Manager picks dwindle

PALMER — One of three finalists for borough manager was apparently offered the job, but his current employer bumped his pay $18,000 to keep him, according to a Washington newspaper.

The Bellingham Herald of Bellingham, Wash., reported Thursday that Greg Young, city administrator of Ferndale, Wash., will soon have a new contract offering him $128,000 for 2011, up from his previous salary of $110,000.

“Young had been offered the general manager position for the Matanuska-Susitna Borough in Alaska,” according to the Herald’s report. “City Councilman Mel Hansen said though the exact details weren’t revealed, Young was offered about $200,000 for the Alaska job.”

Details on the Palmer end of the story were hazy. Discussions about hiring a new manager lately have gone on in executive session because borough assembly members are discussing personnel matters and their opinions of the job applicants. It’s also standard practice for discussing employment contracts, since the assembly is reticent to tip its hand before negotiations begin.

Deputy Mayor Ron Arvin said at Tuesday’s assembly meeting that state law requires that these kinds of personnel matters be discussed behind closed doors. Another thing state law requires is that assembly members refrain from discussing what transpired in closed-door executive sessions, he said.

The latest development to be made public in the Valley was that the borough assembly had decided to retain the finalists it had already announced while at the same time employing an executive search firm to recruit more applicants.

If Young is now out of the running, that means the two people still in contention are Desmond Mayo, who has worked for the borough before and who is now Director of Finance with Crowley Petroleum Distribution, and Don Baird, town manager of Granby, Colo.

Borough Attorney Nick Spiropoulos said in an interview two weeks ago that there was some brief discussion about a ballpark number of applicants the assembly would like to see from the executive search firm. He put that number at something on the order of 10 applications.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.