By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
The Assembly gave its approval Tuesday night to the employment terms negotiated with John Leach, who has been hired as the new city administrator.
Leach, 41, is a career Coast Guard officer, whose current assignment is in Washington, D.C. He was stationed at USCG Air Station Sitka 2015-18.
When he relocates to Sitka early next year he will join his wife and two school-age children, who continued to make their home here after Leach was reassigned to Coast Guard headquarters in Washington.
The Assembly voted 7-0 to approve the five-page employment agreement, which sets his salary at the advertised starting pay of $125,000, plus 80 hours’ vacation to start. He is to begin work no later than April 1, and in the meantime he’s keeping in touch with interim administrator Hugh Bevan and Mayor Gary Paxton, Paxton told the Assembly at the meeting.
Speaking with the Sentinel about the contract afterward, Leach said, “I’m happy with it.”
He listens to meetings on the KCAW online livestream service or the city’s livestream, and told the Sentinel that an Assembly member summed it up well at the meeting by saying it’s a good contract for the city as well as for him.
Richard Wein highlighted a few aspects of the contract, including language repeating the city charter section that states the administrator serves at the pleasure of the Assembly; and a new provision in the contract that states the administrator will have a performance evaluation four times a year. It previously was once a year.
In listing their reasons for choosing Leach over the other finalist – and other candidates with municipal experience – Kevin Mosher said he believes Leach is well-qualified through a master’s degree in business and his record of leadership in the Coast Guard.
“He has the willingness and ability to learn,” Mosher said.
Valorie Nelson said, “I think he’s going to be a great administrator; we need to give him a chance.”
Wein sees a gap between municipal and military experience, but added, “It’s a gap he can fill quite easily ... I look forward to his coming here, and helping him succeed.”
In remarks to the Sentinel Leach said his two decades in the Coast Guard have given him business experience, as well as experience managing budgets, and looking for “efficiencies to save money for the taxpayers.”
Assembly Position Subcommittee
In other business Tuesday night the Assembly voted 4-3 to lift the city hiring freeze, and dissolved the Assembly Position Subcommittee.
The Assembly imposed the hiring freeze earlier this year with the intent of looking for efficiencies in local government staffing, and formed the subcommittee to take over what has been a function of the administrator.
The proposal to disband the subcommittee was made by Kevin Knox and Thor Christianson, who said they felt the subcommittee was overreaching into the role of the administrator.
Voting in favor were Knox, Christianson, Paxton and Steven Eisenbeisz. Nelson, Mosher and Wein voted against.
While no one criticized the subcommittee’s decisions and recommendations, some in the majority felt the administrator was the appropriate person to make decisions on staffing, and the Assembly could review the budget and staffing issues during the budget discussions.
Asked for his thoughts, interim administrator Hugh Bevan said the subcommittee concept was “not popular with staff.”
“I don’t know the effects on people who have looked at working for the city,” he said.
Without mentioning former administrator Keith Brady by name, those voting against disbanding the subcommittee said it was set up under a different administration, and their goal, Nelson said, “was to staunch the flow of outgoing funds.”
“I didn’t think any of us wanted to harm morale of city employees,” she said. “I know I personally got elected not because I was worried about the morale of city employees but because I was worried about the morale of the taxpayers and everybody that pays the bills for every decision that we make at this table.”
Mosher agreed, and said he was also concerned about the morale of the community, as well as making sure the Assembly and city are “running as tight a ship as we possibly can.”
Wein said his work on the subcommittee gave him a better understanding of the jobs in the various departments at city hall.
“We weren’t determining who gets hired, just what positions were open,” he said. “I’m sorry it’s not popular with staff and that it ‘casts a (pall).’ ... For me it was a learning experience and I would like to continue with it.”
The subcommittee met every two weeks, usually for less than an hour, reviewing open positions and recommending to the Assembly which should be filled, or changed. Christianson said the committee was seen by many – at city hall and the public – as getting too “into the nitty-gritty of running the city.”
The Assembly still has the power to review positions, and read the descriptions of jobs that are open, he added.
Knox said he believed there was a “clouded public perception” of the role of the subcommittee.
Before casting his vote in favor of dissolving the panel, Paxton said he was impressed by its work.
“I absolutely think the work they’ve done exceeded my expectations,” he said. “It was efficient but my view is the overreach – getting into the administrator’s (role).”
Marine Street Substation
The Assembly voted 7-0 to reallocate funding in the electric fund to add $1.7 million to the Marine Street N-1 capital project.
Bevan said the now $6.1 million project is a high-priority item, since the 40-year-old substation serves about 80 percent of electric customers.
“Failure of this facility would result in a complete power loss for those customers for an extended period, likely months,” Bevan wrote in a memo to the Assembly.
The estimated cost in 2016 was $4.3 million, to be funded by unspent bond funds. The project will provide for a redundant substation immediately adjacent to the old facility, which allows the Department to do much needed maintenance on the older systems, he said.
A few unexpected problems have come up that added to the costs, including inflation of equipment costs, construction of a retaining wall to support the street, and the discovery of subsurface rock that required geotechnical drilling.
The $1.71 million in additional funds will come from restructuring of the overall Electric Fund capital improvement program, but Bevan noted that the restructuring “does not touch the funds presently earmarked for the major Green Lake work that is in our future.”
Bevan had a few closing comments in his memo about the condition of the electric fund.
“It’s apparent to me that the present Electric Fund cash flow does not support the magnitude of the future needs of the enterprise fund,” he wrote. “Significant cuts in the operating budget and/or rate increases will be necessary to direct more funds into the capital program while continuing to meet the Fund’s debt repayment obligations. The Assembly may want to consider hiring a consultant to review the entire financial structure of the Electric Fund and make independent recommendations that bring fresh eyes to Sitka’s situation.”
Bevan said he’s also talked to department staff about project management strategies that include going to the Assembly as soon as unexpected events occur.
The Assembly asked a number of questions before voting unanimously in favor of Bevan’s recommendation.
Closed Captioning
During Tuesday night’s regular meeting the Assembly tried out a free closed captioning system, with a large screen at the front of the Assembly’s meeting room. Through a digital process, the system translated spoken word into printed text that scrolled across the bottom of the screen at nearly the same time the words were spoken.
With the exception of a few misfires, the system worked pretty well. (“Beach” for the new city administrator “Leach”; and “Georgia section 4.01 movies” in quoting a section of the Sitka General Code.) The city’s IT director Grant Turner said there are options for fine-tuning the system, as well as reviewing other free systems.
Assembly members said they would like to see larger printing on the screen and held off on a decision until receiving clarification on whether the system met ADA standards.
Other Business
On other items, the Assembly:
– honored veterans in a proclamation on Veterans Day Nov. 11.
– approved an ordinance on first reading to accept state Division of Homeland Security grants for needed items in the police department. The ordinance included $33,000 for radio consoles; and $63,000 for Police Department video security and network infrastructure upgrades. It will be up for final reading Nov. 12.
– approved a resolution in support of a grant to help fund upgrades to the Sea Lion Cove trail, requested by Sitka Trail Works. STW is partnering with Alaska State Parks and Juneau Trail Mix to finish the repair work.
