When the Sitka Assembly meets tonight, the group may finally approve the employment agreement for a new city administrator. John Leach, a Coast Guard officer stationed in D.C., was offered the position in September. Leach’s five-page employment agreement sets his salary at $125,000 — no start date is specified in the document yet. During his interview, Leach said he would be able to start work in the spring of 2020.
The assembly may also consider lifting the hiring freeze that has been in place since last spring, and may dissolve the assembly subcommittee that examines all positions as they become vacant to determine whether or not those posts should be filled. Recently elected assembly members Kevin Knox and Thor Christianson sponsored the agenda item. During their campaigns for office, both said that shutting down the subcommittee was a priority.
The assembly will also consider putting an additional $1.7 million in funding toward the Marine Street substation project. In a memo, interim administrator Hugh Bevan writes that inflation as well as additional drilling and excavation at Lincoln Street pushed the overall cost of the project beyond the bond funding earmarked for it in 2016. The money will come from a “restructuring” of the overall Electric Fund capital improvement program.
Also tonight: the assembly will …
- consider taking title to some land in the Takatz Lake area,
- discuss the possibility of closed captioning at assembly meetings and,
- consider a resolution to support a Sitka Trail Works grant application.
The Sitka Assembly meets tonight at 6 p.m. at Harrigan Centennial Hall. Raven News will broadcast the meeting live, following Alaska News Nightly.
