Sitka’s Budget
Dear Editor: In 1980 Sitka’s population was 7,803. In 2018 it was 8,647. This is a relatively stagnant rate of growth.
Why has Sitka’s operating budget shot through the roof?
Could it be simple pork-barrel mismanagement? ... or just administrations and Assemblies who are addicted to spending money like drunken sailors?
Florian Sever, Sitka
Clarification
Dear Editor: In a previous letter to you, I erred in stating the Maximun Contaminant Level (MCL) for 2378 TCDD Dioxin was 30 parts per quadrillion.
The latest (1984) information from the US EPA states the MCL is actually .013 parts per quadrillion .
“Typical analytical detection limits for water samples collected using conventional sampling methods ranges from one to ten parts per quadrillion (ppq). The U.S. EPA, however, established a water quality criterion for the protection of human health for 2,3,7,8 tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (the only dioxin congener with a water quality standard) at 0.013 ppq (EPA 1984). Due to the limitations of the analytical methods, a stream could have a concentration that is two orders of magnitude greater than the water quality standard and still not be detected. As a result of the inability to accurately quantify dioxin concentrations in surface waters that were at levels of concern, an alternative sampling method was necessitated.’’
Florian Sever, Sitka
Administrator Firing
Dear Editor: This is about the firing of Keith Brady.
As a local business owner there is always some risk of retribution (payback) for expressing my opinion. However, as I have said before in other letters to the editor, “I’d rather be shot for a lion than a lamb.”
In a former life, I worked as a consultant to businesses and professions in the U.S., Europe and Scandinavia to, simply stated, turn corporate or organizational messes into productive and successful enterprises with self-sustaining “make sense” ways for administration and employees to look at problems and solve those problems in the best interest of the organization and the workers in that organization.
It was always gratifying to see people learn to work in a cooperative and collaborative way where previously decisions and actions were taken on the basis of misinformation, irrational impulse, manipulation, implied threat, and some adversarial actions taken for the sake of the acquisition of a power position.
No, by writing this I am not looking for a job. I am writing this because I too am seriously concerned that the city organization and Assembly relationship and function has deteriorated to the point that it is dysfunctional as previously described by Thad Poulson.
I am convinced that the firing of Keith Brady is principally a symptom of a larger problem of management and control in the city/Assembly organization.
Further, I am confident that the Assembly members with no organizational or management experience are driving the “city bus” by holding on to the rear view mirror in a desperate effort to steer “the bus” in the right direction. In other words if you only have a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
To be more specific, how much time has been afforded for department heads to be met with to hear about their opinions prior to making a decision? How much time afforded to talk with staff members and seek their opinions about how things are working? One of the key mistakes in an organization is to make decisions without any information from the people who have to implement them or live with them. What efforts have been made to assure City staff that their jobs are not at risk for saying what they really think about what is and isn’t working?
I worked with several family-built retail businesses that were turned over to a management team to run it upon retirement of the founders of the business. Very soon the college-educated managers were driving the business into trouble. Their book learning, test taking, essay writing skills afforded them none of the real-time hands-on experience, and they made no contact with the hands-on employees to learn the business.
So what to do? Start by taking the “heat and drama” out of the decision to fire Keith Brady, reinstate his position. Agree to remove any punitive actions prior to talking and work to establish concrete, measurable actions developed using the best judgment of administration, department heads, staff and line workers. As I said, Keith is a symptom of the problem, not the problem itself.
Rob Parker, Sitka
