The City of Unalaska has filled two department head vacancies, and will postpone considering an addition of more staff to the city’s payroll.
Last month, the city appointed Brian Thacker as the director of Public Works. He joined the city from Virginia, where he held the same position for Amherst County for the last five years.
Thacker is also an adjunct professor for Liberty University.
He will oversee the department’s five divisions, including roads, vehicle and facility maintenance, supply and project management.
At a meeting on Sept. 9, the Unalaska City Council also considered adding some Title III positions — employees who aren’t represented by a labor union — to the city’s payroll at the city’s suggestion. The city proposed increasing wages and fringe benefits to an additional human resources staff member and a deputy director for the public works department, and altering the structure of the city manager’s department.
According to a city memo, the city has grown to a point where the current structure can’t properly manage operational and personnel demands. And creating “a dual leadership structure with a Deputy City Manager allows [the city] to better support day-to-day operations while positioning the City Manager to focus on broader priorities.”
Still, some City Council members voiced concerns about adding more staff at the meeting.
Council member Daneen Looby said she’s not against the idea, but wants more discussion before setting anything in stone.
“Increasing government staff when we have the population decreasing, I'm not quite sure that it makes a lot of sense,” Looby said.
Looby suggested Thacker, the new Public Works director, have a chance to evaluate whether or not he might need a deputy director.
“Once you create staffing positions, increase those, they don't go away,” she said. “It's really hard to take them away, and so I think it really needs to be justified.”
Still, council member Alejandro “Bong” Tungul said the deputy position could help with understaffing issues.
“If we got a deputy, they got knowledge on what's going on already in the department,” Tungul said. “And I think it's an important position to be filled because we've been losing directors a lot, and without any deputy, we were not covered. We’re putting people in there just to get us by.”
Council chose to postpone its decision on adding the Title III positions and will consider that portion separately from the rest of the original budget amendment, which includes increasing wages and benefits for some union employees and increasing the Parks, Culture and Recreation Department’s operating budget for their senior exercise program.
Council made a procedural error at the meeting by dividing the amendment for the ordinance during its first reading, according to another city memo. Technically, council members should have introduced the full ordinance first and amended later with a public hearing and second reading.
“Those positions were not rejected, but rather delayed, and may still be brought forward separately,” the memo reads.
The Public Utilities Department, which is separate from Public Works, is already structured with a deputy position. Erik Hernandez held the position before being promoted to department director last month. He had been the acting director since 2023, when former department head Steve Tompkins retired.
Hernandez is a lifelong Unalaskan and will oversee the island’s public services, including water, wastewater and electric power production.
The city is currently looking to fill one other director position for its Ports and Harbors Department. The former ports director filed a lawsuit against the city last month for wrongful termination, after the city manager fired her in late July.
