City of Palmer searching for a clerk

PALMER — The Palmer City Council held a special meeting on Tuesday to pass resolutions and discuss filling the impending vacancy at the City Clerk position after Norma Alley’s resignation last month. For the first time since January of 2020, all seven members of the council were present in the chambers for the meeting.

The Council unanimously voted to approve Resolution 21-024 in order to accept Federal ARPA funds after President Biden signed legislation in March to provide $350 billion in emergency funding for eligible state, local and tribal governments. Through ARPA, local governments under 50,000 in population are designated as Non Entitlement Units of Local Government or NEUs.

“The dollar amount will be determined by the final signed State of Alaska budget and the total NEU’s participating,” reads Resolution 21-024.

Funding passed through the state to NEUs are based on population in comparison to the total population of NEU designated governments within the state. The funding will be awarded in two disbursements to the city, with the first distributed upon receipt of the signed resolution and the second to follow at least one year later. Additional legislation will be brought forward to determine the spending amounts.

The council also unanimously voted to approve AM 21-041 including a contract award to Roger Hickel Contracting for the general construction of two secondary clarifiers at the Palmer Wastewater Treatment Plant along with associated equipment. The contract that stems from a DEC requirement mandated to the city. The contract to Roger Hickel Contracting is for $7,196,00.

Palmer City Manager John Moosey provided a report after the passate of 21-024 and 21-041 to detail the city’s process for filling two vacancies on the staff. City Clerk Norma Alley turned in a letter of resignation last month and Public Works Director Chris Nall will also be leaving his position. Moosey said that six applications have been received with three that meet all of the required qualifications for Public Works Director. Filling the vacancy of Clerk will also put the responsibility of running the upcoming October elections for the city of Palmer on the new hire.

“Tomorrow 5 p.m. is the close date for the city clerk position. Right now we have eight applications, two of the applicants have clerk experience,” said Moosey. “This hasn’t closed yet, so there may be more applications that come in. One of the clerks from out of state most likely they would be the person would be here September or later which makes it tough to have somebody come in and turn over an election in a day or two, so that is an issue we will be looking at.”

Alley has served as the city clerk for the last four years. Councilwoman Julie Berberich asked about the possibility of hiring an interim clerk to assist with elections, a process that Councilwoman Dr. Jill Valerius also supported.

“I’m confident that we’ll find somebody to help us or somebodies that will help us that will have Alaska election municipal experience. I don’t think that’s going to be a problem,” said Moosey. “As we get the applications closed, Kimberly our HR director will be getting the information to you and set up times for interviews so we can get moving on this as fast as we can. So change is coming to Palmer.”