Palmer council member apologizes after remarks about city manager's childcare

What you need to know

• Palmer City Council member Alcantra criticized City Manager Kolby Hickel Zerkel for attending the city council meeting remotely while feeding her infant daughter, saying she should arrange childcare and attend in person.
• The city attorney warned that the discussion raised personnel-related legal concerns and should take place behind closed doors. The council later discussed the matter in an executive session, after which Alcantra apologized for his remarks.
• Zerkel's contract does not prohibit her from bringing her daughter to the council building. Zerkel said she takes her responsibilities seriously and had shown up to do her job.
• Short on time but need the local news scoop? Get free weekly news in your inbox for Mat-Su, from Mat-Su.

PALMER — A Palmer City Council meeting devolved into arguments, crosstalk and a legal warning this week after Palmer City Council member John Alcantra criticized the city manager for joining the meeting by video from an office down the hall while feeding her infant daughter, saying she should arrange childcare and attend in person instead.

“When my wife gave birth to our second child, a daughter, eight days later, she ran a 40-nation tribal event in Brooks, Canada – eight days after our daughter was born. I think when you’re being paid $175,000 a year, you can make arrangements,” Alcantra said during the meeting Tuesday. “Show up for these meetings that you know are every other Tuesday for two to five hours. Make arrangements for that to happen. Please try.”

Alcantra later apologized for his remarks after a late-night executive session on the topic. That portion of the meeting was not livestreamed.

“I’ve spent my entire life being around, being raised by females, working for females. I've never had anybody accuse me of being sexist or harsh on somebody,” he said in an interview Wednesday. “I definitely let my frustrations get the best of me, and I apologized to her for that. It says in code, that you can't address a staff member in public.”

Palmer's ethics policy says elected officials “should avoid expressing concerns about the performance of a city employee in public.”

Alcantra said he does not intend to address the matter again.

“I think I'll just probably let it go at that, see what occurs at next council meeting, if anything, and move on, and mature and be better the next time,” he said.

The controversy began Tuesday when Zerkel, who was in the council chamber before the meeting began, moved to her office so she could feed her daughter. 

She delivered her regular manager's report via Zoom about 30 minutes into the meeting. City staff spent about a minute troubleshooting a sound problem that initially made Zerkel's report difficult to hear. 

After asking Zerkel a question about the substance of her report, Alcantra turned to confronting her about attending by video rather than in person.

“I want to address, City Manager Zerkel, how I wish you could be here in the room for the city council members and for the public, not just to give your city manager report, but for the entire city council meeting,” he said. “You can make arrangements to be here ... The city manager is not here in the room, so we could hear her for starters, and so we could address these questions with her in the room.”

When Zerkel interrupted him to note she was still in the building, Alcantra asked her to stop and continued his remarks.

“Ma’am, I am still speaking,” he said. “There is no reason why we're paying somebody $175,000 a year to do a job for us if that person cannot be here for finance, budget meetings, or city council meetings because they have a child.”

City attorney Anna Crary warned that personnel matters should be handled in executive session.

“Mayor, if I may jump in here, there are specific personnel legal concerns if we are going to be talking about a person in the way that we currently are, and I would strenuously recommend that the council consider entering into executive session under established provisions of the code and the state open meetings act for that particular reason,” she said.

Zerkel’s contract does not preclude her from bringing an infant to work. City code includes provisions for family and medical leave, but does not address whether employees may bring their family members to the office.

City officials said the matter was addressed during an approximately 30-minute executive session at the end of Tuesday's meeting. The session followed an unrelated closed discussion about a city ethics complaint.

Kolby Hickel Zerkel was hired as Palmer city manager in April of last year following a tumultuous search that included the hiring and subsequent resignation of controversial manager Stephen Jellie. Zerkel took family and medical leave early this summer following the birth of her daughter.

Zerkel said in an interview that her husband typically cares for their daughters during evening meetings but was unavailable to help with the infant during the first portion of Tuesday's meeting because of a conflicting commitment involving their older child.

Members of the public had previously criticized Zerkel for bringing her infant into the council chambers.

Council member Alison Collins told Alcantra during the meeting that his comments were offensive.

“As a woman with children myself, I found that incredibly offensive,” she said. “We're not delving into her private life, and so there may be situations here that she's not able to step away from that child. And so you're saying that she has either the choice between being employed or having children. I just think that was completely inappropriate.”

Zerkel said she is dedicated to her role with the city.

“I take my duties very seriously,” she said in an interview after the meeting but before the executive session. “People should be judged professionally. I showed up and did my job.”

-- Contact Amy Bushatz at contact@matsusentinel.com