Assembly to hire a ‘shadow mayor’ to bypass Bronson and go direct to city staff

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On the agenda for Tuesday’s Anchorage Assembly meeting is an ordinance to hire yet another new position in the municipality that is controlled by the Assembly: A staff assistant to the Assembly who has unfettered access to all municipal employees and all municipal property, without having to go through the executive branch or its leaders, such as the mayor or city manager.

AO No. 2021-66 is on the agenda for the meeting that starts at 5 pm at the Loussac Library on July 27. The ordinance is in the “Public Hearing” section of the agenda.

The complete agenda is at this link.

The person hired by the Assembly will “have full, free and unrestricted access” to:

  1. All public records, as defined in section 3.90.020;
  2. All activities of the municipal government and its various departments;
  3. All municipal property;
  4. All municipal personnel;
  5. All policies, plans and procedures, and records pertaining to financial expenditures by municipal funds; and
  6. This subsection C. does not authorize public disclosure of confidential or privileged material under federal, state or local law, or of material the public disclosure of which constitutes anunwarranted invasion of personal privacy.

In practice, this means the staff to the assembly can engage in dialogue with and gather information from city employees who report to the mayor, no matter how deliberative or premature the information may be. Taken to its extreme, the ordinance allows the Assembly staff person to rifle through the desks of the executive branch, literally and figuratively.

“All activities of the municipal government and its various departments” means the Assembly’s shadow mayor can walk into staff meetings or planning meetings without receiving permission. He or she can demand all plans that are being worked on by the executive branch.

The ordinance is being offered by Assembly Chair Suzanne LaFrance and Vice Chair Chris Constant. It’s apparent that the two leaders on the Assembly have the votes to pass the ordinance, which is, in effect, will create someone who shadows every move of the Bronson Administration so that the liberal Assembly can get ahead of the executive branch.

The “Bypass Bronson” ordinance can be read in full at this link:

Read: Deep state at municipality: Mayor can’t get rid of equity position without permission from Assembly

51 COMMENTS

  1. This is what these people do. It’s all they do. You can’t talk to them. You can’t reason with them. And they absolutely will not stop, until they have total control.

    • Citizens of Anchorage became complacent and let the socialist union lackeys take control of the city. One time, barely sufficient people came out to elect Bronson. The socialists will throw up every roadblock, and all too soon their well (publicly) funded machine will place another socialist in his place, and certainly change the rules so that they never lose again. That is, unless the citizens decide to take a firm stand. Elections have consequences and the next will tell.

    • There needs to be a person on every street corner with recall petitions against all (except Eagle River) of these oppositional elected assembly persons starting today. They believe wholeheartedly it is wrong to represent constituent views but that elections are popularity concepts and their own views are therefore preeminent and over all. OUT! WITH THEM!!!!

  2. “A staff assistant to the Assembly who has unfettered access to all municipal employees and all municipal property, without having to go through the executive branch or its leaders, such as the mayor or city manager.”

    “…the two leaders on the Assembly have the votes to pass the ordinance, which is, in effect, will create someone who shadows every move of the Bronson Administration so that the liberal Assembly can get ahead of the executive branch.”

    West Tank Farm? Are the members of the “assembly” that afraid of Mayor Bronson and the actions he has taken or will take?

  3. Are we living in Communist China?
    These losers will do anything to run this city into the ground.
    Hang on , your taxes will be doing through the roof.
    Recall them all, I am on my way with the petition. starting with Meg Zaletel.

  4. I’m assuming this new position will be in a labor union and will not be able to be terminated by anyone other than the communist assembly? Looks like it’s just a spy, but power will accrue… This is evil.

  5. Gotta give them credit for ingenuity. Lose an election? No problem. We’ll just create our own mayor to circumvent the real one.

    Bronson is a speed bump, not an obstacle.

    Note to Eagle River. Get out now while you can. Don’t think for a moment the Politburo (Assembly) isn’t looking at how to enslave you forever.

    Everyone else? Get out of Anchorage before it becomes near impossible.

  6. Once I would have asked if this was legal. But I learned a long time ago laws in the Peoples Republic of Alaska are for little people.

  7. Can we not ‘bypass’ the Anchorage assembly indefinitely? Let Bronson do his job.

  8. April 2022 and April 2023 can’t come soon enough. This is the action that Soviet style Central Commities do.

  9. Dave… now don’t go Dunleavy on us and throw in the towel! Give this bunch of commies hell. Make it hard for them. Expose them. Veto everything they propose.

  10. A violation of the City Charter, which none of these people have read. The separation of powers is being infringed upon. If the egocentric woke idiots pass it I hope the Mayor gets an injunction to stop it. Beyond the arrogance , don’t these people understand that hiring Critical Race Theory Czars, and Shadow Mayors and spending hundreds of millions on “the homeless” doesn’t make sense in a rapidly declining economy..

  11. Ummm No! Bronson needs to enact a hiring freeze immediately before the MoA, Unions, Assembly and all other public leeches latch on for a free ride. This Bovine Scat must be stopped

  12. This is insanity at it’s finest. I pray Bronson can stop this and fast.
    Is there anything that we the people of the community can do? I am going to start by writing my assemble member and saying no.

  13. How does the Assembly just ‘have the votes’ to pass ordinances harmful to the very government processes that this entire thing is designed to protect? This is absurd. This is not a ‘democracy’. It is a ‘democratIC’ republic. There are rules that are NOT open to referendum. These Leftist communists on the Anchorage Assembly have become so emboldened by the national deluge of Democrat criminal activity that they think themselves untouchable, so just lie, cheat and steal in plain sight. This character has never been different within the Democratic Party, just never this brazen. The removal of political party and Assembly election ballots was, at it’s incept, and is ELECTION MEDDLING. Removing political party from the ballot is intended to empower the lying democrats based on their campaigns that OMIT key issues, that anyone who knew they were democrats would know better than to vote for them – I am one of those, and have been left without the key information necessary on the ballot to know who to vote for. RETURN PARTY AFFILIATION BACK TO THE BALLOT, STOP MANIPULATING ELECTIONS

  14. Every single time that you think the Anchorage Democrats, with their insatiable lust for power over you and every minute detail of your life, have finally reached the upper limits of their outrageous and fascistic behavior, and that they could possibly get any more out of control……..they take that as a challenge and set out to prove you wrong.
    .
    There is simply no limit to their lust for power and control over the residents of the MOA. None…..

  15. Doesn’t the press (media), or citizens (acting as press) have the rights listed in the article to access any public information within City Hall anyway? Was anything listed to be accessible to the new bureaucrat not already accessible too anyone acting as free press?
    .
    Perhaps the new mayor should just give the assembly the key to City Hall and say, “knock yourself out.” Isn’t what the assembly truly fears that which resides in the hearts and minds of the mayor and his supporters and staff? The mayor and his supporters should have no fear of transparency and daylight. Start the music and let the dance begin.

    • Correct, but why should we the taxpayers pay for this service by creating a new government position? If the council members want this they should get off their butts and check things themselves!

  16. Did a search for MOA jobs and saw that one for an Legislative Assistant posted 7 days ago. It reports directly to the Assembly Chair, wondering if this is the position ? – but it hasn’t actually been approved yet, right? ??? then what is this position that is already posted?

    “Assist in the smooth and effective operation of the Assembly in its role as the legislative branch of municipal government. At the direction of the Assembly and coordinated by the Chair, provide legislative and technical assistance to the Assembly and its individual members, including legislative research and reporting; manage communications for the Assembly and its individual members; prepare updates of Assembly actions in newsletters or press releases; coordinate and manage certain Assembly events; manage Assembly Offices, including scheduling conference rooms and performing other similar tasks; prepare correspondence and Assembly documents; coordinate work with Municipal departments, community councils, and other community organizations on Assembly initiatives. Perform other duties as assigned.”

    • “They” want to be sure the prevalence of drag queen reading rooms are not interfered with by emergency Constitutional study groups or quilting groups.

  17. This would violate the municipal charter but Bronson will have to send the Municipal Attorney to court to reverse it. The assembly has lost their collective mind. And this bunch of jerks will probably appoint Dunbar.

  18. I love that the NSA and patriotic military loyal to the Republic of American States are aware of of everything. When I first heard President Donald J Trump spoke I believe in December 2020 where he warned Alaska Native corporations to be loyal to the US Constitution I wondered who it was exactly that he was warning. I now have some idea who would be usurping the US Constitution. If the NSA had intelligence then about those organizations he’s got Intel on the rest.

  19. I’m with Mark. Need to start playing by some of their rules to let them see how uncomfy life can be. Let’s start by removing all toilet paper from anywhere they meet. BYOTP. Rooster-block their “shadow” mayor with an eclipse that will block out the sun. Craig Campbell should be able to come up with a clever way to ensure the Shadow disappears and has zero affect on daily life.

    These clowns on the assembly act like Jr high schoolers. They sit in their basements and concoct the next sophomoric move to be the mean “girls”. Their “one-upmanship” BS is a house of cards that will eventually fall on all of their heads.

  20. Is there a limit to the scope of an “ordinance” these Bolsheviks can pass? What is the established line? For that matter why do podunk city councils have the ability to ignore the Bill of Rights when they create restrictions?

    There must be a hard and fast rule for containing the power of municipal authority. These low level apparatchiks cannot be allowed to destroy America piece by piece.

  21. As Bronson won’t have the votes to defeat this until next year at the earliest, this becomes a persuasion play. Solution? Agree with it and expand it.

    If the justification for this is openness and transparency for the general public, then two can play. If the Mayor’s Office needs a Zampolit (political officer in the Soviet Red Army) beholden to the Assembly, then the Mayor’s office needs a Zampolit beholden to the Mayor in the Assembly, specifically the Clerk and Assembly support office.

    From a persuasion standpoint, the most powerful thing you can do with something like this is to agree with it, then twist it to the direction you want it to go. If the Assembly wants to play this game, so then can the Mayor. Cheers –

  22. If this becomes reality then the Mayor and his appointed team members need to use discretion, wisdom, and a controlled tongue before speaking words in person and in print.
    Having picnics and invited lunch meetings in homes and places away from eavesdroppers never hurt anyone but only made people closer. If you want to be alone, away from prying eyes and eaves droppers, where do you go?

  23. In April, with your real estate tax bill, there was a nice little note from the acting mayor explaining that the State of Alaska will no longer provide funding to assist Anchorage with its bond service costs. That left a $37.7 Million shortfall in the non-discretionary (mandatory) spending budget.
    .
    As a result, your property taxes went up.
    .
    Now, here is the Assembly hiring on a luxury item, increasing discretionary spending while they cannot pay the mandatory bills. This is no different than the person complaining they cannot afford their student loan debt after they show off their brand new luxury sportscar.
    .
    Over the course of 2020 and the panicdemic, the Assembly has repeatedly stuck a thumb in the eye of the Anchorage taxpayers. They have wasted COVID relief funding on pet projects (and useless buildings), they have shuttered businesses (and ignored the impact it has on their employees) and they have passed significant spending bills without regard to the needs or desires of the taxpayers.
    .
    If you do not alert your Assembly representative that they are negligent in their duty to properly represent the taxpayers of the city, it is your fault if this passes. If you need to, remind them they can find the funding for a new assistant by firing the Chief Equity Officer. Let’s see what pet they hold in higher esteem.

  24. This is what less than 25% average voter participation gets you Anchorage.

    You voted for this either by ballot or inaction. But you voted for this

  25. Bronson better reject this harrassment and ignore the person if the commie libs go ahead with their attack on the city and mayor!

  26. Seems to me the recent AK Supreme Court follow-on decision (vis-a-vis Recall Dunleavy) would help the Mayor’s office in this situation….if the Mayor and his team have the stomach for a long, tough, and played-every-day-in-the-MSM fight.

  27. Dave’s Shadow:
    Let’s put a shadow on The Dave
    Just to make sure he’s no knave 
    It can scope out every meeting and file
    To make sure he doesn’t beguile
    Until he’s in his political grave

  28. Disenfranchised and loser Lefties at work. Pure fiat power politics. Send this woman out to shadow the Muni’s garbage trucks and sewage treatment plants. This is where she belongs.

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