Juneau's ski hill picks a new leader — in public

Juneau's beloved city ski hill is picking a new leader Thursday — and residents get an unusually direct say in who gets the job. The Eaglecrest board will interview its lone finalist for general manager in open session, in front of the public, then take written comments before deciding.

The finalist is Julie Jackson Piper, and she's a familiar face at the mountain. She currently runs recreation for Richland, Washington, but she's worked for Juneau before — as the city's aquatics manager and, earlier, in two roles at Eaglecrest itself, coordinating youth and community outreach and supervising the snowsports school. That local history is part of the pitch: someone who already knows the hill and the community rather than an outside hire learning both from scratch.

The more intriguing item is the one the agenda won't explain. Before or alongside the interview, the board has scheduled a separate conversation with Goldbelt, Juneau's urban Alaska Native corporation and one of the region's major institutions, with more than 3,800 mostly Tlingit shareholders. The agenda doesn't say what the discussion is about, and neither Eaglecrest nor Goldbelt has offered a public explanation. For a small public ski area that has spent recent years working to become a year-round operation, a sit-down with a corporation of Goldbelt's reach is worth noticing — even if, for now, its purpose is unstated.

Residents who want to weigh in have several openings: two general public-comment periods plus the written forms collected after the interview. The board will then move into a closed session to discuss confidential details about the candidate, permitted under the state's open-meetings law. The meeting is at 5:30 p.m. July 2 in Assembly Chambers, and open by Zoom for anyone who can't attend in person.