Wouldn’t you think that the mayor would come to Assembly meetings to discuss critical issues if he had any sincere interest in working with the Assembly – instead of trying to blame them for trying to work on homeless issues? The reality is that Mayor Dave Bronson doesn’t really care about the homeless and doesn’t intend to cooperate with the Assembly.
Case in point: The mayor sent a last-minute proposal to the Assembly about increasing capacity at the Sullivan Arena. He didn’t discuss it with the Assembly beforehand, nor did he bother being present at Tuesday’s Assembly meeting to explain his proposal. He posted his proposal on Facebook with rhetoric blaming the Assembly for the supposed problem that homeless people went to the warming room at Sullivan, but weren’t given a bed because of the Assembly’s limit on capacity. The Assembly agenda was already very crowded, including the Holtan Hills project in Girdwood, so the Assembly did not include the mayor’s last-minute proposal on the agenda. It turned out the appropriate authorities reported there was no need to increase capacity at the Sullivan at all. There was no need for the mayor’s proposal.
Similarly, the mayor vetoed funding for Brother Francis Shelter based on his claim that Brother Francis Shelter said they could not increase capacity. Turns out this is not true either, as per the director of Brother Francis Shelter. After the Assembly overturned the mayor’s mistaken veto, they asked for a commitment from the administration that it would use the extra funding to work with Brother Francis to increase capacity. But, the mayor wasn’t present at the meeting, and Adam Trombley said he doesn’t have the authority from the mayor to make such a commitment. Where was the mayor? Couldn’t they have reached him by phone?
Why is the mayor spinning his wheels and promoting his own alternate reality instead of cooperating with the Assembly and service providers? If you read the mayor’s statements, you will find that they usually include an allegation that it was the Assembly who screwed up somehow. He doesn’t seem to care about facts, just grandstanding.
Is this any way to run a city?
— Joanne Kell
Anchorage
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