The half-year hunt for Juneau\u2019s next city manager is nearing its end, but not as quickly as some people, Assembly members included, had hoped. After deliberating for three and a half hours in executive session Tuesday night, the Assembly decided it needs more time.<\/p>\n
The decision is not an easy one. Juneau\u2019s municipal government adheres to the city-manager form, meaning the manager \u2014 not the mayor \u2014 is the most powerful single position in the city. This hiring decision is, as Deputy City Manager Mila Cosgrove recently told the Empire, one of most important decisions the Assembly can make. <\/p>\n
In order to make it, Assembly members are striving for consensus \u2014 a threshold they often try to meet but don\u2019t typically hold themselves to. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe really don\u2019t want this one to be a 5\u20133 split,\u201d Assembly member Jesse Kiehl said.<\/p>\n
Kiehl explained that that the Assembly doesn\u2019t want the next city manager to step into his new role facing a fractured Assembly. The city manager has to work closely with the Assembly, and all parties involved want the relationship to be built on a strong foundation.<\/p>\n
The Assembly\u2019s consensus caution aside, this would still not be an easy choice. The two final candidates \u2014 Rorie Watt and Fred Parady \u2014 each bring a wealth of experience, and each bring a different skill set. They made this much clear during a public meet-and-greet in City Hall immediately before the Assembly\u2019s executive session meeting Tuesday. <\/p>\n
Watt, currently the director of the city\u2019s Engineering and Public Works departments, leaned on his 22 years of experience working with the city and his engineering background as he made his case during a 30-minute presentation to the public.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like complicated problems, and I like working with people,\u201d Watt told the 30 or so members of the public who attended. \u201cI try to understand facts. That\u2019s the engineer in me bleeding out. But if you break down your problems and you steel yourself against preconceived solutions, we can accomplish great things.\u201d<\/p>\n
Watt brought up his professional experience and addressed city-specific problems he\u2019d like to tackle, including the city\u2019s shifting demographics, the high cost of housing and \u201cour very own Mount Trashmore,\u201d the Lemon Creek landfill.<\/p>\n
Watt also harped his experience working with the Assembly and said that he would like work on consensus building. A common joke among Assembly members, he said, is in order to get thing\u2019s done they only have to know how to count to five \u2014 the number needed to win in a roll call decision. That\u2019s a \u201cterrible way to do things,\u201d Watt said. \u201cThere are so many things we could be doing to count to nine.<\/p>\n
In many ways, Parady, currently the deputy commissioner of the Alaska Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development, is somewhat of a foil to his opponent. Watt is the insider; Parady is the outsider. Watt has lots of experience with the local government; Parady has a lot of experience with state government \u2014 he served as Speaker of the House in Wyoming for nearly a decade. These differences, according to Parady, are not a bad thing. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think I have a lot to offer as a new set of eyes,\u201d Parady said, answering a question from the audience. \u201cI\u2019m a quick study.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said his state government experience will help him deal with Alaska\u2019s financial woes. Juneau will be impacted by the state\u2019s multibillion-dollar budget deficit, and Parady said \u201cthere\u2019s no low-hanging fruit left\u201d when it comes to making cuts. For this reason, Parady said that his detachment from Juneau \u2014 he\u2019s lived here for a year and a half \u2014 will help him to decide what is essential and what can be cut. <\/p>\n
Parady also talked about his experience working as a manager in the mining industry, where he got his start. There, he said, he developed experience making plans and sticking with them, which he said will help if he is Juneau\u2019s next city manager. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe key is accountability,\u201d he said, after speaking about the city\u2019s economic development plan. \u201cYou don\u2019t need to generate reports; you need to generate action.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though the Assembly didn\u2019t come to a decision on who to hire Tuesday evening, as was the goal, it is better informed to make the tough call, Cosgrove said. Members of the public filled out candidate evaluation forms after the meet-and-greet, which she said will likely help the Assembly as it moves forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom that information they need to discuss which direction they want to head, and then they have to negotiate salary, and all of that has to happen before they make a public announcement,\u201d Cosgrove said.<\/p>\n
The Assembly hasn\u2019t released when it will next meet to discuss the matter, but deliberation is \u201congoing\u201d, Cosgrove said. Current City Manager Kim Kiefer will retire at the end of April.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The half-year hunt for Juneau\u2019s next city manager is nearing its end, but not as quickly as some people, Assembly members included, had hoped. After deliberating for three and a half hours in executive session Tuesday night, the Assembly decided it needs more time. The decision is not an easy one. Juneau\u2019s municipal government adheres […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[75],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-20969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20969\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20969"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=20969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}