As the Bronson administration unravels in the presence of accumulating evidence of incompetence, dishonesty and sleaze, I think we should remember Niki Tshibaka’s role in this chaos. (I am not aware that human resources was included in Amy Demboski’s letter.) Not only did Tshibaka fail to properly vet Joe Gerace’s resume and application to be head of the municipal health department, helping thereby with Gerace’s fraud, but he ignored warnings about Gerace and claimed that Gerace was the victim of “pure character assassination.”
Tshibaka is paid $135,000 every year to take care of these things properly, but he did the reverse. We also read that his two children together earned more than $18,000 for four or five weeks of light work last spring and summer, paid by the municipality.
Tshibaka undermined established health procedures at a quasi-public meeting while in his position at human resources — which, ironically, includes the health department. And what about Tshibaka’s other personnel problems in human resources, like the firing of Heather McAlpine in the Office of Equal Opportunity, for doing her job? And what happened to the money paid to Joe Gerace?
Why have grifters and parasites become embedded in this administration? It’s what happens when extreme ideology is married to incompetence. Our mayor has no idea what comprises public service or the public good. His behavior shows that you can’t fit reality and ethics into a tiny ideological box without creating some severe distortions somewhere.
And, on a different subject, where would we be without the Anchorage Daily News?
— Clarence Crawford
Anchorage
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