Five candidates out of roughly 40 applicants have been identified by a recruitment firm as the finalists to become Kodiak’s next permanent city manager. The city council has decided to move forward with two of those individuals.
All the finalists have at least two decades of experience working with various municipal governments in a variety of roles, not just as city managers. Three out of the five have worked in Alaska communities. But none have lived or worked in Kodiak.
Scott Krim, who led the recruitment process for Colin Baezinger & Associates, told the council during a work session on Tuesday night, June 3, that at the last minute one of the finalists is no longer being considered for the job.
“As of late last night [Monday], I received a text message from one of these candidates, Patrick Jordan, who accepted another job offer," Krim said. "Now I did talk to him earlier today [Tuesday] and he wanted me to tell you that nothing is for certain. His contract is supposed to be signed on Friday.”
After hearing from Krim, the majority of the city council agreed on two of the finalists that they would like to move forward with – Randy Robertson and Blaine Oborn. Council member Annika Woods said she was in favor of Robertson and Anton “Tony” Graff as her top two candidates, rather than Oborn, although Oborn was a "close third". Graff has been the interim city administrator for Crest Hill, Illinois since last year and has no Alaska experience.
According to application documents, Robertson is currently unemployed. His most recent job was as the county manager in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, but he only worked in that position for a few months before leaving due to family medical needs. He was also the city manager in Cordova for about three years, from 2013 to 2016.
Robertson also applied to jobs in Seward, Skagway, and Nome where he was a finalist being considered for the Nome city manager job in 2019, but didn’t get selected. He also sought the Homer city manager job in 2024 and was one of the final three candidates. Prior to that he had been offered the same job in Homer in 2020 but declined after some comments from local council members were reported by the Homer News.
The Kodiak City Council’s other top choice, Oborn, is a self-employed consultant. Prior to that he was the city administrator at Oak Harbor, Washington for six years. His application documents and reports from Washington press say his at-will contract was abruptly terminated in February of 2024 for unjustified reasons. He has no prior work experience in Alaska and has mainly held municipal jobs in Wisconsin and West Virginia.
Krim, with Colin Baezinger & Associates, recommended the city council bring up at least two candidates for a visit to Kodiak later this month.
“We want these candidates to spend as much time as possible with you," Krim said. "We want to make sure the chemistry is there for the candidate that you would like to be your next city manager. And really, truly, the only way that you’re going to do that is to meet them in person.”
The council agreed to pay for Robertson and Oborn to come to Kodiak later this month around June 19 and possibly June 20 for in-person interviews, although the details were not finalized during Tuesday night’s work session.
According to Krim, the hiring firm is still on track to have the new city manager hired by the end of this month.
Editor's note: A previous version of this article misrepresented council member Woods' top two candidates. It has since been updated and KMXT regrets the error.
