The mission of the Anchorage Health Department is critical in this era of a global pandemic, with possibly more pandemics to come. But to the Anchorage Assembly, health is evidently not that important. They’ve been unwilling to confirm a Department of Health Director for nearly half a year.
On Tuesday night’s Assembly agenda, Joe Gerace was up for confirmation. But at the last minute, an anonymous person lodged a complaint about Gerace, who has been interim health director since the Assembly drove off the former director, David Morgan.
The Anchorage Assembly majority of nine decided to table the Gerace nomination and take up the anonymous allegation in executive session at 10:30 am on Friday, even though Gerace was willing to speak to the allegations on the public record Tuesday. There’s no indication that Gerace will be confirmed on Friday or if his confirmation yet delayed.
The Assembly and those attending the meeting seemed surprised by the guerrilla attack on Gerace, who has an extensive resume in health, law enforcement, and the military. Some of them said they had been on board with the nomination of Gerace, until the two allegations showed up.
A last-minute attack from an anonymous person.
A former employee is making a claim, and another person is making an anonymous claim made on his confirmation day, Tuesday.
