Residents Debra Schnabel and Brad Ryan made the shortlist for borough manager applicants that the borough assembly will interview.
Assembly members at a March 9 committee of the whole meeting carved the list down from 10 to four candidates. Gene Green and Robert Jordan also made the cut, although Green withdrew his application Monday morning.
Ryan holds the current interim borough manager position. He previously worked as a research biologist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Ryan has a doctorate in environmental science and resources.
Schnabel has held multiple positions in town. She serves as the executive director of the Haines Chamber of Commerce, assistant to the borough manager, and director of KHNS. She has a master’s in public administration.
Jordan worked as an assistant city manager in Unalaska and a borough manager of the Bristol Bay Borough. He has a master’s in public administration.
Each of the finalist candidates except Schnabel met a list of criteria created by Brimeyer Fursman, a recruiting firm that led the manager hiring process last year.
The criteria stipulated “each candidate have at least five years of increasingly responsible management experience in an executive position” and a “successful record of increasingly responsibility and accomplishment in municipal or government administration.”
Haines Borough deputy clerk Alekka Fullerton said she and clerk Julie Cozzi determined Schnabel didn’t meet the requirement for five years of increasingly responsible management experience in an executive position.
Fullerton said she and Cozzi followed the instructions of the assembly as they filtered the applicants, based on that criteria.
“This was an exercise which was marginally helpful, I believe,” Fullerton said. “We had to say some people were qualified because of what was on our criteria that we may not have wanted to.”
Bill Seward, who reapplied for the job he was fired from in December, passed muster.
Nothing about the clerk’s screening process was official and Cozzi and Fullerton both said they didn’t make subjective judgment calls on applicants.
“We did not at any point see our role in deciding whether someone was qualified or not,” Cozzi said.
Assembly member Heather Lende wanted to interview only Schnabel and Ryan, and later said Green was the best of the outside candidates.
“I think we have two strong candidates right there and as far as I’m concerned we wouldn’t need to go any further,” Lende said.
The assembly unanimously approved Schnabel, Ryan and Green and later voted 4-2 to add Jordan to the list of applicants, with Lende and assembly member Ron Jackson voting against the motion.
Jackson said the approved applicants were the three that stood out the most to him.
The assembly hopes to start the initial interview process in the coming days.