Anchorage Assembly members nominate election administrator to be next city clerk

Anchorage Assembly leadership has picked a city employee to take over as the next municipal clerk, a job critical to keeping the state’s largest city functioning, including by overseeing elections.

Jamie Heinz, who has worked as municipal election administrator, will immediately begin serving as acting clerk until the full Assembly votes on her confirmation June 23, according to a written statement from Assembly Chair Christopher Constant, who nominated her to the position.

Heinz will be taking over the role held by Municipal Clerk Barbara Jones since 2012, who has announced her retirement.

“Jamie Heinz has a proven track record of leadership in public service, right here in the Municipality and in other Alaska jurisdictions. As much as it pains me to part ways with Clerk Jones, her legacy of accessible, transparent and responsive local government lives on in the Clerk’s Office,” Constant said in the statement.

According to the statement, Heinz was selected after a national search. She has 12 years of experience with municipal administration, both as a clerk and overseeing elections. She has also worked in Kenai and Haines.

Unlike city department directors, the clerk is selected by the 12 members of the Assembly, which is intended to insulate the office from changing political winds as mayoral administrations sweep in and out of City Hall. The clerk works closely with the Assembly translating political decisions into policies that follow city and state laws.

The clerk also administers local elections, which turned the office into an unexpected political lightning rod in 2021 during the runoff between then-Assembly member Forrest Dunbar and Dave Bronson, who narrowly won. A report released after the election by the clerk’s office said elections officials faced “unprecedented harassment” in the course of overseeing voting, including being accosted in a parking lot, being the subject of disinformation spread on social media, blogs and talk radio, and facing calls for their firing and even execution online.

Once in office, Bronson pushed to make the municipal clerk role an elected position in what he described as an effort to increase transparency. The proposal was criticized by civic groups and Assembly members as a move toward replacing nonpartisan professionals with political actors. The Assembly killed the measure in 2022.

Jones oversaw several major changes in city politics and governance, most markedly the implementation of the vote-by-mail system now used for municipal elections. Her last day will be June 30.

Heinz is expected to be confirmed by the full Assembly.