David Martinson is Unalaska's new city manager; Oct. 26 was his first day on the job. Martinson had a week to learn the ropes from outgoing interim city manager Donald Moore before seeing his colleague off at the airport on Saturday.
Born and raised in Tucson, Arizona, Martinson spent his first 27 years there. He attended the University of Arizona at Tucson, and when he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force, he was assigned to Tucson's Davis-Monthan Air Force Base.
"My plan was four years in the Air Force, get out and go be an engineer somewhere. But I had a blast doing that so I stayed for 26 and a half years," Martinson said.
Martinson thinks his long military career prepared him well for managing a city like Unalaska.
"I retired a year ago from the Air Force and my background is a lot of what a city manager does, from my time in the Air Force. And so about the time I was going to retire, [I realized] public service is still something I want to do," he said.
His favorite thing, so far, about Unalaska is the people.
"I will tell you it's dealing with the community thus far. This community has been great from the time I came to interview...the people are very inviting. It's great to be here, I'm extremely excited," Martinson said during an interview in his office overlooking Iliuliuk Bay. "The work...I'm already happier in this job than I was in my last job. And it's not that the last job was bad, it's just that this is my passion. My passion is serving and being able to serve the community of Unalaska is going to be a tremendous opportunity for me and my wife."
His wife Erin will join him here in mid-December.
Martinson encourages the public to call or email him with any questions or concerns.
"My goal is to be transparent with the community and we're here to serve this community and make it better," Martinson said.
