Northeast Anchorage council urges "thorough and independent" study of Assembly spending

A Northeast Anchorage community council has backed the Anchorage Assembly's study of members' spending and asked that it be "thorough and independent," in a resolution Assembly Member Yarrow Silvers of East Anchorage forwarded to the full Assembly in an informational memorandum for its Oct. 20 meeting.

The Northeast Community Council voted 19-0 on Sept. 17 for the resolution, signed by Council President Pamela Raygor and Secretary Kyle Rehberg. It urges Assembly members and city staff to act in good faith and avoid "malicious and half-hearted compliance," which it says would waste resources and produce an ineffective study. It asks that the review go beyond procedural compliance to weigh the "actual value of expenditures to the taxpayer," and says the council awaits a complete public release of the findings.

The Assembly voted 9-2 on Sept. 1 to have the city's Office of Internal Audit study the individual spending accounts of 15 current and recent members, anyone who served between January and September 2026, going back to Jan. 1, 2023, Alaska News reported. Each seat gets $24,000 a year for travel, contract aides, communications and other costs. The auditor will review the accounts and the policies governing them and recommend changes.

Silvers sponsored the measure with Members Erin Baldwin Day of Midtown and Jared Goecker of Chugiak-Eagle River. It began as a full audit and was changed to a special study before it passed. Internal Audit Director Alden Thern said a special study carries no requirement that anyone respond in writing to its findings. His office has 90 days to deliver its report or ask for more time.

"I do not believe that any substantial misuse has occurred. That being said, I also don't believe that the public should have to take my word for it," Silvers said at the Sept. 1 meeting. Chair Anna Brawley of West Anchorage opposed the study, pointing to housing, budget and public safety work ahead of budget season.

The study followed months of debate over Assembly spending. On July 21, the Assembly voted 8-3 to censure Member George Martinez of East Anchorage after the Alaska Public Offices Commission imposed maximum penalties on him for campaign finance violations. On Aug. 4, the Assembly voted 5-6 against an independent investigation of his city-funded travel. Martinez has argued that oversight should examine every member's account rather than single him out, Alaska News reported.

In June, Brawley asked Internal Audit to review whether Assembly travel from January 2025 through April 2026 followed city and Assembly policies, citing broader questions about how members' trips are approved, according to her letter. Auditors found eight members took 38 trips costing $93,232.22. Every trip had an approved authorization form and complete expense documentation, and no member's travel exceeded the $24,000 annual allotment. Auditors could not confirm that the Alaska Airlines fares the Clerk's Office booked were the lowest available, or that 14 of the 15 trips subject to a 60-day pre-approval rule met it.