The City of Nome is moving forward and making offers in their search for a new city manager.

“I was directed, by motion, to begin negotiations with Mr. Glenn Steckman for the city manager’s position.”

– City Clerk Bryant Hammond

That action was taken following a special City Council meeting on Monday [9/30] where the council discussed the city manager search in executive session.

But, Steckman wasn’t the Council’s first choice. Jerald Brown admitted to the public during Monday’s meeting that during their previous executive session, the Council instructed city staff to begin negotiations with Randy Robertson.  

Hammond says that by taking action during an executive session, the Council violated the Open Meetings Act.

However, the action was irrelevant as Robertson declined the offer for “multi-faceted reasons”. According to Hammond some of those included the high moving expenses to Alaska and that it was a “major life decision”.

“He felt that the entire council didn’t have him as the number one pick, so he was unsure of going into a situation where there may have been dissent from the beginning.”

– City Clerk Bryant Hammond

In their offer to Steckman, the Council increased the amount offered for moving expenses from $5,000 to $10,000. Right now, there is no deadline for Steckman to accept the offer. He still has the ability to negotiate a contract with the City and the Council would have to be approve a final contract by resolution.

Also during an executive session on Monday night, the Council met to discuss the demands from the ACLU to the City of Nome but took no formal action on that matter.

Image at top: From left to right: John Handeland, Glenn Steckman, and Randy Robertson. Photo: Emily Hofstaedter, KNOM.