Juneau advertises for a new lobbyist

The city and borough of Juneau is advertising for a new lobbyist to replace Clark Gruening who retired at the end of July.

The assembly previously discussed a short list of potential candidates. Assembly member Carlton Smith says the assembly decided to issue a solicitation of interest instead to broaden the selection. Carlton sits on the lobbyist selection subcommittee.

“The solicitation is designed to identify any persons of interest that have a commitment to work with Juneau and an interest in this role and we just weren’t certain if there were folks that were interested who were not on that initial list,” he says.

Smith anticipates the capital budget would be the biggest priority for a new CBJ lobbyist.

“The governor has made preliminary suggestions that the capital budget is going to be a very challenging thing to come up with really much in the way of extra funds at all for municipalities to work with,” he says.

The subcommittee will review submissions when it meets next Monday and make recommendations to the assembly on candidates to interview.

Smith does not know how much the city will pay a new lobbyist.

“In the past, the city lobbyist position, that role, has been in the $60,000 range. I’m not sure if that includes expenses. I think those were just direct fees, and that’s been a pretty conservative number, in our judgment, considering what some of the numbers look like today. So what we’re doing is we’re asking the new applicants, those that are considering this role, to give us a proposed fee schedule of their own,” explains Smith.

CBJ issued the solicitation yesterday. Letters of interest, resumes, and fee proposals are due to the city manager by Friday.

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