Anchorage Mayor Suzanne LaFrance announced a series of key staffing updates Friday, including the appointment of Susanne Fleek-Green as her new chief of staff beginning in June.
Fleek-Green, held the same role under Mayor Ethan Berkowitz from 2015 to 2017, was state director for Democrat Sen. Mark Begich, and has, since those days, been the superintendent at Lake Clark National Park and Preserve for the National Park Service.
She replaces outgoing Chief of Staff Katie Scovic, who lasted less than a year in the role. Scovic came from Agnew::Beck, an Anchorage consulting firm that gets lots of contracts from the city to study things.
Another addition to the mayor’s team is news writer Emily Goodykoontz, who will be press secretary.
Goodykoontz comes from the Anchorage Daily News, where she has been covering City Hall since 2020. She was previously in Oregon, and her time at the ADN has been marked by the newspaper’s signature left-leaning slant in support of the progressive agenda, and against all conservatives.
Goodykoontz has essentially been doing public relations for LaFrance and the liberals on the Assembly since she arrived from Oregon. Now, it will be her official duty.
The ADN provides a proving ground for leftists in politics in Alaska. Former ADN writer Aubrey Weiner spent a brief time at the newspaper before going to work for Assemblyman Chris Constant and then Agnew::Beck, and then drifting over into running a leftist political group backed by dark money, the 907 Initiative, which attacks conservatives. He, too, came from Oregon; like Goodykoontz, he is a graduate of University of Oregon Journalism School. Former editorial page editor Tom Hewitt landed a job with Fairbanks North Star Borough Mayor Grier Hopkins, another hard leftist.
Also joining the mayor’s team is Diana Bo, who will become the staff assistant to the mayor in mid-April. Bo has worked in the Municipality’s Human Resources Department since 2023. She will be the first point of contact for visitors to the Mayor’s Office.
In September, Mayor LaFrance sent out a press release saying her office was fully staffed with the hires of Thea Agnew Bemben [principal at Agnew::Beck] as special assistant, Berett Wilber as creative director, and Ronni Weddleton as executive assistant. But apparently the office was not “fully staffed,” as these new hires indicate.
