The Anchorage Assembly studied how to remove one of its own. It never has.

Removing a sitting Anchorage Assembly member would cost between $98,000 and $210,000, according to a July 17 briefing. Refilling the seat is a separate question with two answers: the Assembly can appoint a replacement, which is essentially free and the route it has used before, or call a special election at about $162,000. The briefing itself is the news: for the first time, the Assembly reviewed how to expel one of its members.

It has never done so. The process in municipal code, section 2.70.030, requires a formal accusation, a legal sufficiency review, a hearing officer, proof by clear and convincing evidence and a two-thirds vote. On a left-leaning body asked to remove a member of its own coalition, that supermajority is a high bar, and nothing in the briefing suggests the votes exist to meet it.

Member George Martinez sat in on the discussion as a participating member, weeks after the Assembly censured him over a June state ethics finding. Chair Anna Brawley said attorneys advised he could take part because the session was about process, not about him. "Member Martinez may participate in this conversation as a member because it is about process," she said.

The briefing started no proceeding. It also drew the line between removal and the lighter tool the Assembly used in June, when it censured Martinez in a resolution that calls itself "distinct from and far short of removal."

Anchorage voters can already remove an Assembly member. The municipal charter and state law provide for recall on grounds of misconduct, incompetence or failure to perform duties, by petition of a quarter of the district's last vote. An Assembly-run removal is the body policing itself rather than the electorate policing the body. The Assembly takes the matter up again Aug. 4.