Bronson administration responds to records request with zilch, but wait, there may be something…
Anchorage Municipal Attorney Patrick Bergt responded late Friday evening to a records request sent by Assembly leadership on December 12 seeking emails, documents, and other material in response to allegations published by the Alaska Landmine on December 11.
According to Bergt's letter, a prioritized email search for the term "Dan O'Barr" or "O'Barr" from three individuals: Mayor Dave Bronson, Municipal Manager Amy Demboski, and Police Chief Ken McCoy" yielded no results, perhaps indicating that the Bronson administration hasn't been given enough credit in the smarts department and may have avoided using email to discuss the alleged hospitalized COVID patient.
It is important to note that Municipal Attorney Bergt's letter does not address the issue of whether any text messages, phone records, or other material requested by Assembly leadership exists and claims that it may take until February 1, 2022, for the Department of Law to provide Assembly leadership with the comprehensive records they seek.
Interestingly, on December 13, right-wing blog Must Read Alaska asserted that "Municipal Manager Amy Demboski was asked by a state senator to have the police do a welfare check on someone in the hospital, and the matter was discussed, but that she called the family and found that there was just a misunderstanding. The matter was resolved through discussion."
Must Read Alaska removed its assertion sometime during December 14, failing to issue an explanation or correction for the change in their "reporting."
Alaska Public Media reported that Bonny Salsbery, the daughter of Dan O'Barr, who the Landmine indicated was possibly the man hospitalized with COVID-19, had said that her family never contacted the Mayor's office or asked for ivermectin. She said the family had reached out to state Sen. Mike Shower, R-Wasilla, over the hospital's COVID-19 visitation policy, which prevented O'Barr's wife from visiting.
In a series of comments made to the Alaska Landmine's Facebook page, an account bearing Salsbery's name wrote in part, on December 13, that the Landmine had made up the story about her father.
Roughly two days later, on December 15, also on the Landmine's Facebook page, a user presented Salsbery with a question—
"What if they made such an order without your father's consent? Just pushed this dictatorial order and you never even knew the Mayor intended to use him as a pawn?"
According to a Facebook timestamp, the account bearing Salsbery's name responded directly to the question at 6:33 a.m. the same day:
"That is now what we have determined happened, his name was used by others for their own purposes. I no longer live in Anchorage, or AK, and haven't followed the politics back home for years. This sounded so crazy I thought for sure it was made up originally. It utterly disgusting to do to someone, and their family, after all that he has been through, to try and use him in their political sideshow."
Did the account bearing Salsbery's name state that the Office of the Mayor intended to use Dan O'Barr as a pawn? Maybe someone should look into that.
The Bronson Administration's "response" to Assembly leadership is below.
