Photo evidence shows Anchorage’s city seal was decided before the public poll

By SUZANNE DOWNING

Anchorage City Hall has insisted that changes to the city seal reflected public input gathered through a December survey. But photographic evidence now shows the city had already selected a new seal design weeks before the Assembly voted — and before the survey results were finalized or selectively discarded.

On Oct. 14, during the Alaska Federation of Natives annual conference at the Dena’ina Civic and Convention Center, decorative street banners outside the venue displayed the city seal without the ship and airplane, two of the more prominent elements of the historic seal.

The only detail missing from that banner version is the decorative stitch pattern later added to the final design in December. In every meaningful respect, the seal on display that day in October matched the version ultimately approved by the Assembly.

That date matters. The Assembly did not vote to advance seal changes until later, and the public survey was still being cited as evidence of community consent. The photo makes clear the decision had already been made.

The Anchorage Assembly voted 7–5 in December to move forward with changing the seal, despite ongoing public concerns and widespread questions about the survey process itself. The version approved was not one of the designs offered to the public in the survey.

The survey, overseen by Assembly Chairman Chris Constant, allowed anyone with an internet connection to participate. It did not restrict responses to Anchorage residents. During Assembly discussion, This was pointed out by The Alaska Story when the survey went live.

Constant said thousands of responses were discarded as potential “bot” submissions, though no technical analysis or documentation was presented publicly to support that claim. Responses raising cost concerns were also discarded by him, on the grounds that those concerns were “invalid.”

Yet the assertion that the change would cost nothing contradicts reality. Assembly and staff time had already been spent across multiple meetings, work sessions, and consultations — all paid for by taxpayers.

The final seal removes both the ship historically associated with Captain James Cook’s HMS Resolution and the airplane symbolizing Anchorage’s role as a global transportation hub. The change was to pander to the Eklutna Tribe, while erasing major chapters of the city’s history without a genuine mandate.

Notably, the seal change did not originate from a public petition or constituent demand. It was initiated internally by Assembly leadership and advanced through a survey process that was later altered after the fact, with votes thrown out and criteria changed,  to produce a preferred outcome.

The October banners are the most damning piece of evidence yet. If the city was still “listening” to the public, why was the new seal already printed, manufactured, and hung in public spaces weeks earlier?

Printing and installing decorative banners is not a last-minute act. It requires design approval, production lead time, and coordination, all of which point to a settled decision.

In short, the poll was not used to decide the seal. It was used to justify a decision that had already been made.

The narrow 7–5 vote reflects deep division within the Assembly, not just over the seal itself, but over transparency, process, and honesty with the public. Anchorage residents were told their voices mattered. The banners outside the Dena’ina Center tell a different story.

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