Daily Sitka Sentinel

City Administrator, Attorney ‘Satisfactory’

By KLAS STOLPE
Sentinel Staff Writer
    Assembly members made their annual evaluations of City Administrator Keith Brady and Municipal Attorney Brian Hanson, at a special meeting Tuesday night at Centennial Hall.
    Brady opted to receive his evaluation in public, and Hanson in executive session.
    Brady’s performance in the short time he has been on the job –  he arrived in Sitka last August – drew a mix of mostly positive remarks from the six Assembly members present. Steve Eisenbveiz was absent.
    Vice Deputy Mayor Bob Potrzuski said he had been concerned about the person who would fill the shoes of former administrator Mark Gorman, and when Brady emerged as the Assembly’s choice he thought it was a reach.
    “My anticipation was you would learn on the job,” Potrzuski said. “My hope was that as time went on you would grow into the job. What’s important to me is good communication, important communication, and communication to lots of folks is a two-way street, one that you are sharing and one that you are listening. I have been extremely pleased on both ends.”
    Potrzuski said he hoped Brady’s creativity would be reflected in policies and direction of the community. He noted that the job is difficult, having to deal with seven Assembly personalities and a city hall full of many long-time public servants from different backgrounds.
    Kevin Knox appreciated Brady’s attention to a new environment, the risk he took in relocating, and his personality traits. He asked to hear more of Brady’s voice in one-on-one conversations and in the public, saying his new ideas would be a benefit to Sitka and the Assembly.
    Richard Wein said he was following in a ‘good cop bad cop’ vein. He felt Brady was the least experienced of the candidates for the job, but in many ways that could be a strong point.
    “There is something important in growing,” Wein said. “Sometimes if you have too much experience you may cease to grow.”
    He also said that having less experience could make for easy manipulation. Wein compared Brady to a floating bottle in the ocean, subject to the tides and wind.
    Wein said he has seen a little too much in Brady as “same-old, same-old,” keeping the status quo as opposed to offering creative solutions that someone who is new to the city might bring.
    Wein stated he would have to give Brady “the same grades that George Bush got at Yale and that would be a ‘gentleman’s C.’”
    Aaron Bean said the charter is clear when it states the administrator works at the direction of the Assembly and at the Assembly’s pleasure. When dealing with any two members, including two who perhaps have opposing views to Brady’s, it’s important that Brady respects and follows the charter and recognizes he represents the people in the community. An example of concern was a decision to remove controversial art from the City Hall.
    Bean stated he was giving a neutral evaluation, “Not a thumbs up, not a thumbs down, just maybe a neutral grade I guess. I appreciate the energy...”
    Assembly members Kevin Knox, Benjamin Miyasato, and Mayor Matthew Hunter scored Brady as excellent.
    Miyasato said he is impressed because of the lack of public discord with Brady to date.
    “When government is done right it is seamless,” Miyasato said. “And when it is done wrong there is all kinds of issues and it shows up. Yes, there have been a few hiccups, but not as many as I would have thought.”
    Hunter said Brady was a prime example of hiring someone for who they are and not as much for what they know, and appreciated the Brady’s quick study attitude, research and responsiveness.
    “I don’t anticipate you to have all the answers because I know you are still learning the answers,” Hunter said. “You are forthright, you are a team builder and you are increasingly competent in your job.”
    Hunter also mentioned the art removal in city hall. While not agreeing with that action, he realized it made sense to Brady due to the information he received and the actions that were occurring. He said that moving forward, Brady will learn from it and make better judgments, but applauded Brady for sticking up for his staff.
    Knox said Brady exceeded all his expectations in regard to the newness of the job and the personalities in the community he had dealt with.
    Wein, Bean, and Potrzuski agreed that, on looking from absolute worst to absolute best, an “excellent” rating would not leave room for improvement, so they were apt to rate him as “satisfactory.”
    “We can call it whatever we want,” Potrzuski said. “We can call it excellent, satisfactory, we can call it a B, but what I want to be reflected by the Assembly is we’re comfortable where he is at today with the expectation that there is going to be improvement... I want to make clear to the public, at least the majority of the Assembly feels like we’ve got a guy that is doing a good job and will continue to do a good job, and a better job in the future.”
    At the end of their evaluations, the Assembly voted 6-0 to rate Brady’s performance as “satisfactory.”
    In conversation with the Sentinel after the meeting Brady said he would give himself a B.
    “Definitely not an A, there is always room to improve,” Brady said.
     He said there is always room to learn and he believed the constructive criticism offered was well-intentioned.
    “I will take it and I will use it and I will make myself better,” he said.
    A top priority for Brady in coming years is land development and determining what type of economy Sitka would like to have.
    “Do we want to expand into economies we are not in right now, do we want to expand the economies we do have, what does that look like?,” he asked. “I think to grow Sitka we need more economy and part of that is land development. Right now I am working with Garry White in having the stakeholders, or land owners, all the big ones, BIHA (Baranof Island Housing Authority), City, University of Alaska, Mental Health, to all come together and really talk about how can we develop the land, how can we rezone it to make it workable for the city moving forward. That is kind of the big one right now, really, besides the budget which is totally consuming my time.”
    Brady said his family has responded positively to the move to Sitka.
    “One of my children actually said after we had been here two weeks that it doesn’t feel like we have moved, which I think is awesome,” Brady said. “The community has been really great, including my wife into the basketball program being assistant coach, my daughters are in the sports program in the high school and middle school. Ultimately they are just good people and good kids and we haven’t had a problem finding friends.”
    Brady said they haven’t had to adapt to small town life, since they came from a town of 900 in Utah.
    “I guess the raininess was an adaptation, but it wasn’t really hard,” Brady said. “Basically you just wear the right gear and you are okay. We have gone hiking, we have gone to the beach. The only thing people have bugged me about is do I have a boat yet.”
    After conducting their review of City Attorney Brian Hanson in executive session, the Assembly voted unanimously to rate his performance as “satisfactory,” and raise his pay to $140,000 effective immediately.