LaFrance names municipal attorney, announces new chief administrative officer position

Eva Gardner will serve as Anchorage municipal attorney. Bill Falsey will serve as Anchorage’s Chief Administrative Officer, a new position created by the LaFrance administration. (Courtesy of LaFrance campaign)

Anchorage mayor-elect Suzanne LaFrance announced two more key executive appointments on Monday. 

LaFrance has hired Eva Gardner to be the city’s municipal attorney and Bill Falsey to be chief administrative officer, a new city position. 

Gardner comes to the city after a 10-year stint at Anchorage law firm Ashburn and Mason. As municipal attorney, she will be the city’s top legal official. 

Falsey is no stranger to Anchorage government, having worked as municipal attorney from 2015 to 2017 and as municipal manager from 2017 to 2020. He also has served as outside legal counsel for the Anchorage Assembly in recent years. His new position of chief administrative officer will oversee the city’s human resources and IT departments, as well as purchasing and financial functions, according to a statement from LaFrance. 

Gardner and Falsey’s appointments are subject to Assembly approval. 

Last week, LaFrance announced that she’d hired Becky Windt Pearson as her municipal manager and Katie Scovic as her chief of staff.

LaFrance will be sworn in as mayor on July 1.

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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.

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