Villarma reflects on first year as borough manager

There's not much on the walls of Mason Villarma's borough manger office.

There is a minimalist whiteboard (purchased with his own money, he noted), a couple vintage maps of downtown, and some photos of fishing boats Villarma trolled on growing up. But one decoration stands out: a blown-up black and white image of an older man with a smile so infectious that even if Villarma's office's walls were decorated like Paris' Louvre, the image of the elder gentleman would stand out.

"Who's that," I asked, pointing to the photo.

"That's my grandfather," he said.

In the photo, the older man wears a gray wool suit complete with a pinned-on flower and a bandana-patterned tie. His name was Felix Villarma. A second-generation citizen of Wrangell, he grew up in a shack down by the Inner Harbor.

Mason grew up visiting Felix every summer as a kid. He fished on his grandfather's boat and started tendering and crabbing when he turned 10. This relationship with his grandfather is in part what drew him to Wrangell when he accepted the borough finance manager job in 2021.

But now, two generations removed from those humble upbringings on the beach, Felix's grandson is entering his second year as borough manager. On Oct. 30, Mason Felix Villarma sat down with the Sentinel to reflect on a year christened by tragedy, fueled by optimism and marked by a promising start for Wrangell's young borough manager.

When manager Jeff Good handed in his resignation last October, Villarma was next up. He assumed the interim position soon after and was quickly thrust into the onboarding process.

Villarma's feet were hardly wet when the Nov. 20, 2023, landslide killed six members of the community. Over the course of a harrowing night, his new job meant he was now heading Wrangell's emergency disaster relief team.

"It was very distressing," he said. "I was panicking, but I couldn't display that. I had to evoke a sense of calm."

And that's what he did - that's what he had to do - for those first few months: tackling problems as they arrived. Villarma is still feeling the effects of those rapid-fire first few months. He hasn't even fully moved into his new office yet. (His vinyl records collection - comprised mainly of Creedence Clearwater Revival and The Eagles - remains in storage.) Finally, as winter turned to spring, he was able to start being proactive after spending months in a reactive role.

In the past nine months, Villarma made seven hires in borough leadership positions. Mike Howell joined the capital facilities team as senior project manager. Jordan Buness and Gene Meek took over the fire and police departments. At just 25 years old, Jackson Pool took over the borough's finances and Robbie Marshall (another 20-something) was hired as controller. Jeanie Arnold became the Nolan Center's director of operations and Dwight Yancey stepped in to serve as the borough's interim electrical superintendent.

"That team," Villarma said, "is my proudest accomplishment."

Managing a team of 13 department directors in addition to coaching high school cross country and continuing to work as finance director for several months (on top of the borough manager job) ensures there's always a lot on Villarma's desk. A year into the job, he seems to have found a solution.

Once a week, Villarma meets with his department heads one-on-one. He has a notebook with each of their names scrawled across the cover (color-coded, of course). After the meeting he writes down their expectations for him that week, as well as the expectations he set for each director. He then lists his daily tasks ranked by priority, plugs them into an artificial intelligence software that creates a calendar based on the day's most important tasks. And then he gets to work, some days leaving the office at midnight.

And yes, it seems grueling, but Villarma loves it. In the past nine months, the borough secured over $50 million in federal and state funding, a good deal in part due to Villarma's - and Wrangell's - relationship with Alaska U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who attended middle school in Wrangell.

He could take the credit for the record numbers. He could point to this year's success and compare it to the year prior - or the 10 years before that. But he doesn't. For Villarma, all praise should go to the team at City Hall and the support of Wrangell's advocates at the state and federal level.

"You don't get the money without the team," he said. "I think the ship can weather a lot of storms when you have a really tight team."

But the bureaucratic side of City Hall is only half the battle to enacting change. The other half is the assembly. And while Villarma can hire any department director he sees fit, there is nothing he can do about who sits on the borough assembly. In fact, it's the other way around. Villarma answers to them.

"My relationship with the assembly? It's perfect," he said. "They've been so supportive and they're willing to put in even more work to understand issues and brainstorm different solutions."

This positive relationship between the borough manager and the assembly has been a critical factor in Wrangell's recent success. Villarma believes such a relationship is rare, citing a more toxic dynamic in the past.

"Sometimes the public puts pressure on the assembly, the assembly puts too much pressure on the manager, and then the manager either quits or gets fired. And then, members of the assembly start to burn out," he said.

For Villarma, preventing that "vicious cycle" is productive for everyone.

"I've learned to create realistic expectations," he said. "We're not looking for home runs. We just need to hit some singles."

Conveniently for Villarma, next up to the plate are a series of high-batting average projects. The borough's on-deck list includes (but is not limited to) sidewalk replacements, a trap and skeet range project, moving the barge ramp and freight yard to the former mill property at 6-Mile, and even a five-year strategic plan.

On the personal side of things, he wants the next year to be marked by what was initially appealing about Wrangell, the same things that his grandfather taught him to enjoy.

"I want to find a bit more balance," he said. "Get back to the roots here and enjoy the fishing and hunting and going upriver. That's why I live here."