Anchorage Assemblyman Chris Constant is now a heartbeat away from becoming mayor of Anchorage. He was sworn in on Tuesday as the chairman of the Assembly. Assemblywoman Meg Zaletel, who runs the Anchorage homeless industrial complex, is now vice chair.
Sworn in as new members of the Assembly were Scott Myers, Anna Brawley, Karen Bronga, Zac Johnson, and George Martinez.
Constant has been working in the background since Mayor Dave Bronson was elected in 2021, and has been holding the threat of impeachment over the head of the mayor. Constant has been keeping a file on Bronson, starting from the time when the mayor turned off the city’s fluoride temporarily, after an employee had complained about it causing respiratory irritation. Last year, Constant and the liberal Assembly members passed an ordinance that will make it easier for them to simply remove the mayor if they choose. The mayor is up for reelection in 2024 and has filed to run for a second term.
The ordinance allowing the Assembly to simply remove a mayor pertains to these actions:
- Acceptance of cash gifts from one doing business with the municipality
- Violation of chapter 1.15
- Perjury
- Falsification of records
- Filing false reports
- Nepotism
- Making personal use of municipal or school district property
- Destruction of municipal or school district property
- Actual or attempted official misconduct, as defined by state law
- Ordering a municipal employee or contractor employed by the supervisory board to undertake an unlawful act
- Substantial breach of a statutory-, Code- or Charter-imposed duty
- Failure to faithfully execute the directives of a duly enacted 9 ordinance.
Currently, the mayor is in jeopardy with the Assembly because Bronson wants to pay a contractor for work done last year, and the Assembly won’t authorize it. If Bronson pays Roger Hickel, he’ll probably be impeached. Hickel will probably have to sue the city for the payment.
But on Tuesday, Constant played the statesman: “This election, now certified, comes at a crucial time in our city’s history, as we emerge from a long and dark period of the pandemic, and enter a new day of what I hope will be characterized as collegial accountability from the Assembly.”
It’s unclear if Constant was sideswiping former Assembly Chairwoman Suzanne LaFrance with that comment about a long and dark period. LaFrance, Pete Peterson, Austin Quinn-Davidson, Joey Sweet, and Robin Dern are now off the Assembly. Six of the 12 members are newly sworn in.
