Anchorage Assembly votes Tuesday on auditing every member's spending account back to 2023

The Anchorage Assembly votes Tuesday on sending every dollar its members have spent from their personal office accounts since Jan. 1, 2023 to the municipal Office of Internal Audit. Assembly Members Yarrow Silvers, Erin Baldwin Day and Jared Goecker filed the resolution, which includes no statement from them.

Each of the 12 Assembly members has access to an annual Individual Spending Account of $24,000, according to the resolution, with broad discretion over purchases, travel, staff contracts and other municipal purposes. That is about $288,000 a year across the body. Spending is administered by the Municipal Clerk and requires approval by the Assembly Chair.

The audit would cover purchases, travel, staff contracts, reimbursements, disclosures and oversight, looking for what the resolution calls inconsistencies, questionable patterns or other areas of concern, and would review the branch's systems and policies. It notes the Office of Internal Audit recently completed a review of Assembly travel expenditures from January 2025 through April 2026 at the Chair's request, but that review was limited to official travel, one category among several.

The resolution names no member. Its context is a June 11 final order from the Alaska Public Offices Commission imposing maximum civil penalties on Assembly Member George Martinez for campaign finance violations. On July 21 the Assembly censured Martinez over those findings, 8-3, on a resolution co-sponsored by Baldwin Day, and in the same session voted 10-0 to acknowledge his compliance with the commission's order and his repayment. All three sponsors of Tuesday's audit resolution voted for that censure. Martinez has been recused throughout, which is why votes in this matter are out of 11.

The record also includes the Assembly's 5-6 vote on Aug. 4 rejecting an independent investigation of Martinez's taxpayer-funded travel, and a subsequent 3-8 vote declining to reconsider. Minutes for that meeting have not been published.

Martinez argued oversight should examine every member's account rather than single him out, saying assembly members "receive the same office budget and exercise legislative discretion differently" and asking whether the Assembly was "singling out an individual based on allegations, or are we looking at a review of the entire branches' policies."

If passed, the resolution takes effect immediately, requiring the Office of Internal Audit to deliver findings within 60 days or file a written request for more time.