The North Slope Borough clerk has issued a recall petition for the borough mayor, Josiah Aullaqsruaq Patkotak. It comes after months of efforts from residents over what they say were "lavish travel expenses" by the mayor and his family.
The petition authors said the mayor should be recalled for “misconduct in office, incompetence and failure to perform prescribed duties” because he used borough funds to pay for his family’s travel.
After several recall applications and a legal complaint from the group, the clerk, Sheila Burke, issued the petition on March 21.
Forrest Deano Olemaun, a former assembly president and one of petition sponsors, said public officials need to exercise transparency and honesty in how they treat public funds. He said the money used for the mayor's travel could have been spent to support residents instead.
“It may not be much to those that already have, but it certainly is a lot to those that don't have anything to begin with,” Olemaun said. “When you add it all up, it makes a huge difference.”
The borough assembly voted in December to allow officials to receive compensation for bringing their family on business trips. The prior code allowed for travel with family but did not specify whether the borough would pay for family travel costs.
However, Patkotak had already received compensation for taking his wife and children on at least 15 trips across the state and country, as well as overseas, before the code changed. Those travel expenses amounted to tens of thousands of dollars and included flying first class and staying at luxury hotels.
Patkotak did not respond to calls and emails asking for comment. Angela Cox, the borough’s director of government and external affairs and the mayor’s cousin, responded to questions about petitioners’ concerns last month via email. She said that former mayors also traveled on business with their families. Besides, she said, Patkotak has small children, and bringing them on trips is crucial.
A recall petition was also issued for Assembly President Crawford Patkotak, who is the mayor’s father. Petition authors said that when Crawford Patkotak voted to approve the ordinance allowing compensation for officials’ family travel, he did not disclose his personal interest in protecting his son.
Crawford Patkotak said in a phone call Thursday that traveling with family has been a common practice for borough officials. He also said that the assembly voted to simply clarify the code.
“We have tried our best to be transparent at the assembly level, working closely with the mayor and his staff,” Crawford Patkotak said. “We disclose through the process who we are, and the fact that our people, the voters of the North Slope Borough voted to put us in these positions."
No other borough code in the state mentions compensating officials for bringing their family on business trips. Officials in at least eight Alaska boroughs are not allowed such practice, according to borough clerks. In most boroughs, officials are asked to use the most economical fare.
Residents filed their first application for a petition in February, but the borough denied it, stating it didn’t meet grounds for recall. After the authors filed their second application on March 4, the borough clerk Sheila Burke requested to adjust the petition to only keep the grounds that she deemed recallable. She said she issued the petition with those adjustments on March 21, though the group said they only received it this week.
The latest petition describes the mayor’s decision to use public funds on his family’s travel as improper and unethical. But the document omits some recall grounds the authors originally listed. Those include using the borough medevac plane for non-medical errands, approving too many nepotism waivers and misusing public funds to open an office in Anchorage.
Olemaun said the authors were disappointed the petition was edited but reluctantly accepted the changes.
Burke, the borough clerk, said residents have until mid-May to collect 371 signatures for the petition to recall the mayor, and 261 signatures to recall the assembly president. After that, the petition would be submitted to the assembly, and an election would be scheduled within 90 days.
