Debra Schnabel during her interview with the assembly. (Emily Files)

Debra Schnabel during her interview with the assembly. (Emily Files)

Haines Borough Manager Debra Schnabel has been suspended from her job and her future in that position is unclear. That’s following a contentious 4-2 vote by the Haines Assembly. 

It was Haines Assemblyman Paul Rogers who made the motion to suspend borough manager Debra Schnabel with pay and host a future meeting to decide if the borough should fire her without cause.

Rogers said Schnabel did not communicate effectively or take direction from the assembly.. 

“I’m really troubled by the things that the manager is doing. The way in which she is doing them and she seems to be bypassing the assembly on a lot of things, not keeping them informed of things and just disregarding assembly input, Rogers says. “So I’ve had it.”

Fellow Assemblywoman Brenda Josephson agreed that she is not satisfied with the manager’s performance. 

“It’s been in the last two months a crescendo. The complaints that I’m getting from the public—I’m on the phone from 8 in the morning until almost 8 at night every day.”

Much of the complaints came down to management style. However, there was one charge that the borough manager directed a municipal employee to plow and sand at a private trailer park she owns.

“She called the facilities director Ed Coffland and asked if it would be okay if she reimbursed the borough. She says he said it would be okay. That follows an email that Ed Coffland sent out in late December saying that the manager was not to utilize resources to maintain her road,” Assemblyman Paul Rogers said.

In a phone call to KHNS, Schnabel admitted it was wrong. She said in her defense, it had been a longstanding practice that predates her time as borough manager.

“When I became the manager of the borough it became an issue that this road was never platted and therefore it was my road and the borough should not be maintaining it,” Schnabel said. 

Much of the complaints came down to friction over management style.

Rogers had raised concerns about coronavirus being transmitted by library books loaned out in the community. He drafted a resolution to suspend library services but withdrew it after he learned the library had stopped taking materials back as a precaution. He said the manager never told him his concerns were moot.

“She made the comment that this information was available if only we had asked. How do you know to ask if you don’t hear something until it shows up in a town hall meeting or it shows up in an email on the weekend?”

Rogers also referenced complaints from Haines residents like George Campbell. During public comment, Campbell told the assembly he sued the borough for damages resulting from the repair of a fire hydrant last year. Campbell explained that Schnabel filed a countersuit claiming that he owed the borough money for improvements that it made to his property after repairing the fire hydrant.

“The immaturity of the manager’s counterclaim action, however, the exaggerated charges, the error-filled documents the manager filed in the courts is the very definition of arbitrary and capricious,” Campbell said. 

Schnabel did not address her critics at the meeting. But in a phone interview shortly before the vote to suspend her, she told KHNS that she disagrees with the claims against her but hopes the borough assembly and her can iron out their differences. 

“I don’t agree with him, but I know that that’s how he feels, and that’s what he thinks. He has looked at some information and he has come to a conclusion. I would hope that we could look at a lot more information and come to a different conclusion,” Schnabel said. 

Several residents called in to the meeting to weigh in. Most supported Schnabel. 

Haines Sheldon Museum Director Helen Alten defended her boss. She said that high turnover of borough managers has made her job more difficult. 

“Our community is dealing with a crisis. It’s a bad time to change horses. She’s not perfect but she’s a heck of a lot better than some of the other managers we worked under,” Alten said. 

Assembly member Zephyr Sincerny felt that the complaints against the manager should be addressed, but he wasn’t ready to support her removal.

“We’re not talking about acts of endangering the borough. Causing huge bankruptcy or debt or putting the public at risk. The things that are being brought up it sounds to me like many of them are challenges with the way things are happening and those are things I think can appropriately be addressed,” Sincerny said. 

Ultimately, the assembly voted to suspend the borough manager in a 4 to 2 vote with assembly members Zephyr Sincerny and Stephanie Scott opposed. 

The borough has not yet scheduled a meeting to determine if Schnabel will be fired or can return to work. In the meantime, Borough Clerk Alekka Fullerton will serve as acting manager.