The high turnover rate in the Haines Borough manager’s position doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with the people who live here. There’s a larger possibility that the problem is structural and not personal. After all, both “liberal” and “conservative” assemblies have fired managers for a range of reasons and the people on those assemblies couldn’t have all been mean-spirited, dysfunctional…
I was speaking the other night with Vince Hansen, who once served as manager for the City of Haines, about recent and historic turnover in that position. The town hasn’t figured out how a manager system should work regarding the relationship between assembly members and the manager, Hansen said, or words to that effect. Specifically, it appeared that the assembly…
Toward the end of my term on the Haines Borough Assembly, I commented at a meeting that my time there had been a failure. I ran on a platform of stemming losses to borough facilities, boosting nonprofits, increasing recreation opportunities and reducing the police department. I was defeated on all four fronts. That latter two were connected, I reasoned: Create…
If you’re interested in seeing a public use cabin built in the Haines State Forest, it’s time to act, or at least to write. The state Division of Forestry is seeking public comments on its five-year-plan, including potential cabins at Walker Lake and Chilkat Lake. At Walker Lake, foresters have identified preliminary trail and road sites, as well as…
I was out at the town cemetery this week, visiting people I used to know. Hertz is out there, with Joey and Jesse, and Joan Comerford and Frank Wallace and Molly Hibler. Someone left a full can of beer at the headstone of Leo Smith. Six years ago, the newspaper ran a front-page Memorial Day photo of Leo, kneeling beside…
For our town to work, the borough assembly must lead. A liberal assembly. A conservative assembly. It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter because each fall we hold another election when at least one third of our town’s elected body can change, an adjustment citizens can make to the assembly to more closely match their wishes. This is the way our…
We were standing in the parking lot of the assembly chambers when I asked a retired friend, an accomplished man who is occasionally outspoken, if he would run for the assembly. He laughed and said, “The assembly? Are you kidding me? I’ll show you the borough assembly.” He got into his sports car and drove around in circles. I don’t…
If one more person says that our rocky history with borough managers shows that our town or its government is dysfunctional, I’m going to scream. Wait. I scream all the time. Maybe I’ll whisper instead. Maybe someone will listen. Haines is no more dysfunctional than any other place. There are errors that we make continually and habitually, but that’s not…
I was not surprised when I heard the news Tuesday afternoon that the assembly might be firing manager Debra Schnabel. I wrote members after the meeting that Schnabel deserves the chance to fight to keep her job, but I’m not particularly hopeful she’ll make that effort. Based on what I know, the move to oust Schnabel is not a conservative…
Tuesday’s Haines Borough Assembly discussion of the Haines Economic Development Commission veered off, too predictably, to an idea to merge the government’s tourism and economic development functions. The topic at hand was the effectiveness of spending taxpayer dollars on the commission, a nonprofit launched in 2017 by borough manager Debra Schnabel back when she was director of the Haines Chamber…