A proposed ordinance that gives the Anchorage Assembly the ability to impeach the mayor of Anchorage drew plenty of public interest at Tuesday’s regular Assembly meeting, where AO 2022-60 had its first public hearing.
There was a large and discontented crowd attending that was reminiscent of the public that protested during the summer of 2020, when the Assembly went into lockdown mode, and would not let the public witness proceedings as they passed ordinance after controversial ordinance, including shutdown mandates, mask mandates, and massive expenditures on a homelessness industrial complex.
The current controversial ordinance, drafted by a contract attorney who works at the behest of the Assembly’s radical majority, lays out the path for the Assembly to replace the mayor with Suzanne LaFrance, the chair of the Anchorage Assembly. Attorney Bill Falsey’s draft is sponsored by Assembly Vice Chair Chris Constant, who would then become the chair of the Assembly. Falsey, a former city attorney and former municipal manager under former Mayor Ethan Berkowitz, unsuccessfully ran against Mayor Dave Bronson last year.
The item was placed at the end of the lengthy agenda on Tuesday and the public wasn’t able to testify on it until over five and a half hours into the meeting. It was the last item of business for the night and it wasn’t until after 10:30 pm when those remaining in the Assembly Chamber were allowed to make their three-minute statements. Nearly all were opposed to the ordinance.
Assemblywoman Jamie Allard moved that the meeting be extended to midnight to allow as much of the testimony as possible, since people had waited for hours. That motion passed.
Then, attorney Mario Bird stepped to the public podium to discuss the ordinance. Assemblywoman Jamie Allard asked Bird to clarify if he thought that the Assembly’s attorney Dean Gates was giving the Assembly sound advice.
That was the last straw for Assemblywoman LaFrance, who said the line of questioning was out of order. Then, because of general booing and jeering from the audience, Vice Chair Constant abruptly called for the meeting to adjourn and without going to midnight, as previously agreed upon, the meeting was quickly ended over the objections of the conservative minority — Allard, Kevin Cross, and Randy Sulte. Booing and jeering could be heard throughout the auditorium until the video feed was cut at about 11:05 pm.
The matter will come up again at the June 1 regular meeting of the Assembly.
