Kodiak council can offer interim manager Putney the job without interviews, attorney says

The Kodiak City Council can offer the permanent city manager job to interim manager Tim Putney without interviewing other applicants, the city attorney wrote in a memo dated Thursday.

If the council decides at a Nov. 10 work session that it doesn't need other interviews, the offer could come as soon as its Nov. 12 meeting, the memo says. The draft contract would follow the job posting's terms, including a $200,000 annual salary. Because of Thanksgiving and the Alaska Municipal League conference, the council has no other regular meeting scheduled until Dec. 3.

Mayor Terry Haines had asked whether the council could offer Putney the job without interviewing other applicants. "The short answer is yes," city attorney Charles A. Cacciola wrote. Putney has been interim manager since May 30 and has applied for the permanent job. The city has 27 applications.

The memo comes a week after council members split over whether to hear the attorney's hiring advice in a closed-door session.

The City Charter says the manager "shall be chosen solely on the basis of executive and administrative qualifications." Neither the charter nor city ordinances say how the council should judge that, Cacciola wrote, and the council didn't adopt a formal process for evaluating candidates. It paused hiring until after the Oct. 6 election, partly because a charter amendment on where the manager may live was on the ballot. Voters loosened the residency rule.

Cacciola recommends that each council member review the applications before the Nov. 10 work session, where the council would discuss in public whether anyone else should be interviewed. Applicants should be interviewed only if they are truly being considered, he wrote. Interviews "to check the box" aren't fair to the interviewee.

The memo also recommends putting a closed-door session on the Nov. 12 agenda in case the council votes in public to offer Putney the job and he wants to negotiate the terms. Members would use it to agree on the city's position, without Putney in the room. "Put simply, poker can't be played effectively if one player is always showing the cards," Cacciola wrote.