LaFrance administration adds more high-level hires across Anchorage city departments

Anchorage Mayor Suzanne LaFrance said that the administration has filled several high-level positions across a range of city offices, from purchasing to the health department.

Some of the personnel are holdovers from Mayor Dave Bronson’s administration. Several others are coming back to the municipal workforce after time away from city government.

During her campaign for mayor, one of LaFrance’s repeated talking points was that she would restore competence and professionalism to City Hall, both a dig at Bronson’s job performance and a nod toward the hollowing out of various departments after waves of long-term staff left their jobs.

“We have built a high-caliber team of new and familiar faces, with a focus on delivering the best public service possible for our community,” LaFrance said in a Monday evening statement.

Roughly half the positions are heading departments under Municipal Manager Becky Windt Pearson, and the other half are under Chief Administrative Officer Bill Falsey. Both Windt Pearson and Falsey are veterans of Mayor Ethan Berkowitz’s administration who returned for senior-level positions working for LaFrance.

The appointments include:

• Mélisa Babb was named director of the Planning Department.

• Phillipe Brice, who served as the acting director of the Information Technology department beginning in 2023, was tapped to be the new chief fiscal officer.

• Dr. George Conway was appointed to be the next chief medical officer, a position that became controversial during the previous administration when pandemic-related health restrictions were hotly contested. In April, Anchorage voters approved a charter amendment that requires the chief medical officer to win approval from a majority of Anchorage Assembly members in order to serve in the position. According to the administration, Conway was director for Deschutes County Health Services in Oregon from 2016 to 2022, worked for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and holds epidemiological experience in conflict zones and developing countries.

• Chris Hunter was named to lead the Purchasing Department, where he has been the acting director since this summer. He has worked for the municipality for nearly a decade following a three-decade-long career in the private sector with ConocoPhillips Alaska.

• Kent Kohlhase, who served as municipal manager during part of Bronson’s term, was appointed to direct the Public Works Department. Earlier in his tenure with the city, Kohlhase was the director of Development Services.

• Melinda Kohlhaas was named Project Management and Engineering director.

• Sioux-z Humphrey Marshall will come back to lead the Information Technology Department, which she was in charge of from 2018 to 2021, a period that coincided with a sudden shift to remote work for municipal employees once COVID-19 hit in 2020. The administration is currently pushing to increase remote work options for employees as a way of retaining and recruiting its workforce.

• The Anchorage Health Department will continue to be directed by Kim Rash, who was put in charge toward the end of the Bronson administration.

• Alden Thern, who worked as Bronson’s chief fiscal officer for a little more than a year and was a deputy municipal manager for much of the Berkowitz administration, will serve as the city’s internal auditor.

All of the appointments require Assembly approval. Though there were clashes between Bronson’s administration and the Assembly over some of his appointments, it’s more common for mayoral appointees to be approved without significant pushback.

[Correction: This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Mélisa Babb’s first name.]