SITKA, ALASKA
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Tuesday night’s agenda was a short one, with only five items before the Assembly. One of those – a plan to combine the Building and Planning departments – was withdrawn by Dinley.
“Several Assembly members have asked for a municipal summit to be held with the Assembly, boards and commissions, and staff, to review the current CBS organization and discuss possible ways to improve the public process which may include organizational changes which may not be addressed at this time,” Dinley said. “I think it’d be beneficial to do it one time.”
The Assembly also postponed a request to reauthorize a Controller position and add a half-time human resources clerk and a half-time assistant clerk job to the city payroll.
Dinley said he wanted to add the controller before the eventual retirement of finance director Dave Wolff.
“At the present time the city does not have a qualified number 2 person in training,” he said, “which is what the controller position would be.”
Dinley said right now the finance director works over time on a regular basis to comply with audit reports and other duties.
The part-time position in human resources would help backup that department. Dinley said Human Resources Director Mark Danielson is currently on vacation, and without a backup, his office is effectively closed until he returns.
The assistant clerk position, Dinley says, would help the workload in Municipal Clerk Colleen Ingman’s office.
“We need to do programs that she can’t get to,” he said. “She’s in the same situation as HR. Something doesn’t get done in the 40 hours that she and (Deputy Clerk) Sara (Peterson) are putting in, plus coming to these evening meetings. I’m very comfortable asking you. I haven’t asked for positions the first two budget years.”
Dinley might have been comfortable asking, but the Assembly wasn’t comfortable granting. At least not yet.
“I don’t think this is how you do a budget,” Assembly member Cheryl Westover said. “I don’t think we brag about how we balanced a budget and then come back and ask for three positions, when there’s still a lot of things we need to do in this town.”
The city’s 2011 budget, which was passed a few months ago, was very tight. The actual numbers for how Sitka did in the previous year are still being crunched.
Assembly member Jack Ozment said not long ago, the Assembly was being told there wasn’t enough money, and so it crafted a budget that made difficult cuts to city departments.
“Now,” he said, “it appears as though the heavens have opened up and we have gained some money here somehow. We’re being told we have money to establish a new department head, we can hire a new controller, we can hire two part time people.”
Maybe the best course of action, Ozment said, would be to take a closer look at that specific information before granting the requests to add jobs in City Hall.
“If we have extra money, I would think the proper way to handle that would be to bring that number from staff to the Assembly and say ‘We’ve got $200,000. What do you think this should be used for?’”
That number Ozment quoted is an example. Again, Jim Dinley:
“We will do better in the FY10 closeout than we anticipated,” Dinley said. “So you’re saying ‘What would we like to do with that money?’ That’s what I’m asking you to do tonight with that money. But three months ago, or four months ago, or five months ago, when we were sitting down to do the budget, I didn’t know FY10 numbers close-out.”
Those numbers will be known by the Assembly’s next meeting, on October 12th. That’s also the meeting where a new mayor and assembly members will be sworn in. Sitka voters pick those people on October 5.
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