At its regular meeting on January 23, the Sitka Assembly appointed local pastor Ryan Gluth to fill a vacancy on the city’s tourism task force, after considering two applications for the position.
While there’s rarely pushback on committee appointments, a few community members felt like Gluth and the other applicant Ian Dempster, were too “pro-industry’ for the vacant “at-large” seat.
Barbara Bingham, who sits on the tourism task force, asked the assembly to deny both applicants and re-advertise for the open position. “The task force is already overweighted by pro-cruise tourism advocates who are heavily invested in continued growth,” Bingham said.
Others commented that the position wasn’t advertised long enough and asked the assembly to hold off on their decision to allow more people to apply. But assembly member Chris Ystad felt one week of advertising for the position was enough time.
“Everyone in this town had an equal opportunity to apply for this seat, so the fact that these two potential candidates happen… might happen to be pro-tourism, it’s not their fault,” Ystad said. “If someone else was not pro-tourism, or neutral, they had the opportunity to apply.”
Most assembly members voiced support for Gluth’s application, and Mayor Steven Eisenbeisz said either would be a win for the city and the task force.
“We have an issue that has become polarizing,” Eisenbeisz said. “I don’t think it needs to be as polarizing as it is, because we have two residents of Sitka who want to do the best for Sitka. Everybody has a slightly different point of view on how we get there. But I don’t think either of these names want to do the worst for Sitka, I don’t think they want to destroy our town. We are very fortunate to have two names, that whichever way we go, the task force is going to win, the community is going to win and the assembly is going to win.”
The assembly appointed Ryan Gluth on a 6-1 vote, with Ystad voting in favor of Dempster. Gluth will be appointed to the at-large seat previously filled by task force chair Phyllis Hackett who resigned earlier this month.
