Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson accepted the resignation of Anchorage Public Library Deputy Director Judy Eledge.
Eledge is having knee replacement this month and said that this is a good time for her to take off and move into retirement.
Eledge has been planning to retire for many months, even before her surgery was scheduled.
She has been subject to vicious personal attacks by the Anchorage Daily News for remarks that a library employee surreptitiously recorded of her, and then gave the recordings to a the ADN’s most partisan writers.
The recordings are of Eledge saying:
“I worked in an Alaska Native village. If it wasn’t for the white man and his oil money, they’d still be raping their daughters in caves.”
“I don’t have the same views about Eskimos as other people at the library. I worked in Barrow; I know they diddle their kids. It’s a well-known secret, people just don’t talk about it. I knew a 2nd grader that had gonorrhea. They send their FAS [fetal alcohol syndrome] babies to Anchorage because they don’t want to take care of them.’”
“The atmosphere here has gone downhill with woke movements like Black Lives Matter … I’m telling you, the woke culture is killing libraries and this country. If I could get rid of those employees, I could turn this library around for the good.”
“There are too many ‘liberals’ working in libraries.”
Eledge was originally appointed as the director of the library, after it became clear that the institution needed stronger, more caring leadership. However, she was not able to be confirmed by the leftist Assembly, and so she moved back to a deputy position that was not subject to confirmation. Virginia McClure was hired as head librarian.
In recent months, the newspaper and the Assembly have worked together to attack Eledge for her conservative views and her determination to return the library system to a safe place for children and families. The Loussac Library had become a daycare center for homeless and drug-addicts, and there have been several violent incidences at the library that revealed it’s no longer a safe place to bring children. One woman was stabbed and sustained lifelong disability when she was trying to return library books.
But leftists have worked hard to get Eledge removed altogether, and started a petition, calling Eledge a racist and a bigot. The Assembly has a resolution requesting her resignation on its May 9 agenda.
Eledge, in her letter to Bronson, said:
“One of your top priorities was to return the AK Collection to the rotunda of the library, where it had been prior to the 2017 flood. Our Director Virginia McClure recently received the Initial draft plans for the renovated Alaska room, and great progress has been made to begin the subsequent phases to return the AK Collection to its original location.
“As requested, a plan to begin the process of a new downtown library that had been stalled for many years is now back in progress. With the help of a newly formed downtown library committee and the Anchorage Library Foundation, the Old City Hall has been chosen for the downtown library per your request. We were also successful in obtaining additional funding from the AK Legislature, and a historical code analysis has been completed. We recently met with Maintenance and Operations to discuss the next steps.
“Significant efforts have been made to improve safety at the library. After a patron was stabbed in February 2022, we began to ensure our code of conduct was strictly enforced, with the help of concerned employees. A safety committee was formed and recommendations from this committee were instituted. One of the safety guidelines we implemented was the “one bag rule”. We implemented a ticket system that allowed individuals coming into the library with luggage, such as travelers or homeless individuals, to lock their items in a secure closet to be retrieved upon leaving the library. We had the opportunity to share this safety enhancement with Chair LaFrance shortly after changes were made.
“I am confident that the team at the library will continue to serve you and the city well. While we successfully achieved a lot during my time as Deputy Director, there is much more to accomplish within our library system. Moving forward, I believe that even more positive accomplishments can be achieved if politicizing these positions can be avoided. I wish your administration and the municipal library system all the best,” she concluded.
Mrs. Eledge’s last day will be May 15, 2023.
Another scalp for Constant.
I emailed the assembly on this topic and got a nasty response fron Chris, of course.
He is my MISrepresentative, here on the west side, we are so screwed….
Hes’ just another hater with power. Absolute power…..
we should cancel him
Judy, job well done! Thank you for bearing the storm and staying strong.
I appreciate you.
The big irony in this whole mess is Constant is about the last person on Earth who should be complaining about the behavior of others.
Pot really needs to meet kettle, here.
Another day…another purge. As Orwell wrote…. telling the truth will be revolutionary. The abuses are again pushed into the shadows.
I understand why she didn’t, but just once I’d like to see someone stand up and refuse to go away quietly.
And have the most fun while doing it.
We can all hope for our moment to do so.
I believe Mayor Bronson is standing up and refusing to go quietly.
He stillneeds our support!
The mayor should shut down the Loussac library and conduct a full investigation. Assault, rape, overdoses, and inappropriate ‘reading’ materials for our underaged kids. Municipal and State laws are ignored, with graphic pornographic novels in sections reserved for minors. Kids are being sexualized and groomed with the approval of the new director. Parents, if you let your kids go into that library unattended, you need your head examined. It’s the official clubhouse for the radical far left. Had enough Anchorage?
In a 70 to 30 ratio conservative christian town he
could do that. If the mayor take your
advice, he’ll be packing
his bags.
That’s an interesting solution… and one I’d take were the choice mine. When there’s a straw boss in the system that offers little more that manipulation and a challenge to progress, eliminate the straw boss or give him less to complain about.
Transitioning libraries from their original intended use into a play house for transvestites, bums and other societal detritus was never in Anchorage’s best interest and it’s time to reconsider the value such a facility provides vs both cost and risk. At minimum get that former cop that likes to tune up irritable bums and make him the head of security. Don’t pay too much to maintain a facility that’s been inappropriately repurposed.
Shutting it down on the pretext of doing a full investigation of the crimes that occurred there is an interesting concept.
Is it within the scope of the mayors powers?
Thank you for your service, Judy Eledge.
Thank you, Team Bronson, for outmaneuvering the Assembly!
The statements Judy is attributed to make regarding the sexual culture in the bush is precise. It is an ugly secret that is consistently swept under the carpet because it alludes to a “racial” component, but all you have to do is select out any young woman who was exposed to the bush life and the stories are consistent regarding sexual assaults. It is a common fact which is not going to go away until it has the exposure of the light of day.
Our Assemblys response: Ms. Eledge’s comments are reprehensible. I taught for 20 years and know that if I every uttered such words, I’d have been sent packing. -Karen Bronga
If she taught for that long, is she part of the problem? Did she help any native children in her 20 years? In her personal life, has Karen uttered some of these statements?
Lets start recording assembly members and start emailing the ethics committe, or muni ombudsman.
C U next Tuesday Judy.
Which Brian Erickson is this? I’d think your wife would want to know. – sd
I’m certainly wishing you the best, Judy! You’ve been nothing less a breath of fresh air.
And Mayor Bronson, there’s simply no better candidate to replace her with than Mr. Dustin Darden. Please do the right thing and announce his new role forthwith.
I second that choice!! Dustin Darden all the way!
Thank you Judy for fighting the good fight! Enjoy your retirement!
EXCELLENT!
Great idea, lets replace our bigoted library director, with a mildly retarded one.
Wow! Now who is the bigot??
Does your husband know you’re on the computer, Matt? You may be in for a good birching.
And I support Mr. Darden as library post filler. Toss him the keys to the room Constant defiles. Should work out well.
Please don’t project your darkest dreams and desires caused by your priest touching you at a young age onto me, I am incredibly flattered, but not interested.
I also will not judge you, you do you, friend.
Dustin! I third that motion!!
Honestly, just shut down all the libraries. We know what they teach now, and we don’t want any of it here. They’re a relic of an older age when society was better and deserved such things. These newer generations just tear apart everything they touch.
Found the boomer
Found the content free poster.
More to the point, libraries are relics of an older age. Now nearly every book ever written is available on your phone instantly.
I think the mayor could use the excuse that due to the homeless situation, every library needs a month long “fumigation”….
I may not love what happens in the world nowadays but I didn’t spend 30 years in the U.S. Army so I could see people like Judy Eledge make everyday patriotic Republican people like me look bad. She is a risk and a liability. Americans need to come together. We need Republicans who can bring people together. Democrats divide and Judy and her ilk leap and jump when Democrats tell them to and act just like the distortions they make of Republicans. It is hurting the nation. We need Republicans who can set an example instead of continue to lose our numbers. My granddaughter won’t talk to me because I’m a Republican. I love her and she will come around someday and I will always be there for her when she needs it. And I don’t care that she’s a Democrat. I fought wars so my grandkids could have their own opinions. But people like Ms. Eledge are not the welcoming types. They are divisive like the democrats. We have to get smarter and stronger. This is a step in the right direction.
Why can’t you come up with just one single legitimate claim regarding anything at all that Judy has said or done to justify your disgusting sniveling instead of trying to unconvincingly wrap yourself in the flag and struggling to pose as a conservative and the veteran hero you’d like to be seen as?
Lucinda? Is that you?
Money “talks,” honey! That’s why Eledge “resigned!”
Lucinda? I’m a grown man.
Sometimes I have to accept that liberals say lots of things I don’t like but I fought to protect their right to free speech. Then there are people like you who are paranoid and come up with names to defend their friends. I guess I fought for your rights, too, including your rights to get angry and not read.
What young veterans have to fight for these days is questionable, but if you treat people like this then that’s how you make Democrats. Lucky for me I’m strong and won’t let you change me.
Why don’t you call “Lucinda” yourself and ask her if she made this post? It wasn’t her. It was me. But go ahead and think it’s “Lucinda.” Call her and tell her what you think. But be ready. I ain’t no “Lucinda,” and you ain’t my “Aunt Sally.” You’re proving my point. The Republican Party will fall apart with people like you and Judy off barking like yippy yappy dawgs and causing problems. That won’t make the world better.
You don’t talk like any 30 plus year vet I know. And I know probably a battalion’s worth of them. A few have stars, but once were fighting men. I also know twice as many who did between1-3 tours, got their DD-14’s and moved on to other things.
You do talk like many democrats I know. Living in Juneau, that’s about 75% of the community.
You also appear to be far more thin skinned than most lifers I know. Part of the lifers skill set is ignoring the prattle of others. Not acting butthurt over it.
Assuming you are what you claim you are, you fought (where, please?) to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. Also for the soldier on either side of you when bullets started flying.
There is a term most vets use for “young veterans” who are fighting. It’s called Active Duty.
Judy didn’t get out of bed to make you look bad. Unless you happen to be someone in the category of people she disparaged.
But let’s assume for a moment you are exactly who you claim to be. I’ll refer you the the classic movie Stripes. “Lighten up, Francis”.
I was thinking that too…. Lucinda??
Lucinda was a man hater incapable of writing a second acerbic sentence and the Purp is a grown ass man standing chest out and proud in red white and blue skivvies with a Betsy Ross cape waving in the breeze. Given the Purp’s reference to a grand daughter it’s also likely that our man has spawned at least once whereas that’s unlikely to have occurred naturally for Lucinda. Unless maybe she had the principles of Catholicism put in her when she was young and less hateful. It’s a hell of a rare priest that’ll slip the spirit of the lord to an exclusively caustic wretch and that’s saying something.
Ms. Eledge needs to be on the Anchorage Assembly. She could be Mr. Darden’s Deputy of the Keys for Assembly meetings. I can see it now.
Mr. Darden at the doo: Ms. Eledge! You may open the chamber doors. Members of the public first! Servants of the City last if you will! The Godless and defiled among them are to use the rear entrance as is their wont. Make it so, Ms. Eledge!
Sorry, but if “everyday patriotic people” were truly that, then they would have the backbone to stand up for conservative principles, just like Judy Eledge. It always bothers me when people say they defend our way of life only to capitulate and sing “kumbaya” to avoid looking controversial. Needing “Republicans who can bring us together” is a euphemism for “roll over and agree to get along”. When a group of people is shunned wholesale for their political opinion, it is the most unpatriotic and anti-American attitude. Our system was deliberately set up to allow all opinions to be heard. Conflict and give and take were a way to arrive at a solution all could live with. These days it is “my way” or I will cancel you, make you lose your job, etc. It is the ultimate narcissism to demand that all follow one (democrat) decree and again ultimately un-American, especially since it is done to serve the mantle of supposed tolerance and diversity.
If Judy said what she allegedly said, it should be the Mayor’s call if she were removed.
If she did and was not removed, the Politburo’s issue was with the Mayor, not her.
When one of our side truly steps out of line, they should be dealt with. Judy may or may not have done that. But it’s Bronson’s job. Not Constant and the diaper rash gang.
My guess is this, regardless of what Judy did or didn’t say, is being used by the Diaper Rash gang to try to put more rope over Bronson.
Constant is gonna get the man removed or die trying.
You are also acting in a rather “my way or the highway” fashion. If you can’t put being an American over being a Republican, then you are no better than the things that make you feel afraid. You don’t want people to be brave and not roll over; you just want people to roll over the way you want them to. Remember, people with passion in their hearts also stood up against what they felt was a distortion of true American values. You should be praising them with that line of logic you have. But you are picking and choosing, like the people you complain about.
Be courageous. Be American over being a Republican. Ain’t got nothing to do with anything you said. You may be a taxpayer, but I pay taxes too. My voice is not more important than yours, and yours isn’t more important than anyone else’s either.
Kudos to Suzanne Downing for permitting a robust discussion of values. This is uncensored, real conversation you won’t hear most other places.
Yup. Liberal. Vet? Can’t tell.
Your giveaway? Put American ahead of Republican is a tired, worn out line used by progressives for at least 20 years.
The rest is just grammatically incorrect babble.
You haven’t met many Vets. God Bless you and keep you.
Huh? Whose afraid?
You complained that Judy Eledge makes you “look bad”. Why?
Aren’t we all individual’s entitled to personal free speech being an American? You don’t like her opinions, that’s fine, but do not extrapolate that ALL republicans should be of your opinion.
Having passion in you heart is great, go for it, but when you shut others up/get them fired etc. because they do not support your “passion”, that’s wrong.
It used to be that we could all sit down and accept our differences, and agree to disagree, debating actual problems not personal feelings. Our public representatives actual represented and listen to the public (a long discussion about cat leash laws comes to mind). These days you get labeled spreading “misinformation”.
The library would make an excellent emergency homeless shelter. And the large room used for assembly meetings is no longer necessary either.
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