Anchorage Mayor Suzanne LaFrance announced Tuesday that she’s hired Ona Brause as her new budget director. It’s the new mayor’s third high-level executive who worked in the administration of former Mayor Ethan Berkowitz.
As director of the Office of Management and Budget, Brause is chiefly responsible for developing and administering city budgets. The office is also responsible for regularly reporting out budget-related information to policymakers and the public, and maintaining the system created by Mayor Dan Sullivan in 2010 for measuring the performance of every city department and division.
It’s a small office, budgeted for six full-time positions.
In the last administration’s transition report to LaFrance, the outgoing OMB director warned that chronic vacancies and the retirement of one or two analysts could destabilize the office.
“Ona brings a strong track record and a fierce commitment to responsible budgeting and effective service delivery,” LaFrance said in a press release.
The position is subject to confirmation by the Anchorage Assembly.
Brause worked in the Berkowitz administration as deputy chief of staff and chief of staff from 2015 to 2020.
Brause joins two other executives in LaFrance’s administration who previously worked for Mayor Berkowitz: Chief Administrative Officer Bill Falsey, who had been municipal attorney and municipal manager, and Municipal Manager Becky Windt Pearson, who had also been municipal attorney.
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.
