Search on again for borough manager

PALMER – For a moment there it looked like the long, complicated process of selecting a new manager to head up Mat-Su Borough government was nearing an end.

Two weeks ago, the borough assembly had whittled the list of candidates to three, ranked them, and seemed ready to announce a decision. But on Tuesday the borough assembly decided to bring in an executive consulting firm to drum up some new applicants. And, though the borough announced that decision officially, at least for now, the assembly can’t explain it.

“The statement that was made is the statement that the assembly has allowed to go to the public,” said Deputy Mayor Ron Arvin. “I’d like to say more. I know there are a lot of people who would like to have more information, but it’s a complicated process.”

To avoid complicating it further, he said, the assembly has decided to keep mum. He said that the assembly will hold onto the finalists that were left over after it winnowed the initial list of candidates. Then he referred further questions to the borough attorney.

Discussion about bringing in a consultant, which led to the motion, took place in executive session. Borough Attorney Nick Spiropoulos said the assembly is generally pretty conservative when it comes to executive sessions.

“By law, everything that happens in the executive session must stay in the executive session,” he said. “Everybody wants to make sure they don’t screw up and say something that was said in session.”

In order to go into an executive session, the assembly must first state its reasons and is given a list of reasons to choose from. In this instance, the assembly said that its discussions, which would entail weighing one candidate against the other and talking about terms of an eventual contract, might affect the reputation of people they were discussing and might adversely impact the borough’s finances.

The assembly, he said, wants to make sure it doesn’t break any laws. Which, he surmised, is why Arvin directed calls to him. As the attorney, he’s usually the person in the room paying the closest attention to what is said in executive session and what is said in open meetings.

As for what was said in the open part of the meeting, there wasn’t a whole lot of meaty discussion on the record Tuesday night.

“Publicly, they made a motion to engage an executive search firm to continue the process of looking for a borough manager,” Spiropoulos said. “They then had a small discussion about maybe the best way to describe it would be the parameters.”

That included a target number of applicants for the consultant to seek. Spiropoulos said his take on the discussion was that the assembly was looking for something on the order of 10 more applicants.

At least one borough resident was upset by the move. Henry Anton Schrieber called the Frontiersman to voice his concerns soon after hearing the news. Though he works for the borough, he said that he was speaking on his own behalf as a resident and a taxpayer. And as a taxpayer, he thought it was wasteful to bring in a consultant when the process was already so close to conclusion.

“Give me a break,” he said.

The search for a manager has been ongoing since April when John Duffy resigned after 10 years at the helm. The initial applicant pool contained around 60 names. As of two weeks ago that list had been narrowed to three — Greg Young, city administrator of Ferndale, Wash.; Don Baird, town manager of Granby, Colo.; and Desmond Mayo, finance director for Crowley Petroleum Distribution.

Arvin said the assembly will discuss the matter at every available opportunity and is working hard to make a decision. But, not many of those discussions will be done in the open, Arvin said.

“We have executive sessions scheduled virtually every week until a decision is made,” he said.

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