City and Borough Assembly - Regular Meeting

a great um all right well welcome everybody we will call to order the special meeting of thursday september 10th 2026 please join me for a flag salute i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america The Assembly of the City and Borough of Sitka would like to respectfully acknowledge the traditional first people of Sitka. With gratitude, we proceed on Tlingit Aani. Is there a roll call, please?

Mayor Eisenbeis?

Present.

Ms. Carlson? Here. Mr. Yesdad?

Here.

Ms. Riley? Here. Mr. Christensen? Here. Mr. Mosier? Here. And Mr. Selene?

Here. Thank you. So our new business tonight, this is a municipal administrator applicant interview. Jerry will get on the line as soon as we reach out to her. So the purpose of tonight is just a little bit more in-depth knowledge about Jerry to see how well she fits and how well it would fit within our town. So if you have deeper dive questions, this is definitely the time to ask them, get to know the candidate a bit more. As was with last time, we have the list of prohibited questions. Please don't ask any of those. We don't need an HR violation before we even hire someone. And then some other questions that were provided by HR if you need some brain teasers there. Josh, anything before the process gets started?

uh no mr mayor you just hit on everything i had on my list um i do have the application in there any uh as well um and then yeah deeper dive uh but also um you know nothing personal marriage uh um age things like that uh so get to know them more on a professional level um without crossing over into those prohibited categories.

Great. We told her that we may go over an hour tonight, right? We have about two hours if need be? That is correct. Okay, great. Assembly, if we need two hours, the first hour went by fast last time. I'll pay attention and if it feels like we're getting to a point where we're wrapping up, I'll check in with everybody and make sure we're not wasting each other's times as well. Thoughts, questions before we begin? Great. Josh, if we can get her online.

Okay.

I swear we have an IT person and I swear he's really, really good at his job.

I think it was probably my issue. I think I probably clicked on a prior link. I couldn't find the one for tonight. I don't think so. Not sure. I apologize.

Hey, we're trucking now, probably about right when we told you we would need you anyway. I'm sure we said 515 in case we needed some minutes before. So as far as I see, everything is right on time. Love it. Thank you. Thank you. Well, welcome this evening. It's a rare sunny day in Sitka, if you can see behind us. We're really enjoying what today was, especially this late in the season. Who knows how many more of these we're going to get. but thank you again thank you for joining us we do have a couple hours scheduled this evening just in case um you know the last hour went really fast it seemed like um so we just want to take this opportunity to to get to know you a little bit more i think the assembly members have prepared some questions that are going to be a little bit deeper dive as opposed to, hi, how are you? We're trying to figure out if you're a fit for the community and if the community is a fit for you. With that, unless the assembly has anything to get started with, do you have anything this evening before we get started?

No, I don't think so. I can see the sun, so that's great.

I can't because all the windows are closed in front of me. So if I'm looking behind me, it's not because I'm ignoring you. All right, well, thank you. We'll shift it over to JJ here to get started with this evening's questions. If at any point you do need a break this evening, I know two hours can be quite a bit. Just let me know because I'm sure we might need a break as well. So we may pause in the middle of this just to give each side a refresher, drink some water and all that. So just let us know if you do need a recess this evening.

Okay, thank you. Thanks. Hi, Jerry, JJ here. Three weeks seems like it's gone by really quickly, but I often like time between meetings to reflect and see if there is anything that I maybe wish I would have worded differently or if I learned a bit more in that intervening time I think it's great to give you an opportunity right now to say was there anything that you said in our first meeting that you'd like to kind of rephrase or word differently tonight? I don't think so. Great, that's some great confidence, yeah. I appreciate that you are true to your word, and you think before you speak, and you're confident with what you say. Thank you. All right, your question.

Okay, all right. So I was thinking about this before we came in, by the way, Tor Christensen, if you don't remember. And I'm gonna be trying to ask more questions that focus around how you'll fit with our community at the city, the culture at the city, the government of the city of Sitka, and then also just the community of Sitka. So, I guess the first one I'm gonna ask you is, and I don't think I asked this last time, when you're off work, what kind of things are you gonna say gives you joy? What do you do for enjoyment and outside of work, especially if you've done some research on Sitka that you might be able to do here?

Yeah, so outside of work, I definitely enjoy doing a lot of reading. I also enjoy hiking and nature. I'm trying to think what else I do. I do like to go to different types of community events and some festivals, things like that. I also enjoy listening to music. And a little bit of exercise. That's about it.

Thank you.

Hi, Jerry. This is Katie Riley. Thank you for joining us this evening. My question is around our fiscal management. And it was really fascinating to learn from you last time about the Perry Township and how revenue comes, every voters have to approve all of the tax increases to fund city services. And so I was wondering what you have learned in your time away from our last interview about our fiscal management here in Sitka and how that differs from your experience and kind of what strengths you think you can bring to that situation and where you're going to have more of a learning curve. So we've got enterprise funds, we have more than enough special revenue funds, as our finance director loves to remind us of, and a variety of, you know, a pretty complex budget, I'd say, for a municipality. And so I'm wondering, you know, how familiar are you with those? And yeah, what would your approaches be?

Well, I did look into SICA's budget and different sources of revenue. noted the importance of sales tax revenue and how that is different during the tourism season. I understand that there is some property tax, but it's limited based on the charter. I think that my experience in Perry, as I mentioned, most of our revenue comes through property tax and almost all of that has to be voted on. by residents, but there are some opportunities for increasing revenue in other ways. And so I think one of the things about my experience in Perry is that's really helped me is to be more creative in identifying additional sources of revenue. They are really limited for a township as far as townships in Ohio goes, we generally can't impose income taxes But we can do it if we partner with a local municipality. So there's options and opportunities to do that if you have a joint agreement. Also, there are other smaller opportunities for revenue. One of the things that they have in Ohio is the opportunity to gain revenue through allowing a dispensary, marijuana dispensary. So that's something that we've been looking into for the township as well. Our neighboring entities have approved similar businesses. So it seems like a good opportunity. I also looked into the school funding question and I understand how that's really limited by, I guess there's a cap as far as what the municipality can contribute to school funding. And it seems like at the state level, the basic student allocation hasn't been modified in quite some time. And so that's putting pressure on school funding.

Trying to think else.

I know that there's some limitations as far as income coming in through the harbor, that that has to be only spent for the Harbor benefit. But also with utilities, I did look into the budget and it seems as though there are some small rate increases that were proposed for the budget to cover the costs of different projects and capital expenditures. It does seem though that there's a lot of pressure there on the amount of revenue compared to ongoing increases in costs. And I just, you know, I could see in the budget that the volatility of, you know, increasing fuel costs and just inflation in general, as well as the instability of state and federal funding sources that may have been more predictable and more supportive for Sitka over the years with the changes in the federal administration and also changes in state administration that can impact how much you can count on those types of revenues going forward. So it looks like there's definitely a need to increase revenue in several areas if possible. So I think that's something that if I were selected, I would want to look into further.

Fantastic. Thank you so much. I appreciate the research that you did.

Thank you. Hi, Jerry. Kevin Moser here over on your right side when you're looking at us. My question is this. If you were hired, how would you spend your first 90 days in Sitka? What would be your plan, your goals, your vision for that period of time?

Well, I think in the first 90 days, it would be really important to work with the assembly, get to know folks and talk to you all about your long-term priorities and challenges that you see facing the city going forward. I also think working with the department heads and other city staff would be really important, especially with the first 30 days, I would say. And then I would try to in in the first 60 days expand that outward to other community businesses and organizations around Sitka to get an idea of what they would like to see happening in the city long term or challenges that you know they've identified or also just to get to know the community both the city and the borough and the different entities that are really involved in improving and making up the community as a whole. And then probably in the last 30 days of the 90 days, I would try to start developing a plan of what, sort of an action plan moving forward, things that could be potentially streamlined. But I think it would be important to develop more of a draft plan because I think that's the kind of thing that, you know, I would want to work on with the department heads and get input on before trying to move forward with it. I think the action from the action plan would happen after the first 90 days.

Okay, thank you.

Hey Jerry, Scotty Saleen here. Just thinking about like when you get here and each department heads will be going forward with existing standing orders and after you observe them, kind of get the flow, could you ever see yourself sitting down with department heads and asking them how they would run the department differently than how the standing orders would be having the momentum like when you first get here and in those 90 days, could you see yourself sitting down and say, how would you do this differently to the department heads?

Yeah, I think that's definitely something I would want to talk to them about to see if they have thoughts on how they would like to see things change or if they have things that they've identified as issues that we could potentially resolve.

Thank you.

That would definitely be part of that first 60 days.

Hi, Jerry, Chris Yested here. I was wondering if you could describe your process for problem solving for us.

I think my process for for problem solving is first it's important to identify the problem. And I think it's important to talk to several sources to try and make sure that the problem is identified fully. I think it's important to get other people's perspectives to to really get a better idea of what the issue is and what might be causing it or you know make sure that I understand what what the goal should be to improve the problem. And then I think that I would think about it for a while and then see if I had ideas on how to resolve the problem. And then once I came up with those ideas, I would try and also, again, bring those to other folks, get their thoughts and perspectives, because it's really important to make sure that any kind of resolution includes practical information. It's really important to talk to the folks who are involved in whatever the problem might be to make sure that whatever solution we're coming up with is something that would work as well as it can for most people.

Great, thank you.

Jerry, my question is going to be somewhat of a repeat question from those that we've heard earlier, but I want to give you an opportunity to expand upon the breadth of it so that we have a feeling of where you're standing right now. In the time since our last meeting, what have you done to prepare yourself to accept the position? And the reason I ask this question is historically, you're one meeting away from getting a job offer here. So that's very, very quick, right? And I think we have a lot to go from zero to you sitting in the seat. So I wanna know in the, I guess it's been about three weeks, what have you done to prepare yourself to be our municipal administrator?

Sure. So I have been working on selling my home So that's something that's taken up a bit of my free time. It's very close to being ready for the market. I've also talked to my family about this opportunity to make sure that I had support there. And I've done some research on Sitka in the meantime as well.

I'm gonna take Tor's thunder here, but it plays right into this question. Does any of that include reading general code or charter? And if so, is there anything that has stood out in that to you?

I did read the charter and some of the administrative code too. Let me think about this. I was interested in really, you know, the city and borough of Sitka has an awful lot that it's doing, including elections. That really did surprise me. That was one of the things that stood out. And then I think something that's a little bit different than how I see things happening here in Ohio is that, I kind of knew this before the last interview, but how tied in the school district is to the city as well. There are a lot of moving parts for the borough and city of Sitka that I don't see in other municipalities in this area of the country, so.

You are very correct, and that'll be very important as we move through this entire process. Thank you.

Hey, Jerry, it's JJ again. I've been really appreciating your answers. I feel like we are getting to know each other, so if there's anything you wish to add on a more personal level, including as professionals, I think that would be helpful. And I'm gonna model that. So I was born and raised here in Sitka, left for a while to go to school. I worked for a while in the city. I gained a lot of experience to bring back to Sitka, the place I love, because this community has given me so much. This is my time to give back to this place. So do you have any kind of experiences you've picked up along the way that you think you could really offer Sitka? And would you share that with us?

Sure. I have lived in a number of different places. So I grew up on Long Island in New York. I also lived in Kentucky briefly when I was a small child. I went to undergraduate at WVU in West Virginia. I went to law school in New Orleans in Louisiana. I also did quite a bit of traveling when I was in college. I've been to, I mean, at least 20 countries in Europe. I traveled through Eastern Europe and Russia. I've been to Australia. So I've lived in different places. I've also lived outside D.C., in Virginia and Maryland. I've been in Ohio for a really long time. But I think that I'm the type of person that's pretty adaptable. I think that I'm the type of person that wherever I live, I can find the positive things about it and enjoy those things.

Great. Thank you. That word adaptable resonates with me. I feel like Alaskans are very adaptable and resilient, and those are skills that suit us well, but then also sometimes get us in trouble. because we think we can handle it. So is there something you could offer? You sit here at the table, the administrator sits here at the table with the assembly and doesn't, sometimes participates in conversations. Is there a way that you could lovingly and kindly but also not, as a, you know, equal voice on an assembly discussion, you know, share some of that wisdom in a way that might benefit the conversation, but not participate.

Sure, so I think, I mean, I think I have experience doing that in Perry Township. Of course, our board is only three trustees, and then there's an elected fiscal officer too, but I do regularly participate in board discussions, especially when we have special meetings on a certain topic. Also, I would, I do a monthly report to the board at our meetings, and we'll have conversations with the trustees about stuff, just share information, but I do understand, you know, my role is to share information and then the board votes, which is, you know, same situation with the assembly. Assembly is just larger, but I really do understand that, you know, the municipal administrator doesn't get a vote. I just get to share information and then the assembly would be the ones that would make the policy decisions, so.

Great, thank you. So I know you say you've been doing some research and things. I'm just wondering if you have researched a little bit about the city of Sitka's relationship with the Sitka Tribe of Alaska. And I mean, I don't know if you have any experience dealing with tribal tribes. uh tribal governments um but if if not have you done any research or looked into how because honestly it's very important uh our relationship with the tribe are uh you know it's another uh government within the same area and they are a completely you know a a full on government, not separate from us. And we have a great working relationship with an MOU. And I'm wondering if you have looked into that and have any thoughts on how you would try and continue that good relationship.

I have done some research on that. Unfortunately, I don't have experience here in Ohio working with tribal governments. So that's something that I would definitely prioritize. And I I do think I understand the importance of having a positive ongoing collaborative relationship though. I think that the only thing I could compare it to is neighboring governments here that may or may not have the same priorities as Perry Township, we still have to work together and try and collaborate. I think, you know, I do understand the importance of being culturally sensitive, but I don't have experience working with other tribal governments. So that would be something that I would definitely prioritize.

Thank you.

Thank you, Katie. Again, I am wondering if you can tell us what you see as the two or three biggest challenges facing full-service Alaska cities over the next decade and how you might approach them. Or you could just name the challenges. But as you said and observed, we have a broad portfolio of services that we cover in collaboration, whether with the school district or working with the tribal government. things like that. And so, yeah, big challenges ahead for municipalities across the United States and especially in Alaska and wondering what you think those are for a community like Sitka.

I think from my research, the biggest challenges facing a community like Sitka is, you know, definitely the tourism factor. I think it's one of those things that's both positive and a negative. It's great as far as bringing in revenue to the community. Some of the negative is just the number of folks entering your community. Using its services really I would think when there's cruise ships there the population increases dramatically which has got to be a challenge for local residents and also for infrastructure. I think that that's a difficult balance. I know you have a commission on tourism so I would be interested to you know learn more about folks thoughts there. I do think rising costs and inflation is definitely an issue. And, you know, trying to keep costs down and thinking of ways to keep whatever costs you can from increasing as dramatically will be important, as well as looking at other ways to potentially increase revenue or, you know, maybe add some cost sharing. It's hard to say. what might be an opportunity in Sitka's community for that. But I do think ongoing increases in costs and inflation, and especially with increasing fuel costs, that will be a challenge that could also potentially impact, you know, tourism as well. So hopefully the increasing fuel costs doesn't cause tourism to go down, which could also impact your revenue. And then the other thing that I was thinking about is I think the school funding issue is probably going to be an ongoing challenge, especially with the basic student allocation not increasing. I think that school services have rising costs too. If they're not increasing the basic student allocation, that makes it hard to meet those costs. Even with SICA you know meeting the funding maximum cap for the schools I think that will be an ongoing challenge and one that might require some lobbying to get that basic student allocation change or some other changes to school funding formulas so.

Great, thank you. Yeah, I think you hit on three issues that are very important to our community, so appreciate that.

Hi, Jerry. Kevin Mosher again. Hi. My question is this. Tell us about the most stressful public controversy you have managed. Looking back, what would you do differently?

Hmm. I think I'll pull from something recent. In Perry Township, we don't have planned zoning districts. So zoning applications go directly to the county level and our regional planning commission. at this point in time we're looking to change some of that with overlay districts but anyway we had an application that was filed that initially it looked like it was going to be a um warehouse hub for amazon and then and because it's at the county level we don't really look at those applications too closely especially if it's not a zoning change And anyway, so the application changed and it turned into a data center for Amazon. And it was for a parcel that was already zoned industrial that is across the street from a steel manufacturing plant. And so by the time I think this application was filed actually before I started with Perry township but shortly after I started is when I became aware that it was a data Center application and at that time it wasn't that controversial data centers but um. But since then, I would say in Ohio and. Probably across the nation. The controversy of data centers increased dramatically and so. Our residents were unhappy when they realized that a data center had applied to be built in Perry Township. And I think that, you know, hindsight being 2020, I think I would have done more to alert the community to the application, even though it wasn't something that our zoning commission had to approve or our board of trustees had to approve. I think I would have tried to make more of an effort to get information out about it sooner. I don't think there would be a difference in the outcome because that parcel, like I said, was already zoned industrial for at least 40 years and it had been sitting vacant. So I think it's kind of a situation where the neighboring property owners were very upset that they weren't notified specifically about the data center. I mean, they were notified that there was a zoning application there because we do that anytime there is an application, but yeah, I think that I would have made more of an effort to share information about that application earlier on than we did, so. I think that was a good learning experience.

Okay. Thank you. Yeah. So, so to clarify, you don't have any control over, like you really didn't have control over that situation happening. What have you done since it's just a follow-up to like communicate with the public and help them understand, because I'm sure not everybody understands that you don't have control over that.

Yes. So we we've certainly answered a lot of questions and in our regular meetings, i've posted some articles on our website about the application process and then, when I found out that there was a new application to expand the site on a temporary basis. I did immediately post an article on our website about that and share information on social media. And so I have been trying to like post regular updates about the project. and any additional applications related to it. We also, we had some folks who were nervous about their water wells because when the steel manufacturing plant was built, they damaged some people's wells in the area. So the township offered to pay for well testing for just the properties like immediately surrounding the data center parcel. And so we did well testing. And you know we promoted that we shared the results, we also had some experts come in to talk about. stormwater drainage and how unlikely the construction of the data Center would impact folks wells, just so they understand the steel manufacturing plant when it was built, they were actually D watering the area. And so they were drilling underground like across properties and that's how they damaged some wells. So it was really a different situation, but we did understand why people who had been impacted previously would be nervous. So we did offer that well testing. All the wells were fine. We also shared a lot of information about how you know, the water being used in the data center is not being released into the groundwater, it's going into the sewer system. So we just tried to share more information. I published some articles in our newsletter that goes out to the community, probably the last two or three newsletters. And then I've been publishing articles online and posting on social media to share information about it, so.

Okay, thank you.

Scotty, Celine again, this one's kind of like on the communications and human or public relations deal. And, you know, like beat cops here in Sitka don't really like writing people up for trailer infractions and stuff. Well, now the borough's hired a new guy that has been told by DMV to chill because he's like a pick and fly shit out of pepper. and it's a good thing, but then here's a bad thing, but it's good for the beat cops, because they get to maintain rapport with people, but then we still have infractions happening. How could you see yourself trying to mitigate infuriating people that have sweat equity projects in a town with minimal land and boats. And now a guy comes into town with no salt in his socks and just sees a wide open issuing tickets and people are trying to catch his panache on film so that leadership can see how he talks to people. and uh but we get big smiles from our regular cops now can you see uh any kind of a downrange plan for keeping things chill so are you are you talking about like a property maintenance kind of tickets situation or no having a trailer tire touching the street and you know having to move your skiff trailer and uh but just really alienating people at the same time as keeping streets safe to where the pendulum of reality is swinging against the city again.

Yeah. I mean, I think in a situation like that, you know, you have to try and talk to, you know, the person's manager and see if... or if it was, I don't know if it was a department edit, I would talk to them myself. It's important to, you know, hold folks accountable, but at the same time, like, you can't just turn everything around that quickly, and you have to try and be respectful of residents too. And, I mean, I think I would wanna, try and find out what the situation was. Because I know you made me think of property maintenance issues because in Perry Township, we do have some property maintenance issues. But we also have neighbors who will like report on each other. And sometimes it's more of a neighbor dispute than really a property maintenance issue. So I try and reserve judgment till I talk to the folks involved. Because sometimes we have in Perry, some neighbor disputes and they, they call in and they portray the situation as if the zoning department hasn't done anything. And, and it turns out that it's really just a pair of neighbors who keep repeatedly reporting on one another and calling the police out and can't get along versus, you know, they haven't done anything. And, So I try not to assume that whoever I'm talking to is completely accurate because I think that there's some room for different perspectives on what a situation is and try and remember that different folks have different priorities and may have their own agenda. So I think I would try and find out what's really going on maybe talk to several folks before trying to talk to staff about it.

Thank you.

Yeah, Chris here. As a leader or administrator, what would you say your weaknesses or areas that you would like to improve on? Bit of a self-reflection question.

Sure. That's a great question. I think that One of my areas of weakness is I can sometimes get a little bit behind on filing away papers. So that's something I've been trying to get better at. trying to streamline things so that I have less paper and develop more technology-based systems. And the other thing I do is I try and reserve a little bit of time each week to make sure I sort through all those papers and put them where they need to go.

Great, thank you.

Jerry, this one's gonna be an interesting question because it's gonna involve your direct interactions with this assembly that you're sitting in front of. So not only do you have to answer the question, but then you have to tell us how you would then later deal with us is the correct word in this. So at times your professional experience will put you in a spot where you have to tell the assembly no. How do you do this?

Yeah, that can be tough. I do think that there are some times when something just is not legally possible or could get the, you know, the community into trouble. I think that's when, you know, you do need to tell the assembly no. I think, you know, explaining what the concerns are and why Checking with others, maybe legal counsel for the assembly beforehand, I think is helpful. And then just explaining to folks what the reasoning is and trying to give some references as to what parts of, whether it's an ordinance or the code or the charter, is is a key factor there. Or if there's you know a funding issue. I think just being you know direct with folks is is the best way to do it but not brutally honest I guess. And just be respectful of folks and letting them know the reasons why I think is really important so.

Thank you.

So the assembly in SICA has two employees, the administrator and the municipal attorney. The attorney oversees one person and the administrator gets all 200 and some others. So you have one coworker and then several direct reports and a big triangle from there. With that kind of coworker relationship, how would you utilize that dynamic with the municipal attorney?

I mean, I think that, you know, It's really important to get along with your attorney. We do have a law director in Perry Township and, you know, he's a great attorney. I really enjoy working with him. We occasionally hire other attorneys as well. But I think just, you know, understanding your own role as the administrator and the role of the municipal attorney, I think is really important. I really do rely on our law director and appreciate his insights. So I would look forward to meeting the municipal attorney and being able to rely on them as well, I'm sure, so.

Yeah, thank you. There's a lot of collaboration between those two roles in, you know, final checks for ordinances, memos, policy, leases, all of that. So a very strong working relationship, like you say, is valuable. We appreciate that perspective. Thank you.

I've got one that's probably actually, it's pretty straightforward and it's in here. So let's assume this continues to go well and we invite you up and we offer you the job. What will your timeline be like? I mean, how long would it take you to wrap things up and come up here, and how would you envision that before you were moved to Sitka?

Sure. I think that... As I mentioned, I am preparing my house to go on the market. Thankfully, it's in a great location, so once I get in the market, it should sell pretty quickly. So I was thinking maybe four to six weeks it would take me to move up to Sitka. I've been doing some research on logistics and trying to get rid of things and streamline my life, I guess. So I think that will help.

Thank you.

Well, if you have been doing some logistical research on moving to Sitka, I would love to know what you think of our housing situation, and that is what my question is about. Housing is a huge challenge here. Affordable housing, accessible housing, you'll notice if you haven't already that we have many kind of like multi-million dollar homes on the market or homes averaging from $800,000 to a million dollars. And we're in a bit of a situation now where there are more homes on the market. For a very long time, nothing was moving. And now, as you mentioned with rising costs, interest rates are very high here. And so we've got multiple different pressures on our housing situation, whether it is from you know, seasonal workforce that comes in. We do have a very significant population increase in the summer with our seasonal industries. And then there are year-round families. And then as well, we have an aging population. And so, you know, Some senior folks a lot of whom may live in bigger homes that their families have have grown out of But they don't necessarily have a smaller place to go. So I'm wondering you know what if any are the housing issues that your community has faced and how you would apply your knowledge of those issues to the situation here and really you know, what responsibility do you think our municipality has to address these housing issues?

I mean, I do think it's important for the community to address them. I know in our area, not just Perry Township, but also the whole of Stark County and really all of Ohio, we have a shortage of what we're calling here in Ohio workforce housing. So a lot of housing is expensive and most families can't afford to buy a house. I don't think it's as expensive as it is in Sitka. So I think your problem is even exacerbated just because costs are higher there. So we've been working on some zoning changes that would allow, a larger variety of housing that could be more affordable, whether it's apartments or, you know, higher density like townhouses, things like that. Those are things that we're working on doing an overlay district for. And I think that there's been, at least in our community here in Perry Township, there's been a preference of like single family housing or maybe duplexes. but really I think we need more options. There haven't been very many apartments or any really town homes at all. So we've been working with the County Economic Development Group on our overlay district and ideas on how to encourage redevelopment in Perry Township. So our next step is gonna be to try and work with some developers and builders to see what might entice them to build housing. and housing that's the higher density stuff is probably more affordable for more folks so that's one of the reasons we're looking into that um i think that you know similar similar type stuff might work in sicka um i think it's just um it would be important to i think understand and and learn the community better before proposing anything but I do think generally speaking though, you have the same issues, right? Need for more affordable housing, and then you wanna make sure there's, someone's gonna be interested in building it. And I don't know if the community has any housing that it owns or not, but But yeah, I think that something else that we've looked into here is having pre-approved plans for housing. So sometimes that can make it a little bit more affordable and streamline the process. So that would be something to maybe look at. But I do think there are different options and it would just be a matter of researching which ones make the most sense for Sitka, so.

That's great. Yeah. We are also looking at pre approved plans. And I just appreciate the the creativity that y'all are approaching this with down there. I just had a small follow up question when you say going to work with builders and developers. Is that outreach that y'all as a township as a government are conducting? Or is that in collaboration with like the Economic Development Board? How do you how do you kind of do that? collaboration and outreach to local businesses?

So I got some contacts from the county economic development group, and we're going to be reaching out to them as a township and meeting with them just to get their feedback on our overlay district to see if it's enticing enough or if they have other suggestions. Again, like you have to take, you know, anything that they suggest with a grain of salt and think about whether it would really work for the community or not as well. Because of course, you know, these are all for profit companies and we certainly want them to make a profit because if they're not going to make a profit, they're not going to want to build. But at the same time, we have to make sure that we're not giving away too much as well. Thanks so much.

Thank you, Jerry. Kevin Mosher again. What do you believe will be the hardest aspect of transitioning from Ohio to Southeast Alaska should you get this job?

That's a great question. I think the hardest transition would be just potential limited opportunities for travel from Sitka. So I know that there can be times when it's not as easy to get a flight or a ferry to travel outside of Sitka. That's the one thing that I've thought long and hard about. but it seems like that those limitations are not constant. It's a matter of, you know, depending on whether that type of thing. So.

Okay. Thank you. And also what would be, uh, the hardest aspect from like a work, like transitioning from being there to here as far as, uh, managing.

Managing. Um,

or whatever anything aspect you know from what you're doing now to what you would be doing here.

DIRECTOR MACKLIN Well I do think that there are more departments in sickest communities so there would be some that I'm not as familiar with. I would want to make sure I spent I think a little bit more time on those especially as well as. Establishing that relationship with the tribal government, I think would be really important too. That would be a bigger transition. Really getting to know the community, but I think that I have moved to different communities before. That just takes time. I'm not as concerned about that. I would say the things that would be the biggest transition would be... the ones that I don't have as much direct experience with, so.

Okay, thank you.

Jenny, earlier when you were speaking that the construction at your industrial zoned site and then people were upset, was there anything going on there where anybody on your elected council signed a non-disclosure agreement and had previous information about that? Was there any kind of a thing like that going on with that?

Yes. um it was kind of a weird situation again this happened before i started in perry township so um we did have one uh board member signed a non-disclosure agreement but it was a blank agreement it didn't say what the project was the address um the company um It was like a boilerplate NDA agreement and all it had on it was this trustee's signature and the date. So yeah, lots of folks have spun that into a conspiracy. But I know he didn't meet with the developer until July, right after I started. I went to the meeting with him. But he did sign that NDA like several months earlier. But I mean, I don't think he knew what the project was, so.

Thank you.

Yeah, Chris here again. Purely hypothetical question. Sure, it's never happened. How would you handle a situation where an assembly member or a community member wanted a staff person fired?

Oh. Yeah, that's a tough situation. I think that, you know, I would try to listen to whether it was assembly member or a resident, their concerns. And then I would try and find out more about the situation. whether it was from the staff member or someone else on the team, and try to see what the situation was. And, you know, in some instances, it might be a valid concern, certainly. And so if, you know, we had to do an investigation or something like that, I think we would need to follow those formal steps. And part of it is also going to depend on whether that employee is in a collective bargaining unit or if, you know, what their status is as an employee. So, I mean, there's always a process to follow. I think, you know, again, it's important to be respectful of folks who have a concern, listen to their concern, and then try and find out as much information from other sources as you can and then follow, you know, the steps that are needed. And sometimes it's, you know, it's not a valid situation. I hate to see that. But also, I mean, you know, no one ever wants to fire an employee. I think it's important to listen to whoever has a concern, try and find out information from objective sources if possible, and then follow the right procedural steps if need be. if the concern is valid. And sometimes we just can't, whether the employee did something wrong or not, you can't just fire folks, right? You have to follow the right process and procedures in order to make something like that happen. And discipline has to be progressive in most instances. So you can't just go right to termination, so.

Great, thank you.

Jerry, I'll ask my question, and then it's been about an hour, so we'll take a five-minute break after that. I know it can be hard. We each speak one question, but you've had to speak continually, right? So I want to give you a little bit of a break as well so that we can finish off the second half strong. So my question is, can you please describe the importance of a city clerk to your success?

Yeah, I mean, the city clerk is important. they're keeping those official records of the proceedings, of any changes to the code, all those types of stuff. I mean, are they also the ones in CICA that would do public records requests?

For us, yes, in conjunction with our attorney.

Yeah. So I mean it's a really important role and one that is has to interact with the public too. So I think that it would be really important to have a good relationship and rapport with the city clerk.

Okay, thank you. Like I said, we'll go ahead and take like a five-minute break. We will hold ourselves to it, and then when we see you pop back on the screen, we can jump back into round two this evening. So thank you.

Okay, thanks.

Jerry, we're just waiting on one more assembly member to be seated, and we will jump back in it. I hope your break was as productive as ours.

It was. Thank you.

Great. All right, Tor is back in the room, so he'll at least be able to hear JJ's question and the answer as he's sitting down here. But we'll pass it back to JJ to start the next round of interview questions.

Hey, Jerry. You wouldn't notice, because today is so beautiful out, but in the last couple of days, we had some very severe rain, and our landslide monitoring system ticked up to moderate, so at potential landslide risk in town. That's happened twice, I believe, in the last month. So natural disasters are something that happen here, either landslides from mountains or tsunamis from the ocean, maybe some earthquake and volcanic activity as well in the area. So what is your experience with managing emergency response to natural disasters?

Yeah, that's a good question. I don't know that I've managed a community during a natural disaster. I'm trying to think. I guess really the only time has been when I was on school board, we did have a hurricane came through Ohio. It really, for us in Ohio, since we're obviously inland, it was mostly the the wind that caused widespread power outages and the power was off for a couple of weeks. So that was a challenge. I was on school board at that time and they did close schools for a period of time. Other than that, in Perry Township, we have had snow. Last January, at the end of January, we had about 15 inches of snow. So that was certainly a challenge to get all the snow removed from the roads. And it took some time. We did have to close down some of the township offices, certainly not police, fire, and roads, but we did close the administrative offices. So we haven't really had any major natural disasters other than snow that we had to manage. But I mean, I have experienced natural disasters elsewhere, but more as a resident.

Yeah, thank you. It matters so much here because as the city and borough where that kind of combined town and county and geographically, you know, in this remote location where, you know, you can't get support from the next town over, you know, we don't have anything near the capabilities of five alarm fire because there's only us. And that's just something we always have kind of in Just out of our focus is the potential for risk from this land that we love. So that's an important thing, too, in this place to add on to your look into it more or less research. Thank you.

Yeah, thank you for that question. I really hadn't thought about the lack of mutual aid availability, so thank you for mentioning that.

Yeah, and I mentioned there's a lot of really good classes out there for people in that position, for city managers and the like in the ICS system. And it's very important up here. In fact, some of the best training out there is in Ohio. I know, I've been to some. Swing here a little bit, I'll go. JJ stole my main question. Give me a sec. Anyway, one of the things that the current city manager has done that's been really impressive is he's instituted an asset management system. that has really changed the way we look at how we allocate resources. Basically, he's got a sheet saying what the lifespan of various items we have and when we're gonna have to replace them and how much they cost, and it goes out quite a few years, was it the last one, was it 40 years, something like that? Anyway, A, if you have any experience with that, and then B, how would you expand on that, or how would you deal with that?

Yeah, I mean, I do have experience with asset management systems. I think that it's great that that Sitka's community does have one. I think it's really important for long-term planning and budgeting to be able to, you know, plan for when you're going to replace things and hopefully stagger those plans so that it's not all happening at the same time. I think it's really important for things like vehicles. Certainly, you know, a lot of municipal vehicles are very expensive. So I think it's really important to set aside money and capital budget for those types of purchases. But even things like computers need to be replaced every so often. But having a standard timeframe of anticipating when things need to be replaced is important, I think, for long-term budget planning. So I think it's great that you guys have an asset management system. Also, you know, it's just important to keep track of what SICA owns so that when people do leave, you know, those assets remain with the municipality, so.

Thank you. My question, yeah, was kind of in regards to that people leaving and needing to hire, especially for those important positions that hold a lot of that institutional knowledge, you know, department heads. Specifically as well, one of the unique things that I'm sure you've noticed about our municipality is we have a municipal utility that we run and the electrical department director is obviously a very technical position as well as having other leadership qualities being important. And so I'm wondering, given that need to assess like the technical expertise that potentially you don't have yourself um as well as someone's suitability and working for the city like what are the major qualities that you look for when you're hiring a new department head of of any department um i think that you know when you're looking for a new department heads it's important to include other folks in um

interview panels, other department heads particularly. Sometimes if it's particularly technical, I guess it might be worth including someone maybe even from a, even if it's just virtually, in the panel who maybe has a similar role in another city. And of course, I think checking references is really important too. I would I would think that for department heads, you want to make sure that whoever you're hiring has the technical expertise that are needed. And then also that they're going to be a good fit for the overall team and. And so I like to include other department heads when i'm interviewing for one. And to get their feedback, as well as some staff team in a panel. I think that that can be really helpful so. Thank you.

Hi, Jerry. Describe your management style.

That's a good question. I would say that my management style is one where I try and lead by example. I really try not to micromanage folks. And, you know, occasionally you have an employee where that, you know, if you're not able to support them in growing their skills and stuff, that might, might become necessary, but my preference is more to lead by example and to support other department heads and staff in either getting the training they need or resources they need, serving as a sounding board for folks, helping to keep them on the right track. They have challenges with employees or things like that. Try and help them come up with resolutions for any challenges they might be having. But yeah, I really try not to micromanage folks and really don't enjoy having to do that when, if that becomes an issue, if you have an employee that's just not, improving or not really making an effort. But I think, you know, trying to be more of a supportive manager is my management style, so.

Okay, thank you.

There's another one for you, Jenny. Like with Thor talking about the asset management program, that's really why I'm on this thing because to me, the level of service divided by the asset management program is why we've spent the money that we've spent at Blatchley Junior High just the past handful of years, if you can believe it. The city's had refrigeration positions, but nobody's been required to even have a Freon card, which is a federal requirement to touch a refrigeration system. And that money that we're losing by hiring out. And now I want to try to have that be done in-house. I'm getting a hard time back from staff in realizing that so I can get extra votes here from the assembly and use that money in other places that benefit the town. and that's part of the deal, you're gonna have to come into it and then be able to oversee people telling you about trades that you know nothing about. And it's really a mind blower to me that when I asked our new police chief, there's no log book of what's going on at the police department over each different regime. And you can't just come into a job like police chief or administrator even and have a logbook like a daily logbook you'd have on any command floating on the ocean about what happens during the day that leads you to shot calling and projecting what's coming downhill. And that's where this asset management program on stuff that, you know, that moves heat, the city's really behind the eight ball. So I'm really anxious to have you get here and be able to explain the different mistakes that the city's made and where I see us earning our money back and putting that directly back in, particularly to the senior citizens here. So I don't really have a question other than to say that asset management program, I could shred that in about an hour. So welcome to Sitka, get here as soon as you can.

Hi, Chris here. I think you've touched on this and maybe it was even asked last time. I don't have any notes on it. So if I'm just repeating the question, I apologize. But could you tell us a little bit about your collective bargaining experience and how do you prepare for negotiations and what's your philosophy on the relationship between management and organized leaders?

Sure. So, you know, I have experience in collective bargaining in multiple positions. So certainly in Perry Township, also when I was a trustee in Genoa Township School Board, when I worked for the state of Ohio, I certainly managed collective bargaining staff. So in Perry Township, our most recent experience, we have got three unions that we work with, one for police, one for the fire department, and then one for Rhodes and some other staff. It's all through AFSCME. I think we have a pretty good relationship with each of our unions. I think it's important to try and, you know, if possible, maintain a cordial relationship with the unions and the union presidents so that if challenges do come up, you know, we can usually resolve them and hopefully there's not a need for a grievance. You know, of course, if there's been some kind of discipline for staff, you know, the union is going to try and protect that staff member. And so we have gone to arbitration on some discipline at Perry Township, but... I think we've managed to maintain a cordial relationship with each union despite that. I also think sharing some information about the budget and ongoing challenges is important so that when it comes to collective bargaining time the unions understand that you know there's not a ton of money available. I do think it's important to make sure that, again, you've got capital accounts, too, so that for those long-term capital expenses, those funds are set aside in capital accounts because whatever is available can impact potential mediation or findings if you're not able to agree with the union on collective bargaining. that's where your budgeting and your work with your accounts is really important. I think that you want to make sure that you're really familiar with the collective bargaining agreements, any things that have been an ongoing challenge in those agreements so that when it comes to collective bargaining time, I think it's important for management always to ask for stuff in a, you know, and not just wait to get requests from the union. You'll wanna ask for things that are gonna make, streamline where you can on the processes for any type of disciplinary action or if there are other things. Like I know something that we did in Perry Township is there were like lots of like little things, little benefits in the union contracts that, You know the board really wanted to simplify and they didn't want to give out these you know little benefits like things like a gym membership and stuff they just wanted to. roll things up into you know folks salaries and not have all these additional little benefits tied in with the contract so that's something that they did this last time around. But I think it's really important to know what your agreements are, what parts of the agreements you might want to have modified the next time collective bargaining comes around, so that if you are giving here or there to the unions, it should be a give and take. So that there's some benefit for management, some benefit for the employees as well. But also, you know, increases need to be realistic. And hopefully, if you've got that cordial relationship with the union requests will be realistic too and then it won't be a long drawn-out negotiation process but it of course always depends on the folks who are involved so I think just keeping that ongoing communication to make sure you have a fairly cordial rapport all the time helps to make the negotiation process easier and hopefully take less time and come out with some reasonable results, so.

Great, thank you.

Jerry, on your application, it does state that you have policy skills. Let me pull that back out so I can read. Under your objective to obtain a challenging position that will leverage your leadership strategy, local government operations, and policy skills. I'm just wondering about policy skills, if you could elaborate on that. Then specifically, have you revised internal or external policy? And what process did you use to do such?

Sure. So I don't know if it was clear in my application or not, but I did go to law school and I'm licensed as an attorney in New York. I'm not licensed in Ohio. So I have drafted administrative code for the state of Ohio when I worked at the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. And for that, I worked with our local stakeholders to get their input in on potential policy changes. And then we would draft real changes and post and publish them. And then we would get comments on them and make any modifications before they went before the the legislature's regulatory body that would approve rules. So that was quite a long process. I would work with our stakeholder associations to get feedback on potential policy changes in rule language before we would propose them. And then, like I said, there's a comment period. We would revise them based on comments from folks, and then they would generally get approved by the Legislature's Regulatory Approval Committee. I have worked on some policies, certainly in Perry Township as well. I've drafted, you know, different types of policies. We've done cybersecurity policy, public records policy. Which other ones? We've done a bunch of them. But I've also drafted different resolutions for the board to consider. One was, I've drafted resolutions for levies to go on the ballot, tax increment financing districts, some, there's, policy for indigent cremations. Also, we have a policy for potentially waiving EMS fees by request for folks who meet certain income requirements. Gosh, I mean, those are, I think, the main ones I've done, but I've done other policies for things like road permits and getting a bond for overweight and oversized vehicles going through the township. Also, we have a policy for things like utilities opening up the roads, like they're installing fiber optic cables. And I'm working right now on a policy for charging folks who wanna use our township hall for parties or pavilions in our parks. In the past, the township hasn't charged folks. They just took a deposit just in case there was damage, so we're gonna be charging folks for that. I'm sure there's other things, but those are just some examples.

Thank you for that insight.

To follow up to that, and what was the process you went through to develop those policies?

Yes, I'm sorry. I didn't cover that in Perry, did I? So with the policies in Perry, what I'll do is I'll draft them, and then I'll share them with the board and the law director for their feedback. Sometimes I'll share them with department heads, too. It just depends on what the policy is. We did a risk management policy. That was another one. So I definitely shared that one with the department heads. And then we would, you know, propose them in a public meeting. And I would answer questions for the board if they had any, or if any other questions came up, even from the public. And then we usually will talk about a policy in a meeting at least one time before the board will consider it for approval. So really, it's not a requirement at the township level to do that, but I know that it depends on what the municipality's requirements are. I know, at least in Ohio, some cities will do a certain number of readings unless it's an emergency. But we usually try and at least talk about it one time before the board will vote on it so.

Great. As a first-class city and home rule in Alaska, the state statute gives us a lot of freedoms and responsibilities and this and that. And you mentioned being impressed earlier that we run elections here, or our clerks do. So add that to the list of things that the clerks do for us from that question from earlier, as well as you know, manage us assembly cats and our boards, commissions, committees, and all of the noticing through all of that. So yeah, thank you, Sarah. Long, long tangent introduction to, you know, at our last assembly meeting on Tuesday night, one of our discussion topics was about funding childcare or childcare solutions. And a potential special election may be coming forward beginning of next year to put a new 1.5% sales tax in the summer months. to hopefully collect about a million dollars in revenue to put towards childcare locally. What are your thoughts about special elections, anything that you've done there, or just general thoughts about childcare initiatives in this town?

Sure. So, I mean, special elections, I mean, you know, Right now, I'm helping to run a levy campaign for our road department. So that's something I do outside of regular work hours. So I do have some experience with issue campaigns, I guess. And I think it's really important to get information out to folks about it. And I don't know what your process was. in deciding to put it on the ballot. But I think one of the things that we've done here is we have a road advisory group. And so we got input from folks before the board considered putting a levy on the ballot. This is actually just a renewal levy, so it's no new money. But normally what they would do is they'll get some kind of advisory group together to make a recommendation and the board will consider that before putting something on the ballot. We have very limited times as far as when we can do that. And it's pretty much twice a year. Otherwise it's very expensive here in Ohio to do a special election. because we'd have to pay for the county agency to do it. I think that special elections are important. It sounds like it's a really important issue. I know childcare is an ongoing issue here in Ohio and one that we looked at when I worked at the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services a lot. child care was within my agency's purview. But it's it's really important for folks to be able to, you know, work and have quality child care. And I imagine that it has some labor challenges and a need for more skilled workers.

Yes, that is absolutely accurate.

Yeah. So I think childcare is a really important part of that. Um, and so hopefully, um, that, that will pass because childcare is very expensive. I mean, especially if you want quality care. So, um, and you know, not everybody is willing to put their kids in childcare either. So, I mean, that's part of the challenge as well. So I, um, I'm pretty interested in that topic. It sounds like something I want to research more, so.

I can contact the clerks for the packet. Did I answer your question? Yes, yes, thank you. Appreciate it. Okay.

You should have watched our last meeting. In fact, I highly recommend you do watch a few if you haven't already. Okay. Yeah, so I'm going to... talk a little bit about, and I've asked previous candidates about this too, so we have sometimes some very opinionated people, opinionated people, I'm sure Ohio does too, I know, and sometimes they get upset, and I think that there's a strong likelihood that somebody will come at you and you're mad already before they come up to you and want something done or not done that you can't do. It's illegal, impossible, for whatever reason. But there you are at Lakeside, one of our stores, or in your office, and they're riled up and you can't give them what they want. How do you handle that?

Yeah, in a situation like this, Just this week, we had a special meeting before, a regular meeting, and somebody came up to me right before the meeting was going to start and, like you said, was already angry. And he said, what do I have to do to get a department head to return my calls or emails? And very aggressively. So I think in those kinds of situations, you know, you have to try – and stay calm, first of all, and, you know, be respectful for folks. So this particular gentleman, I asked him, you know, which department he was asking about, knowing that I had two voicemails on my phone that I hadn't listened to yet. So I was wondering if it was me, to be honest. And then it turned out it was zoning. So then, you know, I asked what his name was and I said that I would look into it. So anyway, so I talked to the zoning inspector after that special meeting and it turned out that this was one of those situations I mentioned where it was like an ongoing neighbor dispute. So the police were at this person's house later that day after I talked to him. And I think that, you know, what I've heard the history is, is that these two neighbors will complain to somebody about each other and then also to the police. And so I just tried to, you know, let him know that i would get back to him and um i did um and i think you know a lot of times with the zoning stuff uh folks don't realize that it does take a lot of time to um uh enforce property maintenance if there is an issue like you know for for mowing um It takes, you can't just go and mow somebody's yard and then charge them. You have to give them a certain amount of time to mow it. That's usually like two to three weeks. And then if they don't mow it, then it has to get approved for the board to do a mitigation. And then you've got to schedule someone to go out and mow it. So, I mean, you know, it's a month to a month and a half before anything could possibly happen. And if the person mowed part of the yard, then we probably give them more time to finish mowing it. So if there's a neighbor that's been complaining, it seems like it's taking forever to them, but we really always have to follow those process steps. So it can take a while to get those right steps followed so that the township could fix the situation. And sometimes it can be hard for residents to wait, I guess. But I really think with residents and who are already angry and stuff, you just have to try and stay calm, try and listen to what their concern is. And sometimes it's not easy to tell when somebody is angry too, because they're not always making sense in what they're saying. If they're either very passionate about the issue or angry. And I think, you know, active listening is a good way. So listen to what they're saying, try and repeat back, you know, what you're hearing them say to see if that's accurate, and then following up with however you can. That's how I try and handle those situations.

Thank you.

I don't have any further questions for you tonight, but I appreciate your time.

Hi, Jerry. This will be my last question. What have you found to be an effective means of working with the local press in order to foster accuracy and a positive image for the community?

Yeah, that's a great question. I think that one of the things that we were doing in Perry Township was we were trying to do press releases after every meeting. Somehow the local press wasn't picking them up. So we've been trying to post things on our website and on social media to keep folks informed. And then if we do get any press inquiries, I try and respond right away via email whenever possible. And then I also, I try and loop the board in in case one of them wants to give a quote or something like that to the press as well. And If that's the case, I try and, you know, help draft it if we're gonna do something written or help to facilitate the meeting with the press so that they can talk to them in person, so.

Okay, thank you.

Jenny, Scotty, again, I was thinking maybe to suggest to you that you look at the Sitka Sportsman's Association, they got a women's pistol league in the winter when it's all real dark and stuff. And that'd be a good hit for you to get in and meet a good demographic of other women in town. And then you get yourself, you know, you can bust out on the trails and if you're packing, you know what you're doing. It's just a part of being here with bears.

Yes. I appreciate that. That's a good suggestion.

yeah uh final question for me um very important to me as a fisherman um maybe even make or break i don't know what is your favorite seafood if at all my favorite seafood that is a tough question i really like seafood um Well, this is the right place for it.

Just letting you know. I think if I had to pick a favorite, I would say crab.

Right on. We got plenty of that here.

I know.

You know how we know you're not from Sitka? Because you just said crab generally when there are multiple species of crab. Just like you could have said salmon when there are multiple species. You'll learn those soon enough. I have one last question that'll be the headlining question for the newspaper. You know, it's not a when you wake up, I was gonna say when you wake up in the morning, but we get our paper in the evening here. So my question is, should the municipality hold employee holiday parties? And if so, should they be taxpayer funded?

Oh, that's a good question. PB, Lupita D Montoya, I think, I think it is good to have employee holiday parties i'm probably not taxpayer funded, though. PB, Lupita D Montoya, I know we we did one in Perry, and it was a potluck um it was a lot of fun I did make a lot of food so.

Yourself making a lot of food sounds great. I asked that question and our city clerk kind of chuckled because this is one issue that myself and our current municipal administrator disagree on. I highly believe in a holiday party for the hard work that the staff has done and I understand that taxpayer revenue is a funding mechanism for that. I think our citizens, in my opinion, value our city employees and I think the small price paid there for increased morale and productivity is well worth it. But I don't disagree with the fact that taxpayer money should not personally benefit. So a little bit of a back and forth, a yin and yang in my own mind as well. appreciate that um well we've come to the the part of the evening where i want to give you some opportunity um to to ask us questions or to highlight something that we we haven't asked um that that could have should have been one of my questions is you know tell us something about yourself that we haven't asked but if there's any questions you have of the assembly as a whole or if there's anything that you have been dying to tell us that we did not ask you. The next little bit is your turn to ask us.

Okay. What's your timeline for making a decision?

Historically, there has been an in-person meet and greet. Looking at our timeline is gonna be something that we will talk about tonight should we decide to move forward in the process. It becomes a little bit tight with our local elections and then that transition period as well. Worst case scenario, we have until December 10th before our current administrator leaves. We want someone boots on the ground well before that, ideally, and we want to start making this decision process happen as we've been in it for quite some time. So there would need to be an in-person meet and greet. Historically after that, job offers can be made, and at that point it's on, the applicant on how quickly they can rearrange life and make it up to town. So looking at our timeline, looking at your timeline, I could see an end of October, beginning of November, which would give a solid month with the current administrator for a transition period, which would be ideal.

Okay. That sounds good. Have I answered all your questions, I hope?

I think so. Looking around the room, I definitely get the sense that we know you as a person and as a leader much better than we did at the beginning of this meeting. I definitely personally have that sense. I think there are some things, and this is why we do an in-person meet and greet, that can only be translated in person that can't be across Zoom. So that's a key one as well. And just to give you a heads up on that, we do invite the members of the community so that we can watch interactions with the members of the community. We can get some feedback from those members as well, because not only do you work for us with us, you work for the community, right? So we need buy-in from everybody as well. So, no, I think so far I wrote an entire page of notes. My writing had to get much smaller as I went down the page because I was starting to run out of room. But I think you've answered the majority of the questions extremely well this evening.

Okay. I'm trying to think if there's anything else I can want to ask. I can't think of anything else, so. I really appreciate your time tonight. I feel like I got to know you all a little bit better too.

Yeah, great. Thank you. And so we, as you know, there is an executive session coming up where we're going to talk about this interview. And then I'm assuming HR will be in contact relatively quickly with some follow-up. Also feel free to reach out to HR as well. You have Josh's contact information. So feel free to reach out as this process goes forward.

Okay. Thank you so much for your time tonight.

Yeah, thank you. I appreciate it. Thanks for staying up. I know it's a little bit later for you than it is for us.

No worries. All right. Thanks, everybody.

Good night. Thank you.

Good night.

So that wraps up our Zoom interview of our municipal administrator applicant, Jerry Cotter. The next order of business tonight would be an executive session to discuss tonight's interview. The applicant had an opportunity to have this discussion in public if wanted, and no such request was made. So we are able to go into executive session to discuss the interview.

I move to go into executive session to discuss subjects that may tend to prejudice the reputation and character of municipal administrator candidate Jerry Cotter and invite in Assistant Municipal Administrator Josh Brannover. In addition, I move to exclude the municipal administrator and municipal attorney.

Clerk, I'm sorry. Second. Second. I don't know why I said that.

That's been moved and seconded to enter executive session. Is there any public comment on entering the executive session? Sarah?

All right, on the motion to go into Executive Session, Mayor Eisenbeis?

Yes.

Ms. Carlson? Yes. Mr. Moser?

Yes.

Mr. Yestad?

Yes.

Mr. Christensen? Yes. Mr. Salin? Yes. And Ms. Riley? Yes. The motion passes 7-0.

A 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. Our next discussion direction item tonight with a potential executive session is just an overall session on the municipal administrator recruitment process. So if there is a desire to enter an executive session to talk about the process as a whole and our potential next steps, a motion would be in order.

I move to go into executive session to review the application submitted for the municipal administrator position under the statutory category of discussing subjects that may tend to prejudice the reputation and character of an individual and invite in Assistant Municipal Administrator Joshua Branthover. In addition, I move to exclude the Municipal Administrator and Municipal Attorney.

Second.

That's been moved and seconded to inter-executive session. Is there any public comment? Sarah?

On the motion to go into executive session, Mayor Eisenbeis?

Yes.

Ms. Carlson? Yes. Mr. Yesdad? Yes. Mr. Moser? Yes. Mr. Saleen? Yes. Mr. Christensen?

No.

And Ms. Riley? Yes. Motion passes 6-1, and we'll be back in room 4.

Thank you. Second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed?

No.

I'm not in a hurry anymore. Motion to reconvene is the assembly and regular session.

So moved.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? Thank you. We are reconvened as the assembly in regular session. The assembly went into executive session, two executive sessions this evening. One to discuss the merits of our municipal administrator applicant and one to discuss the potential further steps along this process. The assembly has determined by consensus that we will be inviting our applicant jerry cotter up to sitka for an in-person interview and meet and greet to be scheduled as soon as possible for all parties so hr and clerk's office will be working on those logistics for us so the town can look forward to meeting jerry cotter here shortly and uh giving us uh their feedback on her potential performance as municipal administrator. As we know, more information just as in the past, we will release that to everybody so they can mark their calendars and hopefully be able to attend. Is there anything else from the assembly as a whole on our discussion, direction, decision on the recruitment process this evening? Great, thank you. 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. As there is no one in the crowd, we will move to adjournment. Motion to adjourn.

Second. Aye.

All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Thank you everyone, especially staff members who had to stay tonight. We are adjourned.