Proposed aquatics board gets stripped of some power

The Augustus Brown facility includes two pools, a sauna and an exercise area. (Photo by Aaron Russell)
The Augustus Brown Swimming Pool. (Photo by Aaron Russell)

The Juneau Assembly on Monday weakened the authority of a proposed aquatics board. It’s the empowered pool board that Juneau voters gave the Assembly permission to make in October through a ballot initiative. The board being proposed now wouldn’t be able to hire and fire its own CEO.

Assembly member Loren Jones proposed an amendment to keep the Parks and Recreation director as head of the pools. Jones said the empowered board would still be responsible for budgeting and operations.

“It sets up a dual responsibility for the director of parks and rec in the way that he will be answerable to the empowered board for the pools when the issues are the pools,” Jones said.

Kirk Duncan became Juneau's Parks and Recreation Director Jan. 5 (Photo by Lisa Phu/KTOO)
Kirk Duncan became Juneau’s Parks and Recreation Director Jan. 5 (Photo by Lisa Phu/KTOO)

For the rest of the time, Parks and Recreation Director Kirk Duncan would still answer to the city manager. Duncan started the job in January after heading the city’s public works department. Prior to that, he was the manager of the city-owned Eaglecrest Ski Area, which is run by an empowered board.

Assembly member Karen Crane says the amendment is a good compromise. She doesn’t see much conflict in having Duncan working for both the city manager and the aquatics board.

“I think that communication between the two sides and the skills frankly that our parks and rec director possesses would be a real advantage in this case and so this is about the only way under which I would favor an empowered board,” Crane said.

Assembly member Jerry Nankervis says it simply won’t work.

“When one boss says I want you to do this and it directly conflicts with what the other boss says, what you do is you take that baby and you tear it in half, and it’s a no-win situation,” Nankervis said.

Jones’ amendment passed with Assembly members Nankervis, Kate Troll and Debbie White voting no. The Assembly directed city staff to add a sunset clause of 3 years and language clarifying the director’s chain of command. The amended ordinance is scheduled for public comment at the Assembly’s April 27 meeting.

Duncan says he understands the concerns about conflict. But he says he’s looking forward to the potential challenge.

“It’s not written in stone that you can’t work for two bosses and if this is a short term fix – 3 years – I’m certainly willing to give it a try. I came to Juneau to take over a government-run ski area. It was a real challenge. There aren’t very many of them around. So this challenge of working for two entities, heck, I think that sounds like kind of an interesting challenge,” Duncan says.

As the Assembly continues to work through the process of establishing the aquatics board, the city has hired an outside firm to manage the pools. USA Pool Management also runs Bethel’s new city pool.

Juneau’s last aquatics manager left the position in February and it hasn’t been filled since. Duncan says the contract is for 6 months at a cost of $14,500 a month.

Full disclosure: Kirk Duncan is on KTOO’s Board of Directors.

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