0:58
William Falsey
5:32 - 6:30
"the restoration of the Chief Administrative Officer position was something of an oldie but a goodie that existed in the initial George Sullivan early iterations of the municipal— of the municipality, and then it came back in the '90s as executive managers. At the time, our thinking was at least twofold. One, that there were really acute challenges in the internal service functions of the municipality. And so by creating a position that was really focused on those, it would give a forced attention to those subjects"
“the restoration of the Chief Administrative Officer position was something of an oldie but a goodie that existed in the initial George Sullivan early iterations of the municipal— of the municipality, and then it came back in the '90s as executive managers. At the time, our thinking was at least twofold. One, that there were really acute challenges in the internal service functions of the municipality. And so by creating a position that was really focused on those, it would give a forced attention to those subjects”
- Speaker
- William Falsey
- Timestamp
- 5:32 – 6:30
- Community
- Alaska News
- Location
- Anchorage
- Captured at
- July 1, 2026
From the transcript
When we proposed the reorganization, we showed that the municipality's org chart has changed pretty dramatically over time, and the restoration of the Chief Administrative Officer position was something of an oldie but a goodie that existed in the initial George Sullivan early iterations of the municipal— of the municipality, and then it came back in the '90s as executive managers. At the time, our thinking was at least twofold. One, that there were really acute challenges in the internal service functions of the municipality. And so by creating a position that was really focused on those, it would give a forced attention to those subjects, which can be harder to find in a moment when police, fire, parks, roads, libraries are the news-catching front page stories. And also where the real issues are somewhat harder to get to, meaning it would take some time for the new incumbent to understand that sometimes the reason things are moving slowly is because classification takes a long time to do its work.
Related Coverage
Anchorage plans to eliminate CAO post, move finance to report directly to mayor
William Falsey told the Anchorage Assembly on Wednesday that the administration plans to eliminate the chief administrative officer position, absorb HR, IT, and purchasing into the municipal manager role, and have finance report directly to Mayor Suzanne LaFrance, with formal changes deferred to the 2027 budget cycle.
by Walter AlaskaNews1h ago3 min readAIAnchorage
