By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
City Administrator John Leach is hoping the city’s next budget cycle will follow a new routine of asking three questions:
What level of service is expected?
What kind of budget do we have?
What kind of risk are we willing to accept?
“So using those three measures we want to be able to decide which initiatives provide the most value to the city of Sitka,” Leach said.
It has been a goal of the administrator for the last year to institute an “asset management program” for the city.
Leach has been citing asset management at Assembly meetings as a way to evaluate the city’s assets and help the Assembly make spending decisions, as well as risks associated with doing or not doing a project or program.
A newly hired engineer in the Public Works Department, Ron Vinson, has been assigned to head development of a city asset management program, Leach said.
Ideally, Leach said, an asset management program sets the stage for better planning, decision making and risks reduction. It can help determine spending priorities aimed at cutting risks, and extend the life of city infrastructure.
City staff is taking input from the Assembly on decision points in the fiscal year 2022-23 budget.
Many are related to preparations for an increase in tourism, but the general direction from the Assembly to city staff is to build a “status quo” budget with services at their present level.
The next Assembly meeting on the 2022-23 budget is set 6 p.m. Thursday at Harrigan Centennial Hall. Remote attendance is at cityofsitka.com.
Vinson, from Pleasant Grove, California, was hired to fill a vacancy in the engineering department. Vinson started work Sept. 7.
Engineer Ron Vinson stands in front of an aerial photograph of Sitka in the city administrator’s office Tuesday. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)
“While we were recruiting, (public works director) Mike Harmon and I discussed the value of asset management being one of the roles in this position,” Leach said. “And we were very fortunate to find Ron, who’s got a really extensive background in it.”
Vinson has a degree in civil engineering from California State University, Sacramento. One of his first jobs out of college – a tunnel engineering position in the San Francisco Bay area – transitioned into a position with the California State Department of Water Resources, where he gained experience with civil, mechanical and electrical engineering. His last position lasted 10 years.
He and his wife, Megan, have been to Southeast Alaska several times on cruise ships and as independent travelers on fishing trips. They enjoy fishing and the outdoors in general.
“She and I both like traveling and had been to Southeast Alaska quite a bit and loved it,” Vinson said. “There was a job posting for asset management and after interviewing and hearing a little bit about this community found it to be a pretty good fit. And I think it was a good choice.”
The couple has two boys, Marty, 7, and Thomas, 6.
Vinson’s asset management role is in addition to engineering duties in the Public Works Department.
Leach is a graduate of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy with a degree in operations research and holds a master’s degree in industrial administration from Purdue University.
He said asset management was a regular component of decisions and managing risk in the administrative duties of his 20-year career with the Coast Guard.
“It’s widely accepted in industry and it’s widely accepted in government,” he said. “It’s the background I came from, too.”
Leach said his goal of an asset management program for the city was reinforced at a recent Alaska Municipal League session when the speaker asked city managers and administrators present whether they had enough money to “do the job that is demanded of you.”
About 75 percent said they didn’t.
“He looks at the room and says ‘that means 75 percent of you don’t have an asset management program,’” Leach said.
Those who did, the speaker assumed, had a robust program that brought together considerations of “risk, level of service and budget” and had the funds to carry out the community’s priorities.
Annual budget deliberations in Sitka usually include questions of service, cost and risk, but the city has never had a formal asset management program.
“Asset management is informally part of it right now without having a formalized asset management system – it’s more discussion,” Leach said.
Vinson said asset management is a forward-looking process.
“Right now, we’re setting up the foundation and building blocks,” he said. “Next year and years to come, I could see it being a more integrated component of (the budget process).”
