McKenna Brothers Paving first started filling their trucks up at the Municipality of Anchorage’s fuel depot on Dec. 20. The depot is for city vehicles, and the fuel is purchased with public money. It’s not meant for contractors, and the city’s contract with McKenna Brothers doesn’t allow for fuel.
However, public records requested by the Current show the contractor pumped diesel from the municipal pumps 97 times between Dec. 20 to Jan. 25. City records show the contractor improperly took city fuel from the depot nearly daily.
In total, McKenna Brothers improperly received 4,425 gallons of municipal fuel, with as many as 12 fuel ups in one night.
Every instance came at night, or in one case, just after midnight. The last time records show McKenna trucks were fueled at the city depot was Jan. 25. The next day, the Current called Director of Maintenance and Operations Saxton Shearer to ask him whether contractors were filling up at the fuel depot.
On Monday, the day the Current broke the story of McKenna Brothers filling up at the city fuel depot, the Municipality of Anchorage’s Department of Public Works invoiced McKenna Brothers for the fuel at $3.22 per gallon, totaling $14,250.82. According to the city, McKenna Brothers paid the bill Tuesday.
Shearer initially said he did not know about any improper fueling, and said contracts for snow removal following the December snow storms didn’t include fuel, in part due to liability and insurance reasons.
Later, Shearer called back and said he found out there was a one-time instance in December when a contractor used municipal fuel due to an issue with the contractor’s fuel supplier. At this point, Mayor Dave Bronson’s spokesperson, Corey Allen Young, was looped into the conversation, which continued by email.
The Current knew the fueling continued past December because in early January, a reporter acted on a news tip that McKenna Brothers were fueling up at the fuel depot on Northwood drive every night at about 8:30 p.m.
On two nights in January, the reporter saw McKenna trucks fueling up around 8:30.
After publishing the story, Young emailed the Current a written statement.
“The MOA has become aware of a situation where a contractor received fuel on several occasions from municipal fuel tanks. This was not an appropriate use of municipal resources and should not have occurred. The contractor has been billed for the fuel it received. Today, the MOA received full payment for the fuel. Moving forward, the policy in place for the allocation of fuel will be strictly enforced.”
The administration has otherwise not addressed the issue publicly.
McKenna Brothers donated 75,000 to Mayor Dave Bronson’s campaign when he was running for mayor. The company also put Bronson campaign advertisements on their trucks and drove them around on several occasions, including on Election Day.
