City and Borough Assembly - Regular Meeting

Welcome everybody. It is 05:00, so I'll call to order the special meeting on Friday, 04/24/2026. Please join me for a flag salute. Pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. The Assembly of City and Borough of Sitka would like to respectfully acknowledge the traditional first people of Chitka. With gratitude, we proceed on Tlingit Ani. Sarah, roll call, please.

Present. Present. Here.

Miss Carlson. Here. Miss Riley. Here. Mister Christensen.

Here.

Mister Mosier.

Here.

And mister Saline, he did text me, so he's probably on his way. Yeah.

So tonight, we are gathered to, do another or do the second round interview for Jenny Alber, as candidate who made it to our second round as well. Just like last time, we do have two hours scheduled on this one so that we can go a little bit more in-depth with Jenny and figure out if she's going to be a match, not only, for our municipality, but, for the citizens as well. Josh, do you have anything you wanna go over again this time?

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Just very quickly, we have the same list as last time with the prohibited questions and prohibited categories. So please pay attention to that. It will be a round robin style, same as last time. And Ms. Albert is standing by. As soon as I text her, she's ready to join and she's been standing by for about ten minutes. That's all I got.

Perfect. If you're early, you're on time. Kevin and Katie, you guys want a rock paper scissors for who asked to go first? I'll go first. That was very authoritative.

What about Scottie?

I know. Yeah. We we we gotta wait for that guy.

Fifteen minutes there.

Uh-huh. Okay. So, yeah, Kevin, if you don't mind starting out, we'll start it on your side. We'll just keep going around the room just like last time. I'll again, I'll kinda track it if it seems like we're starting to wrap up. Just you know, if if you have

more questions, please feel free

to ask them. And I'm not trying to slow the conversation down, but we'll just try to make sure we're not overextending ourselves and using too much of everybody's time tonight if we don't need it. So Josh, if you could reach out to Jenny, please. Don't worry. We

see each

other Hi,

Jenny. Can you hear us?

Hi. Yes, sir. I can.

Alright.

Here we go.

I love the great art in the background, but now that's all I'm gonna be staring at.

It's on purpose.

Welcome, Jenny. Thank you for joining us again. I know there's a little bit of a time difference here. So we'll try and jump right into it. So that way we can get to know you just a little bit better. The purpose of our round two interview and a little bit longer time is just to dive a little deeper into into you and your background and and see how you're going to fit within our municipality. Just with last time, we will offer a little bit of time at the end. If you have any thoughts or questions for us, we're happy to entertain those as well. I've always believed in employment that it needs to be mutually beneficial. You know, it has to work for us and you.

So if you have anything that you need to know from us about us or questions, we'll give you that opportunity at the end. Do have anything before we get started?

I do not. Just no.

Great. We'll we'll jump right in. I think we have some some questions assembly members are eager to ask. So, Kevin, please.

Thank you, mister mayor. Hi, Jenny. Kevin Moser here. I'm gonna ask you or try to stick to the general same questions I asked our previous candidate. And this one the first one is this. Have you research it's a multipart question, generally. And the question is, have you researched SIPCA, the SIPCA community? Things like pressing needs, you know, of all sorts, whether it's structural or, otherwise important issues, things that are important to the community, what the community values, those kind of things. Have you researched these kind of things? And in general, in your if you have researched Sitka, what is your first impression of the community as a whole?

Okay. Well, I I did research. I because, clearly, my memory of the of the city and the town and the people is somebody corrected me last time, thirty plus years. I was just I try not to think it was that long ago, but yes. So, yeah, I did actually did a lot of research over the last two weeks. I did a little bit. I went into kind of the newspaper articles. I looked at some old assembly meetings that you have had. I looked at the strategic plan. Just just some basic stuff to kinda grasp a little bit of what's going on.

And ironically, it's very similar issues, I think, that we're dealing with in New Orleans. There's a lot of issues on tourism. Housing is a big one. Food security was was another one that kept coming up over and over and over. And then utilities, which which and then that kind of forced me to kind of detour and do more research into utilities and realizing what I did not realize last time is that utilities in Sitka are city run, which is from different mindset or a different and in Colorado, we're private privately owned.

So it was it was a unique situation to kinda read a little bit more into that and kinda figure out, okay. How does that work? How do the people feel about that? Because we have we have issues with our privately run utilities here. So I think it was it was very unique to kind of delve into that a little bit more.

Thank you. Hey.

Here in the middle. JJ. Hi. Hello.

I'm trying to be over so you can see me, but if you hear a voice and don't realize who it is, it's probably me from behind the the wall. So you mentioned, you know, two and a half weeks since we've talked. In that time, have you had any reflections or spend any time kind of seeing, you know, what you said last time and if you were given the opportunity to make some corrections or, you know, to explain something differently or to kinda cover something that you, you know, thought you could have done better from the last time. Mhmm. Now is a good time to kind of catch us up from

Gotcha. Mhmm. Well, I I would say, honestly, I think I was thrown for probably the first few minutes with with technical issues that I was having. So I don't think I did an introduction as well as I would have liked. I because I feel like I kind of that was my first thought. My second thought was, oh my god. You rambled and told a lot of stories. What were you thinking? So I I I will admit that I do have a tendency to to tell stories and to I do make antidotes to a lot of things, but the introduction, I kinda if I can, would like to reintroduce myself to you all.

Yes, please.

Because oh, thank you. Well, Jenny Albert, obviously. I have over twenty five years now experience in in government, nonprofits, and legal background. I am an attorney. I'm not licensed in Louisiana.

I would not be licensed in Alaska obviously. That is not necessarily something I wouldn't look into but I have spent several several years just recently in government agencies. Just in the city of New Orleans, I started out in criminal justice, moved to policy and finance, and then kind of stepped into safety and permits. And so I've been the last year, year and a half, I think, right now almost in safety and permits has been kind of getting so immersed in our system here, is safety is our top priority. It's something that that our ex director and our new director still everybody says.

You know? We're we yes. We do permits, and permits are great, but we're we're concerned about safety because one of the complaints that we hear in at our in our office is that, you know, permits take too long to get. And I think I was at an offense, and the guy was a little hostile towards me. And he was like, you know, why does it take so long?

I was like, well, sir, realistic. I mean, you know, I can give you a permit in a day if if you wanna boil it down. I cannot guarantee you that that house or that building or that hotel that you're gonna build is not gonna fall down because we didn't take the time to examine the plans, examine everything that you turned into us to make sure to do the inspections, to make sure it was legit and right and being built correctly. So I think when you kind of express that to people and and they realize that you're passionate and that you're not there to say no to everything, I think it kind of changes their mindset a little bit. Previously, I worked in administration and regulations in Colorado.

I've worked in state mental health for and just general health for about a year, two years. And then I was in social work is where I started my career. So tend to like to think very well rounded, and I certainly obviously like to learn new stuff. I went to law school later in life. I spent two years in Sitka at SJ. Still have some very good friends from the area who don't live in Marion Moore, unfortunately, but went to school with me. So, yeah, definitely very interested in the position. I'm interested into moving back to the area and taking the next step in my career.

Great. Was there any other kind of pieces or or things that you remember from the last

A little bit. I'm sorry. Yes, ma'am. One of the questions was about your code and charter and if I had taken the time to to look into it. And I truthfully had not. I had I was focusing on budget and kind of departmental stuff. So I did take the time in the last two weeks, look through your charter. Pretty normal, pretty standard. The code I'm not sure if you call it code. I'm used to calling it code based on New Orleans.

Again, pretty standard. There was a couple of things that I I just caught my attention that were very interesting was the enforcement of of a lot of the laws and that they seem to be not adjudication based, which is kind of how we do it. We have hearing officers, and we may have hearing officers that people can come to and work out their fines or what usually fines is our biggest thing. But everything from what I read in the code that you all have is it's civil civil rules based. So it would go to civil court.

And the attorney may kinda thought that was very interesting because I'm like, wow. This but then that made me question the thought process behind that. And is it just a lack of potential hearing officers? Is that a strain on your court system? Is that a strain on your city system? So that was just kind of things I found interesting. But for the most part, I'd like I liked how the all of the ordinances seem to be written. They're very detailed. I like that. I don't like things that you can interpret too much because I think that tends to leave you as a city, it leaves you in a in a can can leave you in a bad place because then, yeah, people are gonna you know, I interpret it this way, and I interpret it that way, but I think the law is the law, and it's usually pretty black and white.

And when your ordinances are written in with the intent that you're trying to get across, it makes enforcing those laws much easier. And that was my two things that I thought back on.

Thank you. Yeah. I think it's important to always kind of be in that kind of continually growing, learning, and applying what you've done to where you are. So I I appreciate that, and thank you for you know following up.

Well apparently I should have been the first one to ask questions because the the previous two assembly members in bits and pieces and then in your response kinda took all of all of mine. So, Jenny, I'll I'll go ahead and start easy on this one, and then we'll rapidly ramp up after this. Just curious if you watched our previous interview with the other municipal administrator candidate?

I did not. The one that occurred on Wednesday, I'm assuming?

Correct.

Or no. I did not. I will say I did go back and I watched mine and his from the first round just because I was kind of curious. One, I wanted to rate myself. Myself. But no, I did not watch Wednesday.

Okay. Yeah, there was no right or wrong answer there. So thank you.

Hi,

Jenny. Tim Pike.

Hi.

So my question has to do with the community and the relationship the administrator has with the community. In many regards, the administrator is the face of the city and is the point person that people point to. So my question is what do you view as the role of the administrator in the community and do you have some examples about things that you've done that would prepare you for that?

Okay. What what I would say is is, I guess, my first question, not to divert your the response, but when you say people view it as the point person, I would have to say from my experience, I I don't think it should be. This position is not the mayor. It's not an assembly person. This in my view, this position really kind of almost is a behind the scenes person.

In a small town, you're gonna be known, obviously. I mean, it's a little over 8,000 people I think I read today in the in the community. So people are going to get to know you. They're gonna know your face. I mean, even here in New Orleans, I will go somewhere and they're like, oh, wait. You're from sage impermanence. I was like, oh, hi. Yeah. You know? In the middle of a festival, you have to have that conversation with someone.

But I I I just truly do not feel that this position should be that point person, because I think they're beholden to you all. And and the point of an administrator is to do what you all want done, and in the same token, to do what the community wants done. So I think it's kind of should be almost a I don't Not a middleman, but a go between between the two. Between the community that clearly you all have your own constituents, so, you know, you're you're gonna hear and talk to all of your constituents. If they know that they have somebody in the city hall that they can contact, it's been my experience that people will if they can trigger onto a name and get a face and know that that person's gonna answer the phone, they're just gonna call because that's you know, people wanna be able to have access.

In my in my roles, I think I have always enjoyed and kind of prefer to be that behind the scenes person. I tend to having been in politics for so long, I think you see the good and the bad of people who are the face and maybe who take that face a little too far, who are constantly on social media, constantly in front of people, constantly filming themselves. I don't know that I necessarily agree with that because I think having a little bit of a separation, I think is a good thing. I'm not sure if I completely answered your question, but

I think you have. I mean, we operate with a strong administrator system, a weak mayor. It's a little different. Some places are strong mayor, weak administrator. So that was my question. And that's why I think the perception of our community that the administrator is a point person is because while the mayor has a role, they are not in the position to direct things in the same way that the administrator can. So I think that was why my question was what do you that was why the public face of our community being the person who is the action person. Your answer was fine, thank you.

Thank you. This is Tor Christiansen. Dog gone and Tim, you just messed up my question.

Someone did that. Right? No.

No. I I was gonna expand on that a little bit. And as as Tim just said, whether you want to or not, the administrator is the point person, which is why I wanna ask about how you deal with the public on that. Because you if you are the administrator, you will get people in your office unhappy. And there's no way around that.

And it was a little bit of a two part. It was how would you deal with someone who's coming in with a complaint or concern? And then also how you would deal with someone who comes in with a complaint who you can't help, who's hot under the collar. And that is going to happen. And there's going be times where you, for whatever reason, because what they're asking is impossible impossible or or unreasonable unreasonable or or illegal.

And so first is how would you handle initially somebody coming in who needs help. And then how do you handle that person who you can't help who's hot under the collar?

Okay. I think when you are whether or not you're the administrator or the face or just the city employee, when someone comes in, it's and I have the belief that that is it's your job to help that person. It's your job to sit down and communicate with that person or to talk to them on the phone or have whatever that communication communication role role is. Is. I and that can happen quite honestly. I've had that happen out out on the street. You know? You you get stopped by people. You get stopped in the grocery store. You get stopped at here.

We get stopped at festivals. We do community events. So you're you're constantly out there. So they know your name. They know your face. And then, you know, they get your email or your phone number, and then it's just a constant repeat. You know? Which I have every right to. I mean, I'm a constituent of New Orleans as well. So it's like, I like to know that I haven't done it.

But if I wanted to pick up and call my my council member, I can do that. And there's someone from that office is going to take that call and take that call seriously. So I think that would be the first thing is that you need to and unless yours, like, you know, I got a meeting in five minutes or a call in five minutes that could not be rescheduled, I'm gonna take the time to sit down and talk to that person and find out what exactly their issue is, good or bad. Hopefully, it's good, but usually, quite honestly, especially in in the role I'm in now, it's usually bad. People don't tend to come to city hall with a a compliment.

You know? They usually come and and they're angry about something or they are upset because some law was changed or they want their driveway poured a certain way and and that was not done correctly. So you're kind of handling that. Angry constituents, that is going way back in my career. Learned very early.

And when I first started managing people, I was managing social workers in TANF programs, which are welfare to work programs. And we were you were constantly dealing with angry people, angry spouses, angry partners because the job that you were doing was not a nice one at times. And so I think what I've always developed is, one, let that person talk it out. Let them, you know, say whatever is they wanna say and hear them, not just listen to them. Actually, take the time and hear what someone's saying when they're angry.

And then if you can fix it, tell them how you're gonna fix it. Follow-up with them. If you can't, if what they if what they want is completely illegal and or just simply cannot be done. I think just saying no. I'm sorry. I can't do that is not a good enough answer. Customer service is not always necessarily saying yes. It can be saying no to something, but explaining why you're saying no to something. You know? Yeah.

I really want I really wanna help you. I want you to get that phishing license or whatever it is that you're here and you're angry about, but this is why I can't do that. But here's another path that we think we can get you to move forward if you're willing to take these steps. So I think that's kind of how has been my experience and and my personality is to listen, hear them, and then figure out if if it's not an easy path, it's not an easy direction. Is there some other way we can get them to walk out of there somewhat happy?

Or at least if not happy, walk out of there knowing, okay. If I do a, b, and c, I'm gonna get what I'm what I'm angry about comp, completed.

Thank you. Mhmm.

Hello, Katie Riley. Hi. Thanks for for being here tonight. My question is about housing. You took a look at our strategic plan, and you probably saw that that is one of our number one issues. It's a a big constraint on our economic development and our growth as a community is the lack of affordable housing opportunities and attainable housing opportunities for working families. This also affects our seasonal workforce and will will be a factor in our aging population as well. And so I'm wondering what kind of ideas you have to address the housing crunch. You mentioned that was something that you were facing as well, and would love to hear your thinking on that issue.

Sure. Well, here in in in New Orleans, we have an aging population as well, STTR, short term rentals. And I didn't read a lot in in your plan regarding short term rentals. That is a very hot topic here, and it kind of ties into the tourism and people coming in and where are they gonna stay if they if they're, you know, not on a cruise ship or they're just coming in, they wanna or the seasonal workers, you know, where where can they live and where can they live reasonably? I will say I I did a little bit of searching today on some of the housing and rentals that were available.

One other thing. I can only find, like, two long term rentals available on any of the websites. I found a couple short term, but some of the prices, I was like, oh my goodness. It was, like, 15,000 for a month for a rent. And I was like, how can anybody afford that, especially if you're coming in as a seasonal worker and you need a room to stay in and and there's a a two bed for $15,000 for for rent was was a little much.

It kinda made me go, woah. I thought we were high. So it's it's not definitely not an easy fix. It's not an easy solution. Housing is something that that I care about, obviously, because, I mean, as a renter, that's something that you have to think about.

And it is something that being new to the community, I would really do a lot of outreach and working with either the nonprofits in the area, the housing advocates in the area, and saying, okay, What has worked? What hasn't worked? You know? What what if this was your ideal situation, how would we make that happen? And then kind of, again, try to pull people a little bit back from the extreme ends that I think you often get with things like housing and short term rentals.

It's always, you know, yes, absolutely, or no, don't do it. So I think getting them getting people into the middle. And that's really just a lot of conversations. That's a lot of relationship building. That's a lot of not saying no if somebody has a crazy idea. It's a matter of going, okay. That's that's that's interesting. I don't know if it'll work, but tell me a little bit more about that, and let's see if it has ever been tried before. If it's been tried twenty years ago and it didn't work, no problem. We're a completely different mind completely different space than where we were twenty years ago in this country.

You know? So let's see and try some new ideas or try an old idea that maybe didn't work and see if we can make it work now. I think using the again, the nonprofits, using the tribe tribe age tribal agencies. I mean, this I'm sure there I would imagine just for a little bit that I read in the strategic plan is that there are people doing this work. And I think maybe if they're not all together in the same room or playing together in the sandbox, maybe they just don't know what's out there.

So I think that would be really, my first thought would be let's see what's out here. Let's I hate to say do a do a survey or do a I mean, that's just it sounds so big and cumbersome when you say stuff like that. It would just be let's have a conversation and see where we are. Map it out on a whiteboard, spend a couple hours, you know, what what can be done, what has been done, what are the ideas floating out there.

Thank you very much.

Hi Jenny. My question is this. What is your experience preparing budgets for government agencies? And specifically, how would you how have you prepared it? Or what is your vision for preparing them?

Sometimes, or at least in Sitka, there's a months long process, several months for revive practically from start to finish. Mhmm. What is your experience or vision for working with finance staff, department heads, assembly members, their desires for resource proposals, also community desires and needs, which I'm sure you're aware you have those in New Orleans. So just kinda give me or us your kind of philosophy, your well, you want your experience and then your philosophy and thought process behind the whole thing.

Sure. Sure. Well, my experience has been just on a department level going all the way back, god, to one of my very early jobs as a contractor with a county county agency in Denver. Pretty much we had to in every job since then, I think, you have to we had to come up with a budget for the year. And how I do it is we had a unique way we did ours last year in our department is we sat down.

We have 11 divisions in our department. So we we I would sit down and have a conversation and give them a a blank kind of here's an Excel sheet that here's what you had last year. The tell give me your wish list for this year. And then kind of sit with each of the managers of those 11 divisions, have them go through and tell me, you know, why you need these people or why you need these books or these vehicles, whatever it is. Why do you need it?

How can I sell that to city council and to the mayor? And what's the what's the benefit? Especially in in a budget strapped city as we are right now in New Orleans, everything comes back to if we spend this money, what what's our return? What are we getting back out of it? For example, I told you I do a lot of anecdotes stories like we had a one of my staff really wanted to go on a conference, which would help us with beefs eggs and bringing down insurance rates.

And the first response from our CAO was, no. We don't have money. And I like, well, hold on. Let's let's think about this. You know, this the benefit of shelling out $3,000 to send her to a conference will do all of this for our city and our for everyone that owns a home in the city and in the parish. So it's kind of taking the immediate pushback, which is probably gonna be, oh, you can't afford that or no. Why are we buying five new cars? Well, we're buying five new cars because all of our cars are a 180,000 miles or above. But, you know, They're they're breaking down. We can't do inspections.

So we can't do inspections, so we can't bring in money for revenue. So then we have angry constituents because we can't come out and do their inspections. So it's, you know, kind of playing devil's advocate, I think, is what we have to do. So we do that within the departments. And then as a department, we go to our deputy CAO.

We kind of present our budget to them to him, and then to our our budget liaison, basically, basically in the city. And then you kinda you give them your wish list, and then you take back what what they come back with is which is often cut quite a bit. And so you kinda have what the mayor wants your budget to be, and then you go in front of the council. And then we would have to, again, explain, well, why do you need this? Why do you need this?

And then hope that you're not gonna get your budget cut yet again. So it is a lengthy can be a lengthy process for us here as well. I think that's the first part of the question. The second part, I would say how I would go about it is there are and I'm sure you have a amazing finance director, I'm hoping, because there are people who are way smarter at math than I am who I'm gonna lean on and say, okay. You tell me where were we.

I can see it in the numbers, but tell me what's what's the behind the scene of the numbers. What's what's the story? Because then I think when I have to present that to you all, it's much easier to to do a presentation or do a sales on I need more money. I need a million dollars more for this project project because it's going to do a, b, and c for the community. And quite honestly, I think in any town, any city, any municipality, it all needs to come back to how is what you're spending money on going to help your neighbors, help your community?

Because I think if you can't answer that question, then do you really need that card? Do you really need, you know, really fancy Post it notes or whatever it is, you know, as as detailed as you wanna get into the budget that way.

Thank you. Mhmm.

JJ, again. So with us here on Baranoff Island, part of the Outer Coast, know, part of the Southeast Region, we are a home rule first class city. There's no, you know, typical structure like the rest of The US. As a city and borough, we are municipality. We are, you know, the county parish equivalent.

So it's us and then state government. And just to make us, you know, as you noted, even more unique, we run all the utilities except for the Internet. And people are happy to pay a $100 a month for internet but the rest of the utilities are way too expensive.

Right. Right. And

the other aspect of that too is because we're just 8,000 people, the seven of us or six plus the mayor don't represent a particular neighborhood. We're just there's two precincts here, but the way that we do elections now, that kinda doesn't even matter. So we're just we're all Sitka, and we're all representing all of us even though we kind of run through our different platforms. So there's not exactly the same kind of constituent relationship as other places I've lived before because I was born and raised here and then kind of went away and then came back. So we were kind of overlapping on a local level, and then there's a big gap, and then there's there's the state government.

And we're on the outer coast inside passage. Neighboring communities are kind of far enough away that we rely on, you know, the airplane and a dwindling ferry service for our transportation to our neighbors. You know, Juno's 100 miles away, and, you know, they're our our closest our closest neighbors. So with that, we got a lot of water, a little bit of flat, tall mountains. And that's why our kind of our housing and our food and our child care, a lot of what you saw in that strategic plan, is such a challenge because we've run out of flat land.

And with those steep mountains and those waters that are right on the outer coast, you know, we're more susceptible to natural disasters than than others around the nation. So thinking about that from an emergency management incident command, national disaster standpoint, we're pretty unique, and we don't have a lot of friends to lean on. Right. What's your experience with kind of running command, especially when we are the group that does all the utilities. We're in control of it all.

What what what could you tell us about that and how you would help us out in the situation of that nature?

Gotcha. Well, I I will be honest and say emergency preparedness, especially here in New Orleans, is is something that we live with every day. I think it's just a different mindset. You know? Our our big issues are hurricanes and floods, and we're actually just getting ready to start into hurricane season coming up here in about a month.

I have not, knock on wood, have had to be in a well, I've not had to run a command center. We are big enough here that we have our own it is its own separate department for emergency services here in Thindon City. They work directly to the mayor. And when something happens, as a essential employee, myself and my director are always were immediately called over to we have a city hall. We call it the 9th Floor.

It's kind of where the war room is, and that's where it kinda you just bring a bag during hurricane season. You keep it in in your car because you know you possibly could be stuck in the command center for several days. And that has happened. I think Ida was the last time that happened several years ago. So it's the the best thing that I have seen that they do here that's really, really well that I would actually try to steal is and it sounds kinda hokey, but it's very much just prep. It's prep. It's planning. It's knowing that it's not they have a saying here. It's not it's not when it's not if something is gonna happen. It's when something's gonna happen.

So everybody is always very cognizant of, yeah, there's going to be a storm. This matter of how bad is it gonna be, and is it going to flood? Is it going to affect our water systems? Is it gonna affect the sewer systems? Where safety and permits came in, especially for Ida, it was roofs were just getting ripped off. So we were fast tracking permits very quickly because it was people I mean, you they couldn't wait. You know? We had to get tarps out to everybody. We were driving with police officers. We would have our inspectors just kinda riding around with the police and taking photos and writing down addresses and going, okay.

That person is clearly gonna need a permit to take care of their home because their home's either missing their roof, it's half underwater, whatever is going on. They're gonna need they're gonna need assistance. FEMA is a touchy subject here. If if you know anything about the area and the city. And I think probably being as as isolated as Sitka is, I'm sure FEMA can't just show up tomorrow, you know, with trailers. Trailers. So I think it is very much a all hands on deck. Here's the community. Who's essential? Do they know what their plans are?

Do the community have plans? You know? Is there I'm assuming tsunamis, obviously, obviously, landslides. And it was almost I just was thinking about when you were talking was of the volcanoes, not not not Edgecombe, but I know, like, the Fairbanks Anchorage that just went up a few years ago. And I don't know would impact, you know, the air quality in Sitka.

Is it far enough away? Is Seattle far enough away if something happened there? So I think those are all things that you really have to take the time and prepare for and have the hard conversations and get the right people in the room and then go to your community and say, okay. Do you have a plan? You know? I don't know anybody here in the city or the surrounding area that doesn't have water prep starting in June who doesn't have, you know, a to go bag ready, you know, because it's just you have to be ready to leave or to evacuate. Little bit different. Where can you go if you're if you're on an island? I think that would be probably my first question to delve into. Is is there a shelter somewhere?

Is there if it's a tsunami, obviously, you're not gonna get on the water, but where can you go up into the mountains maybe to to house people in a short time and a for hopefully very quickly for a short time until they can get back into their homes. So yeah. So to to to ram wrangle back and ramble back to your initial question, I have not had to direct it, but I had certainly been involved, and I've seen some very, very good directors and very good emergency managers who I would quite honestly, if I were offered this position, I would sit down and be like, hey. This is what I'm going to step into. What's your advice?

What's the best way to set this up coming in as a new person certainly who has never had to do that direction and kind of you you don't know what you don't know kind of thing. So I think that would be a lot of my questions to people would be, what do what do I need? What do I need to look at? Who do I need to talk to? What's you know, if if this were an island, if New Orleans all of a sudden was all by itself, what how would you handle that? And kind of take some of their ideas and and translate them into your community, you know, or the Sitka community. Great.

Thank you. Appreciate that. Mhmm.

Kayla, so like I said, round two is gonna be a little bit more tough.

No worries.

So if you had to choose between delivering a project on time with known quality issues or delivering it late with everything fixed and you could not discuss it with anyone or get any more information, which would you choose and why?

Oh, wow. Deb, can I ask a question? If if I cannot The

question says no, but sure.

Just a clarification. So we can't talk to anybody. Is that to gather more information, or am I allowed to say, hey. I'm gonna need an extra day, or I'm I'm gonna need an extra few days? Or is that just off the table, or is it just a or b?

That could be part of your answer.

Okay. Alright. Well, I would say my my first reaction is I would never want to put out a bad product, especially if I know it's bad. What that just makes no sense in my head. Why would you do that?

I I also just hurts my heart to be late on anything because I think that's just it just makes me crazy, and I think it's very disrespectful to your audience as well. But if I knew that we were not ready to present, my first question or my first ask would be to whoever that was who was receiving that information would be, okay. Here's the dilemma I'm in. I can give you a product that's not quite where I want it to be. But if you give me an extra two days or an extra day or even an extra four hours, whatever the time frame is, you it will be complete and ready and much better product.

And then kind of try to wrangle that little bit of extra time. If I can't and you have to present it, then I would present it. But I would certainly, that would not be my first choice.

Thank you for guiding us through your thought process on that one.

Tim Pike again. So obviously, city administrator runs the employees for the city. Can you kind of walk us through how you would set up your management team? What you be looking for? How would you lean on them? And what kind of experience do you have working with management teams? And then what would be the function that you would give your management team going forward in the city?

Okay. I can tell you my experience, I've been a manager since that was about late twenties, and I have dealt with supervisors, administrators, directors all throughout of an organization. My personal viewpoint, and then I will get into your question, I promise, is I really I'm a firm believer in a chain of command. And I think you if someone has a question or has a problem, they really my first question if they come to me is always gonna be, have you talked to your supervisor? Have you have you tried to work that out at the lowest level?

Because I think the soonest that something is escalated, it becomes bigger. Whether they realize it as a staff person that it's become a bigger issue or not, it it has. You know? If you're bringing it to me as especially if if I'm the administrator of the city, then it's it's gonna be a big deal. I have to make it a big deal.

So I'm always gonna want to make sure, see if we can solve it at the lowest level. And I also very much am and I would expect this of of staff is that I I I will always say I am fully aware, fully capable, and willing to to get run over by the bus. We're just let me know that that bus is coming, you know, so I can be prepared for it and hopefully have an answer to it when, you know, we get in front of you guys and there was a mistake and we have to own up to it and we have to be accountable for what happens. That is probably one of the biggest traits I look for in staff and in management team is, yes, I want everybody to know their jobs and to be able to do their jobs well, but I also look for people who are going to say, oh, no. I'm best at that.

That was me. I did that. How do I correct it? And then I think you can you work with that and move forward with that. Because I think working as a team, you almost have to leave your ego at the door a little bit because everybody is gonna bring something.

One thing I think I heard once from a politician who said he he's not the smartest in the room, so he will hire the smartest people he knows to do and then kind of let them do what they need to do. And then take their advice and and listen to everything that they bring. Coming into this position, I would I'm I'm making the assumption that these positions are filled. So I'm I would not come in at I've had people come into executive levels, and they they come in and they're like, oh, no. I want my own people.

I want everybody gone. And I I don't I don't think that's a smart thing to do because, one, you're gonna lose institutional knowledge when you do that. And then you you also especially in a smaller community, I mean, you're setting your this is your first impression that you're giving people. So I think you have to take the time a month, two months, up to six months to kinda learn where you are, learn who these people are, learn what their skill sets are, and then take, hopefully, what I've learned over the years and can sit there and go, you know, I saw you did this or I saw you answered this question this way. Come.

Let's take a walk. I wanna talk to you about that because I think there might be a better way to do it. And my hope would be the team would be open enough to sit there and say, oh, okay. You know? She she does know what she's saying.

She does know what she's doing. She can actually answer questions and bring something new to the table. So you never wanna discount people's history or discount their feelings or their thoughts. But I'm also very much a especially on the time question that kind of boils into what was just asked. If if we have a job job to do.

You know? I mean have a good time and and release some of the stress because quite early is you have to have a release valve, and you have to allow your staff to have a release valve. So I would really want to see my the team that I was managing or to be open enough and know themselves well enough to know when their boundaries are gonna hit and to be able to say, okay, Jenny, I I I need I need to step out of this because I'm having an issue. They don't have to tell me what that issue is, but, you know, you you need a minute. Fine.

Go take a walk. Go get a cup of coffee. Do whatever you need to do, and then come back, and then we got work to do. You know? So I think it's a balancing act, but I think you have to be and I think I have gotten very good at allowing people to find their own way, but to be guided in in such a way that their way and their own way is the way that you all and we and I are working to get the community too. You know? So I think you always need to have, you know, your north star. That's where we're trying to go, guys. And and to be honest with them, and, you know, it's it's probably gonna be tough. It's not gonna be fun.

You know, management is not you're not always liked. You know? You you have to deal with angry customers. You have to deal with angry staff at times, and you have to be willing and open to hear that feedback and hear that criticism and take it and hopefully do something better with it next time.

Thank you. Mhmm.

Hi, Jenny. This is Chor Christensen again. So and again, Tim, I've got to stop doing that.

Do you want questions in here?

Yeah. So no, I'm going to test how much research you did a little bit. I know we touched on this But last the city of Sitka and the Sitka tribe of Alaska have a very close relationship. The government to government meeting is next week. And we have an MOU that has governments coexist.

And so I guess my question is, have you researched that a bit? And then how would you, if you have especially if you have how would you interact with your counterparts over at the tribe and then the relationship with the city and the tribe?

I've researched a little bit. I certainly looked into we're talking about the Sitka tribe. Correct? The the tribal council for Tlingit for the Tlingit people. I looked great web page, by the way. Have to give them a great compliment. I love their web web page and all the information that was on it. I did not see an MOU, so I I honestly, I can't speak to it. I can assume what it probably says. I think what the first thing I would do is, again, is it small town politics and small town reg regulations tend to fall back to relationship building in my mind.

Finding somewhere where you connect, I think I would be viewed, unfortunately, as an outsider. Right? So I think we have to just put that on the table. Yes. I'm gonna have to learn an awful lot about you, about your tribe, about things that you do, how you view the world, how you think we should work together.

So coming in with preconceived notions is is not gonna help the situation. And I think that would be the first thing I would do, would be to make that statement. I'm not totally clueless about tribal matters. My sister-in-law is actually native American from a tribe in New York. So I've I've spent the last twenty years that she's well, she's been in our family, and and now my nieces and nephew is kind of help guiding them through their process and kind of college and education and how, you know, that can that they can use their their background and their history to and and help them grow a little bit more and get the education.

And so I would I would oh, that's a tough question. I think I would I would try really and truly is find try to find a connection with my the my peer that is over in in in that agency and just try to figure out here and ask questions kinda point blank. What what do you what do you see? What do you want the city to accomplish? What do you wanna accomplish with the city?

And then ask, maybe not the first time, but hopefully in the second or third meeting is, okay. Where have you seen this fall apart in the past? You know, kind of where where's where's the landmines, and how do we avoid those landmines moving forward. Because I think if we know where the landmines are or we can anticipate what the what the other agency is gonna want or we we'll know what you guys want from the city side, then I think you can you can work together. And if there's not a good relationship, I mean, I have to I don't know if there is or isn't, so I have to make the assumption that there's a decent relationship and hopefully can just make it better and make it better by honest communication and, you know, going in.

And, it's the I don't know what I don't know, so I need you to educate me on what I don't know, if that makes sense.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you, Katie Riley. My question is full we're a full service city here. We carry a lot police, fire, public works, utilities, parks, and more. And so, you know, something that you had previously talked about, was your experience in grants and loans and looking for those kind of external funding sources at the, legislative level, whether be at state or federal. We are in a budget crisis as a state, and, I would I would say that transcends to the federal level at this point.

And so there's not a lot of promise for external funding coming in, and we really have to work with what we have. And that leads to those aforementioned, you know, high rates, whether they be for utilities and and services that govern our enterprise funds, and then also just, you know, the general cost of living stretches people pretty thin here. So, you know, in your role as the administrator, you would be responsible along with finance director for making the decisions to balance the budget. And I'm wondering if you can give an example of where you had to how how do you evaluate service level trade offs? And can you give an example of where you recommended reducing or restructuring a service?

And then how do you involve the community in those decisions?

Trying to think. The closest example I have to having to do those trade offs is kind of where where the position I'm in right now. I've been very lucky in previous positions in that we were pretty soluble. I didn't have to think about how we were gonna raise additional dollars, or it was more these additional dollars are just kind of bonus money, you know. So you're always, especially in the nonprofit, looking for funds, you know, that just never goes away.

I think the interesting thing because federal dollars are very much what's the word I'm looking for? Drying up to in in in a unfortunate manner. What I would the probably the first thing I would look at would be sources of revenue. You know? How what take a take a very long hard look at where's revenue coming into the city now, where are we maybe missing something.

And it's it's the I think the easy path is to say, oh, you can just raise this rate or you can raise, you know, this fine or this fee. And I think that is very hard for your community oftentimes to swallow. And I think anytime we would or if we were got to the point where, like, okay. We really have to raise the utility rate 20¢ or per whatever it is. That before it can even be discussed, I think you have to have community meetings.

You have to lay it out there and say, look. Here's where we are. Here's what our deficit is. Here's what we have to so here's what we're we're not have to do, but here's what we're thinking about. And then I would at that same time, when your community is probably gonna be like, oh, no. Don't raise my rates. Okay. If we don't do this, this is the what we're looking at. We're looking at furloughs. We're looking at staffing.

We're looking at other issues that are going to affect you and your household. And maybe not you, maybe your neighbor, maybe your friends. So kind of involve the community because a lot of times you might get an off the wall idea from a community member that maybe you hadn't thought of. You know? People are very good, has my has been my experience at budgeting themselves. You know? You budget your own household. So I think how I've always looked at a budget and as and expenses is, you know, this is your home. This is your weekly or your monthly budget. You know, if you get to the end of the month and you can't afford to pay a, b, and c, okay.

What what do we have to give up? You know? What do we have to give up for the short term or the long term to make sure we can pay that bill? So I think it's a little bit of putting things into a perspective for your community and your division department directors and say, you know, yeah, it would be nice if we could give raises or buy five new cars, but we can't. What we're trying to do and the very we do not want ever go to layoffs.

We don't ever wanna go to furloughs. But how how would you all handle this? You know? Because I think you can often get ideas from people doing the job and people in the community. Because it, I mean, people have hard times and people have to budget and and, you know, rent's expensive and, you know, you're robbing Peter to pay Paul in your own personal life. How do you do how do you help your city do that? Wait a I think I'm rambling again. I apologize. I think I lost your initial question in there somewhere. So I think the the community engagement is key, and being transparent.

Cannot say that enough is you have to be transparent with what you're doing, where the money's coming in from. And then quite honestly, how one of the things that we're trying to do here is we're looking at rates. We haven't increased or the city has not increased rates for permitting fees since 2011. So it's kind of like you you almost wanna put that back and explain it to the community in the way of, you know, yeah, it's cheap now. And but, you know, we we really we have to do this.

I mean, there's no other way around it. This is an easy $10 rate $10 fee increase on this permit will bring in this amount of money, which will save us from having to do this horrible thing such as maybe lay people off or furlough people or not fill the roads or not, you know, do whatever community engagement that we wanted to do. So it's so I I I think it's making the hard decisions, trying to to tighten the belts. You kinda have to look at it. And I used to joke years ago when I in nonprofits is, you know, you always in nonprofits, we would always come to I would come to work and you're like, okay.

We're gonna have the the lights gonna be on today? Because could we pay the bill? You know? So it's maybe we can't order the $10 Post its, you know, or take paper is not confidential and start making that into Post its. You know? I mean, there are ways to do things to save money that seem very little, but I think when you start adding them up, they tend to grow your budget. And all of a sudden, you're like, wait a minute. I actually just found a $100,000 by doing these little things. And then just communicating that to people and, again, asking them, what what's your idea? You know?

Because there are people who are way smarter than me who have probably done this in their own homes or in their own jobs previously. So what what what worked for them?

Thank you.

Mhmm. Hi, Jenny. Kevin Moser again. I'm gonna read a generic question and then I'm gonna do a little bit of a long winded explanation of that question. So I hope you understand. Okay. Question is, outline your experience and effectiveness in dealing with state federal agencies, the legislature and congressional delegation. The reason why I I chose to select this question is so for example, Alaska in the eighties eighties, when we had a lot of oil money, when it was flowing, the state had a lot more money. So the state used those millions and billions of dollars to build large scale infrastructure projects throughout the state. An example would be in Sitka, some of our hydro projects.

And it was all over the state. And then when the money dried up, the state said, well, here you go. You own these now. And so now we're forty, fifty years since those times. Requirements and the repair for those projects require millions of dollars to to repair and with tax bases, you know, people who never could have afford to put them in in the first place.

So places like Sitka as well as all over Southeast Alaska and, I believe the rest of the state, make concerted efforts to reach out directly, you know, in the Sitka's case, it's the mayor and the administrator. They go to the state legislature. They go to the federal, you know, the Alaska congress congressional delegation, meet with them specifically. And also, they meet with federal regulators and agencies when in DC. So there is, also also some lobbying efforts.

We we have an actual lobbyist that we hire because part of our economic stool, so to speak, is trying to be efficient and then trying to using revenue from commerce, which is very important, but also getting federal grants. As you mentioned, they're drying up now. But it's still full fledged fight to get that even when the money was flowing. So it takes a real concentrated team effort to specifically, methodically target that kind of thing to develop relationships and to try to keep your hand on the pulse of where the money is at the federal and state level and try to get that for your community. Do you have experience in this kind of thing and kind of expound on that?

Sure. Sure. Actually, I do. I have had in the past, and and this was mostly in Colorado, a little bit here. We were well, let me start with here.

We we have a a department here in New Orleans that is called IGR, intergovernmental relations. And we actually have a person who he will go to Baton Rouge and and has an apartment up there for the entire session. And what he would or will do was, you know, if there is a law that's going or that's being pushed forward by somebody that will affect the city or affect a division or department in the city, he will pick up the phone and say, hey. Have you read this? I need you to read it real quick.

Let me know what you think. And do you wanna come and testify? We've had to do that before. Come and testify for for or against something. Or my role before safety and permits was doing that, was looking at policies that were going in front of the state and saying, okay. This this is good. We need to support this. This is absolutely gonna kill us. We need to try and get this killed. You know?

Can we go and talk to or talk to staff members, talk to the legislators themselves, and kind of put forward what our vision is, why we think it would not work, or trying to get a polite way to say this, almost start you're almost horse trading with legislature sometimes because it's like, well, you know, I I really need this vote for this, but, you know, what what can you do for me, city, that I don't have? So I think you have to kind of play that political game a little bit, especially if it's just the two of you, the mayor and myself going, to be able to know, okay. Who is the power person in this room? Who is the who is the male or the female that's running? Who put the legislation forward may not necessarily be the person who is going to get the most out of it, if that makes sense.

So you kind of knowing the players and being able to interact with them is is a is a talent. It's a skill set. That's what lobbyists do really, really well. And I think you have to use them to the best advantage of your city. So I think I have had been very lucky in that. I have been behind the scenes on a lot of those things. I've been pushed forward to testify for and against. STRs was a big one. That was one that we were up in Baton Rouge to discuss. In Denver, we were ironically directly across from the Capitol Hill.

So, I mean, I I remember my boss who would often say, you know, just keep a pair of tannies and with you know, because we're gonna have to run across the street and give a testimony and and because they will call and they'll have questions about regulations on this on this, occupation or this, you know, this license. And so we would have to go over there and then do the education too often, the staff members. And I think the few times I have gone have been lucky enough to go to DC where we've gone as a delegation for different things. One of them was with criminal justice. Another one was just on the basic regulations.

And it's kind of, again, I think you have to you have to be aware enough to know know your audience, know your room, know who you're you're you're getting because usually, you know, you've got the I had I had a gentleman explain it to me one time. It was it was very interesting. He said, you know, people don't really realize who really runs DC, and it's the 25 year old sitting at the Capitol Metro Station on their BlackBerrys every morning, and that those are the people who are really running the city. And and because if you can't get past that staff person, you're never gonna get to your delegate. You're gonna get hung up on your staff person.

So you need to know real clearly how to communicate to that staff person, what they're needing to hear to allow you to go, oh, you're you're from Sitka. Okay. You know, what what what do you need my my boss for? You know? And to have that elevator speech ready and then to to be able to say it and and quantify it enough to where they're gonna say, okay. Come on in. You can have five minutes. You know? And I I think that's a big part of the game when you look at national national politics, in my opinion. And, again, this is all just my experience, so it may not it may be different.

I mean, doubtful, but I think it might be depending on where you're coming from. So I think it's it's I've had the experience. It is not my forte. It's not anything that I've done long term. It has always been a, here, you're somewhat good at this. Let me go shove you in the room and go figure out what you can figure out for us. So I don't I think I'm answering your question. I apologize. It was it was a long one.

You did. Thank you.

Okay. Hey, Jenny. Scottie here. What's the thing you hate the most about working in nonprofit?

Not being able to afford to do what you really wanna do.

So my second quick question is, how is that how is that gonna help you run a city? We have a problem with our city codes, buildings, and housing and stuff, and everything that's holding everybody up is the book itself and trying to change that. With your search for revenue in the nonprofit, and then like you stated, just charge 10 more bucks for this permit to keep this job or whatever, how could you take that, what you don't like, and run the government as a government, and not the city as a business? We have an enterprise fund that a bunch of them that like to get in the black, and they get in the black by not investing in the town. You know?

And then that becomes your deferred maintenance. And so when you need money and, you know, like, fixing stuff yourself, you know, I'm just trying to get you to think that way, and then how how would you run our town without going for the deep pockets.

K. Sounds very much like I think you you see it in nonprofits. I think you see it in most governments. It's the do more with less motto or the mindset that's expected. And I think the the way to do that is is balancing.

I think one of the first things that I would do would be would be to take a look at the at your codes, you know, and say, okay, what has not been changed? What needs to be updated? Granted, that can take a little bit of time. But if you've got codes in there, like, for example, I'll pick on New Orleans, for example, we have a few codes that haven't been revamped since 1956. I mean, they're clearly they're still a law, but they're so outdated. So taking a look and knowing that revenue generating is going to be a priority, looking at those and saying, okay. Permits. When was the last time these were raised? When was the last time and what was the experience? What was the outcome?

What did was there you know, were people on the streets with pitchforks, or or were they just a little unhappy? You know? You kinda have to, again, ask those questions, engage where people are compared to where they were maybe when the last time you did it or the last time something was raised. Because I think raising something in the eighties or in the nineties when there was I think the budgets were so much better for most cities is a lot harder to do now because cities are in the budget of a city is very much like your own budget at your house. I mean, everybody has high mortgages.

There's high insurance. There's high everything. You know, gas is high. You name it. Everything's high inflation.

So it's government is there to support the citizens, but we are also and I hate I I don't really like saying this, but I think it is a way of of thinking is that it is a business, and it has to be run as a business, but a business that also it's like a mix, if I if I can I'm trying to think if I can corner this or say this in a correct way. It is a business, but it is a business that needs to be dedicated to almost a nonprofit mentality is that you are there to serve people. You're there to run a business, obviously, with the government, but there there's a way to do that without hurting your your your community. So and I think you have to take the time and find and ask questions and find where you can do that and do that in a way to where you're not cutting your community off the knees by making sure you're balancing your budget.

Thank you.

JJ Carlson, I'd like to hear more about your formative years. What first got you interested in public service?

Oh, wow. That's a great question.

You

know, I would really love to say there were some light bulb moment, and there really was not. I kind of fell into public service when I was when I was pretty young, and it it just stuck. It was certainly not anything that I had envisioned myself going into. But when I got into it, it just being able to solve the problem for someone really hit home for me. Being able to I joke with my friends a little bit now, and I say, you know, a big part of managing so many people that I have is protecting them, protecting their rights, serving their rights, making sure that I am doing everything I can to protect these people that I'm responsible for.

So I think having I had early on some very good mentors that were who would push me towards that, who would sit there and say, you know, what what are you here for if you're here? I mean and and nonprofits and and public service does not does not pay a lot. You know? I went to law school with people who are just making 10 times what I'm making. You know?

But I also see them and I have conversations with them, and and they're just not happy. You know? It's like they they they followed they followed the dollar, but it didn't really fulfill their heart. It didn't fulfill their soul, so they they don't they're not really happy with what they do. So and I I think what I try to do is I try to find what fulfills me, and that is often answering a question knowing that knowing that at the end of the day, what I did help someone. You know? Good as little as it was. You know? Hopefully, it was something big. But if it was just a little thing, you know, I can go home at night and sleep better knowing, you know what?

I helped Jane with her children that day, or I helped her, you know, solve her permitting problem. And they're they're gonna sleep comfortably in a home that's safe now because of something I did or I pushed a program forward or I pushed staff to help someone a little bit more than just a, no. We can't do that. No. Actually, we no. We can't do that, but what else can we do for them? You know? So I think where that came from, I I can't I can't really tell you. Like I said, I didn't really have a light bulb moment at twelve where, oh, go. I wanna be in public service.

That was that was not the case. I actually wanna be an archaeologist for a lot of years. I wanted to Indiana Jones, and that didn't work out. So Yeah. There was no good movies growing up about the the the permit officer and how she was able to help the family down the block. Nope. That doesn't sound like a blockbuster in that form of the word. Yeah.

So so thank you for that. And I I appreciate you, you know, sharing a little bit about yourself. Thank you.

No problem.

Okay. So I wanna talk about professional memberships and what what organizations you are currently a member of, what organizations you have been a member of, and then what conferences you've previously attended, and then how you utilize either those professional memberships or conferences to gain resources that you would bring back to either your department right now or, in our case, our municipality?

Sure. Well, right now, I think I the only thing I am currently a member of is the I'm gonna say it wrong. I think it's Pi Alpha Delta. It's a a legal fraternity. In the past, I have been a part of accreditation agencies or accreditation organizations that were I can't I can't now you you asked me that question. It just went out of my head. Conferences? Oh, jeez. I've been to a ton. And it really it could depend.

I've been to different conferences on some of the more recent ones when I was here in criminal justice was on prevention of child crimes. I have done regulation conferences. I have done social work conferences, TANF conferences. Really just depend whatever I'm a big believer and if the money is there, I think conferences are places where one you can meet your peers. You can meet your peers across the country, and it's always good to go into those.

And you wouldn't know, but I am very much an introvert. So those conferences also forced me to go and have conversations with people to sit there and know that, wait a minute. They're doing something over in Nebraska that I would never even have thought about. Let me go and ask them about that because you you heard them you heard a presentation that they did or they had a table at an event or at the, you know, at the event. So you I think conferences are very good to form those connections.

I know there is a trying to make note. That's for governors. Trying to think of the different agency or the different groups that I I have heard of recently. So I think it really I mean, I would have to research it, to be quite honest, but I think I would especially if if you can wrangle a free membership on somewhere or to get a scholarship to a conference, absolutely. Either go myself or send the the department manager who would be the most useful to get that information with the thought that it's a train the trainer.

So anything that you get, you bring back and you educate everybody on that. So that was always a a big thing, especially coming when, you know, when you have your budget issues. Yeah. I can send you to this, but I'm gonna need you to come back and then train everybody on what you learned so everybody can get the benefit of that couple of thousand dollars that we spent.

You.

Tim Pike again. So the largest component in our budget naturally is school system. So we share, of course, state and from the local municipality and some federal funding. Can you share with us your thoughts on public education funding and where you stand on those sorts of things as well as your experience with that?

Well, to be honest, my experience is limited. One of my past contracts, we did work within schools. I had caseworkers in schools. So I would kind of hear a little bit of the behind the scenes. How I I am I am a full fledged public school kid from a very small town in Alabama.

So coming from that to Alaska, back to Colorado or back to Alabama to public colleges, coming to New Orleans is a very different because everything here, not everything, most of the schools here are parochial or private schools or charter schools. I'm I'm I'm kinda on the fence, to be quite honest, on how I feel about the charter school system. In one way, I understand and I agree that it gives more opportunity, but I'm also still being that public school kid is like, well, what about, you know, what about them? You know? Don't they get the same opportunities or the same budget or experiences?

And quite honestly, the the big expenses that I see here that I was just kinda still appalled by is is the uniforms that have to be done. We clearly, pub school, we did not have uniforms, but everything is uniforms. Everything is, you know, fees for this, fees for that, fees for, you know, track, fees for band, fees I mean, you name it. It's just like, oh my goodness. So I think the fee structures in in these quasi public schools tend to make me a little nervous.

I mean, I can understand why they're doing them, but I also think it also hurts those kids and those families who can't afford those schools, who can't afford to buy the $300 uniforms, you know, each month because their kids are growing, and they're gonna grow out of, you know, the the sweater and the skirt in a in a matter of months. You know? So yeah. So I would say, you know what, now that I'm talking through it so, again, sorry. Very, very pro public school.

And and instead of farming money out to private schools, let's let's reexamine what we need public schools to be and make them better and try to recruit teachers who are wanting that experience, who want to help children, are there for the right reasons, and let's get them in the schools and make those schools better. That would be where I would come down on that.

Thank you. Mhmm. This is Tor again. So I was looking through the questions that we kinda had here. And and I a lot of them, I I don't really think I need to ask because I I think I have a pretty good idea of what you're gonna say. It's gonna come down to more communication and collaboration, and and that's a good thing. Don't get me wrong. I'm gonna try and lighten it up a little bit here on this question I guess. So we this is we need to see we're looking to see what a good fit you are for Sitka and and us. So what gives you joy?

What do you do when you're not at work that you're willing to talk about? What's the kind of thing that it's from a public radio show. Gives you joy in your life outside outside of of work? Work?

Okay. Well, that's actually very easy, and I would actually put some of the art on the wall is travel. Travel is is my saving grace. I have in my head to to I wanna set foot on every continent. I've got two left.

So I want to to eventually, hopefully, in the next couple years, tie those down. Travel reading is a big thing for me in museums. And think the big part with traveling is that you get the opportunity to meet people and learn new cultures. And that's just fascinating to me because I've been, like, you know, the the the one oddball in China, and and people are staring at you. And then, you know, you get somebody to come up and then start to ask you questions, and then you actually can sit there and go, wait a minute. So tell me about this. How does this work? You know? What what is your life like? And I think you learn so much from those interactions.

I think you become saw a quote once that I really liked is that who you are when you're traveling is who your your soul is. And I think that learning people and traveling and doing cool stuff and going outside the box is is a great thing. I've also since I've been here, I've been very lucky. I I joined a dance crew. So every Mardi Gras, we're in five to six parades, and it's just fascinating.

I mean, you you you're dressed up and you're dancing in the streets for seven miles, and it's just so much fun because you see so much joy from these people. And they're just out there having a good time. You know? And it's like, oh, you're a part of that. You brought some joy to somebody. So yeah. And then art, of course. I have more art that you can't see. It's an art.

Thank you.

Mhmm.

Katie Riley. So, you know, I appreciate what you said about retaining your employees being a a top priority because recruiting and keeping good employees here in Alaska is genuinely hard, especially for specialized roles given our cost of living, housing situation, child care, all of these are compounding factors that not not to mention dark winters that you experience some of yourself. You know, it's it's a tough place to live, and it's tough to recruit and retain talent for for the jobs that we need, which are varying levels of detailed here, right, with the utility and things like that. So what approaches have you used to recruit, keep good employees on staff, and how do you build a culture that makes people want to stay?

Sure. I think the biggest thing is is realizing money is not necessarily what drives people to come to work. It's a big factor. Don't get me wrong. I think it is definitely a big factor.

But I think if you can find out what moves people, what motivates them, what makes them want to do their job, and then you can focus on that. Appreciation is often a very simple way to keep people around and make them happy in their jobs. And again, excuse me, that doesn't have to be money. That can be as simple as, like, I think about two months ago, I bought breakfast. You know, it was a couple $100.

Bought breakfast for all 110 employees, and they were like, woah. What what's going on? I was like, oh, just thank you. You guys had a we had a rough rough time through the election and just wanna thank everybody for hanging out and for staying and for doing a good job. And I think little things like that, when people feel appreciated, they tend to work a little bit harder.

Recruitment is a little bit more is gonna be different, I think, up there because of all the factors that you said. But I would almost come at it as broadcasting and showing and using social media of, yes, you're working hard thirty five, forty hours a week, you know, at your job, but look at all the cool stuff in the outside and the environment that you're going to get when you're here. The work life balance that we will try very heavily to have. I am a workaholic, so I I don't necessarily have a problem answering phone calls after, you know, after five or after seven. It happens all the time.

But I think having a clear boundary for staff, you know, knowing that you know what? 05:00 on Friday when you leave, you're out. You're you're not don't think about this place until Monday morning, you know, when you come back unless there's an emergency, and then, obviously, it's all hands on deck. But I think engaging people and finding out what do you wanna do. I do check ins with my direct staff. I have nine of them right now. So every week, we have a check-in. And one of the questions I will always kind of randomly ask them is, you know, what's your goal? What are you trying to do? Where do you see yourself?

Because I never want to have a staff person come around at the end of the evaluation, and they're shocked by what's in the evaluation. That's not appropriate. That's not good. That's and that just really looks bad. That looks bad on the boss.

That looks bad on the supervisor. So I think if you can mentor people and get them to grow within your company so you're you get the mindset and people are gonna say, yeah. Maybe I started as an office worker, but now I'm the manager of this department. And I got that way because my team and my bosses believed in me, and they made the opportunity that I could continue to do and get training and take supervision classes and do all these things and maybe even become a mentor to somebody. You know?

I think all of that, you you see dividends in the end. You don't always see them right away. Unfortunately, staff turnover, it's it's a reality. Not everybody's gonna stay. People may move up there and be like, oh, yeah. No. This is too dark for me, or I this is, you know, too remote or whatever. Or you may get somebody up there and like, oh my god. I love it, and I didn't think I would love it so much. So then they become part of the community, and you are now involving them in the community.

So I think it's a it's a two way street, really. And recruitment, again, I think, you know, social media is often not used as much as it could be. I think when people tend to hire, they just kinda, you know, put it on their web page. Maybe they do one site or they do LinkedIn and maybe that's it. You know?

But I think if you are do a maybe do a LinkedIn video, but do a video of this was you know, this is our community. This is Sitka. This is what you'd be moving into, and here's the job that you'll be moving into. Or, you know, apprenticeships are a big thing. You know, I know there are I'm assuming Mount Edgecombe High School Edgecombe High School is still there, and then Sitka High, I think, was the name of it when I was there. You know? You have kids coming out of high school who maybe are not going to be going to college. College. Maybe they they're not going in the military. What what are the other options?

Maybe they wanna become an apprentice electrician or an apprentice plumber. You know? So kind of gearing into that community again that way so you're pulling people to stay and grow in the area in the in the city that they love. So

Thank you.

Hi, Jenny. Kevin Moser again. Here's my question. If after making a to the assembly on an issue, you later found that you made an error in judgment, what would be your action?

First thing I would admit it, I would come to you guys straight up really soon right after and say, hi. Sorry. I messed this up. This was on me. It was my error. I can correct it by doing a, b, and c, and it will not happen again. And then, you know, knowing myself, I probably put a big sticky on my computer. You know? Don't do this or make sure you check this, whatever it was three times before you submit it.

And follow-up to that, have you had any experiences in your career where you have something similar where your your supervisor had an error in judgment or facts and you had to Yeah. You know, you visualize it.

Oh, yeah. Unfortunately, yes. There are times I'm trying to think of a recent one. I mean, I'm I'm definitely not perfect. I make mistakes. I think everybody makes mistakes. But I also set my own accountability level is very high. So I I I don't try or drive for perfection. I just try to be the best that I can be, and that's not always gonna be perfect. But I think, like, I made a I'm trying to think of a judgment call that I made with with a bad hire.

It was and I hate to I hate to say it that way, but it really was not a good fit. And I overruled the manager because I thought I was correct. Then they they didn't like this person, and I was like, no. They're gonna be great. Totally you know, give them a minute. Give them they'll they'll totally do good. Three months into it, it was just a gigantic nightmare. And I had to go to my boss and say, yeah. This was on me. This was my call. I made the decision. We have to, you know, luckily, they were on probation, so we we had to let them go for cause. But and then I actually went to the manager and was like, you know what? I'm I'm I totally apologize. You were right.

I should have taken the five minutes to listen to what your gut was telling you and not go off what I thought was the best thing. Because I think it was a little bit if I'm at the time, it was and it's a thing that I have not done since then. I try really hard not to do. It was very much a the pressure was to put a butt in the seat. So that's what we were doing because, you know, we knew we were gonna lose this position if we didn't hire somebody right away. So we were just like, oh, nope. They're qualified. Stick them in. And the manager was like, it's not gonna work. It's not gonna work. This is not gonna work. And I was like, oh, no. We're probably gonna be fine. Yeah. It was not fine.

It was not fine. And I think if I would have just been a little bit more trusting in their judgment of their people that they were gonna manage, it would have turned out much different situation. Could we have lost the position if we didn't have the right person or didn't have somebody hired? Possibly. But I think the right way for me to do it would have been to go to my boss and then possibly and go to HR and say, okay.

In the candidate pool that we have, we don't have the right person here. I don't wanna put somebody in this position who's not gonna work out and who's gonna cause a bunch of trauma and drama, you know, to get them out the door if if we if we can't get another month on or an extension on hiring. That would have been the right way to do it, and I did I did not do that.

So k.

Lesson learned. Very hard lesson, but lesson learned on that one.

K. Thank you. Mhmm. Jenny Scottie here. When you're talking about you're ready be thrown under the bus as long as you know the bus is coming, and just wondering, you know, how do you how do you handle stink eye or being told you're number one with the middle finger? You know? Like, I got my cave where I go back into, but with this, like, a tour of duty in Alaska for administrators, like, twenty four months, thirty you know, minimal from all the stuff. You know? Like, what do you do? You got a little jar of psilocybin or anything like that that help you through those times?

Wow. I I you know, I I would say I'm I'm very lucky in I have a support system. I have some very dear friends and a very dear sister-in-law and brothers that I can call and say, oh my god. This day, it was just crappy, and this is what happened. And or and if that's not enough or I can't get ahold of somebody, and this is gonna sound a little cheesy, but I I will go and take a walk and go down by by the river and just kinda go out there for a minute and just decompress because I think you I think you have to decompress at some point.

And you have to not not not be what's the word I'm looking for here? You have to kinda I think everybody's different, and you have to find how do you how do you get that stress out? How do you get that anger out? Because it is gonna be there. I mean, it's it's always it's gonna be I think that's a fact.

I think if we if you can't admit that, then you probably should not be in public service because it's going to be stressful. It's going to be hard, and you need to be able to go home and and tell an inappropriate joke or go home and and just be stupid about something. Hopefully, not go home and and drink heavily or hit your dog or do anything stupid like that. But, you know, you have an outlet, and you need to figure out what that outlet is and make sure you use it. My outlet probably is telling jokes or stories, clearly.

I tell stories. And then just, you know, the dance crew has been amazing having women that I can go and say, oh my god. This was horrible, and I need to sweat off for two hours and practice. You know? So having that outlet is is what has saved me, I think, over the years.

Thank you.

A cave sounds kinda cool, though, I will say.

JJ here. Hi, Jenny. So the assembly hires two positions, the municipal administrator and the municipal attorney. The attorney has, you know, one employee, the administrator oversees everyone. So you've got seven bosses, one coworker, and a bunch of people that report up through the system to to the administrator role. So having that administrator attorney kind of dynamic, and you've had a background in in knowing in the law, how do you foresee that kind of collaboration and relationship working with your with your peer?

I I I would he's gonna make fun of me because I'm gonna say it's relational because it it kinda is. I think that would be as that's my peer. That's my one peer in the city. I'm gonna do everything I can do to form a good relationship there. Not that, you know, we don't have to hang out and go go to go have drinks at night or whatever.

I mean, it doesn't have to be that sort of relationship, but it needs to be one where, you know, you as a peer, you can go in and shut the door and be like, oh my god. Did you hear what happened today? And kind of have that that valve that you can express that to because you can't express that to your team. You know? You you you can't say, oh, you know, the assembly did this.

What were they thinking to your team? You know? I mean, that's just not appropriate. And, you know, y'all are the bosses, so you can't do that anyway. So I think having and trying to create and find a balance or something in common with that attorney that you can hopefully build on and use as a sounding board, you know, in the future.

Because anything that I'm bringing to them, I would hope on the same token, they would be open enough, and I would be open enough that they could come to me and say, hey, Jen, what what about this? I'm thinking about this. Does this make sense to you? And I think having the law degree or the understanding of the law is a binder because you have that maybe not the same background, but you've gone through a similar experience at some point, at least for three years. You both, you know, went through this. So it's a little bit of something to start to build a relationship online.

Thank you. I appreciate that.

Thanks, Katie. Riley here. My last question is, you know, we have a limited time. I believe we have a 10:30PM deadline on all of our meetings, and that was passed in response to them going much longer than 10:30PM. So my point being, you're not going to be able to come to, the assembly and, you know, explain all of the details of every issue. How do you decide what rises to the level of the assembly?

I

would say at first, that's gonna be a little bit of a hit and miss. I think you have to learn or I would have to learn on a on a a grand scale. I mean, budget stuff, you know, your your major issues, clearly, you bring that those forward. But I think you have to learn, you know, if if, let's say, your target or your project or your what you believe in the most is housing. You know?

So if there's anything that comes up with housing that may not necessarily be a huge issue, but it's something that I think I would want you to know about because I'm gonna need your help or I'm gonna need your support. I'm gonna raise that to you and to the assembly as a whole. So I think it would be a little bit of finding out from each person, what are the not necessarily what your trigger points are, but where's your passion? What's passion project? What's your passion issue?

And then making sure that you bring that forward at each meeting even if it's a two minute spiel on this is what we found out this this month or this week on this project. Project. You know? And I think it's just a matter of being concise, being to the point, knowing you've it's been my experience experience with city this council members, and and I don't know. I mean, don't know if you all would be the same that you have you may have them in in your in your site for half an hour, but you basically have their attention for ten minutes.

You know? So it's knowing what you have to get out in those few minutes while you have their full on attention and getting to those points quickly. Here's this. Here's this. Here's this. Here's this. And then kind of, okay, what is it that you want to discuss with me? What is it that you feel you need to bring forward?

Thank you.

Well, thank you, Jenny. We definitely dove deeper, got to know you quite a bit better. As we are running close to the end of time, I wanted to make sure that we allotted enough time for your comments, questions, anything that you might have for us as well.

I did have well, I'll I'll keep it to one question if I can. What I didn't see on the web page, which is not unusual, was current policies or current SOPs for the not for the city as a whole, but kind of for each department and division. And I was just kind of curious if you guys knew when was the last time that those were looked at and what was the level of staff involvement in those SOPs in the developing of them? I guess, would you be open to revamping what what is there?

Yes. I think an SOP is a a consistently improving document designed to help you out in your current era. Do I know the last time each departments was updated? No. But I believe that was a focus of our municipal administrator when he came on about six years ago to make sure that those were current. So I they're not a twenty, thirty year old document.

Okay. Good.

But I'm not saying that a new perspective could not help them along the lines of how we operate as municipality.

And then the strategic plan, it looks like it is about ready to expire. Is it y'all's plan to redo another five years? Have you started working on that? Or is it something that the expectation of whoever got this position would kind of leave that and take it on right away?

Yeah. I think that'd be up to the assembly. It is getting ready to expire. We've accomplished a lot of those goals, but having it at the table has been a very strong document for us. So it would be my intent to continue that, but we'll have to see who is sitting at the table at that

time. Okay.

And the suggestions we receive from an administrator.

Gotcha. Gotcha. And then if I can ask one more question, was just kind of curious. Are there any not priorities, but landmines that you are envisioning first thirty, sixty, ninety days that this position would need to come in and handle right away? And what would those be?

Yes.

Good deal. Got it.

Are there land mines? No. Are there fires that constantly need attention? Yes. Some are smoldering. Some are building. But there is constantly constantly issues issues that that need need a good look at. I don't think that there's anything that's going to blow up. Hopefully, we put a lot of those to rest already, but we also don't know what tomorrow is going to bring.

Gotcha. Gotcha. Great. Alright. Well, yeah, the only thing I would say is thank you so much. I mean, I appreciate your time. I appreciate the fact that you all are taking a chance. Hopefully, will take a chance on me and have just been very nice in all the communication and I appreciate all the great questions. Very hard questions, but great questions. So thank you very much.

And I certainly hope that you all pick the best person for the city and the best person who has the people in mind, you know, and who are gonna do the best job for the people. And I'd like to think that's gonna be me, but, you know, clearly, I don't know too much about the other person.

Well, we appreciate your time this evening. Again, like I said, you're on a different time zone, so a little bit later for you than for us. Anything to wrap up from the assembly members?

Nope. Just thank you for your time, and you have good taste in art.

Yeah. The one on your left. The one on your left, the cherry blossom, or I can't tell what it is, but I really like that. That one's really good.

Yeah. That was from Beijing. That's where I got that one.

Thank you. If we hadn't spend a party tonight, it's been pleasant actually. So thank you.

Well, appreciate that. Well, you guys have a wonderful evening. Thank you.

Yep. Have a good evening, and we'll be in touch soon.

Okay. Bye bye.

Let's take a break. Alright. Well, thank you assembly for going through that process there. Now it's time to have a little bit of deliberation. We have confirmed that Jenny is okay with us speaking about her in executive session, so I would suggest a motion.

I move to go into executive session to discuss subjects that may tend to prejudice the reputation and character of municipal administrator candidates, Steve Dahl and Jenny Albur, and invite in assistant municipal administrator, Josh Brentover. In addition, I move to exclude the municipal administrator and municipal attorney.

Second.

It's been moved and seconded to enter an executive session. Is there any public comment on entering executive session? Seeing none, Sarah?

And miss Reilly? Yes. Mayor Eisenbeis?

Yes.

Miss Carlson? Yes. Mister Mosher?

Yes.

Mister Pike?

Yes. Yes.

Mr. Christensen?

Yes.

And Mr. Saline?

Yes. The

motion passes seven zero, and we'll be meeting in Room 4.

Thank you. Motion to reconvene.

So moved. Second.

All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Thank you. We are reconvened as the assembly in regular session. The assembly did meet in executive session to discuss our candidates. We will be taking a little bit of time to mull this over and then we'll be getting back to both of our candidates in due order. That does leave us with item c. Does anybody need to have a discussion direction on the next steps for each applicant, or are we good at this point? I think I just kinda talked about what was gonna happen.

We're gonna take a little bit of time to compare, contrast by our by ourselves internally, and we will be having another meeting about this. That'll bring us to persons to be heard. This is public participation for any item on or off tonight's agenda, not to exceed three minutes for any individual. I don't see anybody. Motion to adjourn. I second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Thank you everybody. We are adjourned.