Anchorage Assemblywoman Meg Zaletel was forced by ethics laws to recuse herself from a whole host of activities the midtown representative would normally involve herself in. Her recusal is because in November she was named the executive director of the Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness, a job for which she is paid well over six figures. The previous executive director Jasmine Boyle, received $116,000 a year for salary, plus benefits. Zaletel’s salary, which Must Read Alaska could not determine, is said by municipal insiders to be substantially more.
The ACEH, underwritten by millions in federal HUD funds, is the beneficiary of over $1.2 million in Anchorage grants, both direct and indirect, that are awarded through Assembly appropriations. Zaletel also coordinates grants for other organizations, such as the United Way. Thus, she is has become the gorilla of the Anchorage homeless industrial complex.
Zaletel’s conflict of interest also means she cannot serve on the Assembly’s Committee on Homelessness. The committee is comprised of Chairman Felix Rivera and Vice Chairman Chris Constant, along with members Jamie Allard, Kevin Cross, Kameron Perez-Verdia, Austin Quinn-Davidson, and Randy Sulte.
But Zaletel pedals her influence in other ways. She has found a solid voting surrogate in Assemblyman Chris Constant, who is running for Congress.
In the Federal Election Commissions campaign finance reports for donations made to congressional candidates, Zaletel is credited with making two large donations in April to Constant’s campaign war chest for his congressional bid: $2,700 and $2,900. That’s within a hair of the maximum allowed by law.
In fact, Zaletel is one of Constant’s biggest donors, giving him $1 out of every $27 he has received, as of the most recent report.
That means Zaletel is funding the political career of Constant, who not only votes on appropriations, but holds tremendous power on the Assembly, steering the meetings through his control of Assembly Chairwoman Suzanne LaFrance, and in his role as vice chair of the homelessness committee. The favor will surely not be forgotten by Constant, whether he stays on the Assembly or goes to Congress.
On the Constant for Congress FEC report, Zaletel refers to her employer as “self employed,” even though she has worked as the CEO of ACEH since November. The FEC report can be viewed at this link.
Constant makes $79,000 a year working for the government-funded drug addiction treatment center Akeela, and another $56,000 a year as a member of the Assembly. He has a real estate gig on the side that provided him $13,000 in business last year. That means nearly all of Constant’s income comes from government directly or indirectly.
Like they used to say in the Lyndon Johnson administration, ”There is big money in poverty.”
It’s only a conflict/problem when a conservative does it.
Makes me want to vomit
All rich people work for someone else to enjoy the wealth from another’s toil after it. What i am learning in ecclesiastes, from ch2. I see all that money, and i see a lot of it goes to government assistance for someone else to enjoy what they didn’t labor over.
ACEH comes across as another “non profit” with excessive overhead.
Profiting from the Homeless Welfare Grant Plantation, nothing new here.
Worthless, parasitic Democrats produce nothing beneficial for society yet within their peer groups they bask in the glory of their benevolent virtue, because after all they are “making a difference”.
Meanwhile the problem grows ever more under their watch.
What a scam.
What’s the difference between a for profit and a non profit organization? One pays taxes and salaries, the non profit merely pays salaries.
Why would these fruitcakes want to end homelessness in Anchorage? It’s a beggar’s market.
Money and power. Nothing matters more to them.
At six figures and then some, Zaletel can sashay about town and among her clientele with style. Altruism pays! She has long taken her first bite from the “red” apple and has definitely bloomed out. Her appeal is waning: “altruism” can veil ostensibly nice intents for only so long before even the gullible wake to being “nicely” used!
There are several on the assembly that have passed out money to non profit organizations that pay those members directly. Zaletel is the worst offender of packing the coffers of an organization, then becoming CEO of that 501(3)c.
Does not voting mitigate the conflicts of interest? How is this not an ethics violation under state law?
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