City Hall transition report outlines potential issues with key services impacted by low staffing numbers

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – Anchorage Mayor Suzanne LaFrance’s administration has inherited a list of potential issues highlighted in a transition report from former Mayor Dave Bronson’s team.

The more than 150-page report covers several potential issues across multiple departments, including staffing and public safety challenges.

In the report, former Anchorage Police Chief-designee Bianca Cross discusses the municipality’s homeless population receiving fewer health and emergency services and how, in her view, that complicates how law enforcement can help them.

Speaking to the staffing issues, Cross said the inability to hire more officers and fewer job applicants overall have created morale and productivity problems. She says some of the morale problem has to do with low prosecutor numbers.

“Misdemeanor crimes are unlikely to be prosecuted due to low attorney staffing. This adds to morale issues as officers see repeat offenders free.”

Chief Administrative Officer Bill Falsey said it is an issue that current Municipality of Anchorage (MOA) attorney Eva Gardner is aware of.

“It is the case that the municipal prosecutor’s office had, I think, a pretty unprecedented level of vacancies — and that has caused some difficulties in prosecuting low-level crimes,” Falsey said.

Anchorage Fire Chief Doug Schrage reported calls for emergency medical services are increasing, and compounded by a lack of adequate mental health services and the unavailability of Anchorage Safety Patrol teams in many areas.

Additionally, he reported that hospital emergency departments are overcrowded, leaving AFD to receive more calls and increasing low morale and burnout.

Falsey said the “ripple effect” of low staffing impacts many departments and municipality in different ways.

“It actually can be more expensive to hold vacancies, because folks then start working overtime. But then the ripple effect of the paid overtime is that folks end up getting no breaks. So there were folks who were working snow removal last winter who literally did not have a day off for three months. And that eventually comes home to roost in lower morale, because people are just being asked to do more with less,” Falsey said.

Mayor LaFrance said her administration is looking at ways to offer competitive wages and improve work culture.

“We want to make sure that we’ve got a culture of respect and that it’s a positive work environment here for all employees, and that we’re pursuing opportunities for telework, for part-time work or flex time. Everything’s on the table right now to look at ways in which we can make these jobs more competitive,” LaFrance said.

Speaking to financial challenges, Project Management and Engineering acting director Melinda Kohlhaas reported that the municipality’s capital needs exceeded $2 billion. Furthermore, the loss of state grant funding adversely affected the municipality’s ability to address deferred maintenance and new infrastructure requirements.

In the report, she said between 1997 and 2014, MOA received about $512M in state grants for PM&E and drainage projects. Since then, PM&E has received $2 million in state grants for capital construction.

Maintenance and Operations Director Shay Throop said in the report that every division is dealing with budget constraints due to historical inflation and spoke to the “imminent collapse” of the MOA’s ability to provide basic government services such as police and street maintenance with an aging fleet.

Falsey acknowledged there’s been a historic level of underinvestment in the fleet, which he said needs to be addressed soon.

“Last winter, we had a number of graders that were just down for repairs. Some of those graders were from the ‘90s or from the early 2000s, have 10,000 hours on the engine, and are going to be in a place where they’re going to be constantly needing some additional investment,” Falsey said.

Lastly, former Housing and Homelessness Director Alexis Johnson reported possible future issues with sheltering services due to funding and operator issues — specifically the 56th Avenue shelter pending funding and Golden Lion.

“It’s a public safety issue in so many ways. And so right now, you know, we are we’re building a team and in that team building process is ensuring that we’ve got folks who are bringing specific knowledge and skills, as well as a commitment to working with all of our stakeholders and partners and coming up with a plan,” LaFrance said.

But Mayor LaFrance said the report did have a list of accomplishments.

In the report, former Mayor Bronson said despite mounting challenges — including taking office amid the COVID-19 pandemic — his administration was privileged to play a key role in the city’s progress, including delivering what he called a historic pay raise to members of the Anchorage Police Department.

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