Chilkat Valley News - Serving Haines and Klukwan, Alaska since 1966

Haines Borough clerks this week said Debra Schnabel did not meet basic requirements for the borough manager position, the same requirements that former manager Bill Seward and interim manager Brad Ryan were determined to have met.

Clerk Julie Cozzi said she and deputy clerk Alekka Fullerton were tasked by the assembly through a Personnel Committee recommendation to conduct an initial screening of 10 applicants for the borough manager position to make sure they met basic requirements.

“We screened following our requested criteria (providing the Haines Borough application, cover letter, resume and five references), having at least a bachelor’s degree and having five years of executive management experience,” Cozzi said in an email.

It was unclear from Cozzi’s response, but apparently the clerks determined Schnabel did not meet the requirement for five years of executive management experience. Asked what criteria Schnabel did not meet, Cozzi only said, “She has a master’s degree, so you can make your own conclusion.”

In an interview this week, Schnabel said she thought her application and resume should speak for themselves. She added that the clerks’ initial review introduced controversy to the hire.

“The assembly has the right and the authority to put credence into the staff’s decision,” Schnabel said. Schnabel is executive director of the Haines Chamber of Commerce. She’s a former manager of KHNS, a former assembly member and former assistant to the Haines Borough manager.

Assembly member Margaret Friedenauer, chair of the assembly’s Personnel Committee, said the manager job requirements were the same ones used by search firm Brimeyer Fursman when it conducted interviews with manager candidates a year ago.

Cozzi defended the determination.

“Our understanding of our task was not to look at the merits of each application beyond screening for the advertised requirements,” she said. She said she and Fullerton did not consider former employment, termination, locality or “anything other than basic criteria.”

“(The screenings) are not any kind of staff recommendation. All we did is an initial pass. We tried to not even look at the name of the person,” Cozzi said.

When asked if Seward met those basic requirements, Cozzi said, “He obviously met it the last time because he was hired. It doesn’t mean that he’s going to survive the next pass.”

Cozzi said she would attend the committee of the whole meeting March 9 to explain her reasoning for stating if candidates did or did not meet requirements. The committee will consider all 10 applicants at the meeting as it begins to narrow the pool.

The assembly makes a final decision on which of the 10 applicants makes it further into the hiring process.

Former assembly member Norm Smith said it has always been a standard procedure, out of courtesy, to forward local applicants to the interview stage.

“Who’s steering the bus? Who’s captain of the ship? The borough assembly is the captain of the ship,” Smith said. “Somebody’s head should roll for this.”