Bronson Nominee Under Fire for Allegedly Leaving Non-Profit in "Complete financial disarray."
Anchorage resident Christopher Blake unleashed a series of concerns on Twitter about Dave Morgan, Mayor Bronson's appointee to run the Anchorage Health Department.
Blake wrote that he was working as a clinician with Choices, Inc. when the events surrounding Morgan are alleged to have occurred and before the time in which Blake became Director of the Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) program with the non-profit organization.
In his thread, Blake alleges Morgan was not doing his job as the organization's accountant "for months." While Blake notes that he himself was not yet director, he claims that Morgan was not keeping up with the books, wasn't submitting reports when he was supposed to, and was not doing "things that he should have been doing to ensure cash flow."
Blake speculates that management may have assumed that Morgan was doing his job but that they were not keeping him "in check."
Eventually, a Human Resource employee noticed that money for the organization was "tight," and Morgan's role in what happened next came to light, according to Blake's thread.
Blake wrote that "cash flow had stopped" and that he "vividly" remembers a meeting when higher-ups told employees of the organization to update their resumes because the doors may be shutting in two weeks—just ahead of Christmas.
According to Blake, employees were told by higher-ups that they might not have a paycheck for that pay period. Some employees were able to weather the financially unstable storm, "but entry-level case managers don't make a ton of money and generally already live paycheck to paycheck," wrote Blake.
Blake also wrote that Morgan was "ruining people's livelihood" and that some employees were concerned about paying rent, recounting in his thread that some employees cried over the financial insecurity and that he himself walked out in anger at times. Blake wrote that staff meetings during that difficult time were "heated."
Blake ended his thread by writing that Morgan "belongs nowhere near a position of authority, especially one as important as the one he is currently holding" and that "an accountant shouldn't be in charge of public health just as an anesthesiologist shouldn't be in charge of homeless policy."
When reached for comment about the allegations made by Blake on Twitter, Choices Inc. CEO Kimm Martinez (who was not CEO at the time the alleged events surrounding Morgan are said to have occurred) told me that Morgan's last day of employment was Dec 3, 2018, and that a prior Choices Inc. CEO had given Morgan the option of resigning or having his employment terminated.
According to Martinez, Morgan chose to resign voluntarily and said that she recalls Morgan being escorted out of the building. Martinez says that Dave Morgan left Choices Inc. in "complete financial disarray" and that the non-profit struggled financially for roughly two years after Morgan left.
Martinez also confirmed that Choices Inc. had received "emergency funding from a partner" of the organization at one point during the time period Morgan was employed with Choices Inc. as the organization's accountant.
The organization used those emergency funds to pay employees, said Martinez.
Martinez told me that Choices Inc. is once again financially solvent, and things are going "really great" for the non-profit. The Anchorage Assembly has not yet confirmed David Morgan for his new role as Director of the Anchorage Health Department.
