the men and women who served on the Anchorage Assembly keep a close eye on what’s happening in city politics. And they do not mince words about the current state of affairs.“There was nothing this nasty,” said Bill Faulkner.“The anger and hatred level is kind of over the top,” said Bill Evans.
Civic activist Heather Flynn, a former member of the Anchorage Assembly, photographed in her home Thursday, Oct. 14, 2021 in Anchorage. Flynn is also a former member of the school board and former director of Alaska Women’s Resource Center and the Abused Women’s Aid in Crisis. It wasn’t that the Assembly didn’t see arguments, debate and disagreement in the past. She ticked off a number of issues that brought about vigorous, passionate public testimony: fluoridating the city’s water, an early attempt at an equal rights ordinances to protect gay city employees, a municipal ban on pit bulls.But even on measures similar to ones being debated today, disagreement rarely led to divisiveness between members or between neighbors around town.
“He encourages name-calling and shouting and sign-waving,” Flynn said. “I think that encourages the same kind of behavior right at our Assembly meetings.”People attending the Anchorage Assembly meeting applaud Mayor Dave Bronson while he was stating his opposition to the proposed mask ordinance on Tuesday, Sept. 28, 2021.
“When I was on the Assembly, there was a pretty even split between liberals and conservatives,” said Rick Mystrom. “I was the moderate.”Mystrom represented West Anchorage from 1979 to 1985, then served two terms as mayor from 1994 to 2000. From left, Assembly Member Felix Rivera, Assembly Chair Suzanne LaFrance, Municipal Manager Amy Demboski, and Mayor Dave Bronson during the Anchorage Assembly meeting on Thursday, Oct. 7, 2021.
“It was hyped up because of the newspaper wars,” Faulkner said, referring to the battle for circulation supremacy between the Anchorage Daily News and Anchorage Times, whose editorial boards often represented opposing sides of the political spectrum. “I never would have let it get like this,” said Traini, who spent a total of 12 years as chair of the body. A maximalist when it comes to allowing public testimony, Traini disagreed with efforts to limit input from residents, but said he would have insisted on more decorum in the chamber from the outset. “It takes a long time to get control back.”