To avoid “awkward” requests for Haines Borough letters to support outside funding for local organizations, Mayor Stephanie Scott said she would now seek assembly approval before responding to those inquiries.
Scott at an assembly meeting last month said the borough supported state funding for American Legion, Chilkat Valley Preschool, Haines Senior Center and Takshanuk Watershed Council projects to meet a late-February deadline.
“For each one of the requests, I was asked or the manager was asked to write a letter of support,” she said. “I was very uncomfortable in this position. There wasn’t time for the assembly to weigh in on these requests, and I did write letters of support for every request that came to me.”
Scott said she doesn’t want to evaluate which projects are most worthy of state money without input from assembly members.
She said the process will be changed next year so the assembly has time to consider the requests.
“We will do our best to alert the community to the opportunity for making these requests to the Legislature, and those requests will then come through the borough assembly for approval,” she said.