Nome’s new city manager led the city council through a meeting approving a new clerk and a slew of other housekeeping issues ahead of the October municipal election, but the council rejected one major project: a bid to remodel city hall.
In his first council meeting as city manager, one of Tom Moran’s first ordinances was to find himself a new city clerk. The council considered applicant Bryant Hammond for the job.
“Mr. Hammond’s been in town for about five years. His most current position was head of community planning and development at Kawerak,” Moran said of the recommended candidate for the city clerk position.
“The former city manager and personnel director were very happy to extend him a contract based on the interview. I think that his resume and his job history speak for themselves,” Moran added.
Hammond’s two-year contract comes with an annual salary of $75,000. The council unanimously approved the contract.
With a new city manager and city clerk, the council moved through some housekeeping work, like authorizing both Moran and Hammond to sign checks and other city agreements, and appointing job duties for the October election, before taking up a nearly $44,000 contract to re-design city hall’s front office.
The resolution before the council was awarded to the lowest bidder, Wasilla-based Wolverine Supply, but only after a last-minute fax from the company cut its original bid of $100,000 by more than half. That bid modification undercut the second low bidder—local contractor and city council member Randy Pomeranz of Pomeranz Construction—by just $200.
Council member Stan Andersen questioned the need to spend so much money on the project, and the razor-thin margin that would send the job to a MatSu company.
“What are we getting for the $50,000?” Andersen asked. “Are the people really going to be served by that? And if it this is going, for $200, why wouldn’t we do it locally?”
Keeping the job local would require a change to the resolution at hand, and Andersen quickly offered one.
“I’ll make a motion that we amend this, to put in Pomeranz Construction for $43,900,” he said.
Council member Jerald Brown seconded the motion (“for discussion purposes,” he noted), and followed up with questions about the city’s local vendor preference. Brown asked if that preference would be apply in this case, potentially swinging the contract to Pomeranz.
City manager Moran checked as the council debated amending the issue there and then, or table it for consideration down the road. The question led to some discussion among the council—with Pomeranz vocally abstaining due to the conflict of interest for his business—but in the end, it was all for naught: the council ultimately rejected the project outright, meaning no contract to offer to anyone, and no facelift for city hall.
Utility manager John Handeland next gave an update to the council, noting that he’s been spending extra time working to get power to the Richard Foster Building after an electrical subcontractor, Megawatt Electric, miscalculated the wiring needs of the new building and failed to purchase a transformer for the project.
“The specifications as they were put out said to coordinate with the local utility,” Handeland explained. “Megawatt had some changes in personnel and somehow it slipped through the cracks. The oversight has been addressed and the wire is coming.” Handeland said a transformer is on the next barge.
Before they adjourned, the council took one last look at the Nome Police Department’s vehicle procurement for the coming year, and noted three new vehicles on the list that council members said don’t appear in the city budget.
Council member Stan Andersen clarified the purchase of three new Ford Explorers was approved by former city manager Josie Bahnke before she left office, and with each vehicle coming in below the $40,000 mark, none of the purchases required council approval.
Council members were quick to make a note of the move, saying it’s “not the way the council likes to do business.” Short of amending the city budget, finance director Julie Liew told the council the city will likely have to use some of the roughly half a million dollars it made in the December land sale to Northwest Campus to pay for the new police trucks.
With a new city manager and city clerk, the question is now, who will be on the council—and in the mayor’s seat—come October? Two council seats are on the city’s October ballot, as is the office of mayor and positions on the utility and school boards.
A final list of candidates for Nome’s city election is expected Tuesday.
