FEMA Called to Save Anchorage from Mayor Dan Sullivan
Yes, Mayor Dan Sullivan is so inept, and his priorities as the Chief Executive of Alaska’s largest city are so destructive and unsafe, yet another government agency has had to step in and save Alaskans from their elected leaders. Once, it was the FBI saving us from the legislature. Now, it’s FEMA saving us from the Mayor of Anchorage. The worst mayor in America is officially now a federal disaster.
Anchorage Mayor Dan Sullivan said Thursday that the city has been awarded a $5 million federal grant to hire firefighters over the next two years.
The grant will fund 15 to 26 firefighter jobs, according to his spokeswoman Sarah Erkmann. Firefighter union president Rod Harris said the money will let the department fill positions left vacant because of supposed budget shortfalls.
Apparently, the mayor with outstretched hand, is pleased to take some assistance. And please note the above reference to “supposed” budget shortfalls. Turns out that the mayor recently found about $20 million in the city’s other pants. And, of course, he is not taxing city residents to the level they voted was OK with them. So, despite his best efforts to manufacture a shortfall and use this fantasy as the rationale to cut city services, we still have a surplus. And now, a grant from FEMA because we qualify on a national level as less than “adequate.”
The money comes from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Grants program. According to FEMA, the grant program was created to help fire departments increase the number of trained firefighters available in their communities.
The-WORST-Mayor…EVER!
http://www.speakupalaska.com/answer/431/Be_Independent_Not_A_Rubber_Stamp_For_this_Mayor#comments
Dan prolly thought the 2 Zamboni he purchased for the Sullivan Arena would double as fire trucks.
Go for it.
And I’m upset as a taxpayer that my tax money is being sent to Anchorage, who apparently has money but will not spend it.
Why should I be paying for your fireman plus my own?
And what is a conservative republican Mayor asking for a government handout? Will the Tea party Nazis come after him?
Actually, I would ask: why are we paying for firemen for Anchorage when our departments are getting cut by the same stupid, short-sighted attitudes by the same kind of faux-conservatives? No offense, Anchorage, really, but both questions deserve answers — Mayor Sullivan? Calling Mayor Sullivan – we are all listening, and waiting . . . .
And where’s the Party Planner these days? Last I saw her she was winking at Joe Miller at the Senate debate at the Native Heritage Center.
Yeah, whatever happened after that? Inquiring minds and voracious attitudes need to know. I hope someone can provide some answers.
And pictures!
He looks like the Tan Man, John Boehner.
….. waiting for Bachmann to chime in…..
I thought FEMA was for helping after natural disasters.
So I guess now elected Republicans who have become infected by Typhoid Sarah can be declared a natural disasters because their brain has atrophied from smoking all that tea potty.
I suppose it would be too much to expect hizowner to be embarrassed.
I am sure the people along the Gulf who suffered a real disaster would be just thrilled to know that FEMA has done next to nothing for them but Danny boy gets to be one of those ti[p] sucking milk cows Alan Simpson referred to.
Leaving aside the hypocrisy of a conservative begging for Federal assistance to cover up his own mismanagement, FEMA was not in charge of deepwater horizon. The spill did not meet the requirements for Stafford Act, so FEMA was simply there to provide added funding for other agencies to assist in control and cleanup. The group that did “next to nothing” for the Gulf would be their State entities.
Marnie – FEMA is also responsible for perparedness for disasters. Mr. Sullivan may in fact be too young to remember and certainly many of his constituents are but in 1964 Anchorage suffered major damage from a 9.2 magnitude earthquake in PWS. Alaska is one of the most seismically active regions in the world, at least along its southern coasts. Adequate preparedness requires capability to meet a worst case scenario.
Otter –
It is at least possible that Marnie was referring to NOLA and hurricane Katrina and not the Deep Water Horizon disaster. In the former case, FEMA was a literal disaster in itself.
Watching from the sidelines, it always seemed as if his cuts to fire safety had less to do with fiscal prudence and more to do with the fact that the firefighters didn’t endorse him for mayor. So now he gets rewarded for that bad behavior? Puzzling.
Aha – I bet that is a big part of it. Revenge is part of a petty person’s personality. Mayor Sullivan is proving just how small a heart and soul he has. I hope Anchorage wakes up and throws him out.
Of course, I really do believe in karma. I don’t think I want to be Mayor Sullivan in even the very near future. Maybe he will wake up and remove himself or change his attitudes (not holding my breath on that one – seen too many similar to him in this life already). If not, hope he is enjoying himself now.
I don’t recall news of any houses or businesses burning down because there was a shortage of firefighters that couldn’t respond because they were spread too thin… We have enough firefighters… The Feds should keep their money… But I’m sure Dan Sullivan were to reject the funds, the very same folks criticizing him now would be crying about that as well… You just can’t please some folks unless their “boy” is running things…
Wouldn’t he have had to request the funds? Which is an interesting twist.
Ain’t that always the way, BB?
There are serious, peer-reviewed, data-out-the-wazoo studies done showing exactly how many [whatevers] are needed –at a minimum– in a given area and/or population to keep those peoples and areas safe, and you find out you can do with waaaay fewer than that. Nevermind that you find that out because you haven’t had ANY, in this case, fires that’ve burned houses down, you’re just happy that you *can* do with fewer firefighters! Whoopie! We did it!
‘course if it was *your* house or place of business burning and there weren’t enough firefighters to respond due to cutbacks in funding for their employment, if they couldn’t get to *your* place soon enough because station houses were closed for lack of staffing, that would be a totally different story…
Funny how that works: you never need a needle and thread *until* you need a needle and thread. N’est–ce pas? beth.
You go, girl. Mr. Benner may want to rethink his stance. Not that I wish anything bad to happen, but what if he or one of his friends or family were trapped inside a burning building and it wasn’t just property at stake? I would much prefer my tax dollars be spent on firefighters who didn’t have enough to do than wept at the tragic loss of life because crews couldn’t get there fast enough because they were stationed too far away or were busy with a crisis somewhere else.
I don’t know how it works in Anchorage, but here in Kansas, we see our firefighters show up at scenes of car wrecks, rescuing people with the jaws of life or washing down gasoline so trapped passengers or drivers don’t go poof when a car explodes. They also show up in time of medical crisis or bomb threats and all sorts of situations where their expertise and courage could save lives as well as property.
I sure wouldn’t want to sit around feeling all smug with my statistics for saving a few pennies and wind up being pound-foolish when I heard someone died because of my desire to save a bit here and there. If everyone contributes a bit, everyone is benefited a lot, as my folks used to say. We are all in this together, aren’t we? If not, then we damn sure ought to be. Just saying, a community should work together for everyone’s mutual benefit.
One of the many services that this mayor forfeited was the trained emergency response team. Earlier I pointed out that much of this service is backed-up my military teams. Remember, back country rescuel. For me it seems more important that citizens have confidence we have trained emergency teams, than the f-ing budget balances. Budgets never balance. It’s a myth.
Mr. Benner,
Since many sound logical refutations of your claims have already been offered, and since I don’t really have a dog in this fight so to speak, but enjoy the collegial atmosphere here on this blog, I will make one comment in response to yours.
Your last sentence is rather a bit more revealing than you might have wished is it not? In case you don’t understand my point (which would not be surprising) what I am implying is that your choice of words reveals vastly more about your own character than anything else. I can also assure you that to my mind at least, the revelation does no credit to your argument.
Came home after a night out and you all had disappeared. Found you on this thread, but I have to go to bed now.
Does Dan Sullivan really look like that?
Hi Irish – I am so impressed you are going to bed!! So impressed, in fact, that I must answer your question. Yes, he pretty much looks like that – And since he has a very nice wife, a really good person. I won’t say more.
I must say the whole cat food thingy was way off base. Look I went to highschool with the guy, it isn’t cat food he likes. Some of us, back in the days of East Highschool hallways, swear he has a fetish for moose nuggets.
I heard at a reunion that the doesn’t let his kids touch his stash.
Just a FYI.
snort…
Well God forbid the residents of Anchorage should tax themselves to cover their essential services when they can use tax dollars from the rest of the country. I’m sorry. I know there are very good Alaskans, AKM included. But I’m really just beginning to wish that the AIP would get their damn way. I would send send the new Republic of the North Star all my best wishes , but hopefully none of my money.
OK, CGinWI,
I am with you on the ‘get what you pay for’. We in Alaska have ‘enjoyed’ this concept for years. (40, if you reflect on Rep. Don Young, Congressman for all Alaskans who voted for him, equal number of years that Uncle Ted Stevens served as one of two US Senators representing Alaska).
Before me, unions. 50’s-60’s, civil rights in America (lower 48). Stop the War in the 60′, 70’s. There are Alaskans; people, individuals, who have never known anything other than Young, Stevens (Murkowski). Not to compare or relate these men.
Old White Men
CGin WI-
I have no argument with your upset at Mayor Sullivan.
I do, however ,have plenty of arguments against the idea that this is a peculiarly Alaskan problem and am growing weary of the anti-statehood for Alaska arguments, especially the $$s to AK one.
If you had a WiM, and California had a CAM, New York a NYM, as we have an AKM, I think you would find just as much horsepunky going on just outside your front door. It is a human problem- not an Alaskan one.
The idea that Alaska is a one way street moneywise , from you to us, is fraught with misconceptions and over simplification.
US government management of the fur seal trade recouped the cost of Alaska to the US Treasury in 2 decades after purchase. The almost one way street of gold and fish money flowing out of Alaska as a territory is well known.
The continuing flow out of the state of wages and profits for non resident workers and businesses is of grave concern to the state as a whole and was a large part of the push for statehood.
“What percentage of Alaska’s statewide fish harvesters in 2005 were non residents? 38.6 percent, with total gross earnings of 60.4 percent. For processing workers, 67.3 percent were non residents, earning 66.2 percent of total wages. ”
http://www.sitnews.us/LaineWelch/072107_fish_factor.html
“A smaller percentage of nonresidents worked in the oil industry. Nonresidents accounted for 28.1%
of the oil industry workers (including major oil companies and oilfi eld services) in 2009; this was down from
29.8% one year ago and is the lowest in the last fi ve years.
• Nonresident oil industry wages grew in amount and share of total. Earnings paid to nonresidents
working in the oil industry increased from $421.6 million in 2008 to $437.3 million in 2009. The nonresident
share of earnings in the oil industry rose from 28.0% in 2008 to 28.2% in 2009.
The seafood processing industry had the highest percentage of nonresident workers. In 2009,
Alaska’s seafood processing industry had the highest percentage of nonresident workers of any industry
sector. 74.6% of workers in that industry were nonresidents. Nonresident workers earned 62.7% of the total
seafood processing industry wages, or $181.6 million.”
http://labor.alaska.gov/research/reshire/NONRES.pdf
Anchorage is our largest city and Sullivan is making a mess of it. Thank heavens AKM and others are turning bright lights on his ratty lil nests of slime but I think it a bit much to throw up your hands and wish us gone…
The AIP is a very small but vocal minority and gets way too much credence as an Alaskan voice.
Ignoring the 482,155 Alaskans who vote otherwise to concentrate on the 14,291 AIP folks is sorta like Mayor Sullivan ignoring most of ANC for his handful of cronies… it cannot stand the light of day.
As a NYer who lives in the district formerly represented by Mr Nekkid Chest Chris Lee, I have my own political scandals to deal with and a special election coming up (which I WILL vote in, although my poor little blue vote will no doubt be drowned in a sea of red ones).
I live in a state that, despite our major financial chaos which has already put a number of my friends out of work and some very important programs on the chopping block, continues to send lots of our federal dollars to help support other states like AK. As much as I fear for the future of my own state, I understand why the giving and receiving of tax dollars is uneven. I have no problem with helping to support the development of an infrastructure in a young state like Alaska. NY had its own time of rapid development and growth many, many years ago and its now time to do the same for Alaska.
What I DO object to, however, is my federal tax dollars being taken away from MY schools and MY roads and MY police and fire departments and given to a city that has a 20 million dollar surplus, just because the mayor doesn’t want to dig into his little stash or raise taxes to the level that THE VOTERS AGREED TO. Some of my colleagues will be laid off, my students will lose services and I might have to leave my school after 13 years because Danny Boy doesn’t want to use his own money to pay for fire services. And THAT I have a problem with!
I also object to the City of ANC taking MY tax dollars away from my community and others for things it can provide for itself as we do in my town, Juneau.
We also face huge cuts in education dollars, decreased local revenues, and escalating costs for food and fuel here in Southeast.
We do tax ourselves , under our city home rule charter, much more than ANC does- arguing all the while, but we do.
ANC has no better argument for amending their city charter to get rid of the “strong mayor” form of local government than Dan Sullivan. A lot is made of it being a superior form from a city manager/assembly form like we have but the arguments only work when there is a decent mayor. Our form allows for immediate voice by the public through their assembly members and is not nearly so vulnerable to veering so far off into the ozone as Mr Sullivan is carrying ANC.
I still take exception to the anti-Alaska as a state rhetoric.
PI – I thought your first comment was excellent and give it an enthusiastic here here. Democracy is a messy form of government and necessarily involves inequalities because it is imperfect. One can only work to minimize the inequalities.
I don’t mean to suggest that your resentment at the anti-Alaska expressions is unjustified, I agree with you, but I think a lot of that kind of experssion is really both poorly stated and poorly thought out, not, were it to be examined carefully, really meant as you take it. IOW I think a fair amount of it originates in the understandable outrage many people feel at the antics of your most iconic individual and to those who look deeper, such as by reading this blog, by extension, a lot that goes on in Alaska. You are undoubtedly correct that the same kinds of shenanigans happen everywhere else to greater and lesser degrees.
I almost ended up moving to Juneau about 50 years ago. Then I missed a chance to live in Fairbanks about 40 years ago. Having never seen it I can’t say much about your state, but from what little I do know it is beautiful, immense, wild, full of interesting things and people. Protect it, defend it, fight for it, but fight the people and actions that do direct harm.
KN- as always I appreciate your remarks.
I fully understand the outrage and frustration folks feel about/with/for whatzername.
I also think you are correct that they are usually letting off steam in making these kinds of remarks.
But I also know that there are plenty of folks , perhaps not here in AKM’s nice parlour, who see Alaska as dim, backward and a drain on the rest of the country.
Conniving fruitloops like Mr Sullivan do nothing but add to that perception.
We have a mighty battle here keeping money generated here in the state and in the hands of everyday Alaskans. All of us all over this huge state have a hard time being heard over ANC in state and federal affairs and yet we, away from ANC, are the first to feel the indirect harms which flow from anti-Alaska activities. We have to explain over and over that there are no roads , that air freight and travel are our highways, that our schools are just as important as anyone else’s while enduring lectures about efficiencies and economies of scale… the list is endless…
I keep hoping whatzername will fall in a ditch and break her mouth so real Alaska can have it’s own voice and life back . We have way too much at stake to be continually spinning wheels over her garbage.
Ak Pi – I hope you see this, the weird commenting system may make it too obscure.
so note that I am responding to your last comment and not the one @ 12.2.1.1.
Everything you say is correct and in fact there are a few things that you don’t say that apply to the bias against Alaska that is intrinsic to its status as a small population state, others are in the same boat.
One of the reasons for adopting a representative form of democracy instead of an absolute democracy was to allow for such discrepancies. Unfortunately, given the current condition of politics in the US, this only tends to enhance the ability of well heeled interests to corrupt politics and politicians to their ends.
Unfortunate though it may be, it might be important for Alaska to fall into the role of punching bag in the beginning of the revelation of to what extent government has become nothing more than an arm of corporate influence and power. So let us hope that it might serve that purpose, it would greatly offset and allay the pain and suffering otherwise incurred by simply appearing to exemplify corruption.
It could also serve as an example of what elsewhere has already been largely lost, a sense of connection and belonging to nature. At least I get an impression that people who come from otherwise wholly unnatural environments come away with after a short, choreographed and essentially sterile exposure to the grandeur and wonder that is the Alaska wilderness.
It is just one more example of how people can become impoverished. Or awaken to what they stand to lose and what the greed of others can take away from them.
You are not alone. Find your allies, gather them around you, contest the status quo.
Now, now, if you want to feel a little better, remember that Washington, DC had Marion Barry as “Mayor for Life”. The jokes went, “The streets are worse and worse, and Effie is dressing better and better” and “If there’s snow forecast, you’ll find the Barry’s in Bermuda”.
But yes–Sullivan is a nightmare. I’m so sorry, I hope he gets the sack.
I hear a few of the Palin retinue are eager to show off their ‘servant’s hearts’ and serve their state…who do you want? Levi or Bristol?
What a frightening photo of him!!!
I thought it was too cold to grow scum in Alaska.
Scum can grow anywhere.
Yep. From Alaska to Florida, the GOP is the proof in your petri dish.
Well and truly said, OtterQueen, well and truly said.
Very funny!!
The people of Anchorage should watch that money VERY closely.
Yep.
Sullivan’s favorite game is Three Card Monte.
Anchorage is brilliantly managed!
Just on Tuesday, a two person crew with two trucks — one with a big boiler and steam hoses, the other a small snowplow — came along my street and cleared snow and ice away from the storm drains.
And on Wednesday, a two person crew with two trucks — one a tractor with a gigantor snowthrower on the front, the second a small snowplow — came along my street and covered up all the storm drains.
Could you ask for more efficient management than that?
Slipstream (and all residents of the greater Anchorage area), I feel for you. When our storm drains were ice and snow covered, there were gigantic slush puddles on every corner. I was fine, having recently re-soled my boots, but others had a really hard time crossing the street.
Here in Michigan, we clear our own storm drains. The city used to do it, but no more. We’re lucky if they don’t completely cover our fire hydrant. When my husband called to ask when someone would come out to dig it out, he was told that that is the homeowner’s responsibility. How about the other six of us who rely on that hydrant? Such is the folly of these tax cuts…jobs are lost, services are cut, and we are not safe.
It allows my muscles relax to read your observations, Slipstream. I have driven these roads, and some in the wilderness, throughout winter for almost 20 years. (I arrived in Alaska in May 1991) The treatment of the thouroghfares (sp??), streets, avenue, etc. neighborhoods, easements, (alleys), is the worst of my experience/observation.
Friends keep saying, it costs so much. Didn’t cost too much for some neighborhoods. Everyone with breathing problems; come breakup, or earlier, the dust will be a disaster because ‘sully’ wouldn’t let the maintenance crews do their job. Is there another union deal we don’t know about? Please do not tell me that ‘we’ could not afford to keep our streets, roads, highways, neighborhoods, safe.
OY! You up there have my sympathies.
Remember how he didn’t use the federal money for street “slow-down improvements?”
Who says he’ll use this funding for the firefighters?
“Mayor” Sullivan, hand out, pretending to be a fiscal conservative.
The ‘slow-down improvements’ funding came thru the State of Alaska, I do believe. Maybe the money was from Fed dollars, but the need came from an Anchorage neighborhood. The Anchorage Mayor was caught in this particular sleight-of-hand.
Registered voters and citizens: Let’s not let this continue.
Gotta go along with hating the Federal government until you need a handout, right?
Harumph! And people continue to buy this stuff from the conservatives.
Maybe the people of Anchorage can consider learning from the people of Cairo. Stealing $200,000 from your people to pad your pockets isn’t quite as bas as stealing $60 billion, but it is theft, all the same.
Quite true. Perhaps Mr. Sullivan is counting on having another 28 years as mayor?
How does he qualify for a grant if there is a surplus of $20 million. Did he lie on the application?
One wonders where the County and State is in all of this. Or does the city of Anchorage have a direct line to D.C.?
As did the pretty young mayor of Wasilla who hired lobbyists?
AKM, you summarized my whole attitude towards politicians such as your Mayor Sullivan when you ended your post with: “I don’t know about you, but I’m getting pretty fed up with these damn conservatives asking for government handouts all the time.”
Damn right! Double Amens, to boot.
Kansans are about to be raped and pillaged by our new ultra-conservatives, and I go record here now that although I will be the first to apologize if I am wrong, I bet we are headed right down the same road Anchorage is trudging.
I would just add one more thing: the good people of Anchorage had better watch Sullivan very closely, or that FEMA money might make to his pockets or the pockets of his cronies. That would sure seem to be in the groove that he has made for himself thus far. Party planner and all.
I have a feeling there is something about this which is not so on the up and up and it might come back to bite Mr. Sullivan and the city on the hinder parts. As some astute person already commented below if the city has $20 million in surplus how can they claim they need a $5 millon grant to hire personnel for fire fighting. It seems pretty clear there is a lie in there somewhere.
Worse still is the thought of where the money will actually go. If I understand the situation correctly the fire fighting staffs have already been reduced by budget cuts. Implicit in this announcement is the assumption that those qualified and experienced people who were laid off will be hired back. However, there is no reason to believe that is the case. It is a simple matter to impose a policy on the use of this grant money such as: hire only cronies, use cronies to train them since they are all totally inexperienced, and nick every dollar that passes through the system. Considering how easily the city was swindled out of about $200k by a ficticious insurance policy it seems like it would be easy to milk this grant for a million or two.
Petty theft is for little people, stealing on a more monumental scale is not only virtually assured to be without consequences, but obviously, much more rewarding.
Krubozumo, thank you for fleshing-out what I meant to say. I agree with your hunch and appreciate that you took the time to discuss more thoroughly and more eloquently what I was saying in such a snarky manner. I am so glad you read this blog and care so deeply about the same issues because you always bring a more refined tenor to the discussion which I enjoy and admire.
KS – generous of you to say so, I do my best. One of the distinguishing features of the mudflats is the number of intellignet commenters who congregate here and who have useful and important things to contribute. I often remain on the sidelines because it is more fitting to do so if you have nothing new or useful to contribute, but it is sometimes just as important to offer encouragement and support to those actually affected directly.
I also try to be as polite and above board as possible when dealing with others, especially if I am going to express any form of disagreement. In my view, the objective should be to try to make a convincing argument that might, just might change someone else’s mind about an issue. Not always easy to do when the standard of rhetorical tactics that are allowed has degenerated to the point where they are now in the US.
I am also usually far from the beginning of any conversations here partly because I have a limited window of time in which to catch on to things and partly because it sometimes takes me a day or two to decide how to respond to something. Things move so fast here that commenting a day after a thread is started makes me the last commenter and one of the ones no one else ever reads.
Believe it or not I find discussing things on this forum somewhat theraputic compared to my “day job”.
Regards,
It’s call ‘free market economy’ to conservatives of the GOP and the GOTP and the lying liars who lie. Constantly.
I cannot let this alone. I want all our libraries restored for all the neighborhoods of Anchorage. Fire and Police manning plans restored to citizens’ expectations and insurance requirements/standards.
Many may not realize that one of the many concessions given to DOD is that they will take care of our emergencies. It does, however, come down to cost.
Remember when newer administrations claimed the MUNI had lost so much money, therefore, the previous mayor was a crook? Remember the year 2008 when anyone, individual or “entity” lost billions in the collapse of ‘Wall Street’. Well guess what, all has been restored. MUNI has its’ paper value back. Ditto for the APFD program.
This guy is a phony. If it is true that he is counterfeit we are left with a greater disaster than we thought.