Speaker of the Anchorage Assembly has summoned to summons Mayor Dave Bronson to provide documents related to former health director Joe Gerace. However, the mayor’s office says it will not comply, setting up a potential legal battle.
Gerace served as health director for just under a year before resigning following an investigation by Alaska Public Media and American Public Media. he had misrepresented his background including military, educational and medical credentials.
The mayor said his administration will investigate Gerace’s hiring and tenure. But Assembly Speaker Suzanne LaFrance said the administration hasn’t disclosed anything — so the Assembly is using its subpoena powers to compel the release of the information.
“It’s a pretty big, significant thing that happened, with fraudulent credentials,” LaFrance said. “And the public was promised — at least that’s what I took from what the administration said — that there would be a report and some answers.”
of summons orders Bronson to produce two documents in the Assembly, for consideration at a public meeting. One, he says, is a January 2023 memo “styled as an investigation” into Gerace’s tenure. The second is a September 2022 document “styled as an investigation” into Gerace’s tenure, which it says the January document was based on. Deadline for submission of documents: 17:00 Thursday.
The Bronson administration has repeatedly refused to release information related to the city’s investigation into Gerace, saying it is a personnel matter and citing legal advice. In a statement Wednesday, Bronson said he would disagree with the subpoena, saying current and former city employees have a guaranteed right to privacy that includes personnel records.
“The law requires that the Municipality not make such data public without the consent of the affected employee or a court order directing their release. “It is immaterial who the affected employee (or former employee) may be, and the contents of any particular personnel file are equally immaterial,” the statement said. “The municipality takes seriously its obligation to protect the privacy of its employees. Therefore, the administration will not make public the documents requested by the Assembly.”
LaFrance disagrees that all information requested is private.
“I don’t understand because there shouldn’t be anything confidential in the report, especially a redacted one,” LaFrance said. “Because we are not looking for personnel information. We just want to know about the investigation and what was done and the process.”
LaFrance’s summoning powers are new. In an unprecedented move, the Assembly voted last month to cede his presidency the ability to call people to obtain information on Gerace’s mandate. He first called the then Director of Human Resources, Niki Tshibaka. Tshibaka answered a call and resigned suddenly a day before he appeared for the second time in the Assembly.
LaFrance said earlier in the day, before the mayor’s statement, that she did not expect the latest call to yield new information. But, she said, it is part of a procedural process before legal action is taken. Assembly leaders said if Bronson didn’t comply, they planned to take the case to court.
In his statement, Bronson said his administration is working on a formal response to the Assembly’s subpoena
Alaska Public Media’s Jeremy Hsieh contributed to this report.
