The Anchorage Assembly is working to schedule an audit of former health director Joe Gerace’s tenure. Gerace resigned in August shortly before an article from Alaska Public Media and American Public Media was published that showed he fabricated many parts of his resume.
The request for an audit comes from Assembly Chair Suzanne LaFrance. During an Assembly Municipal Audit committee meeting Thursday, LaFrance said she wants the audit to review Gerace’s work as health director.
LaFrance listed examples that include “documents that were signed, disciplinary actions that were conducted, grants that were administered, contracts executed and policies enacted.”
Member Felix Rivera, who chairs the audit committee, echoed LaFrance’s concerns, noting the strict requirements for grants dealing with the federal Office of Housing and Urban Development, as well as FEMA.
“We’ve been talking a lot about FEMA,” Rivera said. “And so I want to make sure that anything that Mr. Gerace touched with regards to FEMA, that that was all kosher.”
Anchorage Internal Audit director Michael Chadwick was at the committee meeting. He says the auditing department has a large workload, and it’s unlikely the audit could be started before next year.
“We do have a full audit schedule,” Chadwick said. “Having a third party look at this is an option. I think it’s a good option.”
Municipal manager Amy Demboski says the administration welcomes an audit from the internal audit department, and agreed that waiting until next year could be beneficial.
“I think it would be most appropriate if we let 2022 close and we put this at the top of our list,” Demboski said. “Let’s identify things in the health department that we potentially want to have a specific audit for when the year closes, so we can get a comprehensive review of the entire year.”
In the meantime, Chadwick says his department can begin scoping out contracts, grant agreements and other documents to determine what could be the most important items to look into when the full audit begins.
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Wesley Early covers Anchorage life and city politics for Alaska Public Media. Reach him at wearly@alaskapublic.org and follow him on X at @wesley_early. Read more about Wesley here.
