KMXT 100.1 FM Public Radio in Kodiak, Alaska
Kayla Desroches/KMXT
The Kodiak Island Borough Assembly discussed lengthening a lease and accelerating a job application process at its work session Tuesday night. The borough leases the Kodiak Fisheries Research Center to NOAA through the U.S. General Services Administration, which handles federal property. Borough Manager Bud Cassidy explained the current lease expires in December 2018, and the borough is considering a new contract to extend the relationship and lower the overall cost for NOAA and GSA.
“I think all federal agencies, all state agencies, I talk about even local folks are really turning over every rock they can to see if there’s a place for cost savings. And what we found out is that GSA, who actually is the entity who negotiates leases for all federal agencies around the United States, has really been charged to try to come up with some cost savings.”
Assemblyman Dan Rohrer said he read the new lease draft and took issue with some of the changes.
“GSA is very, very successful at transferring the risk – I mean, it is admittedly, previously, the current lease, is very lucrative so to speak for the Kodiak Island Borough, but certainly the superseding proposed lease is certainly hugely beneficial to GSA, and so, obviously, the meeting in the middle somewhere is always the challenge.”
One that the assembly will tackle in the future. The work session is the first in a number of discussions regarding the lease. The assembly also talked about accelerating the application process for a new borough manager in light of Cassidy’s 90-day notice, which he gave earlier this month. The assembly viewed and agreed on a projected timeline which Assemblyman Mel Stephens put together.
When it came to discussing how the borough would approach interviews, Assemblyman Larry LeDoux said trying to fly more than a select number of candidates up to Kodiak is too expensive.
“We have the technology pretty much to be able to see someone and talk to them and for them to see us. You know, fly ‘em in, we show them Kodiak, talk to them, ‘cause you know it’s expected if they’re gonna come here, they have to want to come here and, to do that, they have to see our wonderful community. But, most of them…many of them just do this for the trip.”
Stephens agreed.
“Last time we did this, we brought six different people up here and, as Larry suggested, it seemed to me that most of them were simply interested in getting a free trip up to Kodiak, which is why when we offered the job to three different people, they said no, no, and no.”
At the same time, Stephens said he has reservations about offering a job to someone whose hand he hasn’t shaken, and he thinks a serious candidate will want to visit Kodiak. He said the borough could postpone that decision until after the video conference interviews, when the borough has a better idea of the number of successful candidates. On the schedule, those final interviews are set for May.
The assembly’s next regular meeting is scheduled for January 7 at 7:30 p.m., and there is an Assembly and City Council Joint Work Session the same night at 6:30.
