Anchorage Assembly to consider extending mayor’s emergency powers through Dec. 31

The Anchorage Assembly on Tuesday will vote on whether to extend the city’s COVID-19 declaration of emergency for a fifth time, which would give Mayor Ethan Berkowitz emergency powers through the end of the year.

The mayor’s current emergency powers expire this Friday and were first issued in March as the Assembly sought to take action against the growing COVID-19 pandemic.

Health experts have warned that the virus is proliferating in Anchorage and around the state, and city leaders have said that the declaration is a necessary response to the public health danger of COVID-19. On Monday, Alaska reported 108 new cases in Anchorage residents, bringing the total number of active cases in the city to 2,745. Thirty-eight residents in the municipality have died.

The emergency declaration "continues to keep us in a position where we can manage nimbly and quickly any surges that may come here,” Assemblyman Chris Constant said. Constant said that he anticipates that the Assembly will pass the resolution to extend the declaration of civil emergency through December 31.

[Alaska hospitals warn a COVID-19 patient surge could put pressure on already compromised ICU staffing levels.]

Assemblywoman Jamie Allard has long opposed the mayor’s use of emergency powers during the pandemic, and said she is vehemently against the emergency declaration extension because she believes it gives him too much power. Allard has voted against extending the declaration previously and in August brought a motion to remove a controversial emergency order that disallowed dine-in service at restaurants and bars.

Emergency Order 14 currently restricts capacity in bars and restaurants and limits the size of group gatherings. Allard said the mayor is using the emergency power in ways that infringe on the rights of individuals and is causing economic damage.

“We’re not even recovering anymore. We’re at a stage of where we’re just barely surviving,” she said.

Public health experts and the mayor have said that taking steps like requiring people to wear masks in indoor public spaces and limiting the amount of people congregating indoors are necessary to curb the spread of the coronavirus, which is currently spreading rapidly in the city.

Emergency orders have also been issued to address other logistics related to the pandemic, such as lifting plastic bag restrictions at grocery stores and allowing the curbside pickup of alcohol at breweries and restaurants, city attorney Kate Vogel said.

If the resolution passes Tuesday to extend the emergency declaration, the administration can continue to issue emergency orders in response to the pandemic, Vogel said.

The Assembly would still have the power to end any emergency order or a particular regulation within an emergency order issued by the mayor, she said. It could also end the declaration of emergency at any time, Vogel said.

If the emergency declaration is not extended, the current emergency orders, such as the mandate to wear masks while in public spaces, would no longer be in effect, she said.

Extending the emergency declaration also enables the city to take actions that help the city’s response to the pandemic, like reassigning municipal employees and moving money around for needs like an emergency shelter for the homeless, she said.

[Alaska’s governor and Anchorage officials offer mixed messaging amid unprecedented COVID-19 case counts]

Local health experts have warned that if the current COVID-19 trends continue, it could put further pressure on a staffing shortage in intensive care units. Alaska’s COVID-19 daily case counts hit record highs this week.

“Our public health experts continue to tell us that we are close to the edge of our resource capacity,” Constant said.

Still, Alaska has seen the lowest per capita death rate due to the virus in the country.

Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s statewide emergency declaration, passed by the Legislature in March, is set to expire Nov. 15.

The Assembly vote on whether to extend the declaration Tuesday comes is scheduled the day after the mayor on Monday apologized for having a “consensual, inappropriate messaging relationship” with local news anchor and reporter Maureen “Maria” Athens, but did not say he would resign. On Friday, Athens had posted unsubstantiated allegations against Berkowitz on social media.