Anchorage Assemblywoman Meg Zaletel is refusing to attend Assembly meetings in person until everyone in the Assembly chambers is forced to wear a mask, and until people are spaced out to her liking.
She made the comment Thursday night at the opening of the third night of public testimony on her Ordinance 2021-91, the universal masking law that would apply to all in Anchorage who are over the age of 2. The law is likely to pass the Leftist Anchorage Assembly, but Zaletel has not shown up in person during testimony to face the people opposing her ordinance, instead calling into the meeting from her home.
The hearing went late into the night on Thursday, with a room that was just as packed as it was on Tuesday, the first night of public testimony. The hearing continues on Monday in the Assembly chambers, the first floor of the Loussac Library.
Later in the meeting, Zaletel said wanted the hearing to continue Friday and Saturday, and even said she would pay for police overtime costs of the Saturday meeting out of her own Assembly fund, and that she would even show up in person to push through the testimony, but eventually it became clear that Saturday was untenable — Assemblyman John Weddleton said he had a marathon that he wants to attend in Girdwood.
Zaletel’s ordinance has been unpopular with testifiers, who are especially unhappy with the enforcement mechanism that relies on neighbors, customers, and others turning each other in for not wearing masks appropriately in Anchorage. Some have compared that to what the Nazis did in Germany to the Jews in hiding, or what the communists did to the Russians under Stalin.
