Why are Anchorage taxpayers on the hook for Mayor Dave Bronson’s bungled funding of the East Anchorage homeless shelter and navigation center?
This project was controversial from the start, and it never received broad public support. In May, the Assembly narrowly approved spending $6.2 million on it.
Bronson’s project manager for the navigation center, Saxton Shearer, recently authorized a $4.9 million upgrade to the construction contract without the required Assembly approval. He did this after the Assembly balked at approving the $4.9 million request in September.
Additionally, last week Bronson officials told the Assembly they will need $6.5 million more to complete the fabric structure, on top of the $9 million the Assembly has already set aside.The Bronson administration now has us over a barrel, claiming the contractor will sue the city if it does not pay for the unapproved $4.9 million contract modification.
Why doesn’t the Bronson administration accept responsibility for the bungled oversight of this construction project and find a solution that doesn’t echo the city’s business software system, SAP, which started as a $10 million project in 2011 and ballooned to $90 million by 2018?
Bronson officials said in May that the navigation center would cost $10 million to build. How high will the price tag get before someone pulls the plug or puts an adult in charge?
— Sharon Stockard
Anchorage
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