HANK BARTOS OF FAIRBANKS APPOINTED TO REPLACE
An appointee from Ketchikan has withdrawn his name from a volunteer position on the Alaska Commission on Judicial Conduct .
Trevor Shaw had been appointed to serve on the volunteer commission by Gov. Michael Dunleavy. However, Democrats savaged his reputation and created enough damage that he chose to resign rather than go through the rest of the confirmation process. He and his wife are expecting a child within a few weeks.
“A myriad of inaccuracies, misconceptions, and outright falsehoods regarding my public service have cast a shadow over my confirmation that is damaging to the mission of the Commission on Judicial Conduct,” Shaw wrote. “I will continue to endeavor for the truth of the situation to be revealed, as opposed to the alternative facts that are being predominately portrayed in a concerted effort to deceive the public about my nomination,” he wrote in a letter to the governor.
Shaw was the president of the Ketchikan School Board when a high school teacher in Ketchikan was accused, and later arrested, for sexual misconduct.
At the time, Shaw was the youngest school board president in Alaska history, and some in Ketchikan criticized his leadership during the investigative process of the teacher. In a small town, everyone knows everyone, and the teacher was a family friend who had officiated at his wedding.
Shaw eventually resigned from the school board in 2018, rather than face a recall that was under way.
The scandal came at the same time Shaw was trying to negotiate union contracts in public session, rather than behind closed doors. The teacher’s union and local Democrats used the scandal to gin up opposition to Shaw, who was also the district chair for the Alaska Republican Party.
Today Gov. Dunleavy accepted Shaw’s withdrawal and appointed Fairbanks resident Hank Bartos to serve on the commission. Bartos is a retired Air Force pilot. A Realtor since 1987, he has a bachelor’s degree from the University of South Carolina and master’s degree from Boston University.
Bartos, the current nominee, served on the Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly, the Economic Development Commission Board of directors, as an Alaska board member to National Association of Counties, Alaska Municipal League Board of Directors, United Way Board of Directors, Big Brothers Big Sisters board member, and numerous other committees around Fairbanks.
