During another meeting of the Anchorage Assembly, the nine-member liberal majority has continued to take more power away from the Mayor’s Office and establish itself as a secondary executive branch.
On a vote of 8-2, with John Weddleton absent, the Assembly changed municipal code that gives it complete authority over whatever meeting spaces it uses, whether it’s the Assembly Chambers in the Loussac Library, the Wilda Marston Theater next door, or a meeting room in City Hall.
The matter is a separation of powers issue for both the mayor and the Assembly. The municipal charter gives the mayor power over all facilities in the city, ostensibly to reduce the spread of Covid-19. Such Assembly measures in the past are the reason that the Anchorage voters went with a conservative mayor, Dave Bronson, during the last election, rather than liberal Forrest Dunbar.
A primary issue is whether the Assembly can keep the public from attending its meetings, as the liberal majority has done by limiting capacity in the Assembly Chambers.
Municipal Manager Amy Demboski argued that she had made multiple efforts to accommodate the Assembly, to no avail.
“The Chair mentioned in her opening remarks that this issue has been ratcheting up, which is simply false and a misrepresentation of the facts,” Demboski said on Wednesday night.
“First, as mayor indicated yesterday, offer to cross train multiple times Assembly/clerk staff on technology to assist in the recording and broadcasting equipment, which, to my knowledge has not been responded to by Assembly leadership,” she said.
“Second, I personally spoke to the Chair prior to an Assembly meeting a while back and agreed to modify capacity limits to ensure the Assembly members were more comfortable; yet on the record 15 minutes later the chair expressed that the Administration was unwilling to work with the Assembly,” Demboski continued. She went on to say that through the city’s Department of Law, she had offered a compromise on Wednesday, but her effort to work with the Assembly Chair Suzanne LaFrance was rebuffed.
“Yet, that offer was not entertained, and tonight we heard the perspective that the issue was ratcheting up – clearly the opposite of the reality,” she said.
Demboski, who once served on the Assembly on behalf of Eagle River, said, “State law is clear, the executive has control over real and personal property of the municipality. Whether you like it or not, buildings, facilities, are real or personal property. Furthermore, this ordinance attempts to exercise control over executive branch personnel which is clearly a power articulated to the Executive branch in Charter and in State Law.”
Demboski said the ordinance is a violation of the separation of powers, “and is an attempt by the legislative branch to take power from the executive branch.”
The other ordinance that passed on Wednesday requires the mayor to bring forward his appointees to the Assembly for confirmation more within 60 days. Although it was watered down from the original draft, the ordinance notes in the “whereas” clauses that Mayor Dave Bronson’s choices for directors have been at times controversial.
The Assembly was particularly displeased with the mayor over his appointment of Sami Graham as library director, and subsequent appointment of Judy Eledge to that role after Graham was not confirmed. The two women have advanced degrees but the Assembly wants a person in that position that has a masters of library science.
Eledge has since stepped down as library director to take a non-confirmable position of deputy director, thus robbing the Assembly of its ability to get rid of her.
The Assembly majority of nine want to prevent him from allowing people to serve in key positions for several weeks or months before the Assembly has a chance to dismiss them by refusing to confirm.
Since the conservative mayor was elected in May, the liberal Assembly has increased its assertion of power, including passing an “emergency ordinance” that put masks on Anchorage residents to reduce the spread of Covid.
The Wednesday meeting was sparsely attended by the public. The Assembly will meet again on Friday in executive session to discuss its interest in not confirming the current Department of Health director.
