Unalaska’s council will hold a special work session tonight at 6 p.m. to talk about compensation for city employees.

Lori Messer of Fox Lawson and Associates will present the results of a yearlong, $65,000 study, comparing Unalaska’s pay structure to municipalities in Alaska and Washington State. 

Overall, the study finds that Unalaska’s current salary minimums, midpoints, and maximums are competitive with other cities. But the salary range for some jobs -- including fire chief and city engineer -- are at least 15% below the market rate, while other positions, such as heavy equipment operator and corrections officer, are more than 20% above the going rate.

Unalaska’s canvass committee met Friday in city hall to review absentee and contested ballots and come up with final results from last week’s municipal election. 

Roger Rowland held onto city council seat C in a close race with write-in candidate Katherine Labert. Rowland received about 53 percent of the votes while write-in candidates -- including Labert -- received 47 percent of the vote. Two-hundred and ten ballots were cast for Rowland. There were 183 write-ins.

Credit: Lauren Rosenthal

Election night stretched into election morning in Unalaska, as volunteers finished tallying ballots around 1 a.m.

Their results aren't official. But according to the tally, Fernando Barrera edged out Denise Rankin for school board seat E by 57 votes. Incumbent Roger Rowland has a slight lead over write-in candidates for city council seat C, including Katherine Labert. Rowland has 198 votes, while there were a total of 173 votes for write-in candidates.

Credit: Lauren Rosenthal

Though there aren't many contested races in today's municipal elections, it could still be an interesting night for Unalaska's election staff.

City clerk Elizabeth Masoni says the voting machine that reads ballots has broken down -- for the first time in years.

"We're going to talk to the people in Omaha, which is where the machine is programmed," Masoni says.

They'll walk through the problem and try to get it fixed before it's time to tally the votes.

It's election day in Unalaska.

In-person voting for municipal elections started at City Hall at 8 a.m. today. The polls will stay open until 8 p.m. tonight. There are a total of seven seats up for election, including mayor, but there are only two contested races.

City councilor Roger Rowland is seeking re-election to seat C, but Katherine Labert is asking voters to write her in. Fernando Barrera is running for seat E on the school board against incumbent Denise Rankin, who was appointed to the seat a few weeks ago. 

Shirley Marquardt got her start on Unalaska’s city council in 1994. Almost a decade later, she was appointed to replace outgoing mayor Pam Fitch, and she’s held onto the seat ever since.

Katherine Labert is running a write-in campaign for city council seat C. She says incumbent Roger Rowland misses too many meetings -- and she's concerned that during the last few years, the council's agenda has gone stale.

Roger Rowland was appointed to fill a vacant seat on city council in 2007, and he's served ever since.

He says he’s grown more confident as time wears on -- and along with that, Rowland says he’s gotten more comfortable with dissension among the council.

City council has gotten a preview of what the Bobby Storrs small boat harbor might look like after an extensive renovation. 

The ports department hired PND Engineering to do scoping work on the renovation project in January. Last night, PND’s engineer, Dick Somerville, called in to present council with some options for overhauling the facility.

All five councilors present said they wanted to see the floats reconfigured, to maximize moorage space. (Councilor Zoya Johnson was excused from the meeting.)