The hunt is on for a whole crop of high-level management positions in different city departments.
The City and Borough of Wrangell is in the early stages of finding replacements for the heads of the Nolan Center, Wrangell Municipal Light and Power and Public Works, plus the city’s top accountant and a newly-created maintenance lead position.
The tidal wave of turnover started on April 16, when WMLP superintendent Clay Hammer stepped down in order to head projects for Southeast Alaska Power Agency. City manager Lisa Von Bargen reported the search for his replacement may have to go back out for a second round. In the meantime, former superintendent Jim Nelson has stepped in to manage the department temporarily.
Longtime director at the Nolan Center, Terri Henson retired from the job on April 30. Von Bargen said she has the first round of interviews lined up today and tomorrow to fill that vacancy.
Finance director Lee Burgess is meanwhile in a transitional period, still working remotely after his family relocated to Boise, Idaho, earlier this month. Burgess started at the post in early 2014, replacing Jeff Jabusch after he took the city manager position. Von Bargen said she is putting together a schedule for interviews with applicants to replace him, likely to happen in the next week or two.
The city will be looking for a new director of Public Works as well, after the Assembly earlier this month approved creation of a Capital Facilities Department. Current Public Works director Amber Al-Haddad will be transitioning over to that department, which will focus on building upkeep and project management.
“We are working on the job descriptions right now,” said Von Bargen. Assembly members will need to approve the new position expectations and pay scales, likely taking it up at its meeting scheduled for next month.
Under the new restructuring, Public Works will retain water, waste management, the city motorpool and other utilities. With the division of roles, Von Bargen said the reformed department’s next head will need to have experience with public utilities management. Because the majority of staff within the department are part of a collective bargaining unit, a director with union experience would also be helpful.
“I’m going to be looking for a strong leader. Someone who’s not afraid to dig in and get things done,” Von Bargen said.
Advertisements for the post will likely be run through various strategic job sites and organizations like the Alaska Municipal League and International City/County Management Association.
On the Capital Facilities side of things, Al-Haddad’s primary focus will be on grants and project support, and facilities maintenance. Prior to the restructuring, individual departments handled their own maintenance priorities. Von Bargen explained that the approach had little direction or oversight, with many routine and preventative projects not being accomplished with regularity.
“Our infrastructure is in very bad shape. We have a lot of catch-up to do,” she said.
A more concentrated approach to upkeep will be focused on getting the most use from the borough’s aging facilities, of particular importance in light of reduced funding sources from the state to be relied upon for repairs or replacement. These can be quite expensive: Major facilities maintenance projects include Shoemaker Bay Harbor, replacement of which saw low bids coming in at just under $9 million. Other high-price projects include replacing the water treatment plant – estimated at just over $9 million – and rehabilitating the Public Safety Building’s leaky roof and siding – at $550,000.
Under the restructuring, maintenance personnel for all facilities will be brought under one roof, with a maintenance lead position created for oversight. The new department will make use of more robust monitoring routines to make sure work is being done, while software to request and track regular work orders will be adopted.
Von Bargen intends to make this information available, eventually in the form of a “report card to the public” outlining what is being done on a quarterly or monthly basis “We owe it to the taxpayers of this community that this growth in government is worth it,” she said.
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