OPINION: Mayor Bronson’s consistent incompetence

In October, Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson called a news conference to discuss his plan for winter. With two municipal plows staged as the backdrop, Bronson stood at a podium and proclaimed, “If this winter’s anything like last year, we are ready.”

Four weeks later, those words came to haunt him, as the city once again ground to a halt at the onset of the first storm of the year. Last year, Bronson underfunded the snow removal department, and Anchorage paid the price with record school snow closures and 70% slower snow clearing times. Bronson clearly learned nothing from last year, as schools were shut for a fourth day Wednesday. Predictably, Bronson tried to blame the school district despite neighborhood streets remaining unplowed.

School closures force parents to stay home from work, impacting our local businesses and our city’s economy. Bronson’s repeated incompetence has a price tag.

Bronson’s incompetence has been remarkably consistent. On the campaign trail in 2021, Bronson promised to “solve homelessness.” Instead, Anchorage set records for outdoor deaths each year Bronson has been in office. Already, we have more than doubled the record set last year, with six weeks to spare.

This humanitarian disaster once again landed Bronson in the New York Times. Bronson repeatedly makes national news, all for scandal and incompetence, turning our city into an embarrassment.

This is not leadership. This isn’t partisan. This isn’t about differing ideologies. This is about Anchorage residents of all political persuasions demanding a basic level of competence from their city mayor.

The Anchorage Police Department is now chronically understaffed. As reported earlier this year, there are 58 fewer sworn officers on patrol and 19 vacant positions in non-sworn support for a total of 77 vacant positions. Bronson’s appointed police chief has admitted that this means slower response times, increased 911 wait times, and sworn officers spending time having to do administrative tasks instead of responding to crime.

It’s not just the police department. Departments across the city are experiencing vacancy rates of 30% to 50%. Over the past year, departments in the Municipality have been cut to the bone. The legal department is operating at 70% capacity, meaning misdemeanor crimes like DUIs aren’t getting prosecuted. The records department has essentially stopped filling requests. Maintenance and Operations has a 25% vacancy rate. Snow plows and grader equipment are ready and waiting, but the employees to operate them are not.

Instead of vacancies generating cost savings, the city is hiring consultants at exorbitant rates to fill the gap. In the Finance Department, three different consulting firms have been hired to do the work of vacant staff positions, costing the city $2 million. This means that under Bronson, we are now spending more money for less and less on city services.

These vacancies aren’t by accident. The Bronson administration has generated one employee lawsuit after another, ranging from the former city manager to the Director of the Office of Equal Opportunity. Allegations against the mayor’s administration have included sexism, illegal surveillance of employees, illegal contracting, and the creation of hostile and toxic work environments. These lawsuits and settlements have cost the city hundreds of thousands of dollars apiece.

But to make matters worse, the public is unable to tell exactly how much Bronson’s incompetence has cost us. Since he came into office, Bronson has never reconciled the city’s financial books. The fiscal year 2022 books remain open, meaning the city went into FY 2023 without knowing how much money it had. That is now being compounded by going into FY 2024, still not knowing what was carried over two years ago. Bronson is claiming a balanced budget, without any clear idea of how much money the city actually has on hand.

At the 907 Initiative, we are deeply disturbed by the lack of competent leadership coming from City Hall, and we’re not alone. We recently commissioned a public opinion poll on Bronson’s job performance, and the results were overwhelming. Just 29% of respondents have a favorable view of the mayor, and 70% disapprove of his job performance.

It is past time for Anchorage residents to hold the mayor accountable. Last month, the 907 Initiative launched our “incompetence has a price tag” communications campaign, to raise awareness of the fact that Bronson has never fulfilled the basic mayoral responsibility of balancing the books. Please consider signing our petition to demand that Bronson close the books for FY 2022 and FY 2023, so that we can actually understand the price that Anchorage has paid for three years of nonstop incompetence at City Hall.

Aubrey Wieber is the executive director of the 907 Initiative, a nonprofit government watchdog based in Anchorage.

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.