By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
The city needs to improve recruitment and retention of police officers, but just raising wages for sworn officers isn’t the answer, the Assembly agreed after a discussion of the police department’s staffing issues Tuesday night.
“We’re interested in going forward,” Deputy Mayor Steven Eisenbeisz said near the end of the discussion. “We do need more than just a wage increase ... there needs to be more.”
The Assembly agreed the talks need to include the Public Safety Employees Association, which represents not only officers but other employees in the police department.
“Money is just a part of it,” Kevin Mosher said. “There needs to be more than that ... and the labor union being brought to the table.”
Police Chief Jeff Ankerfelt, who brought the issue to the Assembly, said the department is facing a crisis. While SPD can hire 16 officers, only 12 are on staff and “only 10 are capable of performing the duties of a police officer,” he said. Of the 10, two have accepted offers with the troopers and will be gone this spring, he said.
He had three main recommendations for improving retention and recruitment, including a $5 per hour wage increase to match or beat trooper wages, compress the wage scale, and hire more officers to cut down on overtime and improve retention.
The discussion was broad-ranging and included a talk on some long-standing issues in the department from a variety of perspectives.
“Historically, the Sitka Police Department has been a depressing place to work,” the chief said. Progress has been made in recent years, but there has been some resistance to the style of policing he endorses, he said. The overcrowded space housing the department is a “dump” and police officers are unappreciated, he added.
City Administrator Keith Brady said today he understands that his direction from the Assembly is to come back with a more comprehensive plan that calls for working with the union and including both sworn and unsworn officers and staff in a new recruitment and retention improvement plan.
He told the Assembly at the meeting, “It’s not a silver bullet but it will help with recruitment and retention in the long term.”
The Assembly agreed to suspend meeting rules to take testimony from two officers who are suing the department and are on unpaid administrative leave. The officers, Mary Ferguson and Ryan Silva, talked about other problems they saw in the department, besides pay, including what they saw as a “toxic” work environment.
Officer Jayson Christner encouraged the Assembly to support the police department, not just through wages but by taking steps that help improve morale.
“The people there care about Sitka,” he said. “I would encourage you to support them. Part of that is wages, and part is about morale.”
Cruise Ship Head Tax
City Attorney Brian Hanson made a brief report on the possible effect of a federal judge’s decision in favor of the cruise ship companies that sued the city of Juneau over the ways it used its $5 per passenger head tax. The judge said the funds could only be spent on items that touch the vessel, not items such as crossing guards and restrooms for cruise passengers.
The lawsuit was about the city tax that Juneau levies on cruise ship visitors. Sitka’s cruise industry revenue comes from a different source, the statewide Commercial Passenger Excise Tax, but the decision could still affect Sitka, Hanson said.
“It’s fair to say the decision by the district court probably could be applied the same way if the industry sued,” he said.
Sitka has spent its share of CPET funds on such non ship-related projects as the sea walk, security at Centennial Hall and for bus transportation for passengers on ships using the Old Sitka Dock.
Hanson said the city has to reevaluate how it will fund infrastructure improvement plans it had intended to use CPET money for.
“We need to find some other way to use those funds,” Brady agreed.
Hospital Board Appointments
The Assembly decided against rescinding two appointments that it previously made to the hospital board.
After the last meeting the city clerk said that through an administrative error one of the two open positions was supposed to be designated for someone with financial expertise, and the other one for someone with medical expertise, but they hadn’t been advertised as such.
She asked the Assembly to consider rescinding the appointments, and re-advertising the positions correctly, according to the code.
But the Assembly opted to affirm its previous selection of Mary Ann Hall and Dr. David Lam for the board. The third candidate for the board was former board chairman Connie Sipe, who had stated her financial qualifications as her experience as director of the Sitka Center for Community.
The vote was 3-3 on the motion to rescind, with Bean, Eisenbeisz and Knox voting in favor. Richard Wein, Valorie Nelson and Kevin Mosher voted against.
Those arguing in favor of rescinding the vote, including Aaron Bean, said it was simply a matter of “cleaning up actions from before.”
Eisenbeisz, who was presiding at the meeting, agreed, and said he didn’t like the precedent it would be setting if the positions were not re-advertised.
“We’re not here to debate the merits of the applicants,” he said.
Those voting against rescinding the appointments said an argument could be made for placing Lam or Hall in either the finance or medical position, and the vote should stand.
And in the end, Wein said, the decision could be moot since the hospitals are in the process of merging.
In the middle of the discussion, Nelson said the Assembly needs to discuss whether Bean has a conflict of interest because SEARHC is a client of his in his charter boat service.
Bean called for a point of order.
“This has nothing to do with the motion on the floor,” he said. Others agreed, including Eisenbeisz, but he added to Bean, “To the issue of a conflict of interest ... I would expect in the future if there’s a conflict of interest you would bring it forward.”
Bean said, “That disclosure will be made at the correct time.” He said today that SEARHC has only recently become a client of his, and he has not had a conflict of interest.
The motion to rescind failed and the three-year appointments to the board will stand.
Other Business
In other business, the Assembly:
– heard from Sitka Tribe of Alaska Tribal Council Chair KathyHope Erickson that STA has opened its food bank and is offering free bus service on The Ride to all affected by the partial federal government shutdown.
– passed on final reading an ordinance to spend $50,000 from the Visitor Enhancement Fund for security cameras and extra staff to handle visitor services at Harrigan Centennial Hall.
– reappointed Dan Gunn to a three-year term on the Library Commission, and appointed Chris Brewton to the Employment Relations Board (to represent city interests).
– approved a liquor license renewal application for the Mean Queen (downstairs).
– passed a resolution on the shared fisheries tax program.
– passed on first reading a supplemental budget appropriation to account for state payments to reduce the unfunded liability on city employee pensions, called the PERS “on behalf payments.” “We need to record the contribution as revenue,” Chief Finance Officer Jay Sweeney said. “In doing that we then have to make an accounting entry every year to record the on-behalf payment as revenue and expenditure.”
– passed on introduction an ordinance to allocate $43,800 from the electric fund for the utility subsidy program for low-income households.
– approved the consents of assignments of two tidelands leases seaward of the uplands property at 204 Siginaka Way from K&R Enterprises Inc. to Sitka Tribe of Alaska. STA has entered into a purchase agreement to buy the former Forest Service building on Siginaka and wants leases for the parking lot. The vote was 6-0 on the motion.
– voted 5-0 to offer a waiver on the late fee on utility payments by federal workers affected by the shutdown. Nelson, who works for the Forest Service, abstained.
