

Is it still an option?

It's still, yeah, it's still working.

Um my work colleague that I that I worked with is now the executive of that office of Dora.

Um, and they still use it and it works well.

I mean, no system is ever 100%.

Um, but I think it is from what I understand, it's much better and has gotten better because they keep tweaking things, you know, as you as you start working with systems, you tweak them.

Um, and he says it's you know still working and still great.

So and did you manage um the budget through that process as well, or did was there a lump sum um you just it was a lump sum.

Um I would have to sign off on the on the billings each month.

Um, so yes, manage in some respects, um, but it was more one portion of the overall multi-million dollars, you know.

It was, you know, you're gonna sign off on this piece because these developers were working with you during this time frame.

So making sure that we were not being overcharged, that we were getting what we paid for, that you know, if they said they worked 40 hours that we actually have um examples of what they did, that we could show what they did, that we had, you know, documentation basically.

And getting towards the end of that project, did you need to prioritize anything because you couldn't cover costs for all of the ones and needs?

Unfortunately, yes, and we actually started doing that at the beginning because we knew once we have started the conversations with all the staff, their wish list was so big, it was kind of unrealistic and having to explain to them that you know, okay, yeah, we we want them trying to think of a crazy example.

Um this is not a good not the correct thing, but like we really want the the purple skybock, you know.

We really need that, but we're gonna have to bring it down to a yellow escalator and kind of get them to understand that you know we may not and we can't get to that because we can't afford that.

This is the next best thing, and kind of explaining and taking the time to walk people through um knowing because I mean we've you can forecast basically anything, you know.

Um we forecasted and we knew what we were going to be short on.

So we tried to be upfront with people on yes, it's great to ask for the moon, we can maybe get you a constellation kind of thing, you know, we're gonna pull it back a little bit and had that those hard conversations happened in the very beginning.

So when we had to pull back even further when the money did run short, it wasn't as much of a um sky is falling reaction.

It was just more of a oh, okay, yeah, we expected this.

Great.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

Uh so Jenny, I'm curious if you have reviewed our municipal code and municipal charter.

And if so, uh, what was the most interesting you part you found of either of those?

And then what was the most contrasting part from your current operations?

Um I glanced, I'm not I'm not even gonna try to lie about that.

I took a glance at those things because I was intrigued that it was a home rule charter, um, which is very similar to the two big cities that I lived in.

So I kind of was curious about that.

I will say most of my research was more on the budgeting side and the different departments.

Um so I did not, we I did not look at your Muni code in the depth that I probably should have.

So my apologies for that.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh Tim Pike here.

So um obviously the administrator is the uh leader of our team, all of our work, uh all of our the people who work for the city work for the administrator.

Um can you tell us about your collect and of course we have collective bargaining agreements with a number of our unions here?

Can you tell us about your collective bargaining experience?

How you would prepare prepare for negotiations and what is your underlying philosophy on the relationship between management and organized labor.

Wow, that's that's a big question.

Um we have we have a pretty decently strong union here in New Orleans that is that does for all that works for all of our um 1500 employees in the city.

Um and we actually just re-signed last couple months ago um a new agreement with them and a new role set.

Um previously my experience with them has been not during that not during that process.

Um I will say I've done negotiations with several other entities over the years, just not here in that capacity.

Um how do I feel about it?

I think unions have a very good place, but I think it needs to be a partnership.

Um, I think my experience has been, and I think it really depends on the leadership of that union, and then sometimes I think it can depend on the the steward and that who is in the office.

Um if you as a leadership or as an executive have a good relationship with that with your compadre, with your with your alternative leadership in the union.

Um, it's much easier to get something done.

Um, I think you have to be aware and cognizant that you're not always going to get everything you want.

They're not always going to get everything they want.

Um, I think that's the whole point of compromise and the whole point of collective bargaining.

Um, but I also think coming at it from an executive side, it was always whenever I've had to do that or do any kind of negotiations or mediations, it's always know what your bottom line is before you walk into the room.

You need to know what you know, what you all as an assembly and what the mayor thinks is this is the least that we can give on right here.

This is our land line in the sand.

Um, and you try really hard to not get to that line, you know.

So you want to maybe the line or the the drop dead is a 20% on whatever negotiation, you know, so you're gonna offer 50, you know, never they're never gonna accept 50, you know, but that's your starting point.

So then you've got you know, a good ways to to negotiate.

Um so I think that that to me that's the key is you kind of have to know where your bottom line is, where you're where your stopping point is, um, and not deviate from that, not cave on that, not get in the middle of it, because if if you let emotions get into it and you let personalities get into it, um, that can often also make negotiations very difficult.

Um and I think, and I have been in the room and in negotiations with people who will um try to use that, you know.

So it's it's good to kind of again being a new person to the city and to the area.

It's like okay, then that's when you start asking questions.

That's when you have like the sidebar conversations, and you know, okay, I have got to go meet with Jane over here or John.

Tell me about them, you know, what do they know?

So I think you almost have to do your background on the people that you're going to be negotiating with because again, it's relational, everything is relational.

Um, and you need to kind of know where their sticking points have been, where have where what in the past have they said no, I'm done, you know, and I'm I'm done on this, and I'm not gonna cave because usually from year to year, that hasn't that doesn't change with most people or most organizations.

Um the answer you're how do I feel about the relationship or about unions in general?

I think that can be very good.

Um, I think again, it depends.

I think I hate to say that I hate to say it depends, but it really does depend on who's leading it, how they feel.

Um the politics of that situation will come in hard and heavy, especially if it's a new relationship that you're trying to build.

Um, I'm not I'm I know I'm not answering your question directly, so I'm I'm trying to figure out how I can do that.

Um I I think that they think they're good and bad, you know.

I think they're like anything.

I think you know, I think they're if they come to the table with you know, in their heart and in their spirit, they want to do the best thing for their constituents, then absolutely we can work together and we can make this work.

But I think if you have someone who comes to the table and says it's my way or the highway, then you then you got a bigger problem, then you're starting from a negative, you know, and and I I hate to see that because I hate to see people who need that union protection, not receive it because they're being led by someone who is not capable of leading them, if that makes sense to you.

Yes, it does.

Thank you very much.

Very long-winded today.

I apologize.

Um nice seeing you on here.

And this question, I suspect, given where you live and what it is not gonna be unusual to you.

So um, as I'm sure you know, uh, tourism is one of our main industries.

And uh, I think it was when you were here at SJ, which by the way is more like 30 plus years ago, not 20.

I know it just seems that way of yesterday to me too.

Um but um so there's you know, there's as often a little bit of tension there where we as a city want to try and promote uh economic activity, but we also have members of the community that find it uh you know a pain to have tourists running around everywhere, and some people love having the tourism here, and some people hate them, and most of us are in the middle.

Uh and like I said, I suspect you are familiar with that in New Orleans.

So how would you approach that?

If you get this job, you're gonna be dealing with that on a regular basis.

Uh some people screaming that we need to shut things down, and others that we need to open them up wide open.

Uh so how would you approach that?

Okay.

Um, well, I think that's very interesting.

It's an interesting question, and you're right, absolutely.

Tourism is is our bread and butter in this city.

Um, it really is.

It's and ironically, I live in the middle of the French quarter, so I I live in the middle of tourism central.

Um, so when I walk outside every day, um I think what having people that move to here or move to Sitka, I think you kind of what I have found recently, having been here for a few years is is that you have people that come here and they come here for the culture.

They come here because they like the second lines, they like Mardi Gras, they like the festivals, they like all these things.

And then when they're here for a year or two, they're like, oh my God, all these tourists are everywhere.

You know, so it's kind of like, okay, I think you're forgetting why you moved here, why this city is so special.

Um so I think truthfully, I I I would one of my first questions when I when I thought about this position was was the tourism, you know, and having remember, you know, summer and cruise ships and you know, the whole, you know, crowded walking down downtown, um, because there's always tons of people on from in the city.

Is it's you you have again it's a balance, it's a balance and it's a hard balance.

And I think you have to understand in some level you're not gonna make everyone happy, and and but the key to tourism, and I think the key here, and I I would bring it there too, is that's part of your culture.

You know, people are not just coming to they're coming, they're spending money, they're they're paying taxes, they're doing all these things because they want to see and enjoy what you see and enjoy every day and why you live why you choose to live there.

Um, or if you were born there, why you chose not to leave, you know.

So I know you're gonna have natives, native um Native Alaskans, native sitkins, um, who are gonna be like, oh, you know, but there when you kind of kind of have to trade it off, you know.

It's like, yes, they can be a hassle.

There are ways to organize it.

There are ways to um we have gotten very good here.

Um, and we have actually have a culture and economic cultural economy office.

Um, and part of what they do and the major major of things that they do is designing and making um the conventions that come, the the Mardi Gras events, the parades, I mean, all these things is we take it and turn it up and try to make everybody see that yes, it may be a pain, you know, for you to get from you know, your car and get downtown, you know, you're gonna have a hassle and you're gonna see 1,500 tourists on a Saturday.

But next week when they're gone, you know, or the end of the season, think about all of that tax base that was just brought in, you know.

If if you or your mom or your dad or your your best friend runs a restaurant, they're coming to that restaurant to eat, they're spending money, they're here to enjoy what's so special about the city and what's so special about the island, you know.

So I think it's um it's not an easy conversation because especially when people get dug in, you know, and it's like, oh, this is my home and I want to enjoy enjoy it.

It's yes, but you know, we can't be isolationists, because if you're isolationist, then you know you're never gonna go anywhere.

You're not gonna grow, you're not your city's not gonna get better.

Um I think I would almost come in and try to either create some sort of cultural department or if there's not one, or somehow use that and maybe on the off season, you know, uh if there is one, um there's not one here, which you you learn over the years.

There's definitely not an off season, but in the off season, do more things that are just locals, you know, have parades and events and shows and things that maybe don't cost little to no money that you are now giving back to the citizens.

So they feel like they're getting something out of the tourists that show up.

If that makes sense.

Sure.

Thank you.

Thanks.

Um the job responsibilities of the municipal administrator are extensive and highly dynamic.

You're budgeting, your managing, recruiting, and leading uh a large team.

There's a large public relations component, government relations, um, as you mentioned.

We have a highly professionalized staff that you get to work with and rely on to cover these areas, but also you are in the top leadership position if you um were in this job and the assembly holds you accountable for the actions of your team.

And so I'm wondering what are the aspects of the job that you are most and least excited about.

Hmm.

I would say most excited is I'm assuming these numbers are kind of close.

Is the city employees was 39 is what I found online, so a little over 300.

Um right now I I am in charge of 105 people, and it's very interesting.

And I kind of I love having that kind of diversity and that kind of um challenge because you get so many personalities in those hundred and five people, and and your doors always open, and there's always somebody in there with a question, you know.

Hey Jeannie, can I ask this?

What about this?

What about this?

Um, so I think that's that is a blessing and a curse for me because you kind of have to figure out where your boundaries are and where you have to say, okay, you know what?

I'm gonna need you to go and speak to somebody else before you come to me.

So I think that's having access to double the number that I have now, um, or a little over double would be the challenge.

Um, but I think it'll be a good challenge.

I mean, I I kind of think that would be awesome to kind of um work with so many people of so many different backgrounds.

Um I think Alaska to me is it was when I was there, and I and it in some respects, I think it's not New Orleans, it's clearly, but I think it's very similar mindset, you know, people go there for a reason, they move there for a reason, you know.

So I think when you can take the time to find out what brought them there, you know, kind of like New Orleans.

A lot of people were drawn here for a reason.

Um, and when you can figure out what that is, and then you and help grow that.

I think the one thing I love about my job and I have loved doing for the last 20 something years is growing people.

Um I went to back to law school at 37.

Um, so I was an older student, so having the experience that I had and then and then taking the taking the leap of going off to law school at that age, um, made me really kind of look at things very differently.

Um, and I think bringing that and realizing that there are two sides to every story, there's often 15 sides to every story, you know, and you have to take the time and find out why people are there.

Excuse me.

Um, I think the challenge, another challenge.

Um, there are some parts in some of the look like 19 departments.

That was really one of my question was in the in what I could research that this position is in charge of the departments, and so is it 19 people reporting to them?

Is that how that works, or is there layers there?

So that would be one of my questions.

Uh, I think there is, I mean, there's different numbers of employees in each department that report to a department head, and then you oversee the department heads report directly to you.

I think it's like 13 to 16 people, yeah.

Okay, okay.

That's not bad.

That's not bad at all.

Um so yeah, I think some of the departments are ones that I don't know.

Um, public works know very little.

I mean, we work with them.

Um, I work with them every day on different permits, different things that are going on in safety and permits.

Um, but I don't know enough that I would feel comfortable, you know, jumping in on day one and saying, Yeah, oh sure, let's take this on and do this.

So I think the challenge for me would be that education piece.

Um taking the time, knowing and not a lot of time can be taken, obviously, because you want somebody to come in and jump in and take over and do the job, but it's gonna have gonna have to need or really would have to take a little bit of time to sit down with people and find out where the barriers are, where the transitions need to be, what's the goals, what's going on, what hasn't worked, what has worked, um, and kind of using all that and then preparing transition plans, or this is what we think we want to go to, or bringing that to all of you and saying, okay, this is what I've heard, this is what sounds like a good idea.

Can I try it?

You know, so I think getting that um would be not a challenge, it would be a little bit of a challenge for me because I don't have a little bit more autonomy right now in the role that I'm in.

Um, I mean, everybody has boss.

So kind of the way I look at it, it would just be several bosses at this point, you know.

Um, so yeah.

Yeah, and a follow-up to that.

I mean, you you that's a good observation.

You do have uh seven different bosses, and um, I think that we work really well as a body, but uh, you know, the bosses change every year, and um part of your job in addition to managing the entire team at the city is managing the relationship with the assembly and carrying out the will of the assembly.

Um, even if it uh you know, at times might contradict with your um personal recommendation or your professional recommendation.

So I'm wondering um what kind of experience do you have in navigating relationships um between your position uh as uh you know the administrator and um the elected officials um that are represented or that are elected to represent the community.

Right, absolutely.

Um we have a very strong city council here, um, and we have to I think quite honestly, I'm I'm surprised my phone has not gone off because there are they are our constituents and their constituents are very active, so they will constantly um I've gotten phone calls on Saturdays, Sundays.

You know, this person, like we just had a really bad cold spell, um, and we had a woman had a gas leak, and we there was no one who could come and turn it on or or get the permit through to turn it on.

So I had the city council president on my phone going, you gotta fix this.

And I'm like, yeah, absolutely.

We can't have excuse me, child popscalls, you know, so we can't that there's gotta be done.

So I think having that relationship um was crucial because I think if if he didn't know me or he didn't know that I was gonna pick up the phone on Saturday when he called, that would have been a much bigger dramatic issue.

Um I mean, I I I did get to view some of y'all's um assembly meetings, and I will tell you you're much calmer than what I'm used to.

Um if you ever are bored or want good drama, watch a New Orleans City Council meeting.

It's it's very dramatic.

Um it's you know, I think it it I hate, I feel like a broken record, but it's it's relational.

I think you have to have, you know, in and knowing that you're in a you know, you're on an island, you're gonna see these people, you're gonna see each other, you're gonna see your bosses in the grocery store, you're gonna see them at dinner, you're gonna see them at church, you're gonna see them more matter where you are.

You can't really ever get away from that in this kind of position.

Um, and I think that's something I've learned here, especially in the last few years is that you have to figure out where your boundaries are and know how and when to have those conversations with the city council or the assembly, use the right term, the assembly people or the mayor, or you know, your your direct report, because you know you or I am a representative of everything that they do, and that is a management philosophy I've always had.

Um, it's I would always tell people that I'm supervising it's you know, I want to know how to do everything because if you leave or if everybody gets the flu and nobody can come in, services still have to happen.

You know, I if I'm the only one there, I need to be able to do that.

I need to be able to answer the phone when you guys call.

Um may not do the job as well as they do, but at least it gets done, you know.

Um so I think it all comes back to that.

It all comes back to in my mind, education, training, cross-training, having an open door, making a relationship, knowing, especially in such a smaller community that you're gonna see people, you know, when you leave the house, you know, um, when you run to this grocery store, they're they're gonna see you, and they're like, oh, hey, I have this question, you know.

Um, that happened to me at very early in my career.

I was working in social services, and I would have clients see me at Walmart and stop me in the middle of Walmart and say, Oh, Miss Jenny, I have this question and I need this and I need this.

And I'm like, okay, hold on.

It's Saturday.

I cannot do anything for you right now.

Please call me Monday at eight o'clock and I will take care of it.

Unless it was an emergency, then I was like, okay, let me see what I can do, you know.

But um, so yeah.

You know, Jenny, sometimes we do these interviews and 45 minutes seems like an eternity.

Uh, in this instance, I think we uh barely scratched the surface with you, unfortunately.

Um, seems like there's a lot that we could uh we could still learn.

Um, but I do want to give you an opportunity before we wrap up this evening to uh have uh a couple minutes of a closing comments, um, or if you had any questions for us.

Um, yeah, we have about five minutes left in this uh period this evening.

Well, I I will share this on the screen.

These were all my questions.

There's like 10 of them, but I will not go crazy and ask you all of them.

Um probably my my biggest question is is what you all consider the greatest strength of the city.

What if you if you had to give me one thing that you all think that you do the best?

What would that be?

Well, I think you're gonna get seven very diverse opinions about that, but that's uh that is what makes our strength.

Um for me, I'm just gonna say the fact that sitkins love sitka dearly, and uh we unify for causes in most instances, uh, just as with the rest of the nation, we've had division.

Um, but sitka will always be sitka and sitkins love our town.

Yeah, if I could just pitch in that I was thinking that same thing.

The the biggest thing that comes to me is sitcans uh love this community and they love each other.

I mean, obviously there's some issues, but um, people by and large try to put uh a lot of their differences aside and really pitch in for each other and are people of service and dedication.

Yeah, I mean I I would add that it may be part of the reason for that is that we are very diverse economically for a town of our sal size.

I mean, there's wildly different jobs here, and uh, and then diverse in the traditional sense of the word where we've got people of all backgrounds, and uh we all have to work together, and that's part of why sitka is sitka.

I mean, we pull together because there aren't enough in my mind, there isn't enough people in one group to make up there's just so many other small groups that we make one big group.

So gotcha, gotcha.

Awesome.

Um, and then I have a question for just generally.

Um what do you all consider?

What is what's the main in in one month, three months, six months.

I mean, if I were to get this position, what's success gonna look like to you?

Is it that somebody shows up every day?

I mean, just kidding.

I would hope that's not role of success, but kind of what are you looking for?

What do you what do you hope to achieve by bringing someone in three months?

What's the what's your North Star that you can go, oh my god, she's doing a great job.

Boom, she got this accomplished.

That's that's what I'm curious to hear.

That's a good question.

Um, you know, I think cont continuity and advancement, right?

I mean, I think uh I think there's a lot we have a lot of plate spinning as you want, whatever analogy you want to put in there, uh any metaphor, but um there's lots of things in the air, lots of stuff moving forward, and and we uh want to continue to see that going forward.

The the community is beginning to see the fruits of their of their efforts and labors, and so success would be continuity and advancement, so you know, and continued um communications with our community.

So that would be success if you're looking down the road.

Gotcha.

Okay.

I would say also um success for me is as I mentioned, you have uh a very professional team here in SICA, very hardworking um city employees.

Uh, it's really important to me that they feel supported by the new administrator, and um, and so employee um satisfaction, retention, uh feeling supported would be really important to me, and then as well, how um how able they are to continue carrying out their jobs and and the priorities that we've laid out for them.

What Katie just said um kind of is a good summary of one of our fourth, the fifth pillar of our strategic plan service.

So I think that's a a good guidepost of what success would be is completion or you know, active pursuit of the strategic plan.

Okay.

For me, success will be more people running for the assembly and more people thinking that the assembly is running the town and not the administrators running the town.

And you know, that's part of the deal on such a short station, a duty station, you know, for this job throughout the state and the current guys put everything into it, and it takes a lot out of them.

And like there are so many decisions that have been made in town, and you know anyway, it just be that would be what I'd be marking success if people would just feel that the town's being run by who elected it and not have the appearance of the administrator calling the shots and taking the blame for everything in town that's got people chapped.

Thank you.

I guess I would say to a certain extent, and that don't take this wrong, that we want that in a lot of ways we hardly notice that we have a new administrator.

Um whoever takes over for John.

John has done a lot of work behind the scenes.

We are much more organized than we used to be.

Um and to see that continued.

And you know, hopefully, if it's you, you know, you get to make your mark, and it's a positive one.

And I guess what I would say is real success is in about six or eight months.

Somebody stops me at I was gonna say CMART, but maybe Lakeside, um, and says uh, you know, good job.

You guys did a nice job hiring that person.

And to me, that would be probably the miss the idea of success.

Thank you.

Well, Jenny, we have run up uh to our time constraints this evening.

Uh so we do appreciate you.

Uh we do have another interview scheduled this evening.

Um so we do need to take a break before that happens.

Um but thank you so much for your time this evening, and uh the assembly will be in touch.

Great.

Well, thank you all so much.

I appreciate the opportunity.

Um I hope I get a chance to talk to you again and hopefully work with you all in the future.

Um have a great night.

Thank you, you two.

Thank you.

Okay, assembly.

Uh, we do have a brief period here before the next uh interview.

So if you need a break or stretch your legs or anything, and then uh be seated when we're ready, we can get our next applicant online.

Awesome.

Looks like we do.

Looks like you hear me all right.

I can hear you, yes.

Great, Josh.

It looks like we're all set for our next uh interview.

Steve, can you hear me?

Oh, he's not on the Steve, can you hear me?

I can hear you.

Can you hear me?

There we go.

Yeah, I got you loud and clear.

Uh my name's Joshua Brandover.

Um we're going to uh to do a quick uh we're gonna see if we can move your screen around a little bit.

Uh Sarah, can you?

Oh, there's really nothing much to look at, so feel free now that direction.

That was it.

All right, I think maybe we just stick with what we already had.

There you go.

You want to, but then we can't see Katie.

Okay.

All right.

Uh thank you for joining us, Steve.

We're gonna go through um the process tonight is gonna be roughly 45 minutes of uh for an interview.

Um we're gonna have introductions from our assembly members, and then we'll give you the opportunity to introduce yourself.

The questions will be asked in a round robin format, and um uh as we go around the the room and uh um through Zoom here, and at the end there will be an opportunity for you to ask the assembly any questions that you have.

Okay, uh great, thank you.

Uh Steve or Steven Steve.

Okay, thank you, uh Steve.

Um, my name is Stephen Eisenweiss.

Um we were just laughing and joking how confusing it would be if both of us sat at this table.

But uh I I serve as the mayor of the city and borough of Sitka.

Okay, good evening.

Thank you for uh giving us some of your time.

My name's Tim Pike, and I'm the deputy mayor.

Hi Steve, I'm JJ.

I am vice deputy mayor, and it's it's great to have you here.

I appreciate you giving us an hour, and I look forward to hearing from you.

Um appreciate the time.

Steve Scotty, Selene here, assembly member.

Good evening.

Hi, Steve.

Kevin Mosier, assembly member.

Good evening.

Tor Christensen, Assembly member.

And Katie Riley, Assembly Member.

Good evening.

Good evening.

Uh so Steve, we'll have uh uh an opportunity for you to introduce yourself as well, and then we'll uh jump right into some questions from the assembly.

We'll try and wrap up uh about five minutes short or five or ten minutes short, so that uh we can give you an opportunity for either a closing statement or uh some questions that you may have as well.

So uh please a brief introduction of yourself and uh why you desire to be the next uh administrator of the city and borough sitcom.

Well, um as I say, my name is Steve Dahl.

I have a master's of management from Oklahoma University Academy Graduate School of Management and a certificate alternative speech resolution from the law school.

Um and I like to solve problems, that's figure out better ways to solve problems besides attorneys.

And um I've been working in local government for the last 15 years, started out in as an economic development coordinator for the county of um Grant County in Oregon.

Went to um the economic development corridor for Grant County, Oregon, which is this grant to pass Oregon, which is a city, and then I started doing city management in Phoenix, Drain, and Dundee, Oregon.

Um, what's interesting about um SICKA is I'm getting a little tired of just being um lack of better from the sole proprietor.

I have staff that works for me, but all the research, all the um communication was um council, all the communication was um communities and stuff like that has been pretty much been through me.

And you know, I wrote I wrote grants, I did all that stuff.

So I'd like to be able to manage people a little bit more and to help build people a little bit more, um, which is another thing I like to do, and it's one of the reasons I got into um city management is I can help build people and help them grow as managers and leaders and also workers.

I'm a little bit tired of Oregon.

I've known the politics here for the last 15 years, 20 years, um, and so I'm looking for a new challenge, a new place where I don't know pretty much everybody, and where I can um learn and explore a new part of life.

And Alaska seems to be the place to do it.

And um I've really enjoyed the time I um was up in Alaska, and I forgot to give it a shot.

Uh thank you.

Well, rest assured it won't take uh 15 years for you to know everybody here either.

Um just to give you a heads up, uh, either your connection or our connection is a little choppy right now.

Um so if we do it didn't take me 15 years either, but you know okay.

Yeah, your connection or our connection is a little bit choppy.

So if uh if we do have to come back to it, um that that would be why.

So Kevin, please.

Hi, Steve.

Um here's my question.

Alaska municipalities depend heavily on state and federal resource uh revenues, which can be unpredictable.

How have you managed budget uh stability when expected revenues didn't come through?

And what strategies would you bring here?

Uh also have you do you have any experience with community assistance programs?

Uh I'm gonna also ask on their um or add on their um nonprofits.

And uh have you also another add-on is how have you handled a mid-year shortfall?

I can repeat this question as well if you'd like.

Okay, let me make sure I understand what you're asking.

Um, how do I manage abuse when I have um possible uh shorted shortages or inconsistent revenue coming in from the federal or state government?

Um the second one what do I work with nonprofits?

Are you talking it like that?

Those type of organizations, and um the third one was what again?

I'm sorry.

Yeah, so you did cut out uh a bit, but yes, uh the basic question is how do you um handle uh you know budgets and uh any shortfalls and basically um do you have any experience with uh nonprofits and as well as you know, if during budget season uh or in mid mid-year, actually, when you've had shortfalls.

Basically, how have you handled budgets when you don't have enough money?

Okay, um, I'm assuming you're gonna hear me, so I'll talk if you don't if you don't hear me, then you know, wave your hand or something, I'll try um doing it again.

Um well, if when you first start doing the budget, you don't maximize out your expected revenues and you expect expenses to meet that bugged budget.

I try to put a little wiggle room in the budget where I go with revenues lower than expected, and I go um with expenses a little bit higher.

So hopefully we can get a little bit of that going on in there.

So if there's a change in the money coming in from any perspective, again, depending on what what goes on, um, a place where you can take the money from to be able to cover a short or when you're a short-term um for that budget year, then you can pretty much do that.

Um, for example, if you you have um, you know, if it's that you're 100,000 short and you have a um a hundred thousand dollars in reserves, you can take it that year.

It's not you mean to keep that budget year correct.

Um plan for not having that money the next year and working that that direction.

If there's anything like that, Steve, I'm gonna jump in here for just a second.

Um, we're having a really hard time on this side here.

And do you would you mind trying to cut your video seeing if we can get a little bit more bandwidth so we can hear uh your response to the questions?

Okay.

Thank you.

Let's try that.

Hopefully, this will work better.

Um again, what I'm you know, if we if you're looking like your halfway through the year and you're gonna be short on it is if you have anything in reserves, you can pull that out for one year and you try to replace it later on.

Um and if you have you have to get to the point where you are that badly on it, then you um you have to start talking about laying off people because not something that I want to do, not something that um is something I encourage doing, but if you're gonna be you know a quarter million dollars short in your general fund, then you gotta figure out what's not helped paying its way and then work in that direction throughout.

You can also do borrowing fund or it's another fund that direction, then pay it back next year.

There's some tricks that you can do that way.

It depends on what direction the council wants to go, but those are some of the options I've seen.

As for working with um nonprofits, I've worked with nonprofits um in a lot of ways.

Um, in back to grants past, I worked with um the food bank to help them get um a new place in town to be able to provide more service to their um the people who needed it.

Um I've you know worked with um other food banks and other locations like in DRAIN, um, making sure that city money that went to that was uh set to that money to the um food bank in the the drain area during COVID and work that direction.

So those are just some of the things that you can do.

Um, but you need to sit down and figure out what's again what's what's allowed by law, and but part of it is actually beginning when you start the planning process, making sure that you aren't spending every single penny that's coming in, and then you give yourself a little bit of room.

Um, like you know, for example, with property tax, actually with you guys sales taxes, I might do a five or ten percent decrease on sales taxes as my in my budgeting process to give that little re-room if we need it.

Thank you.

We're hearing you broken, Steve.

I'm gonna try this to Scotty.

Uh my question's gonna try to be quick.

Uh, it's like with budget shortfalls and uh about having to send city staff off island for training and uh like about the possibilities like a commercial driver's license about having somebody at staff that would take over training for the for the revolving door of uh city employees that have to get certain certifications that just add to expense that really could be covered, you know, um in the city staff.

Uh did you hear that?

No.

And uh, you know, sitka being such a small town, I just can't figure out how Sitka's gonna be able to do it with everybody losing teachers and stuff.

So finding money in with more deferred maintenance and you know, figuring out sweat equity so the city's fixing its own equipment.

Uh that's what I'm looking for, amongst all the other management aspects about being a administrator.

You picked that up.

Sweat equity, Scotty.

Okay, can everyone hear me now?

We can at this point.

Okay.

Um good.

Um but let's start with the second question again so I can hear it and then I can um try to answer it and hopefully it won't be too disturbed.

Yep, we'll jump back in with uh Scotty and his question.

Uh good on you coming back.

This has to do with uh finding money uh like in the uh in the vehicle of how it is now, like we get a new employee, you gotta fly him off the island, go get a CDL license.

Then two years later, that kid quits, gets a job, run a dump truck, or goes wherever those expense expenses, like if somehow the administrator could build into staff that meets state criteria to teach those courses that we need the credentials to fill the billets here instead of just having it go out to industry, which is all set up to suck up that money a continuing education credits that uh we could find here, you know, uh to keep the money here in the city, uh is what I was babbling about.

That make any sense to you.

Uh yeah, it does.

Actually, in Dun Z, um, we did that with our um plant operator.

Um he was good uh what was doing what he was doing, and I had him begin training um staff on how to do the affluent plant because one of my goals is always to have cross-trained as much as possible um within the city.

So if someone leaves or someone gets hurt or you know, somebody isn't there that day, then um we can actually get that whatever problem needs to be solved solved.

Um so yeah, I'm a I'm a you know, to me it's more of a cross-training issue and getting that done.

And if we can get people certified to get that CDL and stuff like that, then that's something we'd be able to offer again to the community as a whole.

Right on.

Sounds good.

Hey Steve, this is JJ.

Um with uh a bit of kind of combining aspects of those first two questions.

The first question being, you know, about budgeting, and the second one being about you know, us being on a remote island and how do we kind of maximize um you know strategies for for training and and our location.

Um but also thinking about it in like this phase in the year, you know, April, um, we're finishing up fiscal planning for our um our upcoming year, because we're at July one start.

Um but the other part of our fiscal planning um is our capital improvements program and looking at that kind of project management uh for our all of our assets as municipality here, kind of on the outer edge, not the inside passage.

Um we really provide as the city uh the a whole host of services for this community.

Um we've got roads, we do the sewer, we do water, we have electric departments, uh parks, all you know, you name it if the state's not providing it, it's pretty much us.

Um so thinking about your experience with capital projects or just project management in general, um, can you give us a summary um of your infrastructure experience?

Um yeah, I've I've helped build roads.

Um like in we built rebuilt ninth street and Dundee recently, and that included um, you know, we had to work with uh Pacific Power, no, I mean PGE and the um gas company and stuff like that to move it underground their lines um in that process.

But you know, one of the things that was actually mentioned um in your presentation was Cavalo projects is you try to do everything all at once.

Um, you know, so if you have and so you have the ability to help plan stuff, unless it's an emergency like a broken water line or a broken sewer line or something along those lines, um, where you actually get the you know, if you open up a road or you're gonna do road work, you do everything under in under the road you possibly can to make it work.

Um and so you replace everything, you you change it out.

Um, even if it's only, you know, if it's brand new, then you you know don't do that.

But if it's something that, you know, but you know, five years to end of life or something like that, then it's something you probably should do at that time so you don't have to change it out and work that process out.

And then you tell, you know, again, you budget those things as much as you possibly can to meet those requirements and get that works.

It doesn't always work that way, but it's something that you try to do, and you should when you work on your master plans and you work on things that should be one of your overriding thoughts that you have is like if we open up a row, we're gonna do it this way.

If we do this, we're gonna do it this way.

Um so we you know do things once and not not have to do it again.

Then you look for ways.

I mean, because you're isolated and away from a lot of people.

I've always you know historically I've always looked for partners to work with.

So, you know, for me, you know, I I was I worked with uh you know Oregon Department of Transportation a couple of times to see if we could do a road project together, or again in you know, Phoenix, I've reached out to Rogue Valley Sewer because it was a separate agency, and we did a project together, which was the first time they ever did that.

Um so I always want to look for partners in in that process, but you know, you again you what you should be looking at when you're doing a you know plan, you should have your master plans for water, sewer, electric, and everything you want to do, and then you can help hopefully you know align them up to meet as best you can.

And if there's a way to um save money, that's the that's the way I've I've been able to do it in the past.

Um, you know, anything I've done, you know, off the top of my head, that's what I've done in the past, and that's worked.

Um, and so again, when you're when you start budgeting thing, you should be looking at you know again, you do things in five-year increments a lot, um, but you also have a 20-year plan or a 30-year plan that you're working for replacing everything with that direction.

What really gets interesting and scary and annoying to me more than anything else is when there's a change in rules and regulations from a state level or a national level that all of a sudden you have a certain amount of time to do it and you hadn't budgeted for.

And sometimes they give you money for that, and sometimes they don't.

Um, and drain, I ended up with a situation where they started, you know, they planned a new wastewater treatment plant.

We had built the plant, we were getting it certified, and then if they say the plant wasn't in um regulation because they changed this rule six months ago or a year ago, I can't remember exact time on my hand, and no longer met that requirement.

You know, we no longer met the new requirement, and it was gonna cost about you know 250,000 to put that requirement in.

Um, I had a yelling fit and talked to our state senators and a whole bunch of other people about that, and basically, you know, threatened to sue them because we knew this was down the pike when we started building the plant and they didn't bring it up.

And so I said it was basically them, and they said, Oh, our bad, and you know, went away.

Um, so those are the things that you know from a building point of point, that's that worries me more than anything else.

And then we you know, when you build, you do as quickly as possible, and you have everything aligned up as quick as possible, so you keep the cost down in the production that way.

That's what I've done in the past.

Yes, infrastructure in Alaska is expensive and complicated, so any strategies is valuable.

Uh, how do you prioritize some capital budgets can't cover everything?

You do your best to figure out where the emergency is going to happen, and you work from that point.

Um, you know, for example, if you have a water line that's been in the ground 75 years, and um, or a sewer line that's been in the ground forever, um, then you can try to you know get those things, you know, that becomes your priority in how you set things up, or if you again if you don't need to build a new plant or something like that, then you start saving years in advance, you know, for that.

Um and sometimes you can um I don't like to necessarily do this, um, but you know, again with um ODOT here in Oregon, they have a basically a loan program where you can do a program where you have to pay back a certain it's like a 40-year loan to get something done, and you can get really cheap, you know, interest rates and um stuff with that.

So we've actually borrowed money to get some of that stuff done because that was you know the priority with it.

Um again, I'm not necessarily for that.

I like to you know pay it on on as you go, but that's if you have an emergency or if you have something that actually needs to happen, but you need to sit down and figure out where you're gonna where you're gonna have your biggest issues, and then um you have a list of those, and then you figure out how many people are gonna be affected by those issues, you know.

So if you by replacing this one water line or something, it's only gonna affect five families.

Um, you might be able to figure um a way out of that.

But if you have a water line that's gonna affect you know um 2,000 people or the downtown area, that's gonna be more of a priority too.

So those are those are the thought processes I have on it.

Thank you, Steve.

Uh this is Steven.

Uh wondering if you've reviewed our code and charter.

And uh if you have, what have you found most interesting about either or of them?

And uh what was the most contrasting part uh from your current operations?

I'll be on I didn't go much into the code.

Um, because you again usually there's pages of stuff, and so you just couldn't look at it.

I did read the charter, um, and the charter is very complete, and I thought that was the interesting part on that, and the charter is actually very young, also.

Um, and I thought that was interesting.

Um actually the one um line that really surprised me on it was um after you council made the decision.

Um counselors have to support this, and it didn't say that directly, but it's implied that the counselors can't madmouth the decision um or something along that line.

And I thought that was an interesting um line to have in the um in the charter.

Um I'd have to look it up to know exactly what the law that was said.

That was the that was the one that really um surprised me, and I have never seen that in a charter before.

I thought it was a good idea, but you know, I never seen it in a charter before.

Um other than that, um, it was also more complete um with it.

Uh I thought it was good that the attorney was um directly related to the you know council, and you know, got some good and bad in that direction, and doesn't necessarily work under the city administrator.

Um that's been um in one of one of my cities, but the other cities I've worked in, um the um city attorney works directly under the city um manager.

So those are those from what I looked at, that's what that's what I remember off the top of my head.

Thank you.

Hi, Steve, Tim Pike.

Um obviously the administrator uh is the person in charge of all the our of our city employees and they work for you.

Um if you're the attorney, can you tell us about your um and and many we have a number of unions here in Sitka that um have negotiated agreements with us?

Tell us about your collective bargaining experience also.

How do you prepare for negotiations?

And would you share with us your philosophy on the relationship between management and organized labor?

Well, my philosophy um is if you have good management, you shouldn't need labor unions.

Um unfortunately, you don't necessarily always get good management.

And so um I've always gone in um viewing us as I don't want to say partners, um, because you know, in some ways you are and some ways you aren't.

Um, but I've always respected the staff that's in the union, and I give them reason to trust and believe me.

Um I've done uh you know multiple negotiations with unions, and I usually start off actually I don't want to say that's illegal, but you know, I treat it goes back to how I manage people.

And I go back and I talk to them on a regular basis.

I talk about what their issues are, I talked about what they need to be successful.

Um, I try to understand what the learning they need is and if they want to grow and what they want to learn and work that direction.

So they begin to build trust um with us in there.

And the second thing is I am completely um clear on the finances.

Um one of the things I've done in all my union negotiations is I've sat down and I've gone over the budget and I've gone over what the rules and regulations are for each department.

So when, you know, for example, in Phoenix in Phoenix, when the five when the police department I was negotiating with them like my first six weeks on the job, you know, they're sitting there going like, well, I know you have money from this fund, and you should be able to do that.

And I sat there and explained, well, the water fund is for water.

You have that five percent you know fee that we pay ourselves um for that, but you know, enterprise zones, you can't spend money on enterprise zones for you know, at least in Oregon, um, for you know, general fund activities and near general fund activity.

And so that that money is off the table.

And it's like, oh, oh, I really didn't realize that.

It's like, okay, well, you know, let's, you know, but I this is a thought for right now since we're having you know discussion about you know the budget.

Let's you, I and the finance director sit down, and I will sit there and we'll explain the budget to you and ask it, and you can ask any question and any quick concern you have, you can bring it up, and we'll tell you where the money can is coming from.

I'm explaining where the money is going, and you can work in that direction.

And he's like, Oh, I've never had anyone offer that to me before.

And so that's sort of how I began working with them.

Um, and you know, in in training when I got to um Dundee, um, they had just formed a fire fire union, and there was a lot of animosity between the people in that, the people in the city and the city staff, and I got I walked in and basically said, okay, um, tell me what's going on.

And one of the issues they had before I got there was um a hostile workplace lawsuit and settlement that was part of the fire department against the old fire fire chief.

And I walked in the first day on the negotiation, the first thing I said is, I don't know what happened, I don't need to know what happened.

But if you guys were put in a hostile situation, that was wrong.

And I apologize that you were put in that situation.

I can tell you it'll never happen again.

And they were like, Thank you.

That's the first time anyone's actually recognized and apologized for us for what happened here.

And it's like, you know, okay, now can we start talking about what you need to do, what you what you need.

And I usually have a by you know, because I talk to them, I'm um, you know, meet them on a regular basis, I kind of understand what they what they need and what they want.

Um, and so like when I was in you know drain, I was talking to the um ICBW union, and we had talked not directly about what they wanted, but what they were thinking and what they were looking at.

And so when I got to the union negotiations, I knew when there was a bunch of stuff in that the union put it in there that the guys didn't care about.

Um, we didn't negotiate anything like that, um, but we just sort of, you know, they sort of start asking questions, and I began listening and you know, saying I can't talk about that, or something like that.

But you know, so you know, you what unions do and what the um union contract gives you is a playbook for how to manage them.

And so, you know, you have the um the employees handbook, and then you have the union contract, and you use those two things to you know manage the employees.

But the big thing is to be honest, straightforward and upfront with them about what's going on and make sure they understand where everything is in the budget and where they are in the budget and where the revenue comes from the budget, and so they can understand that part of it.

And once they begin understanding it, then they can begin to understand, okay.

This is the money here.

So because then the question becomes does the um, you know, and this becomes more of a council decision at that time.

Do we spend more money on the fire union or on the police union, or do we you know cut back the amount of library books we buy?

I mean, I'm not you know using bad examples right now, I'm sure, but those are the type of questions and stuff that you know we have to have going into it and understanding of where the money is coming from and how it's being spent for all the funds or where the funds can come from.

So they understand what they're asking for.

Thank you.

I see this is Short Christensen since it looks like we can't you can't see us.

Um so uh if you've done any research at all on Sitka, you know that tourism is one of our main industries.

Um and it's gotten a lot bigger in the last few years.

Um and one of the things that both we as an assembly and the city manager and the administrator have to deal with is finding that balance between encouraging tourism and not wrecking the lot the uh uh way of life.

And we've got people here in town that feel very strongly that we've got too many tourists, and we've got people who feel just as strongly that we could take a lot more, and the I think the majority somewhere in the middle.

Um, but how would you deal with that tension and how to uh you know, if not make everybody happy, at least trying to keep the peace.

That I'm I'm gonna voted on I think a year ago, yeah or two ago.

Um what yeah, you're not gonna make everybody happy.

Um I guess the you know, the one thought I have is I want to make sure that each each divide or each side of it is heard and feel like they're heard and listened to.

Um, it doesn't mean you're gonna do what they want, but it means they feel they've heard what you you know what they say and they have had the respect of you listen to them, you understand what their issue is, you understand that.

Um, you know, so example, you know, it could be something along the lines of I hate when people walk down my road, they shouldn't be walking down my road.

Um, well, I can't really prevent that, but you know, are you would you be happy with us putting up a sign saying, you know, you know, private, you know, um, or people only live here, um, please go down this road or something along those lines.

You know, if they're willing to try some stuff or willing to work some stuff out, um, and ask and figure out what um needs to happen.

Uh the question, the question I don't know the answer to is what do the you know tourists who come here, what do they want to do, and what are their interests?

And so if we can get most of those things there, and you know, in a situation or a location where you know, the people who don't want to be around the tourists who don't want to go downtown and don't want to have to deal with that part of it for the most part, can be separate from that, and we can work that direction out.

But the big thing is making sure that um both sides are heard.

Um, and actually in Grants Pass, one of my comments was people who hated um the tourism we had in Grass Pass was no one's moved the company into Grants Pass without coming here as a tourist first, and so tourism actually leads into other parts of um the economic growth of the community.

So there is a benefit to that that hopefully everyone recognizes.

Thank you.

Hi, thanks, Steve.

This is Katie Riley speaking.

Um the job responsibilities of the city administrator are highly dynamic.

You're in charge of budgeting, team management, recruitment, and leadership, public relations, uh, a lot of government relations as well.

And then we also have a very engaged community that will um reach out to you in many different forums and um and whenever they can.

Uh we have a highly professional staff that work at the city of Sitka, but uh, you know, you are in the top leadership position and therefore held accountable for um the actions of the team as a whole.

So, what aspects of this job are you most and least excited about.

Actually, I get really excited about infrastructure issues, and um, you know, uh, you know, I love running an electric utility, and the idea of working with the XX utility that actually produces its own electricity is kind of exciting for me.

Um, and I enjoyed that part of the you know, uh of running a city and working in that direction.

Um probably the le the least part I'm excited for is and it's my least favorite everything in um all the cities I've worked in a lot of ways is code enforcement.

Um, I I you know because there's about you know for good, you know, I don't know, a hundred people that refuse to follow the code enforcement rules and stuff like that, and you always have to, you know, talk to them and it becomes a repetitive situation.

Um and again, as city manager, you know, code enforcement would fall under my preview and work that direction.

And again, uh working that process out.

The set at least say um, you know, my second favorite thing I love to do is building people, building, you know, teams and getting teams to work together.

And my second, my least favorite, second least favorite thing is actually punishing staff for doing wrong and holding, I mean, I I want to get to the point where I never have to hold anyone accountable because they're all doing their stuff accountable.

Um but you know, writing up, you know, firing, dismissal, all that stuff is um ugly and a pain and not something I enjoy doing.

Thanks.

And yeah, a follow-up question there.

Um, since we're on the subject, I I did notice that the the past three city administrator positions that you held um resulted in contract termination, and I just wanted to give you an opportunity to speak to that.

Okay.

Um what I have found is when you have um say if you have a council of seven people and you have four people who didn't hire you, and a new mayor, they basically want their own um city administrator.

And one of the things that I've all said to all the councils and what it has, and I've had a council member say this to you know in each of the cities I've been in, basically, is I respond to the council.

The council is my boss.

You as individual counselors and the mayor, you know, um have the same rights and responsibilities of every citizen coming in.

And so, you know, I've had in Phoenix, I had a married couple on the council who called me in their office and said, Hey, listen, you know, you talk to us about everything, and you'll tell it, we'll tell you whether you can bring it to the council or not.

And I'm like, no, that's not what the charter says, that's not how we run the process.

And so I didn't do that.

And um Drain, I had a counselor who came in and you know, said, no one cares about this community as much as I do, so you do what I tell you to do, and then we find it's like, no, the council tells me what to do.

If you don't get it through the council, then that's what goes on.

And you know, recently in in Dundee, the mayor came in and said, we need to change this, you know, the rules for this project we're working on so that we make it they can be three feet away from the sidewalk instead of five feet, which is under the code.

And I'm like, they can ask for a variance, but there's a legal procedure we have to go through that.

And he got mad because that isn't doing it automatically for them.

So those are becoming so that those are basically my interpretations of that.

Um I'm sure you know, they would sit there and say I didn't do something, or you know, they all have their reasons for what goes on.

Um, but those were the basically those situations and uh in my mind and how it how it happens.

So it's either good because I told the council, you know, it's bad because I told the council no, or you can't I can't do that for you, or good is because I um hooked up the I thought an ethical way of the council is my boss, and you as individual counselors um can ask for things and we can work together on that.

But um I I respond I will do everything that the council tells me, individual counselors asking special requests and stuff may not fall into that.

Thank you very much.

Hi, Steve.

Uh uh back to me.

Uh next question.

Uh Alaska has a unique intergovernmental picture, which includes boroughs, tribal entities, state agents agencies, and federal land managers all sometimes intersect with city operations.

Describe a time you had to work through a complex multi-ject uh jurisdictional situation.

Uh and in addition to that, um have you worked with tribal governments or Alaska native organism organizations on service delivery or any uh native organizations.

Um how do you keep up with the changes?

The next question, uh, additional question is how do you keep up with changes in state statute that affect municipal authority?

So it's kind of a three-part question.

I can repeat that if you need me to.

Um, actually, the last one first.

Um, you know, in Oregon, um, I'm hooked into the um League of Oregon Cities, which handles um lets us know during the legislative session.

You know, we have a phone call every week about what they're looking at um when they need help, and when the legislature changes, they come out at the end of the year and say these are all the changes that affect cities in that direction.

Um, and work that, but you know, if you pay attention, you can you know, basically working through the legal work in cities, that's what I've done here.

I'm assuming um the municipal league of um of Alaska has something very similar to that.

Um keep it out that direction, and then of course you read the newspapers and you try to follow as best as you can in other sources, but that's that's how I um kept track of that um in my professional career.

Um working um multi-jurisdictional aspects of it.

Um Oregon has a process where they where they have city boundaries, um, urban renewal boundaries and or not urban boundaries, and you know, and land outside there, you know, it's in the you know, coming into the land and stuff like that, which requires state, county, and you know, participation from everybody.

And I went through that process with grants passed.

I wasn't in charge of the process, I did economic development at that time, but I would work through and I watched all that process go through on the many meetings you had, the many legal aspects of it, the different a the different nonprofits and um businesses that were concerned were looking forward to bringing in, and the homeowners were you know bringing stuff in, and what the county was willing to do, and what the county um what the state wanted to have happen and all those rules and regulations that way.

That was the most difficult thing, you know.

I've I've seen working with that multiple jurisdictional process.

And I started that process in Phoenix.

Um, but you know, I you know, I was removed before I I got to you know, finish it, I worked through um the different parts of it as a leadership in that process.

Um and working with multi groups um or different you know, agencies and tribal agencies and stuff.

Um with tribal, I've never had to negotiate with a tribal agency or anything like that.

The closest I ever come is there is a um Indian reservation about 30 miles from Phoenix, and you know, we had people who lived um who were members of the reservation who lived in you know Dundee, and they wanted us to do something, and we worked with them to get it helped get a park noticed, and you know, we get some funding to do signs and some traditional information about that.

And that's the closest I've worked with them on on any um our Native American process in that part of it.

Um, and with working on in some ways, I you know you need to know what each um individual or each agency wants.

And so what I try to do is I talk to the agencies and I figure out what their priorities are, what they need from the city, what rules they're concerned about, what they're getting pushed by the state to you know, do or the bosses to do.

So I have understanding where we can partner on things and where I can give them a heads up and say, okay, this is gonna be hard for us to do this in this direction and start working together.

I'm a big believer and of working with as many people as you possibly can to get something done.

It takes a little bit more time to set those things up, but once you actually pull the trigger, it's a lot faster to get things done than you know, starting something and then having to stop because you didn't bring in the county or you didn't bring in um the sheriff's office or something along those lines.

I mean, it's it just it's that's the way I worked it, and that's what I try to do.

Um, for example, when I first took over Phoenix, they're putting in a um, I think 26 million dollar um interchange.

Um you know, exit 24 and and off of IFI and into Phoenix.

And there was multiple lawsuits and stuff associated with that.

And one of the things I did is I um and the city was in a lawsuit with the ODO concerning that, but so my first couple weeks on the job, I gave the um head of ODOT in that southern region a call and said, Hey, I'm new here, um, I'd like to sit down and talk to you about this issue.

And I said, Great.

So I came over to this place and uh the city attorney wanted to go with me, so he brought and brought him along, and they had all this file of paper out there, and I'm I'm looking at it, and I'm going like, okay, let's start by explaining it to me like you would a five-year-old.

You know, what what's the thought process here?

What where did you begin with it?

And then we can get to this point.

And they looked at each other funny, and it was like, okay.

And so they started talking about it, and they started working about it, and we got to the point where we're cute, there was a lawsuit about it, and I'm like, okay, um, after 10 minutes, and they go, okay, I know I know each but I know both sides are not gonna follow that today, so let's go to the next thing.

And then, you know, what he ended up doing with the lawsuit is I suggested going through mediation.

And so let's let's bring in a mediator.

I think we have overlaps where we can make it here, and so let's bring in a mediator and have us mediate it and so we can solve that problem without going to court, and um, we solved the problem.

And so, you know, those are the type of things that you try to do is you try to figure out, you know, again, what their issues are, what our issues are, and you know, how we can help each other out, and if there's gonna be a conflict, how to mitigate that conflict as best we possibly can.

Thank you.

Scott Saline here.

Mine's about risk assessment now, you know, with the law and everything, and you know, where you're being city administrator before, and you guys you got like the hammer clause with the people that represent the city, and uh like my experience here has been that our insurance carriers are so afraid of a jury trial against the city that they they fold.

And uh, you know, this once you catch up with everything that's going on here in Sitka, that that'll be an arena that you know, having the law experience would be something I don't even really know what question I'm asking you, but uh the risk assessment really has me in a quandary here because it's a lopsided affair, depending upon what the issue is.

And uh maybe I'll figure out a question sometime.

Thanks.

Okay, um, I'll I'll touch on that subject.

Um, yeah, this there's a lot of costs, and there's a lot of um anxiety when it comes to in court because any attorney will tell you that you know, when you get in front of a jury or in that process, it's it's expensive to go through all the processes to court, and um what the insurance companies do basically is um sit there and say, um it's it's worth it $500 or $500,000 to have this go away because the potential cost could be you know $1.4 million to to do it, and um then we have to pay that whatever settlement is on top of that.

So it becomes a cost-benefit analysis in that direction.

And that's not something I would do.

That's something the insurance company does.

Um in the in Drain, um, we had a strip club, a strip club open, and it's a town of about 1300 people with five churches, and it did not go over well.

And I had people telling me that you know, shut it down, you know, um automatically.

You know, like shut it down, it shouldn't be in our city.

And I was like, okay, I don't agree, it should be in the city, but according to Oregon law, it's um freedom of you know, freedom, freedom of expression, freedom of free speech issue.

And that's pretty set in Oregon Law, and then talk to our attorneys and everything.

Well, one of the counselors found an attorney from a um very conservative legal fund who wanted to make a you know example of um this, and they're saying, We'll represent you free, and we'll work we'll do this and we'll help you out.

And and and I go, if you lose, are you going to pay the um discovery cost?

Are you paying the discovery cost?

Are you if you lose it, are you going to pay the settlement we're gonna have to pay out?

Because our insurance company told us they're not doing it.

And he goes, Well, no, you're gonna have to come up with that.

And it's like, then no, it's not gonna work, it's not gonna work for us in that direction.

Um very conservative legal fund who wanted to make a you know example of um this and they're saying we'll represent you free and we'll work we'll do this and we'll help you out and and and I go if you lose are you going to pay the um discovery cost are you paying the discovery cost are you if you lose it are you going to pay the the settlement we're gonna have to pay out because our insurance company told us they're not doing it and he goes well no you're gonna have to come up that and it's like then no it's not gonna work it's not gonna work for us in that direction and so you know sometimes you just have to you know yeah you you've got instincts if you want to sit there and say no then you I know you're cheating on us I know this is a right I this is wrong you shouldn't get any money for this but when it sometimes when it comes down to it is rack tax is um you need to sit there and say okay is it worth two million dollars versus a 500 thousand dollar settlement to take that risk and that becomes a discussion between the attorney the insurance agents and the city council right on JJ here uh Alaska residents tend to expect direct access to their local government uh how do you build public trust and how do you handle a situation that turns contentious well as I like to tell people um I walk my dog and um I'm which means I try to be in the public eye not all the time but you know you know I'll I'll go to restaurants and you know tell my wife if we go to a restaurant and you know someone who wants to come up and talk I'll talk to them briefly and you know you know and but I'll make sure they you know think the big thing with people a lot of times is they you know they want to be heard um and you know and then you can sit there and explain why you can't do if you know this or why you should do that.

I mean sometimes they just don't like it and some people are just you know it's their way or the highway and you're just not gonna you know settle but anything but as long as you are you know give them a chance to talk and give them a chance to be heard you know they'll understand maybe you know maybe they now won't understand your position or they won't respect your position but they'll understand maybe that they'll understand the thought process that you present okay I can't do this because of why or can't do that because of X.

And work in that and working with that direction.

You know sometimes you just have to you know take the hit in in some ways.

I mean going back to the strip club example in drain you know if you ask the majority of the people in town they didn't want that but the law was pretty clear.

And you know I'm sitting there talking to the council and they say we're just going to close them down and it's like under what law and what rule and I think you know again I they were my personal opinion is they were thinking about um you know okay they're gonna shut us down we're gonna assume and I'm gonna get a million or two million dollar settlement and that's going to be how we're gonna you know come out of this mess because they weren't making money and um when that didn't happen they ended up closing down in about eight months because they didn't have any money to come in and work that process out.

So you know sometimes it's just you know you you know you have to stand by what the law says and and and explain it to people and they can get upset and then get angry at you and you know it's not fun to be there but you know that's that's where it is so um but you got but you might make sure you have to you know no matter what you have to make sure people are heard they feel like they're heard and understood.

Again I don't necessarily have to agree with it but I want to make sure they're heard.

Thank you.

Steve in the interest of time myself and the next couple assembly members have uh yielded their time so I'm gonna check in with Katie uh do you have a final question for our candidate here um yeah I'll just ask a quick question um recruiting and keeping good employees in Alaska is extremely hard uh high cost of living and uh some dark tough winners um and so it's hard and in general and also especially for specialized roles uh what approaches have you used and how do you build a culture that makes people want to stay well you build a culture people want to stay by making sure that people feel valued um you know the number one thing I do um which I try to you know work it with every with all employees is I want to make sure they're recognized for their effort um and you know again they listen to that they heard that you know they feel as an important part instead of just a cock in the wheel they feel like they're an important part of the city that they aren't vital to what's going on and every employee is vital to what's going on.

And so you try to work that out and and end up you know doing major things and coming up with new ideas and stuff that you know saves the day and it and they and you thank important you know and you know you buy them a 50 cent coke or a dollar two or maybe it's two dollar code now and um you know say hey I really appreciate what you did the other day instead of that direction.

And I found when I've done that for majority of the staff and the staff feels that way then they feel like they've been heard and they feel like they you know are part of something special and they don't necessarily want to leave.

I mean sometimes they do I mean um because you know the family is issues and stuff like that.

I mean, I you know, um, I tr what I try to do more than anything else, and what I try to do in draining to um no success, but I you know we we tempted it with this high school, is basically begin training people on the water sewer and electric part of it when they're in high school or or during summer vacations and being training them.

Hey, this is a legitimate job.

And going to the high schools and going to the areas and say, hey, this is something that if you don't want to study, but if you're good with your hands, this is something you can do.

We can help you, you know, do this and work through that process with it and finding hopefully um you know, people.

Another thing that you have to do is if you are recruiting um, you know, a manager in there and they have and they're bringing their family with them, you have to have something for the wife to do.

You have to have something that she wants to be a part of.

Um again, that was an issue in Southern Oregon where we were trying to get managers in.

Um, but there wasn't anything specific that you know their wives could do in that in that process.

And so that became a you know an issue.

Some of them took that wanted to take the job, they love the area, they love what was going on, they love the city, but their wife wouldn't be happy, and so they didn't want to bring in in that direction.

So you need to figure out that part of it.

Um this is this is one of those questions, you know, quite frankly, that you know, if I could figure it out, I could go on the road and make a lot more money doing this and selling being a city administrator.

Um, there's no easy answer, there's no correct answer to that.

A lot of it's just you know, making sure you're talking to people and that you're giving them the best effort and you're telling them and you give them a shot to do it.

Um, but I've I have not seen anything.

It's you know um with recruitment nowadays, it's very difficult to get people outside of the norm and and stuff.

And I, you know, I don't have an I don't have a silver bullet for that.

Uh well thank you, Steve, for your time.

Uh we are getting close to the end of our interview here.

I wanted to give you an opportunity to either ask uh us some questions, or if you did have a uh a final or a closing statement this evening.

Well, the one of the questions I always ask um is pretend you give me the job, and this is becoming the one year anniversary of the position and getting my review.

And what will have been a good review?

Yeah, we uh we kind of had that uh same question uh posed of us uh previously, and I think some of the answers were um an essentially seamless transition where we don't uh we don't see um that there is a new city administrator.

We continue on the path that uh the citizens seem to currently enjoy.

Um what were some of the other ones, assembly?

I said that people come up to me in the grocery store and tell them we did a good job hiring you.

That's not entirely a joke.

That's true, and consistency consistency.

Um the the projects that are going on continue uh seamlessly, uh uninterruption of services uh and general um community uh uh enjoyment with the transition.

Okay.

Um yeah, you uh everything I read, everything I could see, um you have a great staff there, and the thing would be not to um go in and start yelling at or trying to change anything, but listen to the staff.

I mean, like I guess my my first six months there um would be listening to the staff, listening to the people, listening to the council about what they wanted, what they see, what where you know what they enjoyed to make sure that happened, and what the what the staff needed to be to be supported to be able to grow and and and that and in processes that way.

Um, but yeah, no, you I you know I was really I was overly impressed today when I was looking at um you guys' meetings and to be honest with you, you guys are corporate reports about what each division is doing.

I've never seen that before the way it was set up and work, and I absolutely loved it.

So no matter where I'm going, I'm gonna steal that.

Um, and then we'll do reports that from that direction on because I thought it was fantastic and how you guys set those things up.

So whoever did that, um, applaud to them on that direction because I I've never seen you know, never seen them done like that before, and I thought it was a fantastic way to do it.

Um there.

Um that was the only real question I had.

Um, so you know if you guys have any more questions or concerns, you can feel free to ask me.

Uh if not, I want to thank you very much for the time and the opportunity to talk to you.

Um, and I'm sorry the um video stuff and stuff didn't work out, but um I'm glad we're able to solve it at the end.

Yeah, I'm just glad we were able to work through our IT issues uh to continue our conversations.

Um I got a lot out of this tonight, and uh um we'll have some some thoughts to mull over for sure.

So we do appreciate you and your time this evening, and the assembly will be in touch.

All right, thanks again.

Have a great time.

Thank you.

Good night.

All right, assembly.

Um let's take a brief recess and then we'll come back and discuss whether we need executive session, or we're gonna um talk about these candidates uh further this evening.

Thank you.

Wrap up our administrator candidate interviews for this evening.

Uh next is a discussion direction decision uh regarding tonight's interviews.

Uh at this point, I would recommend that the assembly go into executive session to discuss um and compare and contrast candidates.

Uh we have confirmed with both of the candidates that it is okay to uh discuss their interviews in executive session.

I move to go into executive session to discuss subjects that may tend to prejudice the reputation and character of municipal administrator candidates Jenny Albert and Steve Dahl, and invite in the assistant municipal administrator Josh Branhoover.

In addition, I move to exclude the municipal administrator and municipal apport attorney.

Second it's been moved and seconded to enter executive session to discuss the applications of our two administrator candidates.

Is there any public comment?

Sarah.

All right, on the motion to go into executive session, Mayor Eisenbais.

Yes, Mr.

Christensen.

Yes.

Ms.

Riley.

Yes.

Mr.

Mosher.

Yes.

Mr.

Celine.

Yes.

Ms.

Carlson?

Yes.

And Mr.

Pike.

Yes.

Motion passes 7-0.

We'll be meeting in room four.

Katie, I'll have you leave the meeting and then I'll call you from the phone.

Okay.

In the room.

Yeah, thanks.

One 1000.

Ready?

Motion to reconvene.

Second.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Uh, thank you.

We are reconvened as the assembly in regular session.

Uh the assembly did meet in executive session to discuss uh our two interviewees.

Uh at this point we have decided to continue on in the process and we'll be reaching out to both of them to schedule further interviews.

That'll bring us tonight to our final item, which is persons to be heard.

Uh, this is public participation for any item on or off tonight's agenda, not to exceed three minutes for any individual.

Seeing none, adjournment.

Motion to adjourn.

Second.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Thank you all.

We are adjourned.