Sitka Assembly votes to negotiate contract with Gerrie Cotter for municipal administrator

Sitka's Assembly has taken its first formal step toward filling the city's top administrative post, voting 7-0 on Sept. 22 to direct the Deputy Administrator to negotiate an employment contract with finalist Gerrie Cotter.

The vote does not complete the hire. The City and Borough of Sitka's fall newsletter, released Wednesday, gave no salary, contract terms or start date, and no date has been set for a final contract to return to the Assembly.

Cotter's application lists her most recent job as administrator of an urban township of nearly 30,000 residents, with a $19 million budget and 80 employees. Before that, she spent 14 years at the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.

Cotter would succeed John Leach, whose resignation the Assembly accepted in November 2025. In January, the Assembly moved his departure from May 30 to as late as Dec. 18, which its sponsors said would let him overlap with a successor, and raised his salary to $230,000.

Cotter was the only applicant left after a second withdrew. The Assembly interviewed her by Zoom on Aug. 21 and again Sept. 10, and she met residents at receptions at Harrigan Centennial Hall in mid-September.