The chief of Anchorage’s department of information technology has resigned more than a month since an investigation revealed that he had utilized his position to cooperate with political campaign officials to contest the results of last year’s city election.
In an email from Wednesday, the spokesperson for the mayor, Veronica Hoxie, said that Marc Dahl “respectfully resigned” from his position “to explore new career opportunities.”
“Mr. Dahl has enjoyed a prosperous professional career both in the public and private sector, and has also had seven years of devoted service to our city,” she wrote. “We appreciate the late Mr. Dahl for his service to the community and wish him all the best of success.”
Dahl was unable to be reached to discuss the matter.
City Mayor Dave Bronson picked Dahl to be the head of the IT department in his first year as mayor in 2021.
In May The Anchorage Daily News reported that the city’s Ombudsman was looking into Dahl for his involvement in a political challenge. Dahl was put on an extended administrative leave.
Bronson was not able to publicly discuss the issue for a few weeks. In August the inquiry report of the ombudsman was made public, and it recommended the firing of Dahl because he failed to act politically neutral in the course of his work.
The ombudsman revealed that Dahl illegally drafted a municipal policy on usage of USB drives. He then communicated the unpublished policy to Bronson’s former chief staff Sami Graham. Graham then cited election employees who violated the illegal policy to contest the election results in April.
City officials who oversee elections rebuffed the contest.
A few more weeks went by without Bronson making a public statement about the probe. In the last week members of the Anchorage Assembly pressed the administration for more details regarding what transpired. Bronson claimed he had requested Dahl to resign.
Bronson’s Chief of Staff Mario Bird said the administration responded to the ombudsman’s request and plans to work with the Assembly to create the creation of a new municipal code that will combat attempts to interfere with elections.
Since Bronson began his tenure since his appointment, more than a dozen top executives have resigned in the wake of resignations and firings. This includes the municipal manager chief of staff, municipal attorney, director of human resources Chief of Police, health director and director of libraries.
