A municipal document listing non-paying customers shows McKenna Brothers Paving dumped at least 56 tons of waste at municipal dump sites for free.
McKenna Brothers Paving donated $75,000 to Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson’s campaign for mayor and came under scrutiny last January when The Alaska Current reported that they improperly used municipal fuel pumps 97 times. They ended up reimbursing the municipality over $14,000 for the fuel.
Handwritten notes indicate that the 18 free dumps, which occurred between July and November 2023, held a value of $4,419.76. On two occasions, McKenna Brothers Paving dumped over 7 tons of waste without charge.
According to the municipal free loads policy, free dumps are allowable for military use, municipal residents with free dump passes, Adopt-a-Highway programs, creek/spring clean up, the municipalities roadkill program, and with prior written authorization from the Solid Waste Services director. Other no-charge transactions listed in the document are under a quarter ton and appear to be one-time transactions coded to one of the allowable uses.
The Alaska Current obtained the documents showing McKenna’s non-paying status after receiving a tip that their company trucks were dumping for free and in some cases were driving around the scales.
According to emails obtained by the Alaska Current, former Solid Waste Services Director Dan Zipay made a policy change July 2022 to specifically prohibit vehicles from bypassing weighing in at the scales when dumping loads. Vehicles that don’t weigh in leave no record of when, or how much waste they dump.
“No more free loads of material and trading out for services rendered at a different time or when needed to pay back for free disposal,” Zipay wrote in the email.
Municipal code requires that services provided to the municipality go through a public process that includes the purchasing officer and oversight by the Assembly. Bartering for services outside the public process is not allowed in municipal code.
Zipay, the father of Bronson’s campaign co-chair, was appointed by him in August 2021 and resigned abruptly in April 2023. Neither Bronson or Zipay commented on his departure.
In addition to the free loads, customer reports for McKenna Brothers Paving record 28.44 tons, valued at $2,357.38, of waste dumped in 2022. This increased in 2023 to 290.11 tons of dumped waste, billed at $25,386.97. The Current has filed a records request for receipts showing the amount paid.
McKenna Brothers Paving are supporting Bronson again as he runs for reelection.
