The municipality of Skagway is seeking to hire a permanent executive director for the local health clinic. At the last borough assembly meeting, the group discussed shrinking the hiring committee.
The Dahl Memorial Clinic is currently run by an interim executive director. But city officials say this arrangement has been costly for the Skagway municipality.
The clinic is owned by the borough, and is run as one of its departments. At its last meeting, the assembly discussed cutting the four-person hiring committee down to three. The hiring committee is in charge of finding candidates, interviewing them, and ultimately selecting a permanent executive director for the clinic. It currently consists of two clinic board members, an assembly member, and the borough manager. The proposed change would get rid of the assembly seat and make it just *one* clinic board member, the manager, and the deputy manager.
Skagway Mayor Andrew Cremata said the change would be consistent with borough code. Assembly members are not involved with hiring decisions in other borough departments.
Cremata: “The idea here is to kind of streamline this so that we can get a hiring committee in place where good decision making is made, by the people we pay a lot of money to, who earn their money, by being experienced and knowledgeable in the hiring process.”
During public comments, resident Lea Mauldin protested the change.
Mauldin: “I do not see the need for this resolution if a hiring committee is already in place, has reviewed several applications and would like to move forward with one of those candidates.”
Cremata said the new arrangement would make the hiring committee more professional. He expressed concern that some actions by the current hiring committee may appear biased.
Cremata: “And I don’t want any hiring committee in this municipality having bias for a certain individual or individuals, and I don’t know that that’s the case, but it concerns me. So we have professionals, and I would like them to be in charge of the hiring process for this department, the same as they would be in charge of the hiring process for any department.”
Under the new arrangement, the clinic’s board would still have to approve the new hire.
A clinic board member who is on the hiring committee said they are currently considering two candidates, and are planning to move forward with interviews.
After discussion, the assembly voted to send the resolution to change the hiring committee to the Health, Education and Welfare Committee.
