In a rare move, the Anchorage Assembly voted Tuesday night to activate its subpoena powers to get more information about an election challenge made by Mayor Dave Bronson’s former chief of staff, Sami Graham.
In a report issued last month, Anchorage Ombudsman Darrell Hess found that Marc Dahl, the city’s IT director, had coordinated with Graham by sending her an unvetted IT policy she used to challenge the April city election. Hess recommended Dahl be fired.
While Bronson says he doesn’t believe Dahl broke the law, he says he’s asked for his resignation.
The Assembly has demanded that the city provide additional details about what happened. Assembly Chair Chris Constant said the body is set to make its annual recommendations for city election laws later this year, and getting the information is timely. But, he said, the mayor’s administration was not timely in providing it at a worksession last week.
“Although there were weeks to prepare, the administration did little at the worksession to provide the information Assembly members and the public have repeatedly requested,” Constant said.
Constant said the Assembly eventually got unredacted information from the administration Monday night.
The subpoena powers approved Tuesday in a 9-3 vote allow the Assembly chair to compel witness testimony and the release of documents, plus pursue possible legal action to get records. Members Randy Sulte, Scott Myers and Kevin Cross were opposed.
Bronson’s current chief of staff Mario Bird took issue with Constant’s belief that the administration hasn’t been forthcoming with information.
“We’ve responded formally to the ombudsman,” Bird said. “We’re going to work with the Assembly to develop and implement municipal code that will address the tampering, or attempting to tamper with an election within municipal code.”
In a statement Wednesday, Mayor Bronson called the subpoena vote an “extreme measure by the Assembly that is completely unnecessary.”
“The Ombudsman’s report outlines no illegal activity conducted by Mr. Dahl, so I do not understand the Assembly’s extreme motion to use legal action to get information we have already been providing,” Bronson said.
However, Bronson said Dahl should’ve gone through the normal city process for approving new policies and “the timeline in which the events took place and the lack of MOA process followed is questionable.”
“I have asked for Mr. Dahl’s resignation and my team is working with him on those details,” the mayor added.
City officials say Dahl is currently on unpaid administrative leave, though it’s unclear how long that’s been his leave status.
The Assembly previously gave itself the ability to issue subpoenas to get information surrounding the hiring of disgraced Anchorage Health Director Joe Gerace, who resigned after it was revealed he’d lied on his resume about work and education experience.
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.
