Assembly accepts report on former Anchorage mayor

ANCHORAGE - The Anchorage Assembly accepted a report on Tuesday that is critical of former Mayor Mark Begich but voted against investigating further his handling of the budget.

The vote was 10-1 to accept the report by municipal attorney Dennis Wheeler on whether Begich and his administration were candid and truthful about a city budget shortfall.

But in a 6-5 vote before accepting the report, the assembly rejected a proposal to hold a work session next month on issues Wheeler raised and to respond to Begich administration complaints about the investigation.

Assemblyman Dan Coffey said the vote to accept the report was an effort to silence further investigations.

"Trust has been lost," Coffey said. "We asked questions and got deflected answers."

Coffey said the nearly yearlong dispute over the budget shortfall has undermined public trust in government, and his own trust in what the Assembly was told last year when it was approving a $433 million budget and four long-term labor contracts.

A few weeks after those votes - and days after Begich stepped down in January to begin his term as a U.S. senator - acting Mayor Matt Claman announced the city faced a $17 million deficit for 2009.

Coffey's remarks prompted a response from Assemblyman Mike Gutierrez, who voted against continuing the Assembly's consideration of the report.

Gutierrez said Coffey was right about trust being compromised, "but a lot of trust has been lost on both sides."

Begich's former chief fiscal officer, Sharon Weddleton, came to the meeting with packets of handouts - "16 pages of mistakes" she said she found in Wheeler's 60-page report to the Assembly, which was released Nov. 18.

But Weddleton chose not to address the Assembly at Tuesday's meeting and left the chamber without providing her list.

Both Weddleton and former budget director Wanda Phillips argue that Wheeler failed to look at or ignored important city records that don't support his conclusions.

"It's time to move on," Weddleton said. "Showing my list of mistakes to the administration would most likely drag this out and waste yet even more taxpayer dollars."

Assemblywoman Sheila Selkregg recommended improving reporting requirements to keep the city's legislative body fully apprised of city spending issues.

She said lingering on the dispute was "ultimately going to be divisive to this body."

Coffey, however, suggested it could continue. "We're not done," he said.