Former Fairbanks North Star Borough Assemblywoman Savannah Fletcher was censured by the Assembly on Friday and fined $3.
In a 5-4 vote, Fletcher was censured for what was deemed a “minor and technical” ethics violation, relating to radio ads she recorded in 2023 that encouraged residents of Fairbanks to get involved with borough agenda items that were important to her.
In those ads, she offered opinions on matters coming before the Assembly, and she did not disclose that these were her own opinions, not the opinions of the Assembly. She also did not disclose who paid for the ads. The radio ads were privately funded, not paid for by the Fairbanks North Star Borough. Assemblyman David Guttenberg acknowledged helping pay for the ads.
The Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly’s Ethics Board found that radio spots violated ethics rules due to her inflection, word choice, and focus on specific topics that were part of her own agenda.
Fletcher, a licensed attorney, member of the Alaska Bar Association, and member of the Alaska Judicial Council, faced scrutiny over the violation’s implications for her professional work. She is an expert litigator on behalf of the liberal Northern Justice Project and makes her living suing conservatives and governments that make decisions she disagrees with.
She left the Assembly in 2024 and ran for state Senate, losing to Sen. Mike Cronk in November.
