This story has been updated to reflect an emailed statement from the Bronson Administration.
Municipal contractor and one of Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson’s most public supporters, McKenna Brothers Paving, has fueled its trucks up at municipal fuel pumps on several occasions in January.
The Current asked city staff whether the contract with McKenna Brothers allows the contractor to use city fuel, and was told it does not but that an exception was made one time in December due to extraneous circumstances.
McKenna Brothers has a contract for snow removal in Eagle River. After a series of winter storms caught the Bronson Administration unprepared and understaffed, the contract was amended to include snow removal in other areas of Anchorage.
The Alaska Current received a tip in early January that McKenna Brothers trucks were fueling up at the municipal fuel depot on Northwood Drive daily at 8:30 p.m. After receiving the tip, a reporter went to verify it. On two nights in early January, several McKenna Brothers side-dumper trucks entered the fuel depot. Each night, a truck was seen filling up with city-purchased fuel while several other McKenna trucks were staged in the fuel depot. No trucks from other contractors were seen those nights.
On both nights, a reporter was able to see the fuel depot and photograph the trucks fueling up from the nearby baseball fields at Javier de la Vega Park. On the first night, the reporter set up from 7:45 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Four trucks with teal cabs and McKenna Brothers logos on the doors were seen at the depot.
A reporter returned to the baseball fields at 7:15 p.m. on a different evening and saw at least four McKenna vehicles between the fueling station and the offices. Just before 7:40 p.m., one of the vehicles approached the fueling station and another worker joined to help pump fuel. The driver exited the vehicle and walked around to the pump and spoke with the individual pumping the gas.
When asked if McKenna Brothers were contractually permitted to use city fuel, Municipal Director of Maintenance and Operations Saxton Shearer told the Current that while snow removal contracts include a fuel variance that would cover an increase in fuel prices, they do not include fuel.
Initially, he stated that contractor trucks do not fuel up at the yard. However, after talking to operations staff and Bronson’s communication director Corey Allen Young, he told the Current that there had been a one-time exception on one night in December and a couple contractor trucks had fueled on municipal pumps. He said this was due to issues with their fuel supplier that night. He also said there was a paper trail and that the contractor was expected to pay for the fuel used. Shearer said contractor trucks had been stored in the yard during the snow event.
On Friday, Shearer responded to a request for clarification, saying “Our information identifies a one time event in late December where we fueled 2-3 contractor trucks.”
Shearer said he is “confident in the accounting,” but the explanation given is inconsistent with eyewitness reports of McKenna Brothers trucks fueling on multiple nights in January.
On Tuesday, following the publication of this story, Young emailed a statement confirming McKenna Brothers was improperly using fuel from the municipal fuel depot. His statement did not say how much fuel was used, how often the McKenna trucks fueled up there, or when the issue was discovered.
“The MOA has become aware of a situation where a contractor received fuel on several occasions from municipal fuel tanks,” Young wrote in the statement. “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 Current requested records showing when contractors, including McKenna Brothers, accessed city pumps. City staff has yet to produce those records. The Current is not publishing the specific dates it observed activity at the fuel depot to help verify the accuracy of any forthcoming records from the Municipality.
Another contractor with the Municipality, Kolbe Zipay with Alaska Pro Truckers Inc., told the Current that operators working for him to provide snow removal services were not supplied fuel by the municipality and did not fill up at municipal pumps.
The Bronson administration recently came under fire for a number of allegations made by former Municipal Manager Amy Demboski, who is threatening legal action for wrongful termination. Among the myriad of allegations, Demboski accused Bronson and his administration of illegally approving ten or more sole-source contracts in excess of $30,000, which would require Assembly approval.
McKenna Brothers donated over $75,000 to Bronson’s campaign for mayor, as well as participated in several truck parades with Bronson for Mayor banners affixed to their trucks.
