By KLAS STOLPE
Sentinel Staff Writer
The tone of the Sitka Assembly meeting quickly turned from Mayor Gary Paxton’s comment on Sitka’s selection as one of America’s most beautiful cities by Conde Nest Traveler magazine to the dismay of city employees feeling threatened by townsfolk.
“It’s nice to be in one of the most beautiful cities in the nation,” Paxton said just before bringing Tuesday night’s meeting to order.
After moving quickly through routine agenda items, Assembly members made impassioned comments on the introduction of an ordinance appropriating $8,500 that among other things would enhance security at the utility office at city hall.
Richard Wein read aloud the reason stated in the Assembly packet for the security upgrade.
“In recent months the city and borough of Sitka staff working at the utility office on the first floor at city hall have reported multiple instances of feeling threatened by members of the public. Unfortunately when members of the public are dissatisfied with actions taken by the Assembly and/or administration they often take out these feelings on staff in the utility office.”
Wein added: “I think that is quite significant, and the reason I say that is when I came here 20 years ago I could leave my keys in the ignition, I could leave my house door open, I could leave money on the dashboard.”
He said he found the recent problems disturbing.
“I would certainly like to know specifically what are the instances that people came to express their opinion in this way about what the Assembly did,” Wein said. “I would like to hear those instances and as well I would like to know what instances that people were annoyed with city hall and wanted to express themselves in this way.”
Wein said he would also like to know if there were any formal written complaints and, if so, the number.
“I find that this comes at the same time of the wonderful news that we are one of the 20 most beautiful cities in the United States,” he said. “But as the song goes, is beauty only skin deep, and I think when you start to add up everything that has happened in Sitka you really need to examine what’s happening here in our town and need to come together over this. I do believe that the staff needs to be safe.”
He expressed support for the added cameras and wall extension.
Assembly member Aaron Bean agreed, and suggested a glass barrier between city employees and the public. He answered Wein’s question on disturbances at the utility counter.
“I am sure it’s the result of rate increases,” Bean said. “People are very frustrated. Not everyone follows what we do here. They probably don’t know who to complain to so are left complaining at the people taking utility payments. I would just ask that we take a really good look at what it would cost to see about a little extra protection there between the public.”
Kevin Knox felt saddened by the topic.
“No matter what this body does or what happens politically in our community, in our state, in our nation, we have to be able to have conversations with each other that are at least civil,” Knox said. “The sad part about this is that people are threatening other people in their place of work. That is unfortunate. Whether it’s because of a rate increase or how the senior sales tax program is being reinstituted or art that is in the (William) Stortz Gallery, we should not be threatening people that work at city hall. That is what was really sad for me reading this memo and understanding the level of threat and discomfort that our city staff, our neighbors, our friends, are feeling.”
City Administrator Keith Brady said the cameras could aid in the prosecution of people making threats and also deter such conduct.
Brady said he would provide answers to the incidents that happened but did not want to bring them up at present. He also did not want to go the direction of a glass partition like the one already in place at the courthouse.
“I didn’t want a physical barrier between us and the public,” he said. “I didn’t want the feel that we were cutting the public off from their government.”
Paxton said passionately that Sitka is a beautiful place with people that care about each other.
“But we are a diverse, complicated and wonderful community,” he said. “And we need to set the stage at the Assembly table in terms of civility and care about each other and not be afraid and ashamed to say we love one another, we like this community, and we are all in this together. We need to do better.”
Bean said, “At the very least I would like to see something that shows the Assembly is paying attention to what people downtown are saying and if they don’t feel safe coming to work, then we have to ask ourselves what we are doing here.”
In addition to the security upgrades, the ordinance would pay for making the payment counter ADA compliant.
The ordinance passed 7-0 on first reading.
In other business the Assembly heard from Sitka Community Hospital and Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium representatives about the hospitals’ merger. They plan a negotiating session on Dec. 6 on a two-way strategic affiliation due-diligence process, requesting information about each other for the impending deal between them.
SCH/SEARHC consultant Sarah Cave, who is advising the city in the negotiations, noted that process.
“SEARHC has requested a lot of information about Sitka Community Hospital,” she said. “We have our own list of things we think are critically important to learn about SEARHC.”
Doubts about the financial viability of Sitka Community Hospital were among the reasons the Assembly decided to affiliate with a larger health care organization, but hospital CEO Rob Allen said the hospital is having a strong financial performance this year.
“We had a very busy month of October after September kind of slowed down,” he said. “Year to date we are at $1,350,000 of income, which is a million dollars ahead of budget.”
Police Lawsuit
The Assembly went into executive session to receive and discuss an update from their municipal attorney and outside legal counsel about lawsuits filed by city police officers Ryan Silva (August 23, 2018) and Mary Ferguson (October 3, 2018).
Against the advice of city attorney Brian Hanson, the Assembly voted to exclude Brady from the closed-door session.
Hanson said the lawsuits mention the administrator as someone who spoke with the plaintiffs, and that kind of mention doesn’t amount to a cause of action against Brady or any potential liability.
“He is our client,” Hanson said. “He is a part of the city and that is what is most important about having Mr. Brady in these kinds of decisions. He is a person with information related to the subject we are talking about. You may need to ask him questions about these kinds of things… he is also a person you need to hear your concerns about this. If he doesn’t go into executive session we cannot talk to Mr. Brady about what we talked about in executive session.”
The vote was 4-3 to exclude Brady, with Paxton, Knox, and Steven Eisenbeisz voting no. That session ran from 7:30 to 9:15 p.m., with Brady being invited in at 8:05.
SCH Merger
Following the executive session on the lawsuit, the Assembly went behind closed doors again, with Brady invited in this time, to talk about the hospital negotiations. Also taking part were outside legal counsel Sandy Johnson, consultants Sarah Cave and Steve Huebner, and city chief finance officer Jay Sweeney.
“I believe we have an agenda that touches primarily and not only on essential terms that we are going to discuss ... that need to be discussed in executive session,” Hanson said, referring to the purchase agreement.
The motion to go into executive session on the hospital issues stated there would be a discussion of “matters the immediate knowledge of which would adversely affect the finances of the municipality.” Wein and Bean voted against going into executive session.
The discussion ran from 9:20 to 10:25 p.m., with the Assembly coming out briefly to extend the meeting until 11. The meeting adjourned just before then, and no update was given after the executive session.
The Assembly took no action after returning to open session.
In other business the Assembly:
– Approved without objection liquor license renewal applications for The Channel Club at 2906 Halibut Point Road and the Pioneer Bar and Pioneer Liquor Store at 212 Katlian Street.
– Supported unanimously the application to name the lake created by the May 12, 2013, Redoubt landslide as Luna Lake, in honor of the dog Luna who perished in the slide.
– Appointed Victor Weaver to an unexpired term on the Planning Commission.
– Voted 5-2, with Wein and Valorie Nelson opposed, to spend $150,000 for ongoing work by the consultants on the hospital merger.
– Voted 6-1, with Bean opposed, to have a permit system for performing commercial boat work in the city harbor system.
Assembly members talked about their recent visioning session, which centered on infrastructure and economic development, and encouraged the public to attend their next session, which is planned for Dec. 8.
“We are not the federal government,” Wein said. “We are not the state government, we are a municipal government which needs to concentrate on keeping the city running and healthy from a financial point of view.”
The next regular Assembly meeting will be held Dec. 11.
