Politics

The council approved adding $10,000 to the budget for recruiting for the positions of City Manager and City Attorney. The money will go toward additional advertising and travel.

The Bethel City Council has backtracked on previous decisions to block two marijuana stores from opening. On Nov. 12, council changed its protests of licenses for both Kusko Kush and Alaskan Grown Cannabis to conditional protests. Now, if the marijuana stores can follow city and state fire marshal codes, they will be allowed to open. 

Bethel City Council extended the application periods for both the city manager and city attorney positions. Council introduced a budget modification to pay the search firm another $10,000 for the additional recruitment. The city has already paid $28,000 for candidates that council ultimately rejected.

A dispute over a piece of City of Bethel property near the Long House Hotel may be coming to an end. On Oct. 29,  Bethel City Council voted to introduce the sale of the land at 718 3rd Avenue to a marijuana retail store, Kusko Kush, owned by Jared Karr and Naim Shabani. 

On Wednesday, the Bethel City Council interviewed a candidate for city attorney, and chose to re-open the application period. This came a day after council also rejected both finalists for the Bethel City Manager position. 

Bethel City Council unanimously rejected adding a new city position, which would have employed a half-time dogcatcher, half-time city code-enforcer. 

Michelle DeWitt has been appointed to the final open seat on the Bethel City Council. There were five applicants for the one-year term, which became vacant when Carole Jung-Jordan resigned last month. DeWitt currently works at the Bethel Community Services Foundation. She called into last night’s council meeting to make her opening statement.

The search for Bethel’s new city manager has taken a step backwards. Last night, the city council rejected both finalists for the position, Aaron Easton and Michael Patterson, due to concerns over their backgrounds. The council then voted to re-open the application period for the city manager job.