Borough manager Annette Kreitzer worked her last day on Aug. 12. Her temporary replacement, Elke Doom, arrives in town this week and borough finance director Jila Stuart is acting as interim manager in the few days between when one leaves and the other starts.
Kreitzer, who has been with the borough since October of 2021, had a strained relationship with the current borough assembly, which ultimately led to her resigning early this year instead of working through September when her contract was set to expire.
On her last day, a large stack of baked goods and a warm goodbye message sat on the table outside of her office as she worked through a stack of folders and documentation on her desk to pass off to the next manager. She sat down to talk about her reasons for leaving the borough.
This conversation has been edited for clarity and brevity.
McChesney: So, it’s your last day. There’s still stuff everywhere, are these all things you’re going to finish today?
Kreitzer: I’m a paper person, and I hate to admit that, but many times it’s easier to find a paper – it could be something that I have handwritten notes on. And so for that reason, I tend to be a paper hog. Most of that stuff [Elke Doom] should be able to find electronically. But it’s the handwritten notes that I didn’t scan. Didn’t bother to go scan again and add it to a folder and whatnot.”
I’ve noticed that you’re very detail-oriented. How many times have you started something and realized that you had to rework the whole process because code was outdated or something wasn’t set up the way it needed to be?
Something that I had to accept when I came here, was accepting that I can’t change this thing. You have to keep adding it to the list, you know. You know, you have employee turnover, and then that goes away, you know, it gets put on the back burner, which is why this situation is bad for the borough. People will say, ‘no one’s irreplaceable, and I get that. But, you know, the mayor looks at this like, ‘oh, gee, you know, this happens all over Alaska.’ It doesn’t make it a good thing. It doesn’t, and it’s concerning.
Are you talking about the high turnover rate in general or in your position as borough manager?
Yeah, I’m like the 23rd, if you include the interims – which you should because someone had to act – since 2002.
What is the impact of you coming in for 18 months and then leaving many things left undone.
I think it sets the borough back a year at least. I think it’s very disruptive for employees and really disruptive for the community, whether they realize it or not. You know, this wrangling over Lutak Dock, you know, and I will say this too, I think that I have nothing but respect for someone who will make it their job to come in and be an interim manager. That’s got to be a really difficult thing to do, to step into other people’s problems and, you know, then try to manage whatever it is that you walk into.
But I believe the assembly – in their hesitation, not hesitation, in their urgency to get me out of the seat – have paid through the nose for an interim manager and, you know, paying for room and board, essentially, and providing a vehicle. That is going to ripple through all the discussions about all the other salaries for borough employees, and that’s what makes me upset about it, is that they don’t seem to understand that. Their desire to have me out of the seat is so great that they would make that kind of a deal.
As you reflect on your last 18 months, what are some of your key takeaways about how borough administration works here, and what could be improved, aside from finding ways to retain people?
It’s hard because the staff means so much to me and I’ve spent a lot of time trying to make this a place where people really want to come to work and we were succeeding at that.
But when employees see the level of disrespect that has been leveled at me, they feel it. They tell me, I’m not just going around asking people. I mean, they tell me how much it bothers them. And so for me, you know, I think [it has been about] making it a good place to work, caring for the employees.
So doing that, I think, you know, we’re $14.5 million more toward a public safety building than the borough was before I got here. We are taking care of the infrastructure. You know, I don’t think people really understand what’s underneath their feet here. People want parks and they want trails and they want that, and I do, too, but it just is scary the level of maintenance that has to be done here and needs to be done, and just trying to take advantage of every funding opportunity to maximize that funding.
What were your priorities when you first came here?
I came here to help. My specific priority was, I had seen how many times they had turned over managers and I was like ‘oh come on,’ you know? ‘Maybe I can help in that regard and bring some stability. That’s what I’ve always said and I feel like I did.
What happened? Why did that relationship with the assembly sour the way that it did?
I think that relationship was sour before the election – between those who decided to run for assembly. I didn’t go to any of the candidate functions because I never want anybody questioning why I’m there, that I’m trying to influence something or whatever. So I didn’t go and I didn’t listen, feeling that the new members of the assembly would make their priorities clear. I mean, okay, you’ve been elected, so now set your priorities. And they didn’t, and then they criticized me for continuing to do what I’ve been doing since I got here under the previous assembly. So until you have a different direction, you continue to do your work. And so that’s what I’ve done.
Did you anticipate that the relationship was going to be contentious? Did you anticipate that it was going to get as bad as it did?
I was hoping it would be better, you know. It’s always a possibility.
What was the point where you felt that the level of disrespect had gotten out of hand?
[Assembly member] Natalie Dawson calling me a liar.
Had that ever happened to you before?
Nope.
What was the point that you realized you weren’t going to be able to bring the stability to this role that you thought you were going to?
Oh, because I’m an optimist, I think I really – when they refused to give me the raise. That’s a slap in the face. You know, what $4,000-$6,000 or something like that. They could have bought themselves more time and they chose not to. And that’s what’s bothersome is that they could have bought more time, and they would have not had to pay through the nose to get Elke Doom here. They could have given themselves a little bit more time and maybe interviewed a few more candidates, you know.
I’ve heard staff and elected officials talk about receiving a lot of abuse from the public as well.
You know, and people say, ‘well, that’s Haines.’ And I say, ‘well, that’s a crutch, you know, for bad behavior.’ And these are people who, in my experience, the ones that I’ve seen doing this and saying these things are people who were not children of social media. They’ve been doing this a long time, and it’s time for it to stop. Because, you know, from my experience, it is totally acceptable to argue about ideas. It is not acceptable to take someone on personally and make it about the person instead of the idea. That’s just not acceptable, and that happens too often here that people apparently cannot separate out some people, not all people, but some people, cannot separate out disagreeing with someone, with being disagreeable to someone, and it’s bad behavior.
I took the step to tell the public facilities director to lock the door to his office and to put a sign that says ‘by appointment only.’
It’s the hubris. People who have never done these jobs believe they know how to do it better.
Do you and your husband plan on staying here?
Yeah, at least a year. We have our cabin and then we have our property here.
Correction: This story has been updated to reflect that borough manager Annette Kreitzer’s last day was Monday, August 12.