By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
The Assembly voted 6-0 at a special meeting Thursday to schedule a community meet and greet and an in-person interview with Fairbanks attorney Annmarie Billingsley, who is being considered for appointment as Sitka city attorney.
The vote on whether to invite Billingley to Sitka came after about 90 minutes of a Zoom interview with Billingsley. She was also invited to ask questions at the end of the interview.
The six Assembly members at the meeting adjourned into executive session for about a half hour, returned to regular session, and voted. Present were Kevin Mosher, JJ Carlson, Tim Pike, Chris Ystad, Scott Saline and Mayor Steven Eisenbeisz. Carlson participated remotely, and Thor Christianson was absent and excused.
Billingsley lives in Fairbanks, where she served six years as assistant borough attorney for the North Star Borough and currently runs her own law practice.
Thursday’s Zoom interview was the second that the Assembly has conducted with her since they started the final phase of their search process for a new city attorney. She was one of only two finalists, and the only one selected for a second interview.
Her visit for an in-person interview and for to meet community members at a reception open to the public is scheduled for May 30 and 31. The Assembly is seeking a replacement for Brian Hanson, who has been city attorney since 2016, and will retire June 30.
In Thursday’s interview, Billingsley answered more questions related to her experience, and how she would handle specific problems she might face in the city job.
She also submitted written responses to the Assembly’s questions about why she wants to come to Sitka, and why it’s a good time in her career; and about her experience with land use law, labor and employment law. Another question concerned her perspective and practices in collaborating with a city administrator and Assembly members. The questions asked in the interview were similar.
Billingsley’s duties at the North Star Borough attorney’s office covered a broad range, and she expressed enthusiasm for particular aspects of the work, including labor relations, reviewing ordinances and contracts, and providing legal advice to various departments.
In most areas she was asked about, she had relevant experience from her previous work at the North Star Borough, in such areas as labor relations. She participated in negotiations, open meetings Act and conflict of interest issues, contract review, public records requests, and advising the Assembly and city staff on legal issues.
“Throughout my six years as assistant borough attorney, I drafted, edited –– I couldn’t even count how many contracts, but our office was set up so that my office reviewed all kinds of contracts,” she said, providing examples of her work.
She said she had extensive experience developing requests for proposals, and her office handled major procurement disputes, and questions related to whether an RFP was needed versus a sole-source bid.
“I’ve weighed in on those kinds of issues as well,” she said.
On some issues, where she had less experience, she discussed how she would approach the problem. The first question related to her experience in “maritime law,” where she said she has no experience.
Since the last interview, she read the court decision in a Bar Harbor, Maine, case about limiting the number of cruise ship visitors to that community. She said she also reviewed the rules in Alaska about the spending income from cruise visitor head tax.
“It’s not unique, and the issues that you’re having are not unique to Sitka,” she said, noting similar challenges and issues in Juneau. “I know a number of the municipal attorneys practicing in Juneau and it’s easy enough for me to pick up the phone and say, what are you guys doing, how are you dealing with this and is there a way to get me up to speed.”
She added that she sees learning about this area of law as similar to facing other areas of municipal law.
“In Alaska, it’s a pretty discrete body of law ... once you learn them, you know them, and so I don’t think there would be a challenge for me to pretty quickly get up to speed,” she said.
On a question related to her approach to managing risk, Billingsley agreed that it’s a balancing act, and sees her role as providing the city with the most conservative option, and explaining the risks with other options.
“Here’s what I think the probability of success would be, the likelihood of that coming to fruition,” she said. “And a lot of this is going to depend on what your comfort zone is.” She said she’s worked with different risk managers in Fairbanks, all of whom had different viewpoints on ideal risk levels, but the borough also had a risk committee.
“It actually was a really great learning experience for me to to think about the different elements of risk management from the different viewpoints,” Billingsley said.
On a question of balancing “protecting citizens with code versus the desires of the community,” she said, “The way it works best is your constituents talk to you, and tell you, ‘I don’t like this, please sponsor an ordinance that will change this.’”
“I can work with you on drafting an ordinance that fits into your code and does whatever you want to do, but then it goes to a vote so the Assembly will decide whether they think the code change is a good one.” The final result, she said, should reflect the community desires.
When asked a specific question about taking notes and recording executive sessions, she said as attorney it was not her role to take minutes, but the executive sessions in Fairbanks are recorded.
On a related question, she said when the borough Assembly returns to the regular meeting, they provide some information on what was discussed, which could be followed in regular session by deliberations and a vote. There were strict provisions on what happened to recordings, and who has access to them.
Billingsley added that most executive sessions she participated in were attorney-client-privilege related, and said that although she worked in a borough where the sessions were recorded, her preference would be that they are not.
On a question about negotiating union contracts, Billingsley said, it was “hands down my favorite.”
“I don’t think I’ve had more fun than those collective bargaining negotiations at the borough,” she said. She served on the bargaining teams to negotiate with the unions in the borough, and the process involved working with various people before negotiating at the table, going through “article by article” of a contract, to reach a tentative agreement.
“I played a pretty big role in actually drafting the language, and I have a pretty good attention to detail,” she said. Through her experience in the legal world, she understands the “importance of a comma,” and knows a collective bargaining agreement needs to be accessible to employees.
“All employees in the borough need to be able to read and understand what these documents are accomplishing,” which meant extensive review, and proofing, to the point “I could tell you which article a number of the provisions were in because I refer to them often.”
