The resignation of Mayor Ethan Berkowitz, announced Tuesday at the Anchorage Assembly meeting by his Chief of Staff Jason Bockenstedt, overshadowed the Assembly’s vote to extend the mayor’s emergency powers for the fifth time.
As AR 2020-379 was introduced, an intense battle ensued as Assembly Members lined up to pitch their particular amendment to the resolution.
Assembly Member Suzanne LaFrance got things started by introducing an amendment to change the emergency powers end date from December 31 to Nov. 30. The amendment passed 10-0.
Assembly Member John Weddleton joined the debate by proposing an amendment that would require public testimony for any further extension of the emergency powers. The amendment passed 10-0.
Assembly Member Meg Zaletel added an amendment to Weddleton’s amendment that would require a public hearing to occur two weeks before the emergency powers end date. The amendment passed by a 9-1 vote.
And finally, Assembly Member Crystal Kennedy introduced the most unique and promising amendment, which confirms that this current extension’s sole intention is to allow time to move all processes and operations from an emergency powers status to the city’s standard Municipality of Anchorage operation. This amendment passed by an 8-2 vote. Meg Zaletel and Forrest Dunbar both opposed the amendment.
Ultimately, the Assembly voted 9-1 in favor of extending the emergency powers, which gives the mayor vast power over operations during his final 10 days in office, after which the power will transfer to Chairman Felix Rivera, who is positioned to step into the role of acting mayor until a special election is called. Jamie Allard was the sole Assembly member who voted against the extension.
Ethan Berkowitz has left his position as mayor in disgrace. But it’s not just his extramarital affair with a former news anchor that will forever leave a black mark on his record.
Berkowitz was an abject failure as mayor in just about every way. He leaves a city behind with an economy in shambles thanks to his unreasonable, destructive, and rigid lockdowns. He denied the businesses he destroyed the help the federal government offered and instead used most of the money for his pet liberal projects.
Berkowitz also grew the drug-and-alcohol-addicted vagrant population exponentially.
His rubber stamp Assembly majority did nothing to curb Berkowitz and his Leftist agenda. It has been the most radical agenda ever imposed on the people of Anchorage.
It should be said there’s no evidence that’s surfaced, thus far, corroborating the charge by former news anchor Maria Athens that Berkowitz sent naked pictures of himself to an underage girl’s website. Athens put her career on the line with the charges and has yet to back them up. It appears she got some bad information and then decided to run with it anyway.
The confusion for Athens began when she was interviewing a woman by the name of Molly Blakely on Friday. Blakley mistakenly told Athens her daughter was an underaged escort for the mayor a couple of years ago. But Blakley’s daughter never told her mother that Berkowitz was a customer. Instead, she told Blakley she was an escort for a short man who worked for the state of Alaska. Blakely assumed it was Berkowitz because of his diminutive stature.
The daughter confronted her mother after the story broke telling her it wasn’t Berkowitz. The daughter released a voice mail Blakely left on her phone backing up her claims.
“I was calling to tell you that I told the police that it wasn’t him. I don’t know what more to say. No one knows anything about us being involved in any way. Yes, what I told her (Athens) triggered her. I did not make it up on purpose. I didn’t even make it up. You told me that and I just added one and one together and I made an assumption that was wrong.”
But it was too late. Blakely’s misinformation set the scorned Athens off. Berkowitz’s former lover exploded in anger. Blakely and Athens then traveled to Kriner’s Diner. There, Athens, in front of several witnesses, left the following loud, animated, and profanity-laced message on Berkowitz’s voice mail:
“Ethan, it’s Maria Athens from Fox, ABC, CW, Newsnet National Alaska. I just learned through my uh Emmy award-winning journalism you’re also a pedophile and like little girls and children and there’s a website. I’m so fucking exposing you. I’m gonna get an Emmy so you either turn yourself in, kill yourself, or do what you need to do. I will personally kill you and Mara Kimmel my God damn self you Jewish piece of living fucking shit. You have met your match mother fucker. You have met your mother fucking match. I can’t believe I am such a good person and thought I loved you. I fucking hate, I don’t even hate you. I will pray your Zionist fucking ass you piece of shit loser. And I’m putting this on the news tonight. Bye. Have a great Friday you mother fucker.”
Blakely later sent a text to her daughter describing witnessing Athens leaving the phone message:
“She is super unstable. Was even yelling the F word in Kriner’s diner. And people were calling her out on FB and she was cussing them out too. This was the reason I called. To tell you she lost her mind. Apparently, she had a 3 year affair with him. And he never left his wife. I knew none of this. She called him and threatened to kill him and his wife, On a voice message!!!”
Later on Friday, Athens released on Facebook from her TV station a video promising to air a story that evening on how Berkowitz shared his genitalia on an underaged girl’s website. This appeared to be based on the new revelation, which was false, that Berkowitz hired an underaged escort.
All Athens has offered as proof thus far is the nude picture Berkowitz sent to her while they were dating. After she posted her video claiming reliable sources told her the mayor was involved in sending nude pictures to an underage girl’s website, she posted the nude picture of Berkowitz with the heading: “PROOF Mayor Ethan Berkowitz #TakeThatHaters.
Athen’s use of the word “proof” in her heading above the picture seems to indicate she wanted those challenging her on Facebook to believe the nude photo of Berkowitz was tied to an underage website. But the picture proved nothing.
Blakely’s daughter heard of the video Athens cut from her TV station. She asked her mother via text: “Do you have the video?” Blakley responds: “I’ll get it, but know she made this all up!!”
The teased story never aired after Scott Centers, the station’s general manager and Athen’s fiancé’ got into a physical altercation in the station’s parking lot. Athens was arrested for that altercation.
We can’t know for sure if what Athens alleges about Berkowitz exposing himself to underage girls is true. And since there is no evidence proving it, we should give the mayor the benefit of the doubt, no matter how much we dislike his policies.
But this we do know; Berkowitz had a careless and reckless affair with Athens, and it cost him his political career. Berkowitz has no one to blame but himself.
Dan Fagan hosts the number one rated morning drive radio show in Alaska on Newsradio 650 KENI. He splits his time between Anchorage and New Orleans.
We find ourselves waiting with bated breath for the news media’s outright indignation, its thunderstruck fury at Democratic Mayor Ethan Berkowitz’s confession to some sort of hanky-panky in recent years with a reporter.
After all, unless he resigns, he is mayor of Anchor Town for about six more months. Plenty of time for the media to peel the onion and get to the truth.
For Berkowitz’s part, he says he had a “major lapse in judgment … several years ago when I had a consensual, inappropriate messaging relationship with reporter Maria Athens.” He says he is sorry and apologized to the people of Anchorage and his family. He says he is “embarrassed and ashamed.”
Athens, if you will recall, went on social media Friday with a bombshell claim Berkowitz posted inappropriate nude photos to a website.
Now, the news media, trepidatious for days about reporting any of this smarm surely will do what they do – doggedly dig to the bottom of the “inappropriate messaging relationship,” whatever that is. Surely there are more pictures than what have surfaced. None of the texts in those messages has been publicized. What else is involved? Who said what to whom? Was the mayor’s private City Hall bathroom involved? Details. The public wants details.
Answering those questions – and many, many more – is what the media do. Just look at how they recently and relentlessly charged after flirtatious text exchanges between former Republican Attorney General Kevin Clarkson and a woman who works in the governor’s office. No mercy. No holds barred. They are still trying to get answers. That is the kind of thing the media do – and surely will do to in this case to get the truth in the Berkowitz affair.
We fully expect in a few days, or maybe weeks, to have the whole, sordid, salacious Berkowitz story along with its seamier details after the media does their thing.
Mayor Ethan Berkowitz has resigned. His resignation letter was read at the Anchorage Assembly meeting tonight. The resignation is effective Oct. 23.
Berkowitz, while not in attendance, announced his resignation through a written statement read by Chief of Staff Jason Bockenstedt.
“It is with profound sadness and humility that I resign as the mayor of the Municipality of Anchorage,” Berkowitz said. He said as a private citizen it would be easier for him to deal with the damage caused by his admission of guilt to an extramarital relationship, and he wanted to protect his family.
The audience broke into a rousing applause.
On Monday, Berkowitz admitted to having an extramarital sexting relationship with TV news reporter-anchor Maria Athens, who had posted a nude photo of him on Facebook last week.
Check back as this story is developing.
The full video of his resignation letter being read is at this link:
Last week the mayor denied claims made by Athens about his involvement with kiddie porn. The Anchorage Police issued a statement saying they had not found any basis for the claim and the case was closed.
An effort to reorganize the Assembly to put Assembly member John Weddleton in as chair failed on a vote of 8-3. This means Assembly Chair Felix Rivera will become mayor on Oct. 23. He is part of the hard-left radical group that runs the Assembly.
Voting to place Rivera in as mayor rather than Weddleton were those hard leftists: Suzanne LaFrance, Kameron Perez-Verdia, Chris Constant, Forrest Dunbar, and Pete Peterson, and Austin Quinn-Davidson, Meg Zalatel, and Felix Rivera.
Using judicial power to make new laws for Alaskans, the Alaska Supreme Court has upheld a lower court ruling that says Alaskans don’t need a witness signature on their absentee ballots this year.
The next opportunity the courts will have to show their willingness to be activist is later this week, when a court case from the Alaska Center [for the Environment] is suing to make sure that even if a voter fills out an absentee ballot wrong (without a signature or date of birth, etc) it can still be counted. That case will be heard at 9 am Thursday in Superior Court.
The Monday Supreme Court decision came after an hour of court arguments. Although statutes clearly state that each ballot needs a witness, the court has effectively invalidated Alaska law because it wanted to.
The rationale is that there are so many Alaskans voting absentee this year that there may be a lot more rejected ballots, if the voters don’t follow through and get the witness. In other words, it’s a numbers game — the Supreme Court decided in advance that there will be a problem getting witnesses for too many people.
More than 115,000 Alaskans have requested absentee ballots, and the State says nearly 14,000 have already been voted and returned.
With the court having thrown out the witness requirement, will it now also throw out other requirements that ballots be filled out properly?
Alaskans are getting a lesson in just how liberal and activist its judges will go to throw out election integrity because of their better judgment.
MAYOR RELEASES PRIVATE AUDIO TO DAMAGE HIS ACCUSER
Mayor Ethan Berkowitz came halfway clean on Monday after admitting that he had had an inappropriate “messaging” relationship with TV reporter Maria Athens.
But he didn’t come all the way clean. Instead, he asked everyone to respect his privacy.
That alleged “messaging” relationship was something Athens had never discussed last week. Her actual allegation was that the mayor had been posting lewd photos to a kiddie porn website and she said she had “reliable sources.”
She was readying to go on the air with the allegations on Friday, when the station manager at the local YourAlaskaLink Fox News affiliate told her no — the story was good, but she was in no condition to tell it just then.
Athens had on Facebook posted a photo of Berkowitz’ naked body — a selfie that he took and sent to her — on Friday afternoon, as some kind of proof that Berkowitz was capable of doing such kiddie porn activity. But the photo raised a lot more questions.
Mayor Berkowitz was quiet over the weekend, after his initial denial and rebuke of the broadcast reporter, issued by his official press office on Friday.
It would have been a difficult weekend at his house, where his wife, Mara Kimmel, was likely not amused to see her husband’s naked body splashed all over Facebook.
In his Monday statement, Berkowitz was asking the public to respect his privacy.
But at the same time, Berkowitz released to a Democrat-friendly political blogger/operative a private voicemail from Athens that he had received on Friday, a voice recording that made her look unhinged, dangerous, and anti-semitic. In the voicemail, Athens threatened to kill him.
Why would the mayor ask for privacy from the public and in the same hour amp up the war with Athens in the public arena?
He wants it both ways. It’s a powerful man pushing a broken woman to the brink.
Must Read Alaska has spoken with Athens extensively and, while much of the conversation was off the record, she sticks by her original story that the mayor was engaged in kiddie porn. She provided clues to why she thinks that and those clues have been passed along to law enforcement.
THE PROTECTION SQUAD TO THE RESCUE
The questions surrounding the deference given to the Anchorage mayor by the media and his own police department continue.
The media tried to extinguish the story over the weekend, while Berkowitz surrogates Forrest Dunbar, Eric Croft, Andrew Halcro, Chris Constant, and Casey Reynolds took to social media to defend the mayor. Many of their social media posts have since been removed.
This is a case of powerful men in Anchorage trying to discredit a woman who is clearly in crisis. They’re trying to save Berkowitz in order to save their Democrat political machine, which has just thrown a rod.
Critics reached out to Must Read Alaska to say that the quick investigation of Athens’ kiddie-porn charge by the Anchorage Police Department, and their hasty statement that there are no merits to the charge is something that defies explanation. The quick closing of the case calls into question the integrity of Police Chief Justin Doll.
Athens’ claims, in spite of the mayor’s denials, are not completely unfounded. The public now knows he capable of lying to them: He lied in the Friday press release when he denied Athens’ allegation, while blistering her as “hostile” and “unwell.”
That press release was — by every measure — an abuse of his power. He had no right as a public official to speak about her health or to accuse her from his position of power.
On Monday, came his apology, and again the statement that he did nothing criminal, repeating on the record that brief announcement by the Anchorage Police Department, which he controls.
But in fact, he engaged in a relationship with a reporter who covered him at City Hall, and then lied about it to the public, and painted her as a madwoman. From what information Must Read Alaska has gathered, it was more than just a sexting relationship. He has not told the whole truth.
ABUSE OF POWER
The disparate nature of power and the abuse of that power is now the story. If Athens is unwell, then Berkowitz is using his powerful platform to take away her credibility and to paint himself as the victim.
This speaks to Berkowitz having a predatory character, a man who will do anything to save himself.
Athens, who made $29,000 a year as a TV anchor, is not the one who ran for office and has the public trust of an elected official.
She is not the one with emergency powers over the citizens of Anchorage, powers granted by his allies on the Anchorage Assembly.
It is Ethan Berkowitz who ran for office. And now he is bullying a powerless woman who has little to lose, while he has everything to lose if he doesn’t shut her up or drive her to harm herself.
Across what’s left of newsrooms in Alaska, mainstream and public broadcasting journalists sheltered Mayor Ethan Berkowitz for 72 hours — until they just couldn’t.
It wasn’t until the mayor acknowledged at 4:30 pm on Monday that there are compromising photos of him in the possession of a broadcast reporter that the Anchorage Daily News and other news outlets decided it was a story. Up until that point, it was a figment of Must Read Alaska’s imagination.
The mayor begged everyone to respect his privacy.
This isn’t the first time the ADN has protected Berkowitz. One of the most egregious examples was when his wife, Mara Kimmel, ran over a pedestrian when Berkowitz was queuing up his run for Congress.
The ADN buried that story, never linking Kimmel to her politically ambitious husband, who was just leaving the Legislature to launch his bid against Congressman Don Young.
Over this past summer, the ADN gave Alaskans an example of what journalism is — they pursued the story of a flirtatious set of text exchanges between former Attorney General Kevin Clarkson and a woman who works in the Governor’s Office.
Those text messages became uncomfortable for her, although at the beginning of their exchanges, she appeared fully onboard with a text relationship. They were relatively innocent, but there were plenty of “kissy” emojis from Clarkson to the woman, and the newspaper was relentless in its pursuit of more salacious material it could write about in this case.
Even last week, the newspaper’s top investigative reporter, Kyle Hopkins, was complaining on Twitter that he couldn’t get access to more personnel records pertaining to Clarkson and the still-unnamed woman, who had finally tired of the relationship and took it to a “friend” who took it to the newspaper.
Andrew Halcro, of the Anchorage Community Development Authority, who is a surrogate for the mayor, has posted daily on Twitter how many days it has been since the governor would not release personnel records of Clarkson. Halcro fell silent over the weekend on his daily rant.
The Alaska Press Club had to get in on the action, sending a letter to the governor demanding release of personnel documents.
The Alaska Press Club letter demands that the governor stop criticizing the press just because he doesn’t like their coverage. It was signed by Julia O’Malley, Tom Hewitt, Victoria Barber, Kortnie Horazdovsky, Jacob Resneck, Angela Denning, Michelle Theriault Boots, Anna Rose MacArthur, Lori Townsend, and Tegan Hanlon.
Awkward, guys.
There is no doubt that the full story of reporter Maria Athens and Ethan Berkowitz has not been told. Athens, who started this storm, has more photos of the mayor — frontals views of him in compromising positions, which he sent to her and which she has in a phone that may or may not be in the possession of law enforcement. She has shown these photos to people who have described them to MRAK.
The photographic evidence suggests that this relationship went on during a time when he was running for office, before 2017. The nude photo of him was evidently taken in his private office bathroom in City Hall while he was beginning to be known as the “nothing to report” mayor, the one who never had anything to tell the Anchorage Assembly during his Mayor’s Report on the agenda.
As of now, the mayor has admitted only to what he had to admit to and no more. But there is more. A lot more. The problem with the Anchorage Daily News editorial team, is that they thought Athens had faked the first nude photo of him — the now-infamous back shot. They wanted more proof, and Maria Athens all of a sudden was not a credible reporter in their eyes.
Partial view of the Berkowitz nude selfie. There are others.
The “nothing to report” ADN newsroom just could not believe that the photo was anything but a fake, and so remained mum on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and until the mayor’s written confession came late Monday afternoon.
This is because Berkowitz is a Democrat, and until he said the photo was real, it was not the time to “believe all women,” as the Left likes to say.
The mayor is the Left’s golden boy, and the newsroom needed absolute proof before they would run with a story that would reflect poorly on him.
The double standard is stunning, protecting Berkowitz at all costs at a time when many believe he is — or was — preparing to run for governor.
The local Alaska mainstream media now has the perfect opportunity to prove it is unbiased.
Alaskans should expect weeks of follow up stories on the mayor’s infidelities and not simply accept the mayor’s carefully worded press release.
The ADN will surely print the nude photos of the mayor as they did with the attorney general’s texts. The ADN will surely keep hounding this mayor as they do any Republican in office.
Our unanswered questions that we offer to their reporters at no charge:
Was the relationship ever physical?
Were there any other women that you have had extramarital affairs with?
Why did you, Mr. Mayor, wait three days to disclose these inappropriate messages?
Which part of this, Mr. Mayor, do you consider to be inappropriate? Doing it on City Hall property? Your committed relationship? That she was reporting on City Hall politics?
Assembly Members Jamie Allard, Crystal Kennedy, and John Weddelton are the only three who voted in favor of a public hearing. The rest of the Assembly — Forrest Dunbar, Suzanne LaFrance, Felix Rivera, Meg Zalatel, Austin Quinn-Davidson, and Kameron Perez-Verdia — refused to allow public testimony, indicating that no public hearing is planned for Tuesday.
If the public is denied the opportunity to testify, will residents continue to abide by shutdowns? Can the Anchorage economy withstand another hunker down in Anchor-town?
Tuesday’s vote comes at a pivotal point for Anchorage residents and businesses. The city’s economy, public health, and the Mayor’s moral authority are all in crisis mode heading into tomorrow’s Assembly meeting.
It’s unclear whether the city’s economy, which teeters on the brink of possible collapse, can sustain another lockdown. Small businesses, like Momma O’s, CampoBello Bistro, Marco T’s Pizzeria, and Red Chair Cafe are closing their doors daily. With little financial assistance available from the Municipality, more are sure to follow suit.
The Assembly allotted just $6 million to the CARES Act’s small business stabilization program while allocating over double the amount, $12.5 million, to purchase homeless facilities.
Assembly Members Dunbar, LaFrance, and Quinn-Davidson will propose adding $10 million to the small business relief program, but many contend the gesture is still not enough to stabilize the city’s fragile economy.
Tourism and hospitality programs and some nonprofits received a separate allocation.
Adding to the crisis is the sudden rise in confirmed COVID-19 cases around the state. Epidemiologists have estimated that Alaska’s total case count will double in roughly 20 days, based on current modeling.
Tuesday’s vote will play an essential role in Anchorage’s economic outlook as the mayor may call for another citywide lockdown.
Yet, Berkowitz has more than rising COVID-19 cases on his mind.
On Friday, Mayor Berkowitz was at the center of an explosive story by former FOX News reporter Maria Athens. A video posted to Athen’s Facebook page claimed the Mayor exposed his genitalia on an underage girl’s website. Athens reported having photographs and “reliable sources” on the matter. To this point, the post is still up on her Facebook page, garnering over 1,000 comments, and nearly 1,000 shares.
That afternoon, the Mayor’s office released a brief statement calling the story defamatory and false, citing Athens as hostile and unwell.
Assembly member Forrest Dunbar and former member Eric Croft, both members of the Mayor’s inner circle, have come to the Mayor’s defense over the weekend, releasing separate statements vouching for his unquestionable character.
Today at 4:30 pm, Mayor Berkowitz released a statement admitting to having, what he called, an inappropriate messaging relationship with Maria Athens several years ago. Since his initial statement on Friday, the Mayor’s office had been silent on the matter, until he announced today a previously secret relationship with Athens.
Now, many residents are questioning the Mayor’s moral authority to retain his emergency powers, which give him nearly absolute control over city functions.
In his statement, Berkowitz said, “It takes time to rebuild trust, and I hope you afford me the opportunity to do so. During the remaining months of my term, I will continue working on the important issues we face.”
Today’s bombshell will have a ripple effect on the mayor’s political clout moving forward. As protesters line the Loussac Library tomorrow night, Mayor Berkowitz may be forced to do the “walk of shame” in front of critics who do not wish to see his executive powers extended.
Will the Assembly continue to entrust Anchorage’s future to this administration and relinquish their authority, with the city’s economy on the brink, or will they vote to maintain a separation of powers and begin the slow process towards economic recovery?
Tuesday promises to be a dynamic day in the Municipality of Anchorage.
Mayor Ethan Berkowitz today issued the following statement:
I apologize to the people of Anchorage for a major lapse in judgment I made several years ago when I had a consensual, inappropriate messaging relationship with reporter Maria Athens. I’m embarrassed and ashamed for the hurt I’ve caused my family and our community. I take responsibility for my actions. A joint investigation into the recent allegations made by Ms. Athens was completed by the Anchorage Police Department and FBI and found no evidence of criminal conduct.
It takes time to rebuild trust and I hope you afford me the opportunity to do so. During the remaining months of my term, I will continue working on the important issues we face.
Please consider my family’s privacy during this difficult time.
The statement came out at 4:30 pm on Monday. At the same time, Assembly Chairman Felix Rivera issued the following statement:
We were informed today of improper and distasteful actions taken by our Mayor. While an investigation by APD and the FBI found no illegal activity based on the allegations made against the Mayor last Friday, we now understand that the Mayor engaged in a consensual yet inappropriate relationship with an adult. We are disappointed and disheartened by this news and send our heartfelt support to First Lady Dr. Mara Kimmel and the rest of the Mayor’s family, who we know are going through a very difficult time.
Despite today’s news, there remains much work to do to improve the lives of local residents and the Assembly is dedicated to continuing its important work.
The Assembly meets on Tuesday to vote on extending the mayor’s emergency powers in the midst of a surge in COVID-19 cases in Alaska.
On Oct. 14, the mayor and his wife were expected to be honored at the Congregation Beth Shalom’s Shining Light Awards, which was to be held online for the first time. The Synagogue announced today that the entire event has been cancelled, or “unavoidably postponed.”
