3 jobs coming to Sitka's city hall

SITKA, ALASKA

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When Municipal Administrator Jim Dinley initially requested three positions in city hall, the Assembly was reluctant. Two members in particular – Cheryl Westover and Jack Ozment – wanted to know why the request couldn’t have happened during the city’s annual budget process earlier in the year.

It was much smoother sailing on Wednesday night, when the Assembly approved a full-time controller, and two part-time clerks. 

The controller will be trained to back-up city finance director Dave Wolff.

When called before the Assembly, Wolff said the position would be helpful but that his office could survive without it. Assembly member Terry Blake asked Dinley how many hours he works each week.

 

Wolff: “This last month I’ve been putting in excess of 80 hours a week in.”

Blake: “I struggle with that. How is that fair? We’re not trying to kill you here.”

Wolff told Blake he has to understand his background.

 

“Coming from the farm, in the Midwest, when it’s harvest time, you put the hours in. You get to sleep later,” Wolff said. “Right now is harvest time. We’ve got this bond issue going on, we’ve got the auditors in-house right now, getting this all done. I’ll put the hours in, knowing that probably in January, you won’t see me. I’ll be gone for a month. I’ll go take another month’s vacation like I did last year.”

Municipal Clerk Colleen Ingman had a different take on the workload in her office, which will get a part-time assistant clerk under Dinley’s plan.

 

“I already put in a significant number of hours in excess of 40,” she said. “Not nearly as many as Mr. Wolff, because I don’t want to die there.”

The need for extra help, she says, is urgent.

 

“My opinion is we are not doing a very good job,” Ingman said. “These offices – the office of Administration and Clerk that directly impact your clerk, the assembly, the mayor and the administrator – have gone from a support staff of four to three to two in the last five years. And it’s taken its toll.”

Ingman says her office is forced to triage its work, which means things like records management and Web site maintenance take a back seat to other things. Mistakes are being made, she said.

 

“We really need you to understand that this is not a want,” she said. “This is a critical need.”

Assembly members unanimously approved that position, too.

There was less agreement over a part-time clerk for the human resources department.

 

“This is probably, of these three, the one I have the most heartburn with,” said Assembly member Thor Christianson. “I think we need to be cognizant of the fact that we’re expanding … we’re making it bigger down at city hall. During the campaign we just had, I don’t know how many people kept saying, it just keeps getting bigger, and every time you do it it seems like yeah, that makes sense, but of course every decision makes sense, but you look back on it and all of a sudden you’ve got a lot more employees.”

Christianson was the lone “no” vote on the human resources clerk.