The Haines Borough will be looking for a new clerk soon after the assembly fired Kristine Kennedy last week.
Interim borough manager Elke Doom told members of the assembly’s personnel committee on Tuesday that one person has expressed interest in being the interim clerk, while another has said they’d like to apply for the permanent position.
Longtime Haines resident Burl Sheldon confirmed in an email that he is the person who offered to step in to help temporarily because the borough clerk’s position is “extremely important and the sudden vacancy means there is day-to-day work – important work – that doesn’t get done. Haines Borough doesn’t need more of that.”
The borough has not yet posted the job and part of the reason for that is that former clerk Alekka Fullerton is still on contract and could help with the transition, Doom said.
Fullerton is supposed to head into the borough office on Monday and go through Kennedy’s desk to get a handle on what needs to be done.
“Now, she’s not interested, she’s been very clear, she’s not interested in coming back as a permanent clerk. I don’t know what her hours are. We’ll sit down on Monday and we’ll talk about it,” Doom said. “Once I have clarity on what she’s able to assist us with, under her current contact, then I’ll have the clear direction as to – do I at that point go ahead and put out the ad for the clerk?”
Doom told committee members that she thinks they’ll have Fullerton “for awhile,” and that will be helpful.
Deputy clerk Kiersten Long has been elevated to interim clerk for now, but that is temporary as Long is set to go on maternity leave soon.
“So, she’s going to be out for a bit,” Doom said. “We have hired a part-time, six-month temporary employee. We want to get this person trained up at the front desk and just understand how to do everything, from posting to election stuff. Right now she’s taking care of ballots, so that’s working out well.”
In other hiring news, Doom said staff have finished proofreading the job description for a new planner and are ready to post it. She said the planning commission went through the job description and now that staff have finished work on it, the open position has morphed into a lands manager job.
Long told the committee that the former planner position was not a department head. The job that will be open soon is for a department head that oversees the lands department and the assessment department.
Additionally, Doom said a number of people have applied for the open police chief position.
“I’m looking for a police chief or a former police chief to be part of the interview team,” she said. “We are going to do our absolute best to get our positions filled and just keep the borough going.”
Doom said it’s rare to have so many positions open at once.
“But between all of the help we have … we’re doing real well for a small staff,” she said.