KMXT 100.1 FM Public Radio in Kodiak, Alaska
It’s been about two months since Aimee Williams went from being the Kodiak Island Borough’s mayor to its manager. Since then, she’s been busy meeting all of the staff and helped create the budget the Borough Assembly passed earlier this month. She said the biggest transition was the move from sharing her opinions on policy to executing the Assembly’s decisions.
“It’s a little bit different, not having involvement in making the policy and now just instead carrying out the policy but we’re not micromanaged by the Assembly, so there’s still a lot of decision making and figuring out the best way to get things done,” Williams said.
The first budget drafts came out while Williams was still mayor. She said reviewing budgets from that position and her experience as an Assembly member helped prepare her for creating versions herself.
“I made sure to ask more questions than I probably ever had before and just try to dig deep and come up with a better understanding of what was going on and what the needs were,” Williams said.
Williams’ predecessor is back to heading the public works department. She said he and the other department leaders have been instrumental as she has been learning the ropes of the job.
“I think I was there a month before I actually was in charge of purchasing something on my own,” she said. “(I’m) just compartmentalizing what the priorities are and learning this stuff to make the day to day operations work and now I’m just starting to branch out into some of the other stuff but I felt very supported.”
Williams recently visited the villages of Karluk and Larsen Bay to meet leaders there and get updated on projects in those communities. Her next plans as manager include reviewing the borough’s leases and finding staff for the municipality’s open positions.
