Anchorage Assembly audit of member travel won't judge whether trips were appropriate

The Anchorage Assembly confirmed Tuesday that its internal audit of member travel will not determine whether any member's trips were a good use of public money. The audit covers all assembly member travel from January 2025 through April 2026 and is not specific to any one member, officials clarified. The date range was chosen partly to collect a sample rather than review five or six years of data.

The audit is limited to procedural compliance. "The audit that's been requested through internal audit is not specifically on whether the travel was good or bad or was there any violations of municipal policy or misuse of public funds," one assembly member said. "It's looking at was his request put in on time, not was his request appropriate."

Separate censure and removal proceedings address broader allegations against Assembly Member George Martinez. Assembly Members Jared Goecker and Donald Handeland filed a formal accusation July 1 alleging misuse of travel funds, per diem overclaiming (Martinez claimed $456 for a November 2025 trip despite being entitled to only $312), failure to disclose his ownership interest in Consoach LLC, and perjury at a June 3 Alaska Public Offices Commission hearing. The commission issued a final order June 11 imposing maximum civil penalties for campaign finance violations.

An amendment to the audit-related resolution was adopted Tuesday without objection. Separately, assembly leadership is reviewing whether to reinstate a roughly $11,000 annual cap on member travel spending, a policy that was previously in place.