Clare Ross, who is a senior administrator for the Anchorage library system, is the Assembly’s newly minted legislative liaison. The Assembly authorized hiring its own legislative liaison, a new position, last month.
“The Assembly Leadership is pleased to have selected a candidate with extensive Municipal, managerial, and public policy experience. Clare has an outstanding educational background for this position, recently receiving a Master’s in Organizational Development and Leadership,” said Assembly Chair Suzanne LaFrance, who will supervise Ross.
Ross ran for Alaska Senate against Sen. Mia Costello in 2014. A Democrat, she lost in that Republican-leaning district.
Ross had been working for Grant Aviation when she was hired into senior management at the municipal library, where she’s served as the Assistant Director for Strategy and Development since 2016. She also worked for the Alaska Center for the Environment in recent years.
In 2019, she signed the recall petition for the Recall Dunleavy Committee.
In other words, she is a perfect fit for the Assembly, which is run by a leftist group.
“As you all know, in the last few years the workload on the Assembly has increased, and last year the Assembly received repeated requests from members of the public for more accessible information about ordinances and policies. Some ordinances, like the one addressing cell phones in school zones, need quite a bit of outreach and communication with the public to successfully implement. The Assembly created this position to better server the public and we are excited that Clare will be helping the Assembly meet the goal of improved constituent service,” LaFrance wrote in a memo to the Assembly.
At the same time the Assembly had hired Ross, after just hiring an equity officer for the city, Assemblyman Forrest Dunbar took to social media and criticized Mayor Bronson for adding a new position of “policy director” to his office:
Maoist liars.
Mayor Bronson should not authorize any office space tell this person go find their own. Not a requirement for the Mayor to authorize any space for any Assembly appointed person.
I second that
Double second
Progressives are not only intelligence impaired, they are out of touch with reality. Wonder why muni taxes are so high?
We have had a tax cap for over 20 years under both conservative and progressive Mayors. You must live in some alternate reality.
And every ballot proposition the liberals bring to the table has in bold text at the top “This will raise the municipal tax cap”. And the left flocks to vote those things in. Every Time. Without fail.
You haven’t been watching that? Welcome to the alternate reality.
What is it with old women and libraries? Nothing better to do with their time I suppose.
Looking forward to the comments highlighting why libraries are so important now that people can find just about anything they need on the internet from anywhere.
Libraries are nothing but a lot of public money being spent in search of a purpose to serve…I guess having the library be a homeless shelter/drug hangout/place for perverts to indoctrinate children is good enough for liberals and leftists.
It is where the homeless hang out and use the computers and bathrooms.
TRUTH !!!!
Not so fast PJ
Granted libraries are on the outdated side BUT don’t you think it might not be a bad idea to have some kind of back up for the internet?
I for one don’t like the idea of Wikipedia or a Google search being the final answer to questions I have! It seems to me editing either one becomes just some key strokes.What an easy way to re-write history. Books are a little harder to edit. Of course they could just be burned but that would be awfully obvious. Don’t get me wrong I use the “interweb” daily and it is sure convenient. Have you ever experienced Google’s bias toward information requests? Think about conservatives’s websites that are moved way down the search list or eliminated.
The point being maybe a printed book repository is still a good idea.
Dunbar’s comment is rich coming from a member of this assembly. Remind me again of how many useless positions they have created.
At least Craig Campbell is worth his salt.
Yes, we will soon discover where Campbell will cut 15% of waste in the MOA as he advised is doable to Bronson during the campaign for Mayor. Adding his new position alone will require eliminating two front line workers. Do you believe Mr Campbell will come over and clear snow on your street?
“As you all know, in the last few years the workload on the Assembly has increased”
.
Yes, that is what invariably happens when totalitarians takes over government.
AMEN. If they would quit trying to micromanage everything their jobs would get exponentially easier. I don’t know about you but I’m tired of being treated like I’m in kindergarten. Do we not have brains? Are we not able to run our own lives? Can we not make informed decisions? Maybe the Assembly should realize that.
I don’t consent that our elected servants who disobey us are hiring their own lobbyists. Show me in their emolument in writing where the servants were given authority to have a lobbyist. DO NOT ALTER OUR FORM OF GOVERNMENT.
When is the next opportunity to replace some of these people? That is where change will need to continue.
Does Ross have a masters in library science?
Why is the conservative/liberal battle in Anchorage facing off over the freaking libraries? Is it a looming war over the ideology of the book stock? Is it about kicking drug abusers and sexual freaks out of the restrooms? Kicking the homeless out in the winter? Closing branches because they’re obsolete? It just seems to me that there are better hills to kill for, but I guess anywhere you meet the enemy is a great place to crush them.
Maybe conservatives ought to consider checking out “The Art of War”, if this silly library system even has it in stock.
She’s thoroughly unqualified, except that she is the friend of some Lefty Assembly member. Lefties are losing ground now and they will do anything to swell their numbers. Can’t that position be knocked out by the Mayor?
Dunbar has taken carping to an art form. Cheers –
As a general proposition, the Left takes far better care of their people than the Right. I know a former aide to then Congressman Chuck Schumer who confirmed that Mr. Schumer actively promotes his people into much bigger and better positions in and out of government. Conservatives do much the opposite and this why government, on the whole, is hostile to conservatives. (For that matter, conservatives are even nasty to other conservatives who have served in government before.) Rest assured, Ms. Ross will move to another prominent position in the future.
Ross “was hired into senior management at the municipal library, where she’s served as the Assistant Director for Strategy and Development since 2016”.
Show of hands: has anyone, anywhere seen evidence of any strategic planning for the library in the last 5 years? Any new developments other than drag queen story hour?
It looks to me like it’s been 5 years of another state position with a big paycheck and zero results.
Developments? They got their million dollar Italian tiles for the Loussac renovation and funding to woke-up the Alaska Collection. Their strategic plan is on their website, check out the “Visions & Values” page. APL has nothing to do with lending books, it’s all about espousing ideology.
Wasn’t her appointment on the heels of Dunbar’s comment about Bronson being a hypocrite by increasing his staff while proclaiming to be a “small government conservative”? Add to that the non-refundable earnest money put down on the $5.4 million dollar vacant AK Club on Tudor and Old Sewage. And while were’ at it, let’s give a big thanks to my representative Suzanne Lafrance for allaying our fears regarding the use of “cell phones in school zones” once Ms. Ross’ plops down at her desk. I know I’ve lost countless hours of sleep over that issue. Think about this when you see the city assessor’s roaming the neighborhoods measuring your home so they can eek more money out of you to pay for this garbage.
Does anyone use libraries besides the homeless and those wanting somewhere to sit and have free Wifi? I have a feeling the chief librarian has other duties as well (social engineering). I imagine a good cleansing and editing of our inventory will also occur (the Nazis did this in 1930’s Germany).
Poor poor Dunbar, he still grumbling after defeats. You know what happens to young men carrying a poor attitude? They age into a forelorn old man.
Even Constant had demonstrated he can have a better attitude being one of the four confirming votes for Mrs. Sami Graham.
The political humiliation could had all been avoided that night if the Assembly just keep with tradition to respectfully appoint Bronson’s appointments. The Assembly majority chose to be stubborn.
Whose advising these Assembly members anyway? Like who is in their ear, cause they been listening to bad advice.
Political humiliation is a mayor who fails to heed the position description’s requirements. Employee Relations would never vet a candidate’s application based on a race, religion or politics. That would be illegal. Guess not when Bronson does it.
Proud of the Anchorage Assembly who can heed the rule of law.
What a stark contrast. Mayor shows he is a class act and makes a smart move to sidestep a pathetic assembly to fill a needed position.
The Assembly then responds trying to show they can throw their authority around and waste money by hiring an unneeded person. The best they can do to try to mimic leadership is to disgrace themselves, adding more fat to the budget and embarrassing the assembly with their childish performance. They show themselves to be classless, while wasting the citizens money.
We all need to remember these wasteful, totalitarian moves and vote these pathetic children out, they are hurting Anchorage and their juvenile and inappropriate games need to be stopped.
Audit the voting roles and stop mail-in voting cheating.
I could see going to a law library every so often for old reference books but who goes to a regular library anymore? Literally no way the library is better than the Internet.
Total waste of resources.
Just open up a computer kiosk (outdoors with no conveniences) and staff a guard to curtail the violent homeless. Keep the school computer room open late. Done.
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