Anchorage Assembly approves standard hiring rules for clerk and ombudsman

The Anchorage Assembly voted 12-0 Tuesday, Oct. 6, to set one hiring process for the municipal clerk and ombudsman, making a selection committee mandatory. Both offices sit in the Assembly branch, but the resolution says both "exercise a significant degree of independence from the Assembly."

The resolution says code only lets an Assembly-member committee nominate an ombudsman for majority approval, and it sets no clear procedure for the clerk. Past hiring "varied over time," changed with Assembly leadership and left "limited documentation."

The chair or the Assembly must form the committee within 90 days before an ombudsman's term ends, or on notice of an actual or anticipated vacancy in either office. Assembly members, legislative branch employees or other qualified people may serve. Candidates may not. The committee sends its nomination to the chair by resolution or memorandum for Assembly submittal.

During a vacancy, the chair may name an acting clerk or ombudsman, subject to Assembly approval by memorandum. The rules run through April 30, 2028, unless the Assembly rescinds or replaces them.

Assembly Chair Anna Brawley and Vice Chair Daniel Volland submitted the measure. Assembly Member Donald Handeland moved to change "should" to "shall" in the committee section, which counsel said makes it "a mandatory duty." The amendment passed 8-4 over Assembly Member George Martinez's objection.

Martinez then moved to strike municipal employees, saying one could become the subject of an ombudsman investigation, a "potential conflict of interest." Brawley said past ombudsman search committees included the municipal clerk, so striking the phrase entirely would be too broad. Assembly Member Yarrow Silvers offered a substitute allowing legislative branch employees instead, and it passed unanimously.

Silvers asked how authority runs between the offices. Counsel said code has the chair direct the clerk but support the ombudsman's office only "in a limited and as needed manner."

Brawley said the intent is a competitive search, though that is not spelled out in the resolution. The Governance Committee was set to discuss it Thursday, Oct. 8.

Darrel W. Hess serves as ombudsman. His office, established in 1977, opened 224 new cases and closed 229 in 2025.