HEARING CONTINUES WEDNESDAY AT 6 PM AT LOUSSAC
It was a night of the filibuster. The Anchorage Assembly leadership, faced with a raucous and sometimes hostile crowd of citizens on Tuesday night, allowed its invited doctors to testify in favor of the forced masking of Anchorage residents, while forcing the rest of the public to stay for seven hours to testify, but then abruptly canceling the Assembly meeting after finally reaching that item on the calendar. The clock had struck midnight.
Hundreds of residents attended the meeting, most turned away due to room limitations. Some had to leave before the mask ordinance, AO 2021-91, was finally up for a public hearing late into the night. Those who did stay in the chambers were frustrated the Assembly knowingly filibustered the agenda item and continued the meeting on Wednesday, starting at 6 pm in the same location, the ground floor of the Loussac Library.
The group spent an inordinate amount of time haggling over an $80,000 contract for a lobbyist that leftist Assemblywoman Meg Zaletel didn’t like.
It had all the appearances of an Assembly determined to exhaust the public, take less testimony, endure less verbal abuse, and pass an ordinance that is sure to be vetoed by the mayor of Anchorage.
At the beginning of the meeting, Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson gave a passionate speech about his opposition to the ordinance. His remarks came during the “Mayor’s Report” part of the agenda.
The audience jumped to its feet to applaud the mayor, causing Assembly Chair Suzanne LaFrance to demand that they be seated, and ultimately call for a five-minute recess.
The meeting was interrupted several times by the unhappy Anchorage voters who attended to express their concerns. Many of them were waving small American flags and at one point, they started chanting “USA USA.”
The meeting continues at 6 pm at the Loussac Library, with a public hearing on the universal masking ordinance as the first item on the agenda.
