Last week on Nov. 13 Mangini was sworn-in by City Clerk Brandy Warnecke alongside councilmember Djuna Davidson who had not yet taken her oath of office.
The council opening came after former councilmember Terry Haines was sworn in as City Mayor last month, which automatically vacated his seat. That gave the council 30 days to fill the seat with whomever they chose as there is not a specific process for filling vacant council seats that is required by city code.
*For transparency, Haines, the Mayor of the City of Kodiak, is also a staff member at KMXT. He does not have any editorial influence over news stories and he did not review this story before it was published.
Unlike the Kodiak Island Borough Assembly, who accepted applications from interested qualified candidates to fill their temporarily vacant seat, the city council decided to appoint any qualified city resident they selected without going through an application process.
During a work session last month on Oct. 30 Councilmember Djuna Davidson suggested that her fellow candidate on the election ballot, Nick Mangini, fill that seat. She pointed out that it was basically a coin toss between her and Mangini, who lost to her by three votes. Davidson received 366 votes while Mangini got 363 and Mangini told the city council that he was still interested in the position despite losing the election.
“I’ve heard a lot of feedback from community members upset with the borough process because it did not select the next person who got the highest votes. And so I do think that this is an important point of consideration," Davidson said. "Not to be dismissive of the value of public process, but in an instance where our hands are not tied and where it’s, in my personal perspective, not untransparent to say we’re choosing this person without an application process because the voters clearly are interested in this person serving the community.”
Although there was some pushback by other council members on Oct. 30, by Thursday, Nov. 13, the four present councilmembers voted unanimously to appoint Mangini to fill the last seat on the council until next year’s election on Oct. 6, 2026. Annika Woods's absence was excused during Thursday's meeting.
Also during Thursday’s meeting on Nov. 13, the council appointed Deputy City Manager Josie Bahnke as the acting city manager while the council goes through the hiring process for an interim manager.
Bahnke will receive a $19 hourly increase effective retroactively as of Nov. 1, according to city documents, and she will continue at that rate as long as she is the acting city manager. Last year, when Bahnke was re-appointed as acting city manager in October of 2024, the council authorized the same hourly increase to her salary at that time, but her total wage was not disclosed.
