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

On Tuesday, police chief Heath Scott signed a re-negotiated contract with the borough, and declined an offer from Wrangell, in exchange for a $10,000 raise.

The only amendments to Scott’s contract from 2016 are an 8 percent increase in salary beginning Jan. 1, 2020, bringing his annual pay to $110,000 annually through June 2021.

“If he does not overspend his budget, he’s subject to a yearly $1,000 raise through fiscal year 2023,” Borough manager Debra Schnabel said. The police department has run over budget for the past two years.

In a public safety commission meeting last month, Scott stipulated two conditions for a new contract: for the borough assembly to address policing outside of the townsite service area, and “government respect for the department’s budget.”

This week, the ballot proposition to amend charter for areawide policing failed when the assembly missed deadline to certify it in time for the Oct. 1 election. Scott told the CVN that he’s “satisfied with the fact that we’ve provided the information to the assembly.”

Scott is the highest paid borough employee, and is the highest paid chief in similarly-sized communities in Southeast. His department’s budget remains one of the smallest.

Petersburg’s police chief is paid $96,960 annually. Skagway’s chief makes $103,980. Wrangell paid their last chief $94,476 and offered Scott $105,000 to take the job.

Scott said the largest determining factor for accepting an offer to stay in Haines was “heartwarming” community support.

At the Aug. 20 assembly meeting, four residents lobbied the borough assembly and manager to keep Scott in Haines.

Nicole Holm, a nurse who often works alongside Scott at the clinic, detailed all the times she’s worked with him to save lives. “I’ve been there when he’s pulled out NARCAN on a patient to try to save their lives, I’ve been with him holding a parent whose lost a child and I’ve been with him standing in his office when we told family members that their loved ones had just died in a plane wreck and there’s nothing more to be done,” Holm said.

Scott’s salary negotiations will cost the borough an extra $5,300 this fiscal year, and $9,293 next, Schnabel said.