At its regular meeting Tuesday, the Sitka Assembly finalized a decision to fire city administrator Keith Brady and appointed an interim administrator- Fire Chief Dave Miller will take on the responsibility, though how long Miller could serve in the role hasn’t been determined.
There was no debate and no public comment when the Sitka Assembly took the last step to remove Keith Brady from his position as city administrator. The final resolution to fire Brady passed 5-2 with assembly members Kevin Knox and Steven Eisenbeisz opposed.
But what to do next generated some discussion.
Mayor Gary Paxton, who voted in favor after passing the first time when it was his turn to vote, said he wanted the assembly to appoint Fire Chief Dave Miller to the position in the interim for two to three months, while they began the search for someone to permanently replace Brady.
“My view is that we need to bring in Dave Miller- experienced leader who knows our town, knows our staff, knows our issues,” Paxton said. “Just lower the temperature, but more importantly increase the trust among the assembly, between assembly and staff and between assembly, staff and our community.”
Miller was named acting administrator earlier this month. During his report Tuesday, he reflected on his first two weeks in the position.
“It’s been a busy two weeks,” Miller said. “I’m impressed with how much time I spend with emails. I’m not used to that.”
But a full inbox aside, Miller said he was ready to do the job.
Assembly member Richard Wein made a motion to appoint Miller, and Paxton said they would need to raise Miller’s pay and consider making a half-time administrative assistant position at the fire hall full time to cover his workload. But assembly member Aaron Bean said he’d hoped for more discussion.
“There’s no question that Dave could do the job,” Bean said. “The question that I guess comes to my mind, now we’re going be having to spend additional money at the fire department that we didn’t plan on. And also, Dave can’t be in two places at the same time.”
Miller said he would still respond to calls as the fire chief, but the department should still run smoothly without him at the helm regularly.
“There are almost as many volunteers as there are employees in the city, so the fire department is going to operate,” he said.
But assembly member Steven Eisenbeisz was worried that two-to-three month interim time frame wasn’t realistic.
“Last year it took us one year to find Keith Brady,” he said. “I feel this hiring process is going to last at least that. We’re at least 6 months out on having a first round batch of candidates to even interview. With an understaffed HR department, that puts another amount of pressure on this process to hire an administrator.”
Bean said he thought the process would go faster with this assembly. And Miller said he wouldn’t take it personally if the assembly wanted to go in a different direction down the line.
“You just tell me. I’ll back out and go back to the fire department in a heartbeat,” he said. “You can bring someone else in.that’s not going to bother me.”
“You will be a calming influence and a positive influence,” said Mayor Paxton.
Ultimately the assembly voted unanimously to appoint Miller as administrator.
