Incoming Anchorage Mayor Ethan Berkowitz has tapped a veteran of the Begich administration as his city manager.
Mike Abbott is currently the chief operating officer for the Anchorage School District. He will become city manager July 1, Berkowitz said Friday. That's also the day Berkowitz takes over as mayor.
Abbott was city manager for former Mayor Mark Begich, who left office in 2008 when he was elected to the U.S. Senate.
The city manager oversees 12 city departments and two agencies, as well as budget planning. Anchorage is known as a strong-mayor city. In weak-mayor governments, the city manager functions as chief executive and works for the assembly or council, but in Anchorage, the city manager works for the mayor.
Crossover from previous administrations, and from the Anchorage School District, isn't new to the city manager job. Mayor Dan Sullivan's city manager, George Vakalis, spent nine years with the Anchorage School District as the assistant superintendent for support services. Before that, he was city manager for Mayor Rick Mystrom.
Abbott graduated in 1978 from East Anchorage High School and earned a bachelor's degree in political science and history from Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, California.