On Tuesday, the Haines Borough Assembly met to discuss the merits of eliminating or consolidating vacating staff positions in response to statewide budget cuts, but ultimately disagreed on what- if any- positions should be removed.

This month, the Haines Borough staff experienced an unexpected shake up when several employee resignations came at once. Borough planner Holly Smith served her last day on Aug. 2 after resigning in May; public facilities director Brad Ryan accepted a manager position in Skagway beginning Sept. 1, also making vacant Ryan’s wife’s position as education coordinator at the library; executive assistant to the manager Krista Kielsmeier announced she’d be leaving at the end of August to enroll in a master’s degree program in Ireland.

Police chief Heath Scott is due to receive an offer to head Wrangell’s police department later this week after their hiring team settles on salary, according to their borough clerk Kim Lane. Scott visited Wrangell July 19 for an in-person interview. He is currently in contract negotiations with Schnabel.

Assembly member Heather Lende suggested the meeting earlier this month.

“My concern is strictly with the budget and the half-million dollars in debt that we’re going to go into each year, or maybe more, for the next two,” Lende said Tuesday. “I really would not want to reduce the staff and have anybody lose a job, so that’s why the idea of attrition is every attractive to me as a way to save money, so if somebody goes, we look at efficiencies and see what we can do.”

Assembly member Tom Morphet advocated for cutting the public facilities director position he said was created for a one-time need to manage many projects in 2008.

“That need is over,” Morphet said, despite a list Schnabel circulated at Tuesday’s meeting of more than 20 projects Ryan currently oversees. “If we cannot eliminate that position, we can’t cut any position,” Morphet said. “People like to say ‘Oh governments are always adding and they never cut.’ Particularly the facilities director position is an opportunity for us to prove those folks wrong that we can in fact trim where trims are appropriate and necessary.”

Schnabel told the assembly she doesn’t believe the borough can function without a public facilities director.

She said she is examining other efficiencies, such as automating positions in the finance department, consolidating the vacant education coordinator position hiring at the Haines Shelton Museum and the library, and reducing tourism regulations she called a “big energy suck on the staff.”

Assembly members Sean Maidy and Stephanie Scott backed Schnabel’s discretion in managing borough staff.

Assembly member Brenda Josephson was supportive of a discussion on efficiencies after October, when at least two new assembly members will begin their terms.

“I certainly would like to see the assembly to really begin having a workshop right away to come up with a plan of action to look at efficiencies,” Josephson said.

The borough is also currently hiring for a seasonal parks/general laborer position and a maintenance worker, both listed on the borough website.

Borough manager Debra Schnabel said this week that staff will interview two candidates for the planning position. One candidate applied for the public facilites position, and an internal candidate, tourism director Carolann Wooton, has applied for the executive assistant to the manager position, that’s since been renamed “contracts and grants administrator.”

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