Mayor Bronson appoints Grant Yutrzenka as Anchorage CFO

Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson on Monday announced he is appointing acting Chief Fiscal Officer Grant Yutrzenka to the position permanently.

Yutrzenka has served as CFO in a temporary capacity since September 2022. Bronson’s initial CFO, Travis Frisk, resigned in July. Senior Finance Officer Ross Rivold briefly filled in before Yutrzenka took over, according to the mayor’s office.

Before Yutrzenka stepped in to take on the city’s top finance management role, he worked as the assistant general manager and chief fiscal officer for Anchorage Water and Wastewater Utility, according to the mayor’s office.

“Grant’s breadth and depth of experience in management, finance and accounting, spanning both the public and private sectors, has well-prepared him to serve as the Municipality’s next CFO, a role he has ably performed in an Acting capacity these last few months,” Bronson said in a written statement.

The Assembly still must vote whether or not to confirm Yutrzenka as the city’s CFO.

Yutrzenka worked for more than seven years at GCI Communications in multiple positions, including vice president of finance and operations for local services, according to a copy of his resume provided by the mayor’s office. He also spent most of a year working at Anchorage’s former utility, Municipal Light & Power, as a division manager.

More recently, Yutrzenka was an owner and manager of Resolution Brewing Co. in Mountain View, which closed in late 2021. (A similar brewery in the same location later opened under new owners.)

Anchorage’s CFO oversees the financial activity of the municipality and manages multiple departments and divisions. Those include the finance department and its controller, property appraisal, the public finance and investments and treasury divisions, and the purchasing department.

At the time of Frisk’s departure last year, the mayor’s office did not provide a reason for the CFO’s resignation.

Over the last year and a half, Bronson’s administration has seen a string of departures — more than 20 — among its top executives, including at least four firings.

Bronson last month abruptly announced he had replaced former municipal manager Amy Demboski, and gave no explanation for her leaving. Demboski later said Bronson fired her in retaliation after she raised concerns about city code violations by the mayor and other city officials, and issues with personnel and a hostile working environment.

She’s the third dismissed official to publicly claim a firing was retaliatory in the Bronson administration.