When Anchorage Assemblywoman Meg Zaletel suddenly announced Tuesday that she will be taking medical leave starting May 24, she raised a few eyebrows and even more questions.
The announcement said she was leaving her role on the Anchorage Assembly for 48 days, returning July 11. As the Assembly vice chair, that means Chairman Chris Constant will not be able to take off for Las Vegas or Key West, knowing that Zaletel will look out for his interests as he phones in from a bar.
Unusually, the Assembly also announced that Zaletel would be leaving her day job at Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness, a federal- and municipal-funded agency where she is the executive director in charge of a multi-million organization that is supposed to end homelessness but has had struggles doing so.
ACEH itself released no press release about how, right when dozens of homeless camps are springing up across the city, its executive director would suddenly announce she would be gone for 69 days, again starting May 24. The agency allowed the Assembly to make that announcement, which is a misuse of municipal resources, sources note.
A look at ACEH shows it’s having trouble at the top.
Four of its senior leaders have left this year, including Celia MacLeod, Director of Programs & Services; Tahnee Conte-Seccareccia, Director of Finance & Administration; Julie Frizzell, Senior Grants Manager; and Helen Renfrew, Grants Manager. The agency started the year with 14 people listed on its staff directory. With four of them gone, it’s 28% of the agency’s staff leaving.
Now running the agency as interim Chief Operating Officer is Terria Ware, formerly Systems Improvement Administrator for ACEH.
That is a lot of churn in the financial and program management area of the agency whose only mission is to get homeless people into safe housing.
Now, the agency’s executive director has quit for unknown medical reasons for most of the summer, leaving an agency without continuity in its operations.
ACEH is an extension of the federal government. It describes itself as, “the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) designated lead for the greater Anchorage area’s Continuum of Care (CoC). Under the governance of the Homelessness Prevention and Response System Advisory Council, ACEH is the local planning body that coordinates housing and services funding for homeless families and individuals.”
An effort to recall Zaletel did not succeed two years ago, but a sign showing support for her recall is still prominent on 36th Avenue near College Park, where Zaletel can see it as she drives across her district.
