Four department heads in Juneau’s municipal government are retiring this year. Community Development, Parks and Recreation, Engineering and the Clerk’s Office will all undergo a change in leadership in coming months.
Engineering Director Roger Healy will be the first to depart. He first joined city engineering in 1992 but also worked for the State Department of Transportation in intervening years. The 60-year-old retires at the end of April.
“I’ve been working for quite awhile and it’s a great place to work and it’s great to serve the city and borough and its residents,” Healy said Monday. “But I would really like to enjoy other things in life and allow some new ideas and new energy come to come into the position.”
Also leaving is Parks and Recreation Director Kirk Duncan. He was hired by the city to manage Eaglecrest Ski Area in 2004 and later headed public works. His last day with the City and Borough of Juneau is May 11.
“It’s just time for me,” Duncan said Monday. “I never was going to be a bureaucrat and I was always sort of in the private sector and I’ve really, really enjoyed my time here at — working for the CBJ but it’s just time to do something different. I think I’ll do something constructive in the summertime and then probably do some serious traveling in the wintertime.”
Rob Steedle has led the Community Development Department since 2016 after a four-year stint as deputy city manager. He was hired as a programmer in the city’s IT department in the 1990s.
“It’s been wonderful working for the CBJ it has been an excellent organization for me personally and I think for many people that work here, it really nurtures people,” he said in a Monday interview in his office in the Marine View building. “That said, I feel like I want to do something different for awhile. So I’m not done working and I don’t know what I’ll do next. But I want to try something completely different for awhile.”
Steedle said he hopes his successor concentrates on economic development for the community.
“Not enough focus has been put on the role of the Community Development Department in promoting economic development,” he said.
Deputy City Manager Mila Cosgrove said recruitment is ongoing for many of the positions. A new parks and recreation director could be announced as early as this week.
“We’ve been very thankful for everybody’s time, actually,” she said Monday. “Rob, Roger and Kirk all are beyond their retirement eligibility dates and they’d stayed engaged with the city and they have done individually great work within their departments.”
Cosgrove says she’s confident that the city will recruit good replacements.
City Clerk Laurie Sica has also announced she’ll retire this year. She’s on leave this month and unavailable for comment. Her last day as city clerk is June 30.
Editor’s Note: Kirk Duncan is a nonvoting member on KTOO’s board of directors.
