Anchorage municipal employees will enjoy a little more time off between now and the end of the year, courtesy of Mayor Suzanne LaFrance, who announced the surprise gift of one-quarter day of extra leave time to city workers — simply to mark the one-year anniversary of her administration doing a job on Anchorage.
“There’s beautiful weather on the horizon, Friday is a holiday, and we are marking our one year anniversary as a team,” LaFrance wrote in a letter sent to all current, active municipal employees this week. “In short, it’s time to celebrate!”
For those who don’t work for the municipality, this may look like a political patronage thank-you gift for helping LaFrance get into office, or perhaps an advance on what she hopes will be their work on her reelection campaign.
The extra leave, which is non-cashable and must be used by Dec. 31, will be deposited into the accounts of all full-time, part-time, and seasonal government workers. The time off becomes available starting Thursday, July 3, just ahead of the long Fourth of July weekend.
LaFrance did not say what the cost of that is to the city, but if the city has about 2,000 employees, it could be between $80,000-$90,000, or more, depending on how much overtime needs to be paid to compensate for missing workers.
The mayor also did not cite any formal justification, such as a contract obligation or budget surplus, for awarding the paid time. Rather, it appears to be a goodwill gesture extended exclusively to municipal government employees.
The gift of leave must be coordinated through supervisors, and will not appear in workers’ formal leave statements until after the holiday weekend.
While public employees may welcome the unexpected quarter-day off, the move raises questions about equity and priorities in a city where the quality of life has taken a rapid downturn, where vagrancy and crime are at all-time highs, and at a time whe tourists are now avoiding the city due to its reputation.
LaFrance concluded her letter with warm wishes and thanks, writing, “It is truly a team effort, and it wouldn’t be possible without each and every one of you.”
But for those not on the municipal payroll, the gesture may come off as a reminder of who benefits most under LaFrance leadership — public workers or taxpayers.
Buying future votes at taxpayers expense???
Those drones are voting for her or a similar hologram 90 percent of the time anyway.
Truly truly, a loathsome woman! This is total 🐂💩!!
But, it’s not without precedent. Austin Quinn-Davidson pulled the same 💩 in December of 2020, only that was four hours for every public employee. What an insult to struggling taxpayers in Anchorage.
🐂💩🐂💩🐂💩🐂💩🐂💩🐂💩🐂💩
👍
Better title might be: “Mayoralty or Royalty?”
Or Queen! I thought we were against Kings and Queens!
While it would be logical to remind her of this largess next time she moans about not having any money and raising taxes, Queen La France wears an armor of self-unawareness to have logic bounce off every time.
Really despicable to then hear her talk about “supporting families” while wasting their hard earned money.
Ironically if the city is so well run that we can give everyone more leave, maybe we don’t need all those city employees. The first I would cut are all those special assistants to the mayor…..
The less time those employees are at work screwing Anchoragites the better.
And how is she paying for this?
With OUR money, naturally!!
If this is done once it will become an entitlement.
Very generous with other people’s money.
1/4 day?? What the he// kind of a stupid idea is this?
Seems to be all about LaFrance celebrating the awesomeness of her election as mayor. While taking in those good vibrations, she may want to spend some time thinking what can be done to stem the outflow of population and businesses from Anchorage. That fix would be a real cause for celebration.
So the real trick is this: about 4,000 hours of public employee work goes in-done… and no one notices. Dangerous.
Just par for the course. This mercenary needs to be outvoted, term ends July 1, 2027. Two more years of Woke agenda and failures by somebody who lucked out with two winters of heavy snowfall & 1630/Arabella funds.
Once again we are celebrating less than steller performance: our city is being hijacked by homeless; schools are failing our children; roads are crumbling; and we taxpayers are footing the bill for those who don’t pay! Why is LaFrance celebrating?
Are they ever going to mow the grass on public streets
While LaFrance fiddles… Anchorage burns… quite literally in some cases… two more (now actually illegal) fires set this morning Minnesota drive area… SMH
When I was at the Muni, Mayor Begich started paying employees extra bonus money for being ON TIME FOR WORK and not calling in sick.
They can’t fire any of the union backed screw ups, so they started to bribe them to show up on time; good chance they are still doing this ….. extra money on the check for perfect attendance.
The employees that always show up on time anyway reap those bonuses & the screw ups are still screw ups.
Libs will do anything they can to bribe & support their public “servant” voters & keep control.
They are taking away the PFD right now, so they can give it to the “servants”
What a joke (except it’s not funny)
A couple hours, just like her little midday shopping excursions at Dimond mall on business days when she’s ” on the clock” being paid with tax dollars
When the pendulum swings back the other way we can only hope it will cut off her head. Figuratively speaking, of course.
A quarter day is no exactly “lavishing” gifts on the workers, but I do object to it.
.
LaFrance is just like every other leftist. Always ready to spend other people’s money to make herself look benevolent.