Anchorage, Alaska picks 1st woman, openly gay acting mayor
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP)-- Austin Quinn-Davidson will certainly serve as acting mayor of Anchorage beginning next Friday after Mayor Ethan Berkowitz's resignation.
Quinn-Davidson, 40, is an attorney who was initial chosen to the Setting up in 2018. She will certainly be the very first female as well as openly gay person to act as mayor or acting mayor of Anchorage, the Anchorage Daily Information reported.
The city's charter states that the chair of its Setting up will work as acting mayor throughout a vacancy. The Setting up voted Friday to designate Quinn-Davidson as the brand-new chair, replacing Felix Rivera.
Berkowitz resigned after admitting to having an unsuitable relationship with a female press reporter three days after she made on the internet allegations versus the married official.
Municipal lawyer Kate Vogel claimed at the meeting Friday that the city's charter is ambiguous regarding just how a permanent mayor needs to be picked. She stated the Setting up has a few legitimately defensible options on how to continue. One would be to hold an unique election in January, 90 days after Berkowitz's resignation takes effect. The second alternative would be to skip an unique election and also have Quinn-Davidson function as acting mayor till the regular political election set up for April.
After, a recently chosen mayor could take over earlier than July, when a mayoral term typically starts. Or, Quinn-Davidson can proceed as acting mayor up until July, when the elected mayor would take workplace.
If Rivera had actually been selected acting mayor, he would have been the city's first openly gay mayor. Rivera would certainly also have actually been the initial Latino mayor and also at age 31, the youngest. The next youngest would certainly be James Delaney Sr., who was either 32 or 33 when he was chosen in 1929.
