In a jaw-dropping letter sent today, posted on Facebook Wednesday afternoon by The Alaska Landmine and and covered extensively by the Anchorage Daily News, recently fired former Anchorage Municipal Manager Amy Demboski is accusing Mayor Dave Bronson of a list of crimes and malfeasance that even we never could have predicted. From the Anchorage Daily News:
“Anchorage’s recently fired city manager is accusing Mayor Dave Bronson of violating multiple city, state and federal laws, blatant sexism, unlawful contracting and other unethical behavior in a demand letter delivered Wednesday afternoon to city leaders.
The letter accuses the mayor of illegally firing former Municipal Manager Amy Demboski in retaliation for “attempting to convince (Bronson) to cease unlawful and unethical activities using municipal resources.”
At virtually the exact same time The Alaska Landmine was breaking this news on Facebook, Mayor Bronson’s office was, and we are not close to kidding here, holding a press conference wherein the municipal assessor was announcing that property value cards would be printed on white paper instead of green paper.
The 11-page letter sent by Demboski’s attorneys at the firm Cashion, Gilmore & Lindemuth is absolutely worth reading in its entirety, and the accusations within are so serious and numerous that we’re going to tone down the gleeful snark that we are ordinarily tempted to write with in situations like this and give it to you straight. Here’s a nonexhaustive list of the accusations within, virtually any of which would cause any self-respecting person to resign in disgrace and personally apologize to every resident of the city:
- Mayor Bronson allegedly delegated “unlimited contract signing authority” to the Purchasing Director, Rachelle Alger, without Ms. Demboski’s consent or knowledge, and without the requisite approval from the Department of Law. Once it was pointed out that the Mayor did not have the authority to do such a thing, the Mayor rescinded that delegation.
- The letter accuses Mayor Bronson of violating city code by going around the Assembly to approve sole-source contracts, citing “approximately ten or more such unlawful contracts,” exceeding $30,000, which require approval by the Assembly.
- Mayor Bronson’s “Senior Policy Advisor,” Larry Baker has been paid $29,500, an amount comically close to the $30,000 threshold requiring Assembly approval, at least three times in quick succession, with literally three days between each payment. Larry Baker was allegedly paid at least $88,500 over the course of nine days or so, clearly in order to skirt Assembly oversight and, as the letter alleges, in order to allow Mr. Baker to “double dip – collecting retirement payments and contract payments simultaneously.”
- Ms. Demboski’s attorneys claim “A significant [Request for Proposal] was put out in August of 2021 with two responsive bidders….A close associate of [the Mayor’s] (who is a very close friend of one of the bidders) cornered [an employee involved in the contract authorization] and told her she needed to “swing” this contract to his friend. This employee was allegedly later fired for not following those directions and reporting the action to several people.
- The letter goes on to accuse Mayor Bronson of “subsequently [acknowledging] to Ms. Demboski that your close associate asked for the termination, so you called the Human Resources director and asked him to arrange it,” and that Mayor Bronson later “acknowledged to Ms. Demboski on several occasions that you made a mistake and should never have directed this termination.”
- Like any good recipient of way too many chain emails, Mayor Bronson allegedly also “unilaterally directed the fluoride supply to be shut off” during a visit to the water treatment facility in Eklutna, another violation of Anchorage’s municipal code which requires fluoridation of the city’s water supply.
- Ms. Demboski also accuses Mayor Bronson of ordering staff to violate city Code by starting construction for the Navigation Center without requisite approval by the Assembly, and that “the M&O Director would ultimately be the one to ‘take the fall’ for the decision.” This ended up in over $3 million dollars of taxpayer money being spent on the project without taxpayer approval.
We’re going to let the next section of the letter speak for itself, in part because we were sent a photo from an anonymous source corroborating what may, somehow, be the most inappropriate part of a letter absolutely brimming with impropriety.
- “You have a very close relationship with two senior staff members. These two staff members have categorized professional administrative staff in the Mayor’s Office as “mean girls,” behaved unprofessionally towards them, and have attempted to get them fired. In Ms. Demboski’s experience these administrative staff were very competent and professional. This conflict seems to have arisen because _one of the two senior staff members is known to have an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate. Some of these staff had complained to Ms. Demboski and others about the relationship, which is obvious and makes the staff uncomfortable. Although you told Ms. Demboski she could address the relationship issue with this employee (which she did) it is still occurring-apparently with your tacit approval. Furthermore, you yourself now participate in this behavior, parroting the language and referring to these administrative staff as “mean girls” in the same inappropriate and unprofessional manner. Such preferential treatment of these two senior staff members is further evidenced by your failure to take any action regarding extremely inappropriate sexualized jokes and comments made by one of these two in the workplace. This behavior even included passing out genitalia shaped cookies to the staff. Ms. Demboski reported this behavior to you and the Director of Human Resources, yet no action was taken.”
And, if you were thinking that the kind of culture that Mayor Bronson was allegedly creating in City Hall was potentially a little tiny bit sexist, well, the letter’s final accusation would give you quite a lot of evidence for that:
“Finally, staff has often reported to Ms. Demboski and others that you treat women in the office differently than men. Despite her very senior position, Ms. Demboski acutely experienced such gender discrimination from you herself. For example, on one occasion Ms. Demboski sent an email in which she referred to a male subordinate’s email to multiple directors as “suboptimal” in tone and encouraged better communication with a clearer definition of what this subordinate needs. You chastised Ms. Demboski severely for this email. You raised your voice while showing her your hands held at different heights to indicate that-because this subordinate is a man and Ms. Demboski is a woman-the male employee is “up here” and Ms. Demboski is “down there.” Two days later you had another meeting with Ms. Demboski in which you criticized her again, telling her that this subordinate employee “is a man” and making clear to Ms. Demboski that she wasn’t to speak to a man “that way.” You made several subsequent references to this email and Ms. Demboski’ s use of the word “suboptimal,” instructing her that she can’t “speak to a man that way” in “this building,” an apparent reference to City Hall.”
The letter goes on to accuse Mayor Bronson of further violations of municipal code in relation to the use of Sullivan Arena, the misuse of a law enforcement database for a personal matter, unethically attempting to influence the Municipal Attorney to “drop or mitigate criminal charges for personal and/or financial reasons, unethical attempts to direct Municipal real estate transactions” to benefit friends of the Mayor’s close associates, “ongoing misuse of Municipal position to impugn Ms. Demboski’s reputation,” flagrant “violation of the Anchorage Whistleblower Act,” “unlawful gender discrimination,” “tortious interference,” and “defamation.”
The letter finally demands a “prompt settlement with Ms. Demboski, [issuance of] a written correction and apology, and [providing] your signature on a binding non-disparagement agreement.”
Any one of these accusations would range from troubling to worthy of resignation, but in the shameless Bronson Administration, we don’t have a lot of faith that his alleged behavior here will stop without the actions of a court of law or the voters in the Municipality giving him the boot. We’ll keep reporting on this story as it develops, so keep checking in with The Alaska Current.
