OPINION: I’ll help Mayor Bronson make Anchorage better

The people of Anchorage know our city should function better — much better. What has occurred during the past three years, the decline and decay of our hometown, has been heartbreaking to watch, and it’s unacceptable to us and our families.

We know crime and homelessness are severe problems the current Assembly has not effectively addressed over the past several years. We can see with our own eyes the boarded-up businesses, vagrancy and vandalism. This is what the current Assembly, including John Weddleton, has inflicted on us and small businesses across our city through its misguided policies, and it’s time for change.

That change started with Dave Bronson being elected to the mayor’s office. But Dave needs help to bring sane and sensible policies back to Anchorage. He can’t do it if the Assembly is fighting him at every turn.

My opponent in the South Anchorage District 6 race for Assembly is on the record in this newspaper saying things are going well in Anchorage government. He says the Assembly is getting along with the newly elected mayor. He says homelessness is being solved.

Weddleton says government is working well. He says you should not believe what you hear about dysfunctional government. He says all of this is normal, and that this Assembly is working cooperatively with the mayor.

The woman who was stabbed on Feb. 14 in the Loussac Library probably doesn’t agree with Weddleton, who is also on record saying that all people must be allowed to use the library, “no matter how vile.”

That woman is now paralyzed from being stabbed in her spine as she simply returned books to the library just feet away from where the Assembly meets. She was an innocent citizen whose life will never be the same.

The evidence shows that nine members control the Assembly — Weddleton among them. He alone could have shown leadership and stopped any of the numerous veto overrides.

The record shows that nine members of the Assembly, who Weddleton agrees with the majority of the time, are constantly searching for ways to sideline Mayor Bronson. They pepper his offices with endless and petty public records requests. They look for anything they can find that would distract and hobble him from being able to succeed in helping Anchorage get back on its feet. We need to work together despite our differences.

I am the conservative candidate running for Anchorage Assembly in South Anchorage. I have the support of Mayor Bronson. I will work to lower property taxes, fight the rising crime rates, and help rebuild the small businesses of Anchorage that the current Assembly has devastated.

I am not going to stand by and watch this dysfunctional and unproductive Assembly take the city down. I won’t align with the nine who are more interested in agendas than problem-solving.

Instead, I’m going to stand for what is fair, sensible and productive to help Anchorage get back on its feet.

Weddleton is wrong. If everyone on the Assembly was getting along with the mayor, and if everything in Anchorage is getting better, I would not see a need to run for Assembly. Our city needs all of us to stand up and defend it against an Assembly that has become hostile to the very citizens it serves.

Voters know better. Our eyes are open. I urge South Anchorage to vote as if their lives depend on it this year.

Randy Sulte is a candidate for District 6 on the Anchorage Assembly.

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