By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
A professional city manager from Georgia, a manager at Ft. Greely military base, and a born-and-raised Sitkan now working as a contractor in the lower 48 were the first three candidates for city administrator interviewed by the Assembly at a special meeting Thursday.
The Assembly is conducting videoconference interviews of seven semi-finalists in order to pare the list down to finalists for in-person interviews.
Franklin Etheridge, Marko Dapcevich and Craig Cugini were the first three interviewed Thursday. Assembly members cast votes last week to narrow down the applicants from a list of more than a dozen, eliminating those who didn’t receive two or more votes. (Etheridge received two, Dapcevich three and Cugini two.)
The Assembly will meet again at 5 p.m. Tuesday to interview the remaining semi-finalists: John Leach (6 votes), John (Jack) Ardaugh (2), Alan Lanning (7) and Sheldon Schmitt (3).
Each interview Thursday started with the candidate responding to eight standard questions, which the candidates had not seen previously.
Franklin Etheridge
The first interview got off to a rocky start with technical problems that took about 10 minutes to fix, and Etheridge was given the chance to start again.
Etheridge has worked as a professional county manager or city administrator for the past 10 years, in seven different counties and cities in Georgia.
“I’ve done a little bit of everything,” he said in his introduction.
Etheridge said he has the experience needed to do the job. He learned more about Sitka from reading online, following news about the state budget online and talking to people from his town who had visited Sitka.
He said the role of administrator is to support the Assembly.
“Specifically, to forward your goals, and your vision, both to the departments and employees to ensure we’re meeting those goals,” Etheridge said, “and as part of your team, to reach out to the community. I’m pretty open. I enjoy speaking to the public, I enjoy community meetings, and you guys seem to have a very open community, an open door community. That aspect of it I enjoy: talking to people, explaining what we’re doing, why we’re doing it, and trying to get input and feedback from the community.”
He said the city administrator should be part of the community, and keep in touch with residents as well as elected citizens, “and try to keep you from being surprised.”
Etheridge said he’s worked in a variety of circumstances, from elected bodies that work well together to those whose meetings have resulted in “fisticuffs.” He tries to provide the best information he can, using staff input as a factor, he said.
“I’ve worked in both environments, and obviously that first environment is the better environment; the truth is usually somewhere in the middle,” he said.
He’s looking to make a long-term commitment of 10 to 15 years to Sitka. He said he has a strong work ethic and believes the scope of his job reaches outside the office.
“If you’re looking for stability within your senior staff, and trying to develop that, I’m your person,” he said.
On a question of what he hopes the Assembly remembers about him from the interview, he said he’s a positive person.
“I’m eager and ready to go,” he said.
Marko Dapcevich
Dapcevich highlighted his knowledge of Sitka, as a resident, former Assembly member and mayor, and through work experiences here, which included running a bottled water company and a job at Alaska Pulp Corp.
Asked near the end of the interview why the Assembly should hire him, he said, “You should hire me because I’m a good fit.”
“If you want someone who is going to keep the status quo I’m probably not the guy for you. If you think that we have a sustainable level of debt and that we’re in a position to incur more debt, I’m probably not the guy for you,” he said. “But if you want somebody who is ready to go in there and re-evaluate those different aspects of where we are as a community, from capital projects to our debt load, to our budget, then (I’m) the guy.”
For the past 10 years, Dapcevich has worked as a construction manager in the Lower 48. He said he’s prepared for the job.
“I know Sitka very well, I’ve lived my whole life there,” he said. “I know the process very well, I know the code, I know the charter, I know the people, I know the community, and that’s also very important.”
Dapcevich said he’s talked to Assembly members and friends here and followed the news, but probably learned the most about the state of Sitka at a recent garage sale he held.
“That was eye-opening,” he said. Asked by Assembly member Aaron Bean to elaborate later, Dapcevich said the top comment he has heard is about people leaving town due to affordability issues. The decline in population is increasing the cost of living here, and elsewhere in the state, he said.
Dapcevich described the role of administrator as a type of liaison between the public and the Assembly, who should solve city-related problems before they come to Assembly.
“There’s always going to be conflicts and differences of opinion that need to be worked out, and as administrator I should take care of those for you and let you do the governance and legislation and more important things,” he said.
The administrator should work well with the community, staff and Assembly, and understand the role is “the CEO of the city, and (to) run the city with regards to what the majority of the Assembly wants.”
“The job of the administrator is to make your job easier,” he said. “I shouldn’t bring you options. You should tell me what you want, and I should execute that.”
Dapcevich said he’s happy in the job he currently holds, but sees the Sitka job as an opportunity to “work with one of the better Assemblies Sitka’s had for a while.” He said he fears Sitka is or soon will be in an economic crisis, without “drastic changes.”
“Nice guys are not necessarily the ones that will get you there,” he said. “You’re going to need somebody that’s not afraid to be the bad guy, once in a while. But all that being said, it has to be done respectfully and it has to be done in a manner where you can get people on board.”
Dapcevich said he’s learned a lot about leadership in his 10 years of construction management, and believes he has changed over the years.
“One of the things I learned is you can lead by fear or you can lead with respect,” he said. “Having people work for you out of fear can be effective but it doesn’t work. There’s no motivation for that to occur. If people respect you then they’re willing to work with you and for you.”
Dapcevich said he believes Sitka’s utility rates and enterprise fund budgets are higher than they should be, and would like to see that trend reversed.
Craig Cugini
Cugini is a civilian administrator at Fort Greely, the U.S. Army military base just outside Delta Junction. He has 25 years of military experience, and described his current position as similar to a city administrator. He has worked at military installations around the world, and highlighted some work with tribes in Alaska, and other neighboring organizations.
He started his career as a “specialist” but has been “leading in an officer capacity since 2000.” He joined the Army National Guard in 2000, the same year he became a federal government civilian employee.
“I know how to be a leader, I know how to be a follower,” he said. “I understand diversity ... I reach out beyond the boundaries of the installation fence line and dive into how we can support the community as a military force but (also) as a force multiplier for the city we support and engage with leaders ... to ensure a holistic successful program.”
He described his current job as manager and director of installation and “tenant activity operations for a medium sized multi-mission garrison Installation Management Command.”
“I am essentially a city manager of the city of Fort Greely, Alaska, and I have a robust program,” he said.
He described the similarities between a city administrator and his job managing various personnel and departments, including housing, business operations, public works and parks and recreation.
When asked to introduce himself, Cugini described himself as a “leader” as well as a “follower,” and an avid outdoorsman – hunting, fishing and dog training – and a “charismatic, caring individual that tries to get to know everybody and understand them from a human aspect, and understand what makes people tick before making any judgment on anyone’s character.”
“I have a strong ethical background, a clean background, I have a top secret clearance and I have a strong internet presence,” he said.
His research into the job included looking at the cost of living and resources, and talking to his wife, and friends, including former Sitka mayor Pete Hallgren.
Like the other candidates, Cugini said the job of the administrator is to follow the direction of the Assembly, manage the budget, inform Assembly members of goings on, take feedback and run day-to-day operations.
“Maintaining the quality of life for the community, the expectations,” he said. “In Delta Junction, some of the expectations is we don’t want taxes, we don’t want to grow too large ... we have just enough to be good but we want to be outside of Fairbanks.”
He said the administrator should be a strong leader, have a sense of public service, and “provide vision, guidance and direction.”
“A good leader understands the community is not one person,” he said. “It’s the community. They have to come together, they have to succeed together ... Managing those people who can provide a wonderful way of life, and manage those resources so that they’re beneficial to everyone, takes understanding of individuals, being able to influence those individuals to do good and hold them accountable to doing their job day to day.”
When asked what the Assembly should remember about him, he encouraged members to consider “the holistic person of your applicants.”
“I’m just an all-around secure candidate,” Cugini said, noting stories about him that are available on the internet. “I’m engaging, I’m out there, I have a strong presence and, comparatively with my competitors, you can compare and see and make that determination of whether or not I am a well-rounded candidate.”
