Beset by controversy that shows no sign of cooling down, Anchorage Assembly chairwoman Debbie Ossiander must decide how to proceed with one of the most time-consuming sessions of public testimony before the Assembly in recent memory.

By Wednesday night, 539 people had signed up for three minutes before the panel to tell stories and express opinions on a proposed ordinance that would extend the city's equal rights law to gays and lesbians.

So far, the Assembly has made it through 350 of those names. But that took a regularly scheduled meeting on June 9, and two special meetings that began in the afternoon and ran long into the night.

Others want to add their names to the list, which is closed, at least temporarily.

Both supporters and opponents of the proposed ordinance are coming out by the hundreds to say what they think.

Strategists on both sides are talking about a June 23 deadline. That's the date by which the ordinance must pass to fall under acting Mayor Matt Claman's executive power.

Claman, a Democrat, supports the measure.

If the ordinance is passed after June 23, it could face the veto of Mayor-elect Dan Sullivan, a Republican. Sullivan won't say if he would veto it.

Ossiander could call another special meeting for Monday to continue going through public testimony, said municipal clerk Barbara Gruenstein. Ossiander is asking city lawyers to look at what the laws say about stopping public testimony before everyone on the list has a chance to talk.

The next regularly scheduled Assembly meeting is Tuesday, June 23.

As of Thursday, Assembly members were planning to resume with public testimony then, at 6 p.m.

There are three main drafts of the proposed ordinance floating around. The third and most recent draft does not have the support of the backers of the original.

The original added "sexual orientation" to the list of protected classes that already includes race, ethnicity, age, sex, marital status, and others.