While the Anchorage Assembly prepares a ballot question for April to get voters to approve a 3% sales tax, it’s already flush with money.
Among the jobs it is seeking to fill is a “marketing assistant,” range 10, for the Anchorage Public Libraries.
The job pays up to $26 an hour and is open to the general public and any current municipal employee.
And it’s covered by the public employee union: “This position is represented by the Anchorage Municipal Employee Association (AMEA) and is subject to the provisions of the current agreement between the Municipality of Anchorage and the AMEA,” the job listing says.
There is no library director at this time, although Elizabeth Nicolai, the assistant director, is serving as acting director of a library system that has been the subject of much public criticism for pushing gender ideology on children through Drag Queen Story Hour and books about gay sex placed prominently at a child’s eye level.
Anchorage libraries, as with those in some places in the Lower 48, have become homeless shelters and drug-use sanctuaries during the day, and some traditional users of the libraries no longer feel safe.
In 2022, a woman was stabbed in the back at the main Loussac Library and permanently injured in her spine by a man who was later released by a judge because he was found to be not competent to stand trial.
In other cities, surface tests have been conducted in public libraries and have shown that many surfaces are contaminated with drugs like methamphetamines and fentanyl. In Colorado, the Boulder Public Library suddenly closed in 2022 after meth had been detected in public areas. Denver metro libraries are spending tens of thousands of dollars to clean up meth residue in their bathrooms, according to the Colorado Sun.
With Anchorage libraries being used by drug abusers, there may be actual health hazards associated with going to the library. But instead of testing surfaces to ensure safety of patrons, Anchorage is going to focus on marketing the libraries as places for the public to take their kids.
Here is the general job description:
“The Marketing Assistant supports the development of marketing materials, social media content, short form videos, and participates in public engagement opportunities, that help grow library usage and develop a positive relationship between the Anchorage Public Library (APL) and the community. Under the direction of the Marketing Supervisor, the Marketing Assistant is responsible for: developing original content for both print and digital projects using Adobe programs and web-based services; producing engaging creative content for all APL’s social media platforms, representing the department at various outreach events virtually and/or in-person; contributing ideas for future marketing campaigns; other duties as assigned.”
Find this and other Anchorage city jobs at this link.
Anchorage(!!!)
… Had enough of this insanity yet?
… You want more of this insanity?
… When will you vote-out this insanity?
They are too dumb to vote insanity out
Sowing dysfunction into society ensures strong public sector unions. What better method than hiring your own kind ?
This is a further example of the need for conservative people to step up and run for Anchorage Assembly to get Anchorage working for the people paying the bill, instead of taxing them at every turn.
The voters turn out in Anchorage is disgraceful. The liberal leftists are the only voters showing up.
They are well organized
The Fairbanks North Star Borough has a social media person. They post one a month to an account no one sees, and it looks like they travel the rest of the time. Must be nice to be buddies with the mayor.
Close places to bums, save money, send them back to the cities, towns,villages where they came from. Bring back The Blue Ticket.
Not enough funds for police, fire fighting, snow plowing, but enough for this…
Like the library needs a marketing assistant? Are they some kind of for profit organization?
.
If there are not enough people using the libraries in Anchorage, perhaps it is because the libraries are overrun by vagrants.
No new taxes for the mayor and her cronies on the assembly.
Quit wasting my tax dollars on this crap.spend it on police to enforce the laws.
Not a big deal. They’ll get some blue haired wokester who will want to work from home.
Hey Jim, it’s true the libraries have become a nightmare, but I adamantly dispute that they tolerate substance use there. $26 an hour is no way enough for “clients” those poor security folks and librarians deal with. I’ve witnessed them so it as respectfully as possible, but also effectively. They don’t put up with it for a minute, and often deal with screaming and yelling and verbal abuse, sometimes even violence, for enforcing the rules that they know are important to a healthy library. The libraries absolutely need to maintain funding and new material – they are PUBLIC spaces, for all of us. And I would encourage your readers to assert ownership over these public resources by going there and using them. There are very few free places or free services that we can partake in, and since COVID, there are almost no public spaces where you can just go and read a book, work quietly, or daydream if you just want a break. The Ann Stevens Room is a gift, we should all use it.
Apologies, that’s was to the author, not Jim Collman.
Who uses the library anymore? My kids use the internet and I would never have them go there by themselves.
I really don’t see a need for them anymore. Most parents won’t let their kids go to them.
Yeah heaven forbid they crack open an actual book. I’ll wager your kids can’t read or write in cursive either? Turn off the electronics bud. Encourage them to read. They’ll thank you one day.
Number one requirement for position: must be a Democrat.
Bonus: trans, lesbian, homosexual.
My experiences at the Anchorage Library left a lot to be desired. Between a remarkably poor selection of non-fiction and the homeless addicts making babies on the upholstered furniture in view of my young son, I determined that we could get along just fine without them. I can’t imagine what they think they can show anyone of value by “marketing” it. Brick and mortar libraries are going the way of shopping malls. They are not only obsolete, they are a public menace.
Incompetent, poor judgment and poor decision making by Lafrance and the ASSembly, who waste money and put in superficial ideas/solutions that don’t solve any real problems. Who are they pre-selecting from among their supporters, cronies and friends to fill this job and make property owners pay for it.
When are Lafrance and the ASSembly handing out the money trees so property owners can pay for all the stuff the incompetent, Spendaholic Mayor Lafrance and the Assembly are wasting money on?
Libraries are an archaic artifact of a former age. What should they evolve into? What public purpose would be useful?
How about drug and alcohol rehab, mental health counseling, debt reduction counseling, art and music venues, healthy cooking instruction, social skill development. I’m channeling my inner RFK!
This is a self-inflicted issue.
Back during Covid, libraries were closed to the public. After weeks of closure you could finally get books by making an appointment for pick-up. Throughout they encouraged all to use the library app to check out books. When they reopened every librarian sported a mask and treated those without like lepers.
Now that many patrons no longer come into the libraries, because they no longer need to or want to, suddenly more taxpayer funds are needed to make physical library locations relevant again (I supposed there is a union connection to keep all that staff employed). When you push people away and you do not secure your premises so patrons feel safe and are not attacked or harassed, the logical outcome is a drop in use of the facility.
We should not spend a penny on this, but use the funds more wisely on police, fire and road services. Let the library foundation fund this position if it is so important.
We had a real good turnout for the Nov Election…Warnig for all of you who think the local isn’t as important as the national…THINK AGAIN..When will you SHOW UP FOR OUR LOCAL Elections..They’re just as important since the local that determines “our” everyday functions. We can’t allow the same people on the Assembly to stay in power, as they are destroying Anchorage..It’ll take years for the return to Anchorage as we remember it.
Another news outlet reported that Littlefield, Myers and Sulte are working on a charter amendment to change municipal elections to occur biennially in November of even-numbered years. I’m scratching my head right now trying to remember if MRAK has acknowledged this story. The story I read sought out Constant for the obligatory “other side”. In amongst all the “I don’t like it”, he did say the proposal had some merit. There have been ten charter amendments on the ballot since 2018. Linkrot on the Muni website prevented me from making a comparison to immediate years prior. It also prevented me from seeing what role Constant has taken in putting these amendments on the ballot. My personal recollection is that he’s been fond of using the charter as a palette for his activist agenda, with the average voter asleep at the wheel when it comes to connecting the dots. Could Constant be opposed to this charter amendment because it isn’t his baby?
If that is what the Marketing Assistant is supposed to do, then what is the Marketing Director doing?!?
City services , fire and police we need more of. We don’t need a tax it cost too much to live here as it is . Stop the waste of this assembly and mayor. Vote them out .
Ben Franklin would approve
Not to mention that everything that anyone who does not live in Los Anchorage buys is going to cost 7.5% more next month so that Anchorage can garner money for “the port” outside of the tax cap. Is the Anchorage assembly going to be driving piles and pouring concrete? Where is ADOT in all this? Where is USDOT? Is the port not a transportation hub?
It’s informative articles like this that motivate me to stay on the MRAK distribution list.
I say EVERYONE should have to pay for the nonsense they vote for. It’s not fair to make just property owners pay for this. Maybe if they realize they have to pay for what they vote for, they will be less likely to vote for it.
Yes on the sales tax. Make the liberal freeloaders suffer the burden of liberal policies too.
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