The Haines Borough Assembly is picking up the pace of the manager hiring process. Over the course of two committee of the whole meetings held on Monday and Tuesday, assembly members revised manager advertisement language in preparation for posting the position in January.
At the meetings, facilitated by consultant Lenise Henderson-Fontenot, the assembly adjusted language in the 2017 advertisement to better reflect the borough manager job description.
“Lenise did an exceptional job of showing us how what we’ve done in the past has maybe not resulted in the best manager hiring process. We’ve had kind of a disconnect between the job description and what we’ve posted for hire,” Personnel Committee chair Paul Rogers said.
Rogers said Henderson-Fontenot drew the assembly’s attention to how everything from language to layout to pictures in the advertisement has the potential to impact the kind of candidates the borough attracts.
“Even the pictures help draw people in. (The 2017 advertisement) included pictures of a mountain and river rafters. Lenise said, ‘This looks like a great advertisement for a tourism director.’ When she made the statement, we went, ‘Oh my goodness,’” Rogers said.
He said assembly members worked with Henderson-Fontenot to come up with potential alternatives. “One of the ones I suggested, which she thought was a good idea, is a picture of the (Emergency Operations Center) at work, with a bit of a description. It could attract somebody interested in detail, someone looking to solve problems,” Rogers said.
The advertisement is in pretty good shape coming out of the two meetings, according to Rogers. He said he and assembly member Cheryl Stickler have been tasked with editing the document to make sure it’s error-free and properly formatted in time for the Personnel Committee to review at a meeting on Dec. 28. On Dec. 29, the assembly will hold another committee of the whole meeting to review the language and begin selecting photos.
On Jan. 5, the assembly plans to finalize the advertisement and a list of places to post it, in preparation for the next regular assembly meeting on Jan. 12.
Haines has been without a permanent manager since May when the assembly at the time abruptly fired then-manager Debra Schnabel. Borough clerk Alekka Fullerton has been filling in as interim since then.