I hope everyone read the editorial on Aug. 27 by the ADN editorial board. I certainly agree that the Bronson administration needs to be transparent about all the facts of what certainly appears to have been attempted interference in the last local election.
Mayor Dave Bronson publicly endorsed several candidates for Assembly and campaigned against other candidates, including some incumbents. In a recent interview, he spoke of his role as mayor as an effort against “wokeness” in the Assembly. He has encouraged hostility against the Assembly and encouraged people to distrust election officials and results.
Now it has been revealed that apparently a top administration executive joined forces with an election challenger, a person known to have close ties to the mayor, to create a supposed violation of election rules to provide grounds to invalidate the election results.
Fortunately, the scheme did not work. The ombudsman has done a complete investigation suggesting there were criminal violations of state election laws.
So did Bronson accept responsibility and apologize? No. Did the mayor follow the recommendation of the ombudsman to immediately terminate IT Director Marc Dahl? No. The administration reported Dahl is on administrative leave but has refused to say if he is still being paid.
The mayor received the detailed report of the ombudsman on July 26, more than 30 days ago, but the administration says it is “still reviewing” the ombudsman’s recommendation.
The administration tried to hide some of the email evidence showing how many people were involved in this scheme by claiming a “deliberative process.’
There may be several other administration figures who were involved besides Dahl, and until the mayor comes clean, answers questions, and stops trying to hide evidence, the public will not know the extent of this scheme.
Only one of the Bronson-supported candidates won, so no doubt Bronson would have been very happy to see the election results invalidated. This would have undermined the public trust in the election process.
I hope the Assembly and the public will continue to demand answers and accountability for this serious breach of the public trust.
— Joanne Kell
Anchorage
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