Haines Assembly to vote on borough manager hire, discuss a seasonal sales tax, restructuring the Sheldon Museum and more

The Haines Assembly will meet Tuesday evening to discuss a seasonal sales tax, restructuring the Sheldon Museum, and will vote on hiring its sole finalist for the borough manager job. KHNS’ Corinne Smith checked in with Haines Mayor Douglas Olerud about what’s to come.

 

KHNS: Thank you so much for joining us. On Tuesday evening, looks like the assembly has a jam packed agenda. Let’s start with the borough manager candidate. The assembly went from 10 applicants to one pretty quickly, what can you say generally about the process so far?

Mayor Olerud: I’ve been happy with the work that the Personnel Committee in the Assembly have put into the process. I think we have a really good candidate. That’s our one finalist that we’ll be meeting tonight on Monday, and have a chance to show her the community, and a good chance for the community and staff to meet her. And after the interview on Monday, the assembly will be talking on Tuesday about whether or not that’s the person for Haines, and if they want to extend an offer to her.

KHNS: Wow. So the assembly will be voting on whether to hire Annette Krietzer this Tuesday?

Olerud: There’ll be a Personnel Committee meeting before the assembly meeting on Tuesday. That’ll be from 5:30p.m. to 6:30p.m. And it will be during that meeting that the committee would make the recommendation to the assembly on whether to make an offer or not yet.

KHNS: What can you tell us about her itinerary in town this week?

Olerud: I’ll be picking her up at the airport today. From 2 – 4 p.m., I’ll be doing a windshield tour with her taking around showing her like public safety building, Lutak Dock, the Beach Road area, and some of the other areas affected by the December storm. And then at five o’clock there’ll be a Meet and Greet for the public at the library. That’ll be from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.. And then our third interview will start at 6:30 p.m., and that’ll also be at the library and it’ll be available on Zoom as well. And then tomorrow she will be spending time with Ms. Fullerton, our interim manager and borough clerk and meeting more of the borough staff. 

KHNS: And for you what does a successful visit look like? What are you hoping for?

Olerud: Obviously, you’re hoping to find a candidate that’s going to be our next borough manager, I think that’s your ultimate goal even if she isn’t the one that the Assembly chooses, each time going through the process to learn more about the strengths and weaknesses of the community, what what people in Haines are looking for, the things that applicants are looking for, and some of their reasons for not coming to Haines, we learned that with the first one was Mr. (George) Zoukee, just reaffirmed how tough it is to move to Haines, find housing in Haines. And so I’ve been learning through all of us, even if it hasn’t been successful in the past, I’ve still learned a lot. I think anytime you learn, it’s successful. But I think out of this the community is ready for the next manager, and hopefully Ms. Kreitzer will fit the bill and the assembly will forward an offer.

KHNS: So looking ahead at the agenda, there is a new ordinance being introduced proposing a seasonal sales tax. What can you say about that proposal?

Olerud: That’s a proposal that was brought forth by Gabe Thomas and Carol Tuynman. They’re both interested in looking at that. There’s other places in Alaska that do the same thing, Skagway does that. And just the way to have a little lower sales tax for the people who stick around in the winter, kind of give an incentive for them. And then you increase in the summertime when the majority of your sales are happening. And hopefully that would increase revenues coming into the borough, but then giving a benefit to local residents. And this is something that will have to be on the ballot in the fall. And so this is a deadline for us to introduce that, to be able to have enough public hearings to get it on the October ballot.

KHNS: Then there’s also an ordinance, it looks like to, sort of change the structure and relationship between the Haines Sheldon Museum and the borough, can you explain that one?

Olerud: Yeah, that ordinances, something that’s been in the works for a while now – moving the Sheldon museum employees that have been borough employees to be employees of the Sheldon museum. And so this is what would facilitate that change. 

KHNS: Great, thanks so much Mayor Olerud.

Olerud: You bet, have a great day.