Unalaska, AK – City Manager Chris Hladick recently received the Alaska Municipal Employee of the Year award from the Alaska Municipal League. Hladick said he was completely shocked by the honor, which rarely goes to city managers. "It's an honor to be recognized by your peers."

The award recognizes his commitment to and work with the community. He was nominated by a member of the city staff and then the board of directors for the League, which represents 140 different municipalities, selected him for the award.

Hladick has worked as a city manager for almost 20 years. He was the public works director in Galena when the mayor convinced him to take the city manager's position. He said he was clueless when he started but stuck with it for five years before taking the city manager job in Dillingham for seven years. He's been in Unalaska for almost eight years. The average length of time for a city manager to work in a rural Alaska community is 18 months.

"I've been blessed to have really good, very supportive city council members. And there's been over 65 I've worked with now, and ten mayors, I believe," Hladick said.

He said it helps that he is persistent at trying to find consensus amongst the council members while trying to keep the communities out of legal trouble. But it isn't always easy or straight forward.

"What do I do when I get frustrated?" Hladick laughed. "Um that's a good question. I always think there must be something I'm missing or I need to come at it from a different angle."

He said working in Unalaska has been very rewarding because community members are appreciative of the work the city does as a whole and because people are willing to pursue new ideas and get things done.