The path to revising the ethics code for the Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly took another turn on Thursday.
In a narrow vote, the assembly chose to postpone member Scott Crass’s new ordinance to Aug. 14. The ordinance seeks to grant the borough’s board of ethics the power to dismiss complaints the board deems frivolous, among other changes.
It’s the latest twist in a saga that has seen two current or former assembly members censured and fined for minor violations in the last year.
The assembly delayed voting on the measure at the request of Assemblymember Barbara Haney. She said she’d prefer to wait on debating the ordinance until after oral arguments in her appeal to the superior court over her ethics violation from 2024. Oral arguments in the case are scheduled for this Tuesday.
“I have grave concerns that entering this at this time, and this debate, could be used by opposing counsel in subsequent litigation,” she said.
Borough Attorney Jill Dolan disagreed. She told the assembly she didn’t want to dismiss Haney’s concern, but that she thinks the ordinance would have no effect on the appeal.
“This is a generally applicable ordinance that’s in front of you tonight,” she said. “It’s not related to the pending court case. So, this isn’t going to change what’s happening in a fully-briefed court case.”
Haney’s violation came from one of two complaints from residents the assembly has adjudicated since 2024. The other complaint was aimed at former Assemblymember Savannah Fletcher.
Both complaints alleged the elected officials publicly expressed opinions without stating that they were speaking for themselves and were not representing an official assembly or borough position.
In both cases, the board of ethics determined the officials technically committed minor violations of ethics provisions. And in both cases, the board recommended no punishment.
Borough code, however, requires the assembly to impose a penalty of some sort if the ethics board says a violation occurred.
In July of last year, the assembly censured Haney and fined her $1 because of a letter to the editor she wrote to the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. Her appeal to the courts followed.
In Fletcher’s case, which concluded earlier this year, the assembly censured her and fined her $3 for a series of paid radio spots from 2023. She did not appeal.
Crass said recent history has shown the assembly’s ethics code needs fixing, and he spoke against postponing the vote.
“I think the things that weigh in balance here are the past and the potential for future violations,” he said. “I think we’ve determined that our ethics code is broken, and it would behoove us to fix it sooner than later.”
In addition to giving the ethics board dismissal powers, his ordinance tweaks the section at issue in the Haney and Fletcher cases.
Rather than requiring assembly members to state when an opinion is their own, the measure would instead prevent members from intentionally misrepresenting their opinion as the official position of the assembly or borough.
The assembly approved the motion to postpone Crass’s new ordinance to Aug. 14 in a 5-4 vote.
Assemblymembers David Guttenberg, Rotermund, Haney, Tammie Wilson and Liz Reeves-Ramos voted in favor; assemblymembers Kristan Kelly, Mindy O’Neall, Crass and Nick LaJiness voted no.
The measure marks the second attempt to amend the borough’s ethics code in the last year. Assemblymember Brett Rotermund introduced the first. Crass signed on as a cosponsor at the time and helped draft a substitute, which died in December.
Despite getting the edge in a 4-3 vote, that ordinance failed because borough code requires a minimum five votes for a measure to pass.