Wrangell’s Borough Assembly will hold a special meeting Tuesday to consider candidates for the Wrangell Borough Manager position.
The public can make comments at the beginning of the meeting. Then, the majority of the meeting will be conducted behind closed doors in Executive Session.
The Borough received a total of 10 applications and the Assembly boiled it down to three finalists.
Assembly members plan to discuss making an offer and negotiating a contract to one of the three chosen candidates. That is if they seem qualified and the Assembly is interested.
The Borough’s finance director, Mason Villarma, has been acting as the interim borough manager since November 20, the day of Wrangell’s landslide. Jeff Good resigned from the position last fall.
The candidates
All candidates have spent some time in Alaska, but only one – Villarma – currently lives in the state.
On top of serving as the interim borough manager and finance director for Wrangell, he serves as a board member for three different groups – Alaska Municipal League Investment Pool, Southeast Alaska Power Agency and the Gonzanga University Accounting Alumni Board.
He also serves as the head cross country coach at Wrangell High School.
The other two candidates include Alan Lanning and Jack Harper II.
Lanning currently lives in Craig, Colorado and received a Masters of Public Administration from the University of South Dakota. He served as City Manager in Cordova, AK between 2016 and 2019. He’s worked managerial positions since 1998 in various states, including Colorado, Minnesota and Kansas.
Harper resides in Texas and attended Walden University where he completed all his courses as a Ph.D. student in public policy and administration. He has worked as City Manager in multiple Texas cities since 2002.
He’s also worked for the National Forest Service as a Liaison Officer between 2011 and 2020 in Lufton, Texas.
Harper has spent a lot of time outdoors in Alaska. He backpacked the Historic Iditarod Trail, Denali and north of the Arctic Circle.
The Assembly will interview the candidates in a closed session on March 19 via video conference. The meeting begins at 5:30 in the Borough Assembly Chambers at Wrangell City Hall.
