"Mr. Dahl has respectfully resigned from his position as the director of information technology for the Municipality of Anchorage to pursue new career opportunities," Mayor Dave Bronson said in a statement provided by his office Wednesday. "We thank Mr. Dahl for his service to the community and wish him the best of luck."
For months, Dahl has been at the center of an investigation involving allegations that he and a close Bronson ally, former chief of staff Sami Graham, tried to interfere with results of April's municipal election. As the Daily News reported in May, after ballot returns broke overwhelmingly in favor of Assembly candidates not aligned with Bronson, Dahl allegedly violated city policies by adding an unvetted security policy change to an internal city webpage. That improperly created policy was then immediately cited as the basis for an objection to results by Graham as a way of challenging the validity of the election.
A report from city Ombudsman Darrel Hess released in August concluded that he "reasonably believes that there may have been a violation of state election statutes," and referred the investigation to the state Office of Special Prosecutions. The report also called on Bronson to fire Dahl.
This month, the Assembly voted 9-3 to pursue potential subpoenas over the incident.
Through his attorney, Dahl declined to speak to the Assembly at a work session scheduled for earlier in September, citing the ombudsman's criminal allegations.
"Mr. Dahl vehemently denies the Ombudsman's allegations of civil and/or criminal misconduct," attorney Lane Powell wrote in an Aug. 30 letter to Assembly Chair Christopher Constant.
According to the Bronson administration, Dahl worked for the city for seven years.
© 2023 the Alaska Dispatch News (Anchorage, Alaska). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
