Haines Borough manager Debra Schnabel recently increased the pay of police chief Heath Scott to more than $110,000 annually, making Scott the highest-paid police chief in borough history, by $33,000.
(Bill Musser, the last, permanent chief previous to Scott, was paid $76,877, according to borough finance department.)
Scott had been making $100,000 annually and getting $50,000 in benefits, and was already the highest-paid borough employee by more than $6,000.
I’m opposed to Schnabel’s action because Scott:
- Overran his department budget twice in three years on the job, most recently after more than $150,000 was added to his budget;
- Abused his official powers by advancing to the state’s district attorney criminal charges against 4 assembly members who did not appoint his political ally to a borough commission (Diana Lapham to Ports and Harbor Commission, January 2017);
- Abused his official powers by actively trying to unseat his superiors by way of giving false testimony to the 2017 assembly recall effort against myself and member Heather Lende;
- Violated Haines Borough code by living with his supervisor (manager Bill Seward) after moving to Haines in 2016;
- Violated Alaska’s Open Meetings Act by refusing to provide police report information for several months in the fall of 2016;
- Misrepresented police statistics to the assembly in December 2016 to fabricate a “spike” in crime at a time when local leaders were considering cuts to the department;
- Routinely exaggerated public safety hazards, ranging from minor offenses and tidal waves to a highway fireworks display (at 33 Mile), to inflate his stature and make an inaccurate and self-serving case for police department expansion that is unnecessary and unsustainable.
Further, Scott already is paid more than his boss, borough manager Schnabel. (He is paid less than the Haines Borough School superintendent, who oversees an exponentially bigger staff and budget.)
Scott’s allies say he has brought stability to the local police force, while in fact, the assembly brought some stability by increasing officer pay so high that it would be foolish to quit a job that amounts to policing a senior village for between $66,000 and $110,000 per year, not including benefits.
(Three officers have left the department since Scott was hired in 2016 — Chris Brown, Adam Patterson and Brayton Long. After Long’s stint as a tourism operator, the department rehired Long.)
There is apparently no budget or amount of staff that will satisfy Mr. Scott. His statements about the need for yet more officers and jurisdiction prove that he is determined to build an empire the borough neither wants nor can afford but will cost the borough money it now has for other, more deserving programs and departments.
(Also, a borough-generated chart showing police chief pay compared to other communities is misleading, as Scott’s police department is responsible only for the townsite, with population probably about 1,700 in July, and much fewer in January. Heath Scott is not police chief to 2,400 people. Also, compared by staff size, Scott supervises significantly fewer employees than other police chiefs on the chart.)
I shared all the above information with borough manager Schnabel previous to her decision to renew Scott’s contract and add a $10,000 raise. Schnabel’s action remains a mystery to me, as well as a grave disappointment.
Heath Scott has played with the Haines Borough like a toy since showing up here in 2016. We tolerated it. Now we’ve rewarded it. Shame on the Haines Borough.