By Sentinel Staff
The Assembly made more decisions on the fiscal year 2021 budget Thursday night, approving a $15,000 item for signing bonuses to attract new officers for the police department, and a total of $145,000 for lobbying.
Police Chief Robert Baty requested the signing bonus allowance as a recruiting tool for the police department, which has six unfilled officer positions.
The vote was 5-1 in favor, with Kevin Knox, Richard Wein, Kevin Mosher, Thor Christianson and Mayor Gary Paxton in favor. Valorie Nelson voted against.
Baty plans to offer up to $5,000 per new officer as a signing bonus.
“The biggest reason is we’re competing with so many other departments that are offering higher pay and other amenities,” Baty told the Sentinel earlier this week. “We’re trying to remain competitive and trying to get someone interested in the position as well.”
He noted the tough market for recruiting officers. In a recent call with the chief of the Cordova police department, Baty said he and the other chief shared that they both had only two applicants, and they were the same two.
“We’re all in the same boat, with one, two officers down,” Baty said. “If they’re out there, they’re certainly not applying.”
The Assembly also voted 4-2 in favor of a new $25,000 contract with veteran city lobbyist Larry Markley, and to retain the lobbying firm Blank Rome for up to $120,000.
Voting in favor were Nelson, Paxton, Mosher and Christianson. Wein and Knox voted against.
Markley, who’s worked for the city for years, will represent Sitka’s interests at the state and federal level, and Blank Rome, based in Washington, D.C., will focus on getting federal help for the Green Lake hydro rehabilitation project.
This is the first year the city has retained Blank Rome, and there was some discussion among Assembly members on how much good the city was getting for the expense. Paxton spoke of the importance of having Blank Rome seek funding for major city projects: “They’re chasing millions of dollars, not hundreds of thousands,” he said. Christianson spoke in favor of putting the money in the budget, noting that the city would have until sometime in August to make a decision on actually spending it.
The meeting was also a chance for the Assembly to review decisions previously made during the budget review process, including:
– increasing the salary for the library director.
– creating an assistant controller position in the finance department, part of a succession plan in the department.
– keeping community affairs director as a position in the city organizational chart, although there has been no consensus on whether the duties would be directing community affairs, being a lobbyist or a grant writer.
– eliminating an engineering position in the public works department with the retirement of one of the engineers.
– taking $185,000 from the general fund to cover payments on a USDA loan for upgrading the Green Lake hydro.
– increasing local support to schools to $7,618,993, a 4.6 percent increase from last year.
