Utqiagvik council weighs finance and executive director appointments

The Utqiagvik City Council votes Thursday on who will run two of the city's top administrative offices, along with naming a mayor pro tempore.

The meeting packet, posted Wednesday, lists Resolution 11-2026, which would appoint Maria C. Ortilla as finance director, and Resolution 12-2026, which would appoint Lupe Takafua as executive director. Both are action items. A third resolution, 13-2026, would name a mayor pro tempore.

The council has set the city's general fund budget by ordinance before, including Ordinance 3-2025 for the fiscal year ending June 20, 2026. The city's municipal code provides for a chief administrative officer. It also allows an acting chief administrative officer to be appointed from among certain senior officials during a temporary absence or disability of the mayor lasting up to 10 working days.

The appointments reach the council on the same agenda as two tax measures. Ordinance 04-2026, a 2026 sales tax suspension, comes up for introduction only. Ordinance 03-2026, amending the city's marijuana tax, is set for public hearing. The council will also review bids for renovation of the Piuraagvik locker room. The agenda carries Resolution 14-2024 on the Eben Hopson Scholarship and Resolution 15-2026 on OpenGov, along with the mayor's report and the North Slope Borough Police Department monthly report.

The packet posts the resolutions as downloadable documents. The agenda itself offers no explanation for the change in either position. A professional profile lists Eta-starr Edwardsen as finance director for the City of Utqiagvik since February 2023.

Municipal staffing and capacity are on the statewide agenda more broadly. In resolutions adopted in January, the Alaska Municipal League called for a modernized public employee retirement system and for state action to maintain a municipal maintenance workforce.

The council meets at 5:30 p.m. Thursday in the City Chambers, its regular fourth-Thursday slot, and takes public comment on the marijuana tax ordinance at that meeting.