Fairbanks North Star Borough Assemblywoman Barbara Haney, targeted for legal harassment by leftist Presiding Office Savannah Fletcher, has filed a supplemental court brief to her original appeal with the Superior Court, to further assert her innocence in a case involving ethics.
Haney had been fined $1 for an ethics violation by her fellow Assembly members. Her offense? She had written a letter to the editor without saying “this is my opinion as a private citizen.”
Haney’s supplemental filing said, “Assemblywoman Haney did not violate FNSB 6.12.010(O)(2) as entered by Assembly Presiding Officer Savannah Fletcher on July 26, 2024. This code allows Haney to express a personal opinion through a public statement which she did in a letter to the editor through the Fairbanks Newsminer.”
In the filing, Haney detailed the actual and substantive conflicts of interests of some of the Assembly members and exposed the cavalier disregard to fairness in the way conflicts are treated by the Assembly’s presiding officer.
Haney is a conservative in an Assembly led by radical Savannah Fletcher, who works as an attorney for leftist organizations in Alaska. Fletcher is running for state Senate now.
The Ethics Committee that convened to hear the “no letter to the editor allowed” complaint that had been brought by a financial backer of Fletcher, had deliberated and recommended no punishment for Haney over the letter to the editor.
But the Assembly, in spite of its own conflicts of interest, decided a censure was in order, along with a nominal fine, meant to tar the record of Haney and damage her in the public eye. Haney says the censure is purely political retribution against her conservative stances defending taxpayers in the community.
Fletcher has a financial relationship with the filer of the ethics complaint, Kristen Schupp, the wife of another leftist activist, school board member Bobby Burgess.
According to Haney’s account, during the time the complaint was filed, Fletcher was running for borough mayor and significant donations to Fletcher’s campaign had been made by both Schupp and Burgess, totaling nearly $5,000.
These cash donations for her Senate campaign occurred 10 days before the Ethics Committee hearing. Previous large donations had been made by Schupp to Fletcher’s mayoral campaign.
Haney asserted in her court filing that Fletcher should have recused herself, since she had received significant financial support for her campaign from the very person filing the complaint against Haney, in violation of Alaska Statute 29.20.010. Under state statute, it is incumbent on the person with the conflict to recuse themselves if they have a significant financial conflict.
Haney also detailed conflicts of other members involved.
Mindy O’Neal, the deputy presiding officer, also had conflicts, having written several opinion columns and letters to the editor for the News-Miner herself, and none of them contained the language that stated she was only offering her own opinion not the opinion of others.
Because O’Neal had this conflict — having committed the same “offense” but not ever facing the same sanctions, she should not have been able to rule on Fletcher’s conflict or vote on the matter. Neither Fletcher nor O’Neal should have been able to preside over the meeting, Haney has asserted.
Haney also detailed how two other members had conflicts and should have recused themselves. Those members did declare conflicts, but the Presiding Officer Fletcher, who had the option to drop the entire matter, ruled that they had to vote on the censure.
According to Haney’s filings, if the conflicts of interest been observed as they should have been under state statute and borough code, the outcome would have been quite different.
The advice of Fairbanks Borough Attorney Jill Dolan also fell short. Dolan failed to include other options when she was advising the Assembly. Instead, she kept insisting that a penalty be issued against Haney, even when the Ethics Committee clearly did not recommend one.
The blatant disregard for conflicts on the Assembly has been a serious issue this year. For example, Assemblywoman Kristen Kelly, who is an employee of the school district, was the chair of the finance committee, which determines matters that relate to how the school district is funded through property tax dollars. Assemblyman Scott Crass is a steward for a public employees (ASEA) union, yet was allowed on union contracts of the borough employees.