By SCOTT LEVESQUE
While left-leaning Anchorage Assembly members call for more transparency from the Bronson Administration, critics are left wondering when they’ll practice what they preach.
For a year and a half, the Anchorage Assembly has evaded transparency, accountability, and responsibility, with actions taken to circumvent the public’s knowledge and involvement.
In the summer of 2020, disgraced former Mayor Ethan Berkowitz and most of the Assembly violated the Open Meeting Act. The public was banned from the Assembly Chambers while members on the dais refined two of the Municipality’s most controversial ordinances: AO 2020-65 and AO 2020-66.
AO 2020-65, now law, prohibits licensed counselors, therapists, and other health care providers from helping youth work through their gender confusion and homosexual issues.
Posed by the Assembly as a “conversion therapy ban,” members of the public believed it was an infringement on their freedom of speech and parental rights. The ordinance passed 9-2 with no in-person testimony allowed, despite demands from the public.
Waiting in the wings was AO 2020-66, which used federal CARES Act funds to authorize the purchase of unsuitable buildings in Anchorage for a homeless industrial complex, converting them into a network of services for the city’s vagrant population. Once again, the Assembly refused to allow in-person testimony, and despite broad public outcry, the spending measure passed 9-2.
The passing of AO 2020-65 and AO 2020-66 set off a chain reaction leading to lawsuits, public distrust, and question marks surrounding the Assembly’s lack of transparency.
The Assembly marched on unencumbered, wearing the fallout from those decisions as a badge of honor, even while losing the mayor’s election to a conservative.
In October of this year, the Assembly introduced AO 2021-91, an indoor mask mandate for the entire Municipality. The ordinance was introduced to help mitigate a spike in Covid-19 cases but was met with fierce resistance, including six days of public testimony upon its introduction. As the public lined the Loussac Library night after night, it became apparent the Assembly would be hard-pressed to move forward and vote on the ordinance.
That’s when the Assembly broke faith with the people again.
After skipping a scheduled meeting on Oct. 8, due to two members of the Bronson Administration contracting Covid, Chairwoman Suzanne LaFrance reassured the public that in-person testimony would continue the following Wednesday, and if needed, Thursday night.
Unfortunately, the residents of Anchorage were being duped. In the waning minutes of their Tuesday, Oct. 12 meeting at 10:45 pm, an emergency mask ordinance was introduced, voted on, and passed without public participation.
The Assembly majority had tricked its way out of transparency again.
Now, with perhaps their most blatant attempt to circumvent any form of transparency, the Assembly will begin deliberations on a proposed rewrite of Title 28 of the Municipal Code.
The suggested changes that are coming from Barbara Jones, Anchorage Municipal Clerk, would fundamentally undercut any campaign, as well as the public, to hold the Clerk’s Office accountable for the ballot sorting and counting during elections.
The rewrites would place all power, including the election department’s accountability and transparency efforts, in the hands of the Municipal Clerk. The Municipal Clerk would be able to rewrite the election observer handbook at any point and enforce her new rules to act punitively against a campaign or candidate.
It’s a living example of the saying, “Those who vote decide nothing. Those who count the vote decide everything.”
Residents are questioning the reason for a proposed overhaul of Title 28, and some believe it’s because of Mayor Dave Bronson’s stunning win over liberal Assembly member Forrest Dunbar, and the fact that the Bronson campaign was attentive in its monitoring of the ballot-counting process, much to the ire of the Municipal Clerk, who had never had experienced oversight from a campaign.
The Assembly will take up the rewrite of Title 28 at Tuesday night’s meeting, which starts at 5 pm on the ground floor of the Loussac Library, at 36th and Denali Street.
