Ken Smith/Turnagain Times
New interim city manager Johnny C. Janik.
By Ken Smith
Turnagain Times
Ed Barrett resigned as Whittier’s city manager after eight months on the job. He was hired as the interim city manager in January, following the resignation of Mark Earnest, who accepted a job in Haines as borough manager.
Barrett resigned Aug. 3 and opted to accept a position in Haines as the harbormaster, a job he turned down in February shortly after Earnest was hired.
Barrett was Whittier’s harbormaster for three years before accepting the interim city manager position. The City Council voted 5-2 to hire him as the full-time city manager in May, but Barrett, 57, did not sign a contract and was working on a month-to-month basis.
The city’s newly hired director of administration, Johnny C. Janik, who started July 19, has been promoted to the position of interim city manager.
In an interview with the Turnagain Times for the June 17 issue, Barrett seemed happy and content to be the new city manager, which has experienced a high turnover over the last 10 years with four different mayors having come and gone.
He said he was committed to the job because he wanted to see three major projects through to development: The Shotgun Cove road extension, a $16 million reconstruction of the city harbor and the development of the head of Passage Canal and the city’s waterfront.
But at the end of July, it appears Barrett’s temperament had changed and he no longer wanted to work in Whittier.
A source told the Turnagain Times that Barrett was having a difficult time working with some members of the City Council and that he was being “bullied.”
This reporter contacted Barrett in Haines, who’d been on the job for a week as the harbormaster, and asked him if conflicts with the City Council lead to his decision to resign.
“Whittier is a challenging place to work,” he answered, “and that may have been an element of my decision, but I decided to leave and pursue a profession that I’d been trained for.”
When questioned further about his relationship with the City Council and whether it was a leading factor for leaving the city manger position, Barrett answered, “I prefer to work in a more relaxed atmosphere. I want to work in a community that is less stressful. I did not always agree with members of the City Council and that is an element of the stress related to the job.”
Barrett said he had a good working relationship with the mayor, Lester Lunceford. He wishes the people of Whittier well and said he is keeping an open line of communication with Janik if he has any questions.
Barrett said he hadn’t seriously considered resigning until the end of July, particularly because he wanted to make sure some grants were secured. However, after he hired a director of administration and a contractor to manage grants, he was comfortable with his decision to resign.
“I felt it was my duty to remain at least until the staff could be rebuilt, and the City Council asked me to hire a grants contractor, which I did, Infinite Insight in Anchorage, to oversee the grant administration.”
Barrett said he his happy with his decision to take the job as harbormaster in Haines, which he began Aug. 12, reuniting him with Earnest and allowing him to work in his area of expertise.
With Barrett’s departure the city is now in the hands of Janik, 56, who was working for the Kenai Borough as an economic analyst for a year before coming to Whittier. Prior to that he worked for eight years as a real estate appraiser for the borough.
Janik agreed to be Whittier’s interim city manager for a salary of $75,000; Barrett had been making $103,000, after taking a reduced salary of $15,000 to make room in the budget to hire a director of administration. Barrett now makes $64,000 as the Haines harbormaster.
Despite Barrett’s sudden resignation, Janik seems calm and ready to tackle the challenges of the city manager position.
We met in his office when the staff was at lunch, and he was very plain spoken and frank with his answers and open-minded about the challenge of the job.
“They (the City Council) is not looking for a city manager right now,” he said. “I was hired for 90 days, and we’ll test the water, and we’ll see how it goes after 90 days, and if it all goes well, and I think it will.”
Janik’s expectations of Whittier have already changed. Before he arrived, he knew very little about the small port city.
“I thought it would just be a smaller version of Seward or Homer,” he said, “but it was quite different. I wasn’t expecting this 15-story building with most of the town living in it.”
He was surprised to see how busy the city was, “the busiest little town I’ve ever lived in,” he said.
Janik is waiting for his wife to arrive later this month. He said they are looking to buy a condo in the Begich Towers. The city offices are also located on the first floor of the building, which Janik said is an added bonus to the job.
“I don’t have to make a 16-mile commute to work in the winter,” he said with a smile. “I can just take an elevator.”
