Anchorage's Board of Ethics couldn't meet Wednesday, leaving a March complaint pending

The Anchorage Board of Ethics could not conduct business Wednesday after only two of its five members — Chair Daniel Bellerive and Jonathon Katcher — joined the call. Three are needed. On its agenda was an ethics complaint that has been pending since March.

"It looks like we do not have a quorum for this meeting with just 2 members present," Karissa Sleppy of the Municipal Clerk's Office, which staffs the board, said during roll call. "We need 3." Two members were excused. A third never joined. Bellerive held the line open for several minutes, said staff would poll members for a date with a quorum, and adjourned.

The agenda held two complaints of potential ethics violations and four requests for advisory opinions, most marked confidential. One of the complaints, 2026-01, first appeared on the board's agenda for a March 26 meeting that was cancelled. It has been carried over at every meeting since. The board met in April and again in June, when it took the complaint into closed session and directed staff to gather more information. It was on the July agenda under unfinished business, and on Wednesday's.

Two advisory opinion requests have followed a similar path, first listed in June and carried over since.

The board is appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the Assembly. It provides advisory opinions, investigates complaints, reviews disclosure forms and develops ethics training for municipal officials and employees. Its rules call for monthly regular meetings, and its own annual reports say it met 13 times in 2023 and 12 in 2024, with every member meeting attendance requirements both years. This year there was no meeting between mid-December and late March. Bellerive's term ends Oct. 14.

Residents may file written ethics complaints with the Municipal Clerk's Office, which makes them available to the board at its next regular meeting.