Acting Mayor Austin Quinn-Davidson has closed Anchorage City Hall on Wednesday, Inauguration Day.
The memo to staff said City Hall is not only closed to the public, but to City Hall staff. Acting Mayor Quinn-Davidson is concerned about the safety of employees, even though there are no known threats to the facility. The closure is “out of an abundance of caution.”
AQD’s memo to staff said:
As I shared last week, APD has been working with our state and federal partners to monitor security concerns at MOA buildings leading up to inauguration day. We have not identified any specific threats at this time; however, since the safety of employees is our first priority, we will close City Hall to employees and the public tomorrow, Wednesday, January 20, 2021. Security will be present on site as an extra precaution.
All City Hall employees should work from home tomorrow. Any requests for exemptions to work in City Hall tomorrow due to urgent needs or deadlines should be posed to your Department Director.
As a reminder, employees who have specific and immediate security concerns should report them to their supervisors, and then to APD. Examples include someone creating a disturbance at City Hall, or a social media post suggesting someone is coming to a MOA workplace to commit an act of violence. Finally, there’s never a bad time to prepare for actions in case of an emergency. Please take a moment to review the security procedures the MOA has in place. You must be on the MOA network to open this PDF.
We will provide timely updates to you as needed. I appreciate your attention and consideration at this time.
