City Administrator Mark Gorman received praise from all sides of the Assembly during his annual evaluation, held in public. To his right is municipal clerk Sara Peterson. (Emily Kwong/KCAW photo)
Like last year, City Administrator Mark Gorman wanted his evaluation on Tuesday (4-19-16) conducted in public. When asked why, he told KCAW, “I feel that I’m the city’s number one public servant and the community has a right to know how I’m performing. And that’s the good and the bad.”
The Assembly’s comments were overwhelmingly good.
Assemblyman Steven Eisenbeisz: I think your office is much more approachable than offices I’ve seen in the past. I think that helps the citizens feel that they are having a say, that they can meet with the highest level person we have in the city and sit down and have a face to face talk with them. That’s outstanding.
Deputy Mayor Matthew Hunter: I know there are times maybe I disagree a little bit with your opinion, but we always discuss it. And I feel heard and respected. I can’t ask for much more than that. I can’t ask for anything more than that, actually.
Mayor Mim McConnell: You’ve been the right man for the job at this time in our city’s life.
Gorman was praised for his leadership in a particularly challenging year, restructuring staff roles amid budget concerns and high turnover, innovating the Citizens’ Task Force, and seeing Sitka through the aftermath of the August 18th landslides.
Click here to see Gorman’s 2016 Administrator’s Report Card to Assembly.
The Assembly took turns talking about Gorman’s performance this past year. Many cited the August 18th landslide as an example of his leadership abilities. (Emily Kwong/KCAW photo)
But the Assembly offered constructive criticism too.
Hunter spoke with city staff and said, “The most I could get out of anyone is that sometimes they felt like something happened and they didn’t’ know it was going to happen. And it just gets down to the communication thing. And I think communication is by far the biggest hurdle to the success of any organization I’ve ever been a part of.”
Ben Miyasato, vice deputy mayor, told Gorman, “The one that to me stuck out this year was the tasering incident and how there was a lag time from when you knew and we knew. That to me was not acceptable.”
And Eisenbeisz said, “I get a lot of information supporting your argument. Probably more information than I even need. But I know when you go through these, that cons come up as well. And for me, I’d like to see that side. If we do adopt this, is that con bigger than perhaps was originally thought.”
Bob Potrzuski and Tristan Guevin also encouraged Gorman to enhance public outreach, while recognizing his office for making strides in this area. The city issues a newsletter and now has a standing committee for public education, chaired by Community and Planning Development Director Meagan Bosak.
Like last year, Gorman refused a pay increase. His annual salary is $125,000. In lieu of a raise, Hunter made a motion to give Gorman an “exemplary review” and change his leave accrual rate to twenty hours per month. That would give Gorman six weeks, instead of five, of annual leave a year. The motion passed unanimously.
Hunter said, “I don’t know you’d even use the leave, but I think that’s something we can do as a gesture of appreciation that would not cost the city anything and allow you to have one more week of time that you can just take some deep breaths and go rowing or something.
Both the administrator and attorney contracts require that any salary adjustments take place along with the evaluations, each April.
