A longtime executive in Alaska's performing arts community is making a bid for a West Anchorage Assembly seat.
Ira Perman, the executive director of the Atwood Foundation, filed paperwork this month declaring his candidacy in the April 2016 city election. Perman spent nearly two decades at the helm of the Anchorage Concert Association and has also served as executive director of the Alaska Humanities Forum.
In addition to overseeing grants at the Atwood Foundation, Perman currently works as an aide to Assembly member Ernie Hall and coordinated Hall's last two Assembly campaigns. Now Hall has decided not to seek a third term, and Perman is running to replace him.
Perman said he's enjoyed his work as an Assembly aide, which includes attending community council meetings and responding to emails from constituents.
"People take interest in each other, and after a while you start to see, politics is service," Perman said in a recent interview. "Anchorage has been good to me. I'm going to put back."
Born in Brooklyn, New York, and raised in Connecticut, Perman drove to Alaska in 1975 and never left.
In 2000, Perman coordinated a successful campaign to defeat a statewide tax cap initiative. He runs his own consulting business and has worked with nonprofits and other organizations on management and fundraising issues.