Members of the Anchorage Assembly who are involved in a coverup of emails with a fictitious character named Tom Sconce are not answering the simple question: Who is Tom Sconce?
Sconce is a name created by some person or persons associated with the Assembly majority who are trying to communicate without being detected.
The name has become associated with the Anchorage Press and its ally publication The Blue Alaskan, at the very least, according to Must Read Alaska research, which has also found trails to former city manager and city attorney Bill Falsey, who unsuccessfully ran for mayor in 2021 and is now an attorney in private practice.
Must Read Alaska sent a message to all members of the Assembly asking them who “Tom Sconce” is and why some of them are in a group email with him at his email address “[email protected].”
The three Assembly members who answered the Must Read Alaska query were Jamie Allard, Crystal Kennedy, and John Weddleton; all three said they don’t know who Tom Sconce is or what the email address is being used for.
The other members– Assembly Chair Suzanne LaFrance, Vice Chair Chris Constant, and members Austin Quinn-Davidson, Pete Petersen, Forrest Dunbar, Meg Zaletel, and Felix Rivera — did not answer the question after being given a more than 24-hour period.
Must Read Alaska obtained a memo from attorney Sam Severin to citizen activist Russell Biggs, Severin’s client in this matter, that shows that the Assembly is withholding over 590 emails from a public records request, and the Assembly has given no valid reason for the withholding or redaction of many of those emails.
Severin wrote to the Assembly, “Simply blacking out every single line of every e-mail and attachment is not lawful. It is completely contrary to the municipal code and state law mandate of transparency.”
The coverup continued during a closed meeting of the Assembly on Tuesday, after which Assemblyman Chris Constant insisted that even the recording of the meeting itself can never be made public. The leftist majority agreed that the audio tapes from that meeting will be sealed forever.
The Assembly majority is, according to its actions on Tuesday, saying that messages to Tom Sconce are covered by an unspecified privilege.
The two-hour executive session likely covered material that cannot be considered privileged in a secret meeting by law, and it now, with eight members of the Assembly silent on the matter, it appears there is a coverup under way.
Much of the material being kept secret appears to involve an out-of-state transgender rights advocate named Casey Pick, whose mission it is to formulate and defend laws for transgender individuals.
The emails to and from Casey Pick were during the timeframe when the Assembly was passing the conversion therapy ban and trying to force the faith-based Downtown Hope Center to accept transgender overnight guests in its women-only shelter.
Whether an attorney-client privilege existed or could exist without a contract is an issue, because making blanket claim of attorney-client privilege when there was no relationship other than a shared LGBTQ agenda creates a black hole of privilege, particularly after the fact.
It is almost certain that the citizen who is pursing these public records will file a lawsuit against the Assembly and its attorney Dean Gates.
