The Haines Borough Assembly Tuesday accepted the manager’s recommendation to hire Darsie Culbeck as the new community and economic development director.
The assembly voted 4-1 to approve manager David Sosa’s recommendation. Assembly member George Campbell was opposed.
Sosa said he would be meeting with Culbeck Thursday to discuss whether Culbeck will accept the job.
The job’s starting annual salary is $62,000, but will cost the borough more than $96,000 with benefits including health insurance and payments into the Public Employees’ Retirement System (PERS).
The position’s job description includes supervising the pool, tourism and community youth development departments. Other elements are “community and business outreach,” “special projects coordination and management,” “grant writing and administration,” “state and federal representation, advocacy and communication,” and “public relations.”
The borough received four applications for the position, though one was late. Of the three on-time applicants, one dropped out after taking another job. The hiring committee interviewed Culbeck and candidate Earl Rinio of Sparta, Tenn. The committee recommended Culbeck, 4-1.
Campbell said he was “uncomfortable” with creating another director-level position that would manage several other department heads, including the pool manager and tourism director.
“We don’t need a director’s position, especially right now with all the other issues that we are facing financially. I believe that this position can be done at a lower level. I am not comfortable hiring the position at this level, so I would like to see us go a different direction,” Campbell said.
Campbell also asked Sosa if he was prepared to deal with complaints of a conflict of interest due to Culbeck’s summer job with Constantine Metal Resources and membership with Takshanuk Watershed Council.
Culbeck has worked several summers as camp manager for Constantine. He also serves on the watershed council’s board.
“I think any applicant comes to you with a background,” Sosa said. “From that background, they have experiences, and in a community of this size, anyone who interacts with anybody will potentially have a conflict of interest.” said.
“I’m not concerned about conflicts of interest,” Sosa said.
Residents Anne Boyce and Tom Morphet spoke against creation of the position, citing the continuous expansion of the borough’s workforce.
Boyce she was having a particularly hard time stomaching Culbeck’s hire because of the borough’s constant insistence that it is facing federal and state revenue shortfalls. “You really need to think very hard about what is going on with this constantly inflating, expanding administrative cost to the borough. There are other functions of the borough that are getting cut,” Boyce said.
Of the hiring committee composed of Sosa, assembly member Diana Lapham, chief fiscal officer Jila Stuart and residents Fred Gray and Doug Olerud, Lapham cast the sole vote against Culbeck’s hire. On Tuesday, Lapham voted to accept Sosa’s recommendation.
“I was concerned about the entire job description and (Culbeck’s) ability to handle it,” Lapham said.
In a memo recommending Culbeck for the job, Sosa described the committee’s sentiment. “The committee expressed concern with his specific level of experience and economic development and identified that there would be a need from the manager for focused tasking and follow-up to ensure task accomplishment while (Culbeck) grows into his position,” Sosa said.
After speaking with Sosa on the matter, Lapham said she was confident in Sosa’s recommendation to hire Culbeck. “He’s going to be watching quite closely,” she said.
“I don’t have a crystal ball. None of us have a crystal ball. Now is the time when we need this position, out of any time ever,” Lapham said.
Assembly member Dave Berry said he has received feedback from the public on the creation of the community and economic development director position. “I’ve received a bunch of phone calls, but a lot of them I don’t give a lot of weight to because they call and complain about everything we do as a community.”
“Let’s give it a chance to work,” Berry added. “No matter what we do – and this is Haines – we’re going to offend somebody, so we have to do what we can for most of the people in this borough.”
Assembly member Jerry Lapp, a longtime champion of economic development opportunities, supported the hire. “I trust the manager’s decision on this 100 percent,” he said.
Assembly member Debra Schnabel said in an interview Wednesday she thought Sosa had all the information to make the decision and wanted to support his recommendation.
The position has a one-year probationary period.
Mayor Stephanie Scott said creating the position and hiring Culbeck is a “reasonable risk.” “Haines cannot continue to do what it has done in the past. We have to take some risks,” she said.
Scott also pointed to Sosa’s judgment and the one-year probation period as insurance policies if the hire goes bad. “I think that we have a man in our leadership position who can take care of things if things go funny,” she said.
Sosa said the new position won’t raise personnel costs because of the elimination of the executive assistant to the manager position and of spending for a Washington, D.C., lobbyist.
Sosa said the job will require Culbeck to spend a lot of time travelling.
While working as executive assistant to the borough manager in January, Culbeck submitted a proposal to the borough’s personnel committee asking for a change in job title and responsibilities, including an increased supervisory role over the pool and parks and recreation departments.
Culbeck worked as executive assistant to the manager from 2012 to 2014 and as a special projects consultant for the borough from 2011 to 2012. Culbeck co-founded Alaska Mountain Guides and worked for the company from 1992 to 2008.