On January 9, 2026, the Anchorage Assembly held a confirmation hearing for Mayor's nominee Bob Dole to serve as the new Director of Community and Economic Development. Dole, formerly the city's Building Official, was nominated to lead a reorganized department focused on the administration's goal of building 10,000 homes in 10 years, commercial development, and neighborhood revitalization. The hearing featured an exchange regarding Anchorage's constraints, departmental reorganization, and strategies for shifting the city's regulatory culture.
Friday, January the 9th. It's 1227 p.m. We're a little bit late getting started on the calendar from 1220 to uh 1250 for um assembly memorandum number five-2026 from the mayor. It's an executive appointment confirmation hearing, Bob Dole, Robert Dole, Director of Community and Economic Development. I will start with introductions in the room. It's bald and day. Erin Baldwin Day, Anna Brawley. Christopher Constant on the phone, Mr. Rivera. Thank you, Mr. Myers. Yes, sir. Thanks, Chair. You were the first one here, Mr. Gates. I'm sorry, Mr. Johnson. I'm here. All right. So then we have the mayor. So, Mayor, why don't we go ahead and let you take the floor? Thank you, Chair Constant for scheduling this confirmation hearing, and thank you, members, for being here. I am extremely pleased to introduce Mr. Bob Dole, my nominee to be community and economic development director. Most of you already know Bob from his prior time at the municipality as building official. I am incredibly excited. He chose to come back and help achieve the goal my administration has set to build and restore 10,000 homes in 10 years. Under the reorganization, we bundled key departments together to increase the level of coordination needed to achieve the 10,000 homes goal. I'm excited to work with all of you and Bob going forward, not only on the 10,000 homes initiative, but also to support increased commercial development, neighborhood revitalization, and opportunities to attract new economic development to the municipality. With Bob's background at the Rasmussen Foundation, the Air National Guard, and the many, many, many community boards he serves on. I swear he knows everyone in our community. And I got to work with Bob in Scouting, where we were both Scoutmasters. He has the relationship, skills, and municipal knowledge to really ignite growth here. So before I close, I want to thank Lance Wilbur for his tenure at the permit center, but also really great to see him back on the eighth floor as he transitions to the CFO position. So thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you all. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Mr. Dole, would you like to say a few words? Thank you, Chair. It's a privilege and opportunity to serve Anchorage residents in this role that I've been invited back to do. It's an exciting time for Anchorage in that there's a sense of working together and pulling together that I frankly haven't experienced before locally since coming up here in 1998. It's truly a great time to be here. Recognize there's a famous uh misquote attributed to Winston Churchill. We're out of uh money now, we have to think. I think Anchorage is in a much more difficult position, however, it's out of money, it's out of uh land, and it's out of uh time. Like that we have land to develop uh by and large, at least easily. And we're out of time as we continue to see the outflow of our young adults we need for us to continue to grow and flourish. I look forward to working with the assembly with the executive branch and all residents of Anchorage to go forward and uh and grow the opportunities in this great city. Right.