Evans offers clear-headed, unifying leadership for Anchorage

The April 6 Anchorage mayoral election quickly approaches. Other than the office of governor, no election in Alaska impacts such a large collective of municipal and tribal government citizens, private business and public service delivery interests. And this year, the stakes couldn’t be higher.

Our city has just closed out a very long, difficult year and faces an uncertain landscape in 2021. I think it is fair to say that between the pandemic, economic havoc, the corresponding harm to our mental and behavioral health, and political divisiveness, our community is emotionally overextended, mentally frayed with little margins, physically exhausted and spiritually spent.

Do I overstate our situation? I don’t think so. Every day we see headline news of homelessness, economic crises, pandemic woes and crime that verify how threadbare the social fabric of our community is right now. Strong currents continue to pull us toward the shoals of populist impulses, resentment politics, and cultural division that threatens to break up our community. To navigate these treacherous waters, Anchorage needs the steady hand of Bill Evans on the tiller.

Bill is no stranger to hardship, raised by a single mom who put in six days a week to make ends meet. The first person in his family to graduate high school, Bill joined the Army and served three years with the 82nd Airborne Division, then became a municipal police officer in Ohio, married his wife Melinda, and worked his way through a double major in History and Political Science at Cleveland State University. He then left police work to attend the University of Michigan Law School. His subsequent legal experience in labor and employment law is extensive.

Chasing the call of Alaska, in 1998, Bill and Melinda moved to Anchorage, where they raised their three children, built a successful law practice and invested a tremendous amount of financial and social capital into Anchorage through their business, community engagement and volunteer service on the Anchorage Assembly (representing South Anchorage and Girdwood), the Board of the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce, the Municipal Employment Relations Board, the Anchorage Transportation Commission and the State Mental Health Board.

Bill’s life has ably demonstrated the ideals of sacrifice, courage and duty, and that he possesses the mettle, understanding, and compassion of authentic leadership. He is a true patriot, loyal to our free democracy and not to that of a personality or any partisan view. Bill’s training in the law and as a police officer have well prepared him to resist the wave of anti-intellectualism sweeping our country, where evidence is denied, facts are invented, and fantasy is paraded as truth.

Bill’s public service and campaign platform shows his concern goes far beyond economic development and responsible budgets but extends to the vulnerable on the margins of our community, the homeless, and victims of crime and cultural division. Bill has put his life on the line for our country, for our families, and for our freedom to worship God according to our faith traditions. This is the leadership necessary to orchestrate the beautiful music of unity within our diverse community.

Bill Evans has the character, compassion and integrity to provide leadership that brings renewed life and service to our citizens, policies that improve employment and enjoyment of the fruits of our labor, not only for our individual interests but for the collective good of our city.

I am thankful that on April 6, Bill Evans is giving the people of Anchorage the opportunity to take a big step towards the recovery, healing and restoration of our city.

Chuck Kopp is a former member of the Alaska House of Representatives. He lives in Anchorage.

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