On Wednesday, the Anchorage Assembly authorized legal action against Mayor Dave Bronson’s administration to block payment to a construction contractor.
The Assembly authorized it in a 9-2 vote, though it doesn’t guarantee a court battle. The mayor and Assembly leaders said they hope they can sort out their differences with each other, then settle up with Roger Hickel Contracting.
The main issue for the Assembly is that the administration intends to pay the contractor this Friday without Assembly approval. Which was also what led to the contractor not getting paid in the first place – the administration said it mistakenly overstepped its powers by authorizing the contractor’s work without Assembly approval last year.
In some communications, the administration has asserted it can lawfully make the payment without Assembly approval. Assembly Vice Chair Chris Constant said Assembly members are sympathetic to the contractor and do want to make the parties whole, but they won’t ignore their due diligence responsibilities to taxpayers.
“We’re not going to be brow-beaten to continue violating the law,” Constant said. “We’re not going to do it. There is no power that the mayor legally has to spend money from the treasury without authorization of this body.”
Mayor Bronson said he’s agnostic about how to actually resolve the bill. He said he just wants the lawyers for the Assembly and his administration to figure it out.
“I worry about the credibility of the city, of the municipality in the sense that when we are legally obligated to pay something, the message that it sends, especially to the contracting public, that ‘Oh, there’s always a risk when you do business with the municipality, you have to take them to court to get paid,’” Bronson said.
The Assembly specifically wants a meeting with the mayor and legal team to be briefed on the proposed settlement and legal analysis. The administration has said it has a deadline on Friday to pay the contractor, but was unsure what the basis of that deadline was.
The incomplete construction project at issue was the navigation center and shelter Bronson campaigned on to build near the intersection of Tudor and Elmore roads.
Jeremy Hsieh covers Anchorage with an emphasis on housing, homelessness, infrastructure and development. Reach him atjhsieh@alaskapublic.orgor 907-550-8428. Read more about Jeremyhere.
