Schnabel doesn’t make the cut
Four Haines Borough manager candidates have advanced to the preliminary interview round after the Haines Borough Assembly met Monday in executive session to pare down a list of 12 applicants still under consideration. Former borough manager Debra Schnabel, who was fired without cause in May, applied for the position, but was rejected for an interview.
Applicants receiving interviews include: borough clerk and interim manager Alekka Fullerton; director of veteran services for Ontario County, New York Jeremy Marshall; Fairbanks resident Robert Rouse, a contractor for the Department of Defense, specializing in quality control and construction inspection; and Tennessee resident and real estate investor George Zoukee, who has a background in public sector finance management.
Zoukee said he came across the borough manager advertisement online. He’d been looking for this type of position in a place he wanted to live. In his application, Zoukee wrote he hopes to make at least a 10-year commitment to the next job he takes.
“I’ve been in the public sector for quite a while, and I’ve been looking for something like what Haines has to offer,” Zoukee told the CVN on Monday. He said he likes small towns and fell in love with Haines’ beauty on a visit roughly 20 years ago.
Marshall also listed Alaska’s beauty as one of the draws. He said he’s never been to Haines but has traveled to many other communities from Anchorage to Kotzebue to Juneau.
Marshall said he was looking for municipal management jobs in Alaska when he came across the Haines position. He’s worked for various levels of government but said he likes working for local government best.
“What I like about it is you can put your ideas into motion a lot better and really see the results firsthand, whereas on the federal or state level, you don’t see the result,” he said.
Rouse, who has a background in engineering and construction, said he was looking for a way to put his skillset to use helping a larger group of people.
“The position interested me because you’re able to help so many different entities bring in revenue, and in the aftermath of the landslide, rebuild,” he said.
Rouse said he’s lived all over the world, including 32 different states, and enjoys learning from new experiences. He said his motto is going in “with your mouth quiet, your ears and eyes open, and your heart ready to accept more.”
Like the other out-of-town applicants, he described falling in love with Haines’ beauty the one time he visited.
In past interviews, Fullerton, the only local candidate to advance to the interview round, said she applied out of a sense of duty to the staff she currently oversees in her interim position. A number have had to deal with multiple new bosses in recent years and lobbied her to apply, she said.
The list of those rejected also includes former Seward city manager Scott Meszaros, who was terminated after the most recent city council election and has 20 years of experience serving in local government.
In an interview before her rejection, Schnabel had said she hoped to receive an interview and viewed it as a chance to discuss how the assembly views the manager’s role. Schnabel was fired in a tie vote broken by then-Mayor Jan Hill, after Schnabel refused to resign at the request of assembly member Paul Rogers during a private meeting in her office.
“It’s interesting that the assembly chose not to interview qualified candidates,” Schnabel said in an interview Tuesday.
Mayor Douglas Olerud said he couldn’t comment on the assembly’s decision to advance certain candidates and not others.
Others rejected include: Haines Borough school board member Brian Clay; new Haines resident Michael York; facilities manager for the Grand Rapids Children’s Museum Moe Zamarron; Bristol Bay Area Health Corporation controller Alyson Kelly; general manager for transportation operator Keolis, Abul Hassan; and Wasilla-based architect Brian McMillen.
Olerud said the assembly plans to interview the four remaining candidates via Zoom on Monday or Tuesday.
The borough originally received 31 applications.