In contrast to Haines, small Southeast communities including Yakutat, Craig, Wrangell, Petersburg and Skagway have no language regarding their managers making decisions affecting the financial interest of their immediate family members.

Codes of larger communities, including Ketchikan and Sitka, do prohibit managers from making decisions that would result in financial gain for an “immediate family member,” which includes siblings.

Juneau’s code does not include siblings as immediate family members.

Kathy Wasserman, executive director of the Alaska Municipal League, said it’s difficult in small communities to escape these kinds of issues.

“There’s the prudence of being very careful, but there’s also the issue of when you need work done,” Wasserman said. “There are so many people related in some of these smaller communities, not so much in the larger ones. They can always find a contractor where no one is related, but you get to small communities and that becomes very difficult.”

Wasserman said just because assemblies in smaller communities might not have ordinances addressing the financial interest of immediate family members, it doesn’t mean they’re not aware of the issue.

“Good assemblies will be able to watch for that and also a good manager will state at the outset, ‘My relative owns this company,’” Wasserman said. “Not having it in ordinance doesn’t necessarily mean care and concern isn’t given to it.”

Haines Borough attorney Brooks Chandler said the borough should think about the overall good of the borough, rather than the specific situation if it considers any code change.

“The current limitations on borough contracting in the ethics code may not be practical for a community the size of the borough,” Chander wrote. “Alternatively, the current limitations could be considered essential to overall public confidence in the borough’s contract award process.”

As part of Debra Schnabel’s contract, she is required to fill out financial disclosure form.

Roger Schnabel is president of Southeast Roadbuilders and is listed as a shareholder, director, officer, or manager in other business entities including Skookum Holdings and Highlands Estates.

Debra Schnabel is involved with four of those other businesses. She and Roger are each 50 percent shareholders in two corporations: Kiana Corporation, a land development company which owns 38 acres of land near Chilkat Lake, and Lynn Canal Corporation, an office-rental business. She owns 62 percent of the real estate company St. James Place; Roger owns the remaining 38 percent.