Mayor’s budget director asks to change roles or resign
Move comes hours after special Assembly meeting to correct city budget tax cap mistake
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - The office of Mayor Dave Bronson confirmed Friday that the director for the Office of Management and Budget has warned that she will resign if not moved out of her current position, citing issues working with the Anchorage Assembly as her reasoning.
The Anchorage municipal website lists Sharon Lechner as the management and budget director. A Bronson spokesperson confirmed Lechner put in her letter of resignation and said her last day would be June 28 if the administration is unable to accommodate her request to move to one of four other positions.
Bronson said Lechner handed in her letter Friday while participating in a televised studio debate at Alaska’s News Source.
Bronson claimed Friday that Lechner blamed the Anchorage Assembly for her decision to leave.
“While I was putting on my jacket to come over here, and she handed me her letter of resignation,” Bronson said. “And she said she resigned because of, ‘I can’t work with this assembly anymore. I can’t do my job.’”
Lechner participated in a special Anchorage Assembly meeting Friday which centered around a financial oversight with the city budget that Bronson claims was the fault of the Assembly. In a press release sent out Thursday evening, Bronson said the mistake was due to a “calculation error” that left the city over its tax cap by more than $600,000.
“While it’s unfortunate the Assembly made this error, we will work with them to fix it,” Bronson was quoted in the release. “Anchorage residents expect us to work together to solve problems, and we will do that. Budgets must be legal, adhere to fiscal policies, and protect taxpayers.”
Bronson said in the release that the tax cap error was made after “multiple amendments were assessed incorrectly,” resulting in a misleading budget tax cap.
In the letter shared by the Bronson administration and dated April 30, Lechner wrote that the city budget passed Tuesday by the Assembly “unwound months of progress for our city.”
Lechner also wrote to Bronson that “not once” in the weeks leading up to Tuesday’s budget passing did members reach out to her department to make sure the math added up.
Lechner pointed out several other grievances she had with the Assembly before asking to be moved into a difference role in the administration.
Bronson is being challenged in the mayor’s race by former Assembly Chair Suzanne LaFrance.
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