The Anchorage Assembly is set to approve a $175,000 sole source contract to a former member and campaign contributor during Tuesday night’s meeting.
The award will go to QD Consulting, founded and led by former Mayor and former Assemblywoman Austin Quinn-Davidson, to steer the Anchorage Childcare and Early Education Board and Fund.
The contract, detailed in Assembly Memorandum No. AM 375-2025, is valued at not-to-exceed $175,000 for a year of executive leadership from May 1, 2025, to April 30, 2026. The Assembly meeting starts at 5 pm in the ground floor chambers of the Loussac Library on 36th and Denali Street. The agenda is here.
The Assembly documents say QD Consulting is the only outfit capable of handling this contract. With this sole-source award, Quinn-Davidson will have racked up $210,000 from her friends on the Assembly since 2024.
The ACCEE Fund, born from Proposition 14’s passage in April 2023, aims to bolster childcare and early education across the Municipality of Anchorage. QD Consulting, under Quinn-Davidson’s leadership, laid the groundwork for the fund from October 2023 to August 2024 through a prior contract with Alaska Children’s Trust.
During that time, they assembled an implementation team, sniffed out community needs, and drafted a budget and strategic plan to get the fund operational.
Now, with the board ready to execute its 2025 vision, they will hire an executive director, launch new programs, and navigate municipal red tape.
“Due to experience and history, the board believes that QD Consulting, Austin Quinn-Davison, is the only person who can navigate this path with them to ensure the plan is executed efficiently and on track.”
“QD Consulting, led by Austin Quinn-Davidson, is uniquely qualified,” the memorandum states, citing their “experience and history.”
The contract will see QD Consulting bill hourly, capping at $175,000, to guide the ACCEE Board through its critical first year of execution.
This isn’t the first time that Quinn-Davidson has been rewarded for donating generously to the campaign coffers of the liberal Assembly members. After leaving the Assembly to become interim mayor, she then left office and opened up a consultancy in 2023. She won her first sole-source contract from her former assemblymembers in 2024 for $35,000.
The claim that only Quinn-Davidson’s firm can handle this role is specious.
Quinn-Davidson, who became mayor when former Mayor Ethan Berkowitz was caught in some compromising positions, famously held a drag queen party for children at her home, posting the photos online of the drag queens mimicking strip club dancers performing for tips. She was heralded by the Left as Anchorage’s first openly gay mayor.
