The assembly voted 5-1 on July 18 to elevate the Haines Borough chief of police position to a borough officer. That would put the chief directly under the supervision of the assembly instead of the borough manager.

At least one assembly member has criticized the move as leading to politicization of the police department.

 The chief of police was formerly named among borough officers from 2004 to 2013, but code changed in May 2013 to place the chief under the manager’s supervision. According to Fullerton, the status was changed in code, but never in charter.

Assembly member Stephanie Scott, who was Mayor in 2013 at the time of code change, opposed the motion. “The code changed when Chief Lowe was an officer of the borough,” she said. “That caused a great deal of legal problems at the time, that’s why we changed it.”

Former police chief Gary Lowe left the department in a payout deal with the borough after employee complaints alleged that Lowe had a long history of verbal abuse, bullying, and sexual innuendos to dispatchers.

Jerry Lapp, an assembly member at the time of the police chief upheaval, said he remembers the code change took place after Lowe’s public hearings to resolve the issue.

“The assembly spent a long time with public hearings that was very painful to the public and the assembly,” Lapp said. “We sat through public hearings and people were staying stuff that could have got the borough in legal issues.”

On Thursday, assembly member Heather Lende proposed the change with the intent to have more open dialogue with the police chief, currently Heath Scott. She said she wants the same opportunity to seek input and advice from the chief as the assembly has from the other officers (with the exception of the attorney), who are usually at assembly meetings.

Currently, chief Scott is represented at assembly meetings by Debra Schnabel, though he is not prevented from attending meetings and responding to assembly questions.

“Public safety is the biggest department, the chief is our highest paid employee, and he/she and the officers are a big part of what the public sees of the borough. He/she should be on the leadership team with the assembly and the other officers,” Lende wrote to the CVN.

Assembly member Tom Morphet agreed. He suggested the assembly lead negotiations with Scott, whose three-year contract with the borough was up for negotiation on July 20.

Originally, borough staff thought the Chief’s contract expired on July 20, but the exact terms of the document read that Scott will serve “for a term not less than three years and an indefinite period after that, commencing July 20, 2016.” Schnabel is currently negotiating pay and benefits with Scott, though she said a new contract won’t be finalized until the issue of whether or not he’s an officer of the borough is resolved.

‘The contract has to be specific to whom he is responsible,” Schnabel said.

Earlier this month, Scott told the borough’s public safety commission he’s agreeable to a new five-year contract, though he’s being considered for chief of police positions at University of Alaska Anchorage and in Wrangell.

“I think it would probably be prudent that we would extend- for now- the chief’s current terms and that the new contract would be negotiated by the assembly,” Morphet said.

The assembly appoints borough officers and the manager negotiates contracts.Haines Borough Charter says that officers of the borough “shall include” the manager, clerk, attorney and chief fiscal officer.  Borough clerk Alekka Fullerton said it’s unclear if that language is intended to be an exhaustive list or the minimum list of required officers. Borough code defines the same borough officers, and includes assembly members and the Mayor as elected officials.

Assembly member Sean Maidy was skeptical of the motion, but voted in favor of it.

“I think this is going to make things a lot more confusing. (The police) is the largest, most powerful department of the borough but it’s still a department of the borough, which is typically handled by the manager, who serves at the leisure of the assembly. I just don’t see how this is beneficial.”

Maidy said he intends to propose reconsideration of the motion at the next assembly meeting Aug. 1 at 6:30 p.m. “I voted in favor of the motion because I thought it was something that we used to do to honor the police chief that we stopped doing,” Maidy said. “I disagree with the assembly being in charge of hiring, firing, and overall managing the police. The manager handling the police is a buffer so we no long politicize police. By allowing the assembly manager the police what that would do is open up the door to corruption because then assembly members can be lobbied.”