(Sage Smiley / KSTK)
Wrangell’s city manager is leaving at the end of the month and the assembly needs to find at least a temporary fill-in before then.
Wrangell’s current city manager gave notice last month, citing family issues. Her last day will be October 29.
Wrangell Mayor Steve Prysunka says the original plan was to hire an interim from a qualified pool recommended by the Alaska Municipal League, which represents local governments. But then, someone got in touch that they were interested in the city manager job.
“And so we thought we would offer that person who’s applying for the city manager job the opportunity to also apply to be the interim,” Prysunka says. “All of a sudden, we went from utilizing the AML pool, to taking it outside the AML pool, so I said to the city clerk, ‘I’m not comfortable with that. We need to open it up.’”
That means the Wrangell Assembly is now accepting general applications for a temporary city manager to fill-in while it works to find a more permanent hire.
In late August, the borough assembly created a deputy borough manager position. But Prysunka says that search for a second and command would have to wait.
“We can’t hire a deputy borough manager, that’s the borough manager’s hire,” Prysunka explains, “So we’ll get the borough manager in place first, and then we’ll let them decide if they want a deputy, or who.”
Resumes for the Wrangell interim borough manager position will be accepted until 3 p.m. October 13. Lisa von Bargen has held city manager job since coming to Wrangell from the City of Valdez in 2017.
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