BUT WILL A FORMAL COMPLAINT BE LODGED?
The Sand Lake Community Council has lodged a written complaint against the chairman of the Anchorage Assembly over a social media post in which Assembly Chairman Felix Rivera posted a job opportunity to the Facebook page of the Alaska Young Democrats, and asked the group to not share it outside the group.
In the posting, Rivera said, “ANCHORAGE JOB OPPORTUNITY — please don’t share publicly. The Anchorage Assembly will be hiring 6 full time (40 hour) aides from mid-September to December 30 to assist us with our COVID-19 response. Duties will be varied, including constituent outreach, policy research, to policy development and more. All focused on COVID-19. It will be contract job (so pa attention to this for tax purposes) and will be a $11,200 contract for these approximately 3.5 months. Please message me if your (sic) interested or know others who might be interested. I’m trying to get these positions filled ASAP. Thanks all!”
Must Read Alaska was alerted by several readers about the posting, which was making the rounds on social media today. And the Sand Lake Community Council sprang into action:
“By law, all elected positions to the Municipality are nonpartisan positions; how is it legal (or ethical) to solicit applicants for Assembly Aide positions from a limited and certain subset of Alaskans?! Why did Chairman Rivera only solicit applicants from the Alaskan Young Democrats Facebook group??” wrote Parker Haymans, Sand Lake Community Council president.
It appears the Anchorage Assembly intends to use about $70,000 of the municipality’s federal CARES Act money to hire a political crew that can help it through the end of the CARES Act spending cycle, which ends Dec. 30, and that Rivera wants to make sure the new hires have the right Democrat credentials to serve the Assembly. There is every indication that this crew of six will be assigned political tasks.
The Municipality’s code of ethics prohibit such activity:
D. Limitations on Political and Partisan Activity:
1. Elected officials and board members may use their titles when engaging in political or partisan activity, but shall not state or imply that they are acting on behalf of the assembly or the municipality.
“The SLCC is outraged to learn that during a pandemic, where hundreds if not thousands of people in Anchorage have lost their livelihoods, Chairman Rivera has the audacity to attempt to limit a pool of applicants for well-paid municipal positions to a politically aligned Facebook group. Again, isn’t the municipality supposed to be nonpartisan?! How in the world is this legal?! Or better yet, how is this ethical? Why did Chairman Rivera attempt to limit his pool of applicants to just Young Democrats? “
The Sand Lake Community Council has asked that the positions be filled through a nonpartisan hiring process.
“We are shocked, appalled, saddened, and disappointed by Chairman Rivera’s action. Shame on the Assembly for letting their Chairman attempt to fill much needed employment positions through a partisan hiring process.
We respectfully request your due consideration to this email and welcome any input or response you may provide.
This is unfortunately behavior to be expected from groups like the Alaska Young Democrats. It’s essentially a grooming service for these types. The more obedient the young dem, the more likely they’ll get groomed by an elected official like Rivera. They’ve been doing this for years and purposefully excluding the rest of the public. To weed out those who don’t match to the party line.
It is to be expected, business as usual for the Dems,
Eventually the light finds the cockroach.
Isn’t it funny how Facebook didn’t flag his comments as against their community standards. Facebook and the majority of our assembly and mayor seem to all be on the same politically bigoted page. For that matter, FB still allows Antifa and BLM to post even though they are self-confessed Marxist organizations!
Naughty, unethical and discriminatory based on applicant solicitation pool placement in a “Young” and “Democrat” forum only. It’s not even listed on the MOA website and shouldn’t be if you’re going to advertise for applicants?
Oh vey, and then there’s an English grammar 101 issue and Assembly members should being educated enough to know the difference between “you are” and the possessive “your”.
The State AG needs to step in an reign in the Assembly for violating Municipality and State Laws.
Censorship is alive and well in Anchorage, AK. It is currently being practiced by the democratic party, the party of antifa, BLM, lgbtq, the Anchorage Daily News, (for which we pay a monthly fee) city council members, our current mayor, many of our public employees (which we all pay for) and on and on. Discourse is routinely not allowed if one demands any objectivity towards “news” (basically now opinion pieces) or fairness. The city of Anchorage is awakening a sleeping beast called the compliant taxpayer that may not be so compliant in the very near future. I think that we actually need a taxpayers union to fight the city. What is happening all around us nothing short of outrageous and frankly, many of us are getting tired if paying for this nonsense. There is talk if making the police liable, personally for their actions. Alright, no problem. But don’t stop there. We need to make ALL city officials and employees personally liable for their actions with no use of taxpayer funds used in their defense. It is time to bring accountability to ALL employed as a public employee. Legislation is paramount. I don’t know how this could be done, but it needs to get done.
Modern day Hitler Youth.
Yep, voters need to wake up to these dangerous people before normality gets frogmarched into oblivion. #nationalsocialism
The party of government seeks to use the tools of government to hire more Democrats, who will vote for Democrats and so on until we have the mess we have today – big government, poor results. No problem, because the objective is to control the economy, not actually improve k-12.
I would love that job! Where do I apply?
Politicians disgust me. How can this not be against the law?! A public, government paid position is required to be posted on the Muni website in their job section. If he thinks he can circumvent this by saying its a contract job, then all 6 people will be required to obtain a business license and insurance as you can’t 1099 anyone over $600 without one; unless I’m mistaken as politicians just make sh– up as they go.
Yep – and then there’s affirmative action. Let them wallow in their own excrement. But their lawyers will fix it, I’m sure. As AGIMARC , one of my favorite commenters says , cheers!
You do want to thank Felix for one thing, though. Demonstrating once again that the so-called non-partisan local elections are anything (everything?) but. Cheers –
That is low pay for a 40 hour work week. 18+ an hour and you pay the taxes. Maybe $14 then. Cheap labor.
Should try labor ready they pay better.
More, the positions are clearly “employees” in terms of direction and control, under State and Federal law. If truly contract work, the applicants would have to bid, and show pre-existing independent businesses with a history of multiple clients, liability insurance, etc. Interesting how the “champions of the people” are willing to throw workers under the bus if it suits.
Not surprised at all.
Seriously, people…. Do you need more reasons to start paying a significant amount of attention to your local elections? Too many people think electing the President is the only important vote, which just enables our Assembly members to believe they are secure in their positions.
Get out there and get rid of the corrupt, self serving, and recently empowered politicians that are turning Anchorage into a Portland/Seattle/SanFran cesspool
Can we get a less flattering picture of the lad? Posting pictures of handsome men trying to sway female voters. LOL
It’s like a bad advertisement for Soy products.
.
Hire a professional photographer right, lol.
How about a “makeover”? Or is that “look” what sells politicians to the electorate in today’s world (sarcasm). Snort!
Where is the ACLU the Feds or the state AG? He should be kicked out and barred from public service forever. I am doing extra time to get the message out to everyone i can about the mayor and his puppets on the assembly.
Felix Rivera is nothing more than a piece of garbage liberal politician waiting for an election with an electorate with eyes wide open. Wake up Anchorage! There is no place in Alaska for this.
Good thing I’ve two boots, one for Berkowitz, one for Rivera. But wait, there are many boots; Anchorage Assembly take heed.
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