ANCHORAGE, Alaska - The Anchorage Assembly has agreed to pay $193,000 to meet the obligation for a one-of-a-kind life insurance deal the city made 28 years ago after Mayor George Sullivan left office.

Sullivan died last year at the age of 87. The assembly voted Feb. 16 to pay the money to his life insurance trust. The trustee is Sullivan's son, Dan Sullivan, the current mayor of Anchorage.

He told The Anchorage Daily News it's an odd coincidence he's dealing with this both as mayor and trustee. He's not saying who will get the money as beneficiary of the trust.

In 1982, the assembly agreed the city would continue life insurance to George Sullivan for the rest of his life at the same rate he had been paying as mayor. Until his death, George Sullivan had paid the city $19,663 in premiums, which were deposited into a city account.

The current Sullivan administration recommended to the assembly that the insurance be paid, with City Attorney Dennis Wheeler describing it in a Feb. 2 memo as a contractual obligation.

Several Assembly members said they felt they had no choice but to pay it.

"I don't believe it was an appropriate thing to do when it was done ... But what do you do? You've got to honor your commitments," said Assemblyman Dan Coffey.

Assembly Chairman Patrick Flynn said he believes the Sullivan estate could have sued the city for breach of contract if it did not pay.

The one Assembly member to vote against it, Harriet Drummond, said the payment, and the arrangement that led to it, made no sense.

"The municipality is not an insurance company," she said. "This whole situation is incredibly bizarre to me."

Deputy Municipal Attorney Rhonda Westover said last week that the Sullivan arrangement was one of a kind. She said her research could find no other examples where a former city official has been awarded such a benefit.

Dan Sullivan said that having the request come through his office was a formality. He said he was not directly involved as mayor.

"It was simply honoring a contractual agreement," the mayor said. "Coincidentally the fact that I'm mayor and this was with my father the former mayor is really irrelevant to it, because certainly no actions taken by this administration either led to that contract or to the obligation to fulfill its terms and requirements."

As trustee, Dan Sullivan said he was carrying out his father's trust.

"If he'd had the fortune, for me, to pass away later in life after I was mayor, it probably wouldn't be a concern. ... It's a coincidental thing but it certainly has no bearing whatsoever on something untoward, or a conflict of interest."