Before Fairbanks former Assemblywoman (and failed state Senate candidate) Savannah Fletcher used a radio spot to promote her views on borough official business without proper disclaimers, she was officially warned that she was in likely violation of the borough’s ethics code.
Fletcher, now resigned from the Assembly, is a prominent attorney known for waging lawfare against Republicans and conservatives in her role as an attorney for the Northern Justice Project.
The borough’s ethics board found that Fletcher spoke in radio spots and offered implied opinions, not acknowledging they were personal opinions. She used phrases like “watered-down climate action plan,” and “do you support the schools?” in which she indicated that a vote against funding would lead to larger class sizes or closed schools.
A public records request shows that Fletcher had been warned by Borough Clerk April Trickey that her radio spots violated the borough’s ethics code, but she persisted in running these spots on KFAR throughout the summer of 2023.
Then-Presiding Officer Aaron Lojewski had made it clear that the radio spots were in no way sanctioned by the Assembly and were not authorized. The Assembly also did not authorize payment of the radio spots, nor were they on the KFAR FCC filings as public service announcements. They were funded by someone, presumably Fletcher herself.
Here’s an example of one of her spots, where she did not disclaim that this was her opinion:
Fletcher was presenting herself up as an Assembly spokesperson, in direct violation of code.This month, the ethics committee found Fletcher violated the ethics code three times. The penalty has not yet been announced.
