The Haines Borough Assembly on Tuesday approved the hire of Carlos Jimenez as public facilities director, a $75,000-per-year position that oversees capital projects and the municipality’s public works and water and sewer departments.
Jimenez topped three other applicants for the position, including Jeremy Stephens, a state Department of Transportation project engineer, and John Huestis, a Craig-based engineer who oversaw a $40 million budget and 160 employees as director of public works in Lewis County, Wash.
Chad Clark, a project manager and former contractor, also applied.
Borough manager Mark Earnest said his decision to hire Jimenez incorporated interview responses as well as comments from local contractors, public works and utility crews, consultants, school personnel and others, including outgoing facilities director Brian Lemcke.
Earnest said the job was “a particularly high profile position that requires significant coordination and interaction with the public, elected and appointed officials, borough administration” and others.
“My decision was based on the totality of the experience and interview responses,” Earnest said in an e-mail.
Jimenez worked as a superintendent for North Pacific Erectors since 2011 and worked as a construction foreman for Dawson Construction from 2008 to 2011. He has previously worked for Henry Construction of Haines and for North Pacific Erectors.
Borough clerk Julie Cozzi said the position was advertised statewide on the Workplace Alaska website, through an Alaska Municipal League job notification service and on the Haines Borough website.
It also was posted around town and advertised in the Chilkat Valley News. Cozzi said the advertising regimen for borough jobs has been the same for most of her 10 years here. The borough harbormaster position has drawn nearly 12 applications in recent years.
“We didn’t get that many (applications) for deputy clerk. It’s sometimes how these jobs hit, the timing,” Cozzi said.
Assembly member Debra Schnabel said this week that although Jimenez “didn’t appear to be the most credentialed candidate on paper,” he has a wide range of construction experience and support from contractors and others around town.
“We appreciated the style and approach to the job that Brian Lemcke contributed, and Carlos will do likewise,” Schnabel said.