by Melissa S. Green

Barbara Jones, currently the Anchorage Municipal Ombudsman, has been appointed Anchorage Municipal Clerk, and will take up the position on July 1. She will replace Barbara Gruenstein, who submitted a letter of resignation on May 22, on the same day that the Anchorage Assembly recertified the botched April 3 municipal election after the limited 15-precinct hand recount. The 10-voter group which paid for the recount is preparing a report which will reportedly be part of the discussion at an Anchorage Assembly work session on June 15.

Anchorage Municipal Ombudsman Barbara Jones (left) and Municipal Clerk Barbara Gruenstein during the 15-precint Anchorage election recount, 11 May 2012. Photo by Melissa S. Green.

Anchorage Assembly chair Ernie Hall announced today that Barbara Jones has been appointed to replace Barbara Gruenstein as Anchorage Municipal Clerk.  Jones is currently the Municipal Ombudsman, and before that was executive director and staff attorney of the Anchorage Equal Rights Commission, where she served for 12 years.  Jones will take up the position effective July 1. The announcement was made in a press release early this afternoon.

Barbara Gruenstein, Municipal Clerk for the Municipality of Anchorage since 2003, wrote a letter of resignation on May 22, on the same day that the Anchorage Assembly recertified the bollixed April 3 election after completion of a 15-precinct recount. Gruenstein’s resignation was announced publicly on May 23. In her letter of resignation she stated, in part:

It is with a sad heart that I offer you and the Assembly my resignation from the position of Municipal Clerk. It has been an honor to serve the people of Anchorage in this role for the past almost nine years. There have been many successes, but I understand that the problems of the April 3 election have caused you to doubt the effectiveness of my continuing to serve. I understand clearly that I serve at the pleasure of the Assembly, and I offer to step down.

I was an observer of the 15-precinct recount of the bollixed April 3 Anchorage municipal election. The recount was called for on May 2 by ten qualified Anchorage voters, of which I was one; the others are Hal Gazaway, Barbara Gazaway, Joseph McKinnon, Zobia Kennedy, Dana Klein, Wendy Isbell, Steven McCoy, Kelly Walters, and Linda Kellen Biegel.  Both the Recount Group (or observers acting on our behalf) and the One Anchorage campaign, which had sponsored the apparently failed Proposition 5, the Anchorage Equal Rights Initiative, had official observers present at the handcount.

In spite of the recount being incomplete — due to the refusal of the Municipality to include absentee and questioned ballots in the recount as required by AMC 28.90.040 — the Anchorage Assembly recertified on May 22 after receiving the report of the Municipal Election Recount Board. As at the May 3 Assembly meeting at which the election was initially certified, the recertification took place without any public testimony being permitted.  This was in spite of the recount being nearly as fraught with problems as the election itself. As reported by KSKA’s Daysha Eaton on May 22:

 Assembly members Harriet Drummond requested public comment on the certification.

“(Drummond:) I think we’re being extremely unfair to the public to not allow them a specific opportunity to testify on this election as opposed to making them wait until the end of the meeting when the media has gone home, when most people have turned it off. I think this is wrong. (Hall:) Ms. Drummond that will be duly noted.”

Assembly members Paul Honeman and Elvi Gray-Jackson also spoke in support of public testimony being included. But Chair Ernie Hall denied that request and was supported by Municipal Attorney Dennis Wheeler, citing an attorney hired by the municipality to provide an opinion on the issue.

“I’ve reviewed the opinion provided by Mr. Petumenos and I recall his comments here at the assembly meeting and I agree with those comments. I trust his analysis of the issue and agree with him that this is a quasi-judicial matter, it’s not a public hearing item,” Wheeler said.

Wheeler was apparently not aware that public testimony is routinely accepted in judicial and quasi-judicial contexts. The only public testimony that has been permitted at any Anchorage Assembly regarding the botched April 3 election has been during the “public participation” time at the tail end of the agenda, requiring Anchorage citizens to stay as late as 10:00 or 10:30 PM to be heard.

The Recount Group — the 10 voters who applied and paid for the recount — is still, however, preparing a report, which last word has it will be shared with the Anchorage Assembly at a June 15 work session. It will also be made public.

Recount Group member to speak tomorrow at Bartlett Democratic Club

Recount Group member Linda Kellen Biegel, who writes at the blog The Mudflats, will be the guest of the Bartlett Democratic Club tomorrow talking about the recount.

• Date/time: Thursday, May 31, 12:00 to 1:00 PM
• Location: Denny’s, 3950 DeBarr Road, Anchorage, AK (see map)

References

• 4 May 2012. Assembly certifies election, subject to recount in 15 precincts — Not approving results could violate federal law, independent counsel advises” by Rosemary Shinohara. (Anchorage Daily News).
• 22 May 2012. “AM 314-2012. Recertification of the Regular Municipal Election of April 3, 2012.” Anchorage Municipal Election Recount Board.
• 22 May 2012. “Anchorage election: 10-voter Recount Group to prepare findings on recount problems, many which have been ignored” by Melissa S. Green (Bent Alaska).
• 22 May 2012. “Anchorage Assembly Certifies Election Recount, Denies Public Testimony” by Daysha Eaton (KSKA 91.1 FM Anchorage Public Radio).
• 22 May 2012. Letter to Ernie Hall, Anchorage Municipal Assembly [resignation]. Barbara E. Gruenstein, Municipal Clerk, Municipality of Anchorage.
• 23 May 2012. “Anchorage city clerk resigns” by Kyle Hopkins (Alaska Politics blog, Anchorage Daily News).
• 24 May 2012. “Anchorage city clerk resigns in wake of troubled election —Barbara Gruenstein had filled the hard-to-fill position for nine years” by Kyle Hopkins (Anchorage Daily News).
• 24 May 2012. “Election Recertified, Muni Clerk Resigns” by Linda Kellen Biegel (The Mudflats).
• 30 May 2012. Press release, May 30, 2012: Barbara A. Jones appointed Municipal Clerk. Anchorage Assembly, Municipality of Anchorage.
• 30 May 2012. “Anchorage ombudsman tapped to become new city clerk” by Kyle Hopkins (Anchorage Daily News).