Rob Steedle moved to Juneau with the intention of staying a year, maybe two.
“But then, I met a woman and we’ve lived here happily ever after ever since,” he says.
Today, Steedle and his wife Jetta Whitaker have two kids – a 17-year-old son and a 15-year-old daughter.
He’s worked in the city’s Information Technology department since 1992, serving 14 years as IT Director. Last year, he took over a project to convert all CBJ computers to new software, which he’ll continue to lead as Deputy Manager.
Through his work, Steedle says he’s become familiar with all city departments.
“What I’m looking forward to is, working with them and taking a broader look at what they’re doing,” he says. “Not just looking at it through an information technology lens.”
Steedle says a balanced budget and the possible reopening of the AJ Mine are two issues that will dominate his first few months on the job. He says his primary role will be to work with Kiefer to support the city’s department heads.
“Our departments are headed by people with passion for their work and sometimes they need guidance from the manager’s office,” Steedle says. “And that’s what we’re there to do, to make sure they get their work done.”
Kiefer says she selected Steedle because of his broad familiarity with the city, and because his knowledge of the organization compliments hers.
“One of the projects he worked on was consolidated dispatch for fire and police. So, he understands some of those needs much better than I do, and he can help me with my learning curve with that,” Kiefer says. “And same thing with ambulance billing; so, he understands that internal piece within the fire department and what it takes to do sort of the back end of their business.”
Kiefer says she did not look outside the city for her replacement, partially because she believes in hiring from within, but also because there was a time crunch.
“Because we’re going right into the budget process, and we’re still trying to look for savings of $4.2-million, I need to have somebody there to help with that process,” says Kiefer. “And having someone who can hit the ground running, I think is critical to the organization.”
Steedle has a Bachelors’ degree in Philosophy from State University of New York at Binghamton, and a Masters’ in Public Administration from the University of Alaska Southeast.
His starting salary as Deputy Manager will be $125,800. He and Kiefer start their new positions April 1st.
Current City Manager Rod Swope is retiring after nine years on the job.
The City and Borough of Juneau’s budget will be balanced without layoffs or major new cuts to services.
As KTOO reported yesterday, that was the direction the Assembly Finance Committee gave to City Manager Rod Swope and manager-in-waiting Kim Kiefer this week.
The manager’s office now has a little less than a month to bring a proposed budget to the Assembly. Casey Kelly has more.
Assemblywoman Karen Crane says making additional operating and personnel cuts to balance Juneau’s budget was not a good option.
“You have to understand that the city manager has already cut, and what we have left is a bit over $4-million,” Crane says. “And so, we would be cutting down to the bone in some departments and we would be looking at employee layoffs and reductions in services.”
Crane chairs the Assembly Finance Committee, which directed the manager’s office to close the remaining budget gap using some combination of the following: One-time money not to exceed $1-million dollars; a mill rate increase not to exceed 11 total mills; and additional cuts to operations.
Crane says the committee specifically took personnel cuts off the table.
“We have hard working trained staff. These people are our neighbors. They shop in your shops. They contribute to the community,” says Crane. “So, we’re trying to do as much as we can without making a bigger impact than we have to.”
City Manager Rod Swope says he was blunt with assembly members in an executive session about specific positions he’d look to cut if they wanted to go down that road.
“Potential loss of additional police officers, some major rescheduling of shifts for the fire department,” says Swope. “In every department, I think we were looking at a situation where it would have been very noticeable to the public in terms of services.”
Swope says he’s happy with the tools the Assembly gave him. To balance the city’s biennial budget, he needs about $2.3-million dollars for fiscal year 2013 – beginning in July – and $2.1-million for the following year.
The options for one-time funds include asking the Juneau Airport to repay $1-million dollars the Assembly loaned to the terminal renovation project three years ago. There’s also more than $4-million dollars in the city’s sewer and water expansion fund, part of which could be transferred into the general fund.
“That money is sitting there, and currently we don’t have any immediate projects for the next couple years identified,” says Swope.
The sales tax reserve fund contains nearly $9-million dollars, but Swope says he’d only touch it as a last resort.
“The assembly didn’t want us touching that, understandably. They just had a report from a task force, recommending that that money only be used for emergency one-time situations and not be used really to balance the budget,” Swope says.
Juneau’s property tax mill rate is currently 10.55 mills. An increase to 11 mills would bring in an estimated $1.8-million dollars in additional revenue per year. Swope says he and Deputy Manager Kim Kiefer will be looking at additional operating cuts before deciding how much to raise the rate.
“We may be able to squeeze a little bit more blood out of the turnip, but we’re not going to get a lot. We really aren’t,” Swope says. “I think Kim and I both feel pretty confident, we’ve spent a lot of time on this and have gone into great detail. There’s not a whole lot left.”
Randy Wanamaker was the only assembly member to oppose the Finance Committee’s direction to the manager. He disagrees with raising property taxes.
Juneau’s overall mill rate has remained under 11 mills since 2001. Even at 11 mills, the rate would still be lower than other Alaska communities, like Anchorage and the Fairbanks North Star Borough. But Wanamaker says Juneau residents are already paying more property tax than ever before.
“As home values increase, assessments go up. So, if we hold the mill rate at the same level as last year, people are still paying more,” Wanamaker says. “And it’s very difficult. I think that’s not a good step to go to, an automatic property tax increase.”
Wanamaker also says other assembly members are too quick to dismiss the notion of cuts to programs and staff. He points to a recent McDowell Group survey of 400 Juneau residents that found 40 percent preferred cuts to services over raising taxes. Wanamaker says he wants to look at cuts that make sense.
“For instance, if we have a janitor and a police officer. I know that our police force is stretched thin now. You have to choose between the quality of the position, in terms of which position best serves the interests of the community,” says Wanamaker.
Finance Committee Chairwoman Crane argues the Assembly is choosing what’s best for the community. And right now, she says that’s a balanced approach.
“The Assembly is never anxious to raise the mill rate,” Crane says. “But there have been many budget discussions over the last year about how to fill this, we just have some more to go. We’re also doing a two year budget. It’s really hard to predict exactly what your resources are going to be. I hope that we’re in better shape next year than we are this year. But you have to plan for the facts that you have and that’s what we’re trying to do.”
Juneau’s current year budget is about $87.2-million dollars. With increases just for inflation, spending for the next two fiscal years is estimated to be about $88- and $89-million dollars respectively.
Swope retires at the end of this month. Manager-to-be Kiefer will work with the Finance Committee as it continues to refine the plan in April.
The Juneau Assembly is willing to raise property taxes, but not layoff employees, in order to balance the city’s budget.
Meeting as the Finance Committee last night (Tuesday), the Assembly directed the city administration to close a two-year estimated shortfall of $4.4-million dollars with some combination of the following:
Operational cuts that do not include layoffs.
A mill rate increase that keeps the total rate under 11 mills.
And one-time money not to exceed $1-million dollars.
The order came after an executive session that lasted more than an hour, where City Manager Rod Swope discussed specific positions he would eliminate if the Assembly gave him the okay to use layoffs and reductions to services to balance the budget.
The $4.4-million dollar estimated shortfall is what remains of a $7.5-million dollar gap projected earlier this year. To arrive at the new number, Swope and manager-in-waiting Kim Kiefer identified $4.8-million in potential savings, as well as likely spending increases.
Kiefer says most of the proposed savings are from holding positions open and reduced spending across all city departments. She says about $1.5-million dollars in additional cuts will be avoided thanks to savings carried over from this year’s budget. But she warned the public is already seeing reduced services as a result.
The Finance Committee, which includes every member of the Assembly, will start a thorough review of the manager’s budget proposal next month. The final spending plan must be approved at a regular Assembly meeting by June 15th.
The City and Borough of Juneau will seek to exempt senior executives and general surgeons at Bartlett Regional Hospital from participation in the Alaska Public Employees’ Retirement System.
The change was requested by Bartlett’s Board of Directors, after a recent shake up in management at the city-owned hospital. Last year, the board decided to hire its own Chief Executive and Chief Financial Officers – positions previously employed by an outside management company.
The hospital board, which is appointed by the CBJ Assembly, is currently recruiting a new CEO. Board Vice President Linda Thomas told the Assembly last night (Monday) that excluding the positions from PERS would attract more candidates.
“This gives us an ability to negotiate with candidates based upon what they’re bringing to the hospital, and what’s going on in their life as far as retirement,” Thomas said. “They can handle their own financial planning and retirement planning. And I think it opens up a larger universe of candidates for recruitment.”
Bartlett’s Interim CEO John Vowell said the average tenure of a chief executive at a single hospital these days is between three and five years. As a result, he explained, most top-level executives choose to manage their own retirement, which they negotiate as part of a contract with the facility where they work.
“That way they’re not continuously leaving their retirement dollars someplace else, and never reaching a point where they have accumulated enough years then to qualify to receive benefits at some point in the future,” Vowell said.
The trend in the health care industry also has been toward doctors negotiating their own retirement, which is why the board requested to exempt general surgeons as well. Most doctors at Bartlett have their own private practice, but see patients at the hospital on contract. However, there are two general surgeons on Bartlett’s payroll.
Assemblyman Jesse Kiehl said he understood the benefit of exempting doctors from the public employees’ retirement system, but not senior executives.
“I am not comfortable with the notion that we’ll treat every Bartlett employee except the two at the top in one way, and the two at the top will in essence negotiate their own deal under a different structure,” Kiehl said.
But Deputy Mayor David Stone – the assembly’s liaison to the hospital board – referenced former long-time hospital administrator, the late Robert Valliant, in arguing the change was needed to keep up with the times.
“Clearly, Mr. Valliant – who was administrator for a number of years – is a rare exception,” Stone said. “We’d be lucky if we get someone to serve five years or more. But I think we need to give the board flexibility to make them competitive, for us to attract the best CEO or CFO that we can get.”
The city’s participation in PERS is governed by a contract with the State of Alaska, which manages the retirement system. The Assembly passed a resolution last night (Monday) authorizing the city manager to seek an amendment to the contract, exempting the three positions at the hospital.
At Kiehl’s request, there were separate votes on whether to exempt the top-level executives and general surgeons. The vote on the surgeons was unanimous. Kiehl and Assemblywoman Ruth Danner were the only members opposed to an exemption for the executives.
The city will request the exemptions take effect April 1st.
Bob Bartholomew – former Chief Operating Officer of the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation – will be the City and Borough of Juneau’s new Finance Director, starting in June.
Current Finance Director Craig Duncan made his long-expected retirement official today (Wednesday), though he will remain on the job through May 31st to see the city through one more budget cycle.
Bartholomew has held various jobs at the State of Alaska, including six years as COO of the Permanent Fund, and five as Assistant Director of the Department of Revenue’s Tax Division. He recently spent three years under contract to the CBJ as project manager for a computer system upgrade and transition.
Duncan has worked at the city for 30 years, the last 20 as Finance Director. He announced his intention to retire last fall.
As we reported yesterday, a new study says avalanches from Mt. Juneau pose an “unacceptable risk” to Capital City residents and property. The study also recommends the city buyout at risk homes. KTOO’s Casey Kelly reports.
Consultants from the Swiss Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research looked at Mt. Juneau’s Behrends Avenue and White Subdivision avalanche paths last year.
Over the centuries, slides have carved out huge swaths of hillside on the 35-hundred foot peak overlooking a pair of neighborhoods near downtown Juneau.
The report makes clear it’s only a matter of time before the next large avalanche impacts one of those neighborhoods, says the city’s Emergency Programs Manager Tom Mattice.
“They looked at the history from the early 1900s all the way to present and in the Behrends path they found three avalanches reaching tidewater, in 1890, 1926, and 1962. In 1962 only the wind event reached the tidewater. But in the other two events, snow mass reached the tidewater in great amounts,” said Mattice.
Computer model of a 30 year dry powder avalanche with a 1.4 meter depth in the Mount Juneau starting zones. Video courtesy of City and Borough of Juneau Emergency Programs.
The report says the most effective way to reduce the risk of avalanches from the Behrends path is to have the city buyout homes in the neighborhood below and prohibit development there.
Other measures – such as snow dams and retaining walls near houses, or snow supporting structures on the hillside – are too expensive and might not protect the neighborhood. The report says they could be effective in the White subdivision, which contains fewer homes, but there would need to be more study.
Likewise, Mattice says the consultants do not recommend using explosives to artificially release snow on Mt. Juneau.
“With a mean inclination of 34 and 35 degrees, those are very, very active avalanche paths,” Mattice said. “The worst case scenario is, we’d try and start a small avalanche, the avalanche zones connect to one another, we’d end up with a large avalanche and we’d be buying the houses.”
The report recommends the buyout, which would include at least 28 homes, be done in phases, targeting the most at-risk properties first. Mattice says the same Federal Emergency Management Agency grant that paid for the avalanche mitigation report could pay for a buyout.
“At this point in time, the recommendation would be after to approach the residents in area one, determine their level of interest, and after you’ve gained level of interest you could determine fair market value on those properties. Then use that fair market value to form cost-benefit analysis to apply for the grants for that first step,” said Mattice.
The buyout idea has been floated to city officials in the past. And while the assembly did not commit to any course of action, Assemblywoman Karen Crane said she hopes this report will not be ignored.
“I just hope this doesn’t end up another report – we’ve had several along the way – that ends up on the shelf, and that we can find a path to take some action here,” Crane said.
At a minimum, the report recommends mandatory evacuations and road closures when avalanche danger is most severe.
The consultants say Juneau Douglas High School, which is near the bottom of the Behrends path, would not sustain any damage even from the largest possible avalanche.
