OPINION: Despite the rhetoric, Anchorage’s city government is working for you

As I walk through neighborhoods campaigning, I hear frustration that our city government is dysfunctional. I don’t hear blame on the Assembly or the mayor. It is toward both as our governing body. We’ve all seen the fireworks, but behind the smoke, it’s not so bad and will be better. Let’s take a closer look.

It seems crazy that the Assembly and mayor are embroiled in a lawsuit. Yes, the mayor sued the Assembly over provisions in the code that require Assembly approval of the firing for three different positions. Two of those have been in code for decades. Whether or not the provision is legal under the city’s charter is a fair question that is sensibly settled by the court. The mayor sued the Assembly to see what the courts would say. I’m good with that.

You’ll hear the Assembly has continually denied or delayed hiring and appointments. Well, not really. All but two of the mayor’s executive appointments were confirmed unanimously. I voted to confirm all of his appointments. Many were very good and are getting better — others maybe not so much, but I lean heavily towards letting the mayor pick his team. Just last week, appointments to the Transportation Commission were sped up so that body will have a quorum.  That’s working together.

We are working together on homelessness. Three Assembly members, of which I am one, have been working long hours with three executives in the administration to create a path forward regarding the homeless. This has been productive. The plan passed the Assembly unanimously and is on its way to get the homeless out of the Sullivan Arena and into better situations by June 30.  This is three Assembly members working with the mayor’s team to fulfill his No. 1 campaign priority.

We are working together on repairing the Port of Alaska. Over the past 7 years, our city government has fought through lawsuits to get the big settlement with MARAD. This Assembly worked to get the Port users aligned on what we should build.  The petroleum/cement terminal should be done this summer. The Assembly has shown its support for the Port. The mayor has now made repairing the Port his No. 1 priority. That aligns with the Assembly nicely.

The mayor’s budget passed unanimously! That has happened only once before. The budget is ultimately the responsibility of the Assembly, but less than 1% was reorganized with amendments. One was from both the mayor and me. It was a tough budget, cutting about $7 million from the previous year. It is under the tax cap and reflects shared values.

How about those overrides of the mayor’s vetoes? Even those are not signs of the Assembly working against the mayor. His vetoes of entire ordinances because of small sections is a heavy-handed way to fix small issues.  Generally, a simple amendment would have been offered. After the overrides, I started working on the sections that caused consternation. We will fix those so the mayor is comfortable with them.

There are more examples, but these show that despite the noise, your city government is working for you. Our system of municipal government has two branches: the executive branch under the mayor and the legislative branch called the Assembly. By their nature, there is a tension between them. Within this structure, the Assembly and the mayor are working together to help Anchorage become greater.

John Weddleton serves on the Anchorage Assembly representing District 6 (South Anchorage, Girdwood and Turnagain Arm). He is a candidate for re-election in the April 5 municipal election.

The views expressed here are the writer’s and are not necessarily endorsed by the Anchorage Daily News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, email commentary(at)adn.com. Send submissions shorter than 200 words to letters@adn.com or click here to submit via any web browser. Read our full guidelines for letters and commentaries here.