We are reminded constantly this time of year to shop locally. The Haines Borough Assembly should do the same. We have two talented, local candidates for borough manager, Debra Schnabel and Brad Ryan. Both are intelligent and well-educated, have worked with government agencies, have written and administered significant grants, have administered staff, and have worked in the private, public, and nonprofit sectors. Are they perfect? No. Get over it – neither are any of us. We don’t need to fly them in for interviews. We don’t need to pay their moving expenses. They are committed to living in our community. They are well-versed on local issues, and we won’t have blown tens of thousands of dollars on a headhunter who might not know Haines, Alaska, from Haines City, Fla. Let’s give one of them a shot at the job. If it works out, great, we will have saved a lot of time and money and we’ll have a “known quantity” on the job who isn’t looking to buff up a resume so they can leave town after a year or two to climb up the professional ladder. If it doesn’t work out, we will be no worse off six months from now. We’ve brought in folks from Outside the last five or six times – over about the same number of years. Maybe we should be more willing to trust people we know over people we don’t. It’s time to shop locally for a borough manager.
Gershon Cohen