By ALEX GIMARC
Thirty years or so ago, one of my fellow travelers in the Political Wars described Anchorage as a town of “quiet corruption.”
Maybe he was right or maybe he wasn’t. Either way, that was a full 20 years before Democrats captured a veto-proof majority on the Anchorage Assembly in 2017, when corruption around here really took off.
Entrenched, single party rule at any level of government, local, state or federal, always devolves into massive corruption. The billions of dollars stolen in Minnesota over the last decade by defrauding various welfare / social programs is only being uncovered and prosecuted. The fraudsters were immigrants. Those who enabled them were all democrats at the state and local level. Local and statewide media did their part by ensuring the public has the most recent shiny object to look at while the fraud continued. Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) were at the heart of the fraud.
Do we have this sort of thing happening here in Anchorage? Maybe.
Massive fraud is uncovered by bits and pieces. An early example has been the massive increase in spending and pandering to the homeless industrial complex, growing the problem every single day. The most obvious example of corruption was then-Assembly member Meg Zalatel being hired by the Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness Nov 2021. Her cohorts in crime on the Assembly decided this was not a conflict of interest and she continued to support increases in spending on homelessness for years until leaving the Assembly April 2025. The same majority actively fought former Mayor Bronson on every single attempt to solve the problem rather than grow it.
Nothing to see here. Move along.
The most recent example of odd behavior took place last week, when the Assembly majority decided Anchorage needed a new Municipal Seal. They proposed five alternatives and asked the public their opinion. Of those who voted online, a 2:1 majority asked for no change. This result led Assembly Chair Chris Constant to tap into his inner election denier, claim that the voting was corrupted by bots, with perhaps a third of the total coming from the same IP address and threw out the results of the election. Of course, none of the IP address data was released to the public.
His alternative that nobody had seen was proposed by a native artist from the Eklutna tribe. It was adopted by a 7-5 vote.
The oddity is once again we see elements of the Eklutna tribe circling the governmental porcelain throne that is the Anchorage Assembly. Since government-to-government relations were established between this majority and the Eklutna tribe, we have seen a casino approved (money grab), and an attempt to remove the Eklutna dam (money grab number two). The replacement dam proposal by the tribal company would be on company land with a federal money stream on the order of hundreds of millions of dollars to build the more environmentally sensitive replacement.
We do not yet know the extent of the backroom deals between the tribe, tribal corporation and Assembly members that led to these decisions, though one indicator was Assembly member Silvers’ comment:
“It’s time to bring the spirit of our land acknowledgement that we state often into our municipal seal.”
Maybe we should find out.
I think the vote on the seal gives us some clarity in the upcoming Municipal election.
The seven votes in favor of the new seal are: Constant (Dist 1, Seat B), Volland (Dist 1, Seat L), Perez-Verdia (Dist 3, Seat D), Brawley, (Dist 3, Seat E), Rivera (Dist4, Seat G), Silvers (Dist 5, Seat H), and Martinez (Dist 5, Seat I).
Of these, Constant and Rivera term out in 2026 and will be replaced by clones.
This leaves Brawley and Martinez as incumbents likely running for reelection.
Anchorage, your work is cut out for you in April. Flip one of these 4 seats and we have a tie in the Assembly. Flip more than one while retaining Assembly members who voted against the new seal (Meyers and Johnson) and we flip control of the Assembly much to the displeasure of the mayor and departing Assembly members Constant and Perez.
We are promised by the Assembly and Clerk that cost of this change is at worst, minimal. Great. The new majority, should it be elected, should immediately revert to the seal adopted via an actual public process in 1975. Any actual cost should be borne by the Assembly, Clerk and Mayor’s offices who helped enable this foolishness.
Over the last couple decades, we have seen elected democrats become looters, suckling at the public trough. The current looting of billions of public dollars in Minnesota is only the most recent example, though there are others waiting exposure, likely starting in California. All that is required is a pot of public money, entrenched democrats, a compliant and supportive media, some number of NGOs or environmental organizations, or perhaps a tribe or two and you are in business. Note that we have all of those here in action Anchorage.
Something here is starting to smell. And that smell comes from the Anchorage Assembly and the current mayor who came from that entrenched majority. We need to clean this up before it gets worse. Our next opportunity is the April Muni elections.
Alex Gimarc lives in Anchorage since retiring from the military in 1997. His interests include science and technology, environment, energy, economics, military affairs, fishing and disabilities policies. His weekly column “Interesting Items” is a summary of news stories with substantive Alaska-themed topics. He was a small business owner and Information Technology professional.
4 thoughts on “Alex Gimarc: A place of quiet corruption, as evidenced by the city seal switcheroo”
I am not now or ever have been convinced that the Dena’ina and Eklutna Natives ever exercised much, if any, “stewardship” over Anchorage. The notion that they have is ninety-five percent fantasy – it falls into the same category of belief that John can put on a dress and make-up and declare he is now Jeannie Marie. We are now on a path which will eventually lead to a moment when the Natives, on the basis of their government-to-goverment relationship with the Assembly, will demand and control a decision of consequence to Anchorage citizens. In short, the Eklutna Natives, with the cooperation of all the Assemblymembers they control, will exercise dominion OVER ANCHORAGE. It is only a matter of time. It is already happening in British Columbia.
“Something here is starting to smell.” You haven’t been paying attention for the last 10+ years if you think Anchorage assembly is just now stating to smell. It has been corrupt for a long time and only got worse with the pandemic.
I hope you don’t mind if I take exception to the statement “Of these, Constant and Rivera term out in 2026 and will be replaced by clones”. I just looked over APOC filings for the Assembly races. Of the 16 candidates across Anchorage who have filed with APOC thus far, Anna Brawley, Zachary Johnson, Sydney Scout and Kyle Walker list names on their filing of people associated with Ship Creek Group. Scout is running to replace Constant. However, the district changed somewhat since the last redistricting. The margins by which Constant and Daniel Volland won their last elections can’t be viewed as overwhelming at face value while overlooking the weak opposition they faced. This is in stark contrast to Constant’s showing in both 2017 and 2020. That leaves the other race. Dave Donley has a decades-long track record as an effective campaigner. He also has two opponents who are registered as Democrats, though It’s likely that will change when filing opens with the Clerk’s Office next month.
Then one day, for no reason at all…