The Anchorage Assembly took the rare step Tuesday night of censuring a fellow member over what the Alaska Public Offices Commission ruled was an improper use of campaign funds for travel.
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Assembly members are still weighing whether to approve an investigation into East Anchorage Assembly member George Martinez’s use of city money for travel.
In June, the Alaska Public Offices Commission ruled that Martinez violated campaign finance laws when he used campaign funds to pay for a flight from Alaska to Florida last December. Martinez told the commissioners he used the flight as an opportunity to work on campaign planning. APOC ruled the flight was an improper use of campaign funds.
APOC ordered Martinez to pay a fine of more than $5,000, which he has already paid, city officials said.
At their meeting Tuesday night, Assembly members took up a resolution to censure Martinez for the campaign violations. A censure is a public, formal expression of disapproval by the Assembly.
Eagle River-Chugiak Assembly member Donald Handeland said mistakes with campaign finance filings are not uncommon. But he highlighted APOC’s ruling that Martinez’s violation was “particularly egregious.”
“It’s not a late filing or, ‘Oh hey, I happened to misclassify something, I forgot to include an employer information on this,’” Handeland said. “This is someone using campaign finance for personal benefit.”
Assembly member Kameron Perez-Verdia said he worried that censuring a member for actions done outside their role as an Assembly member would set a bad precedent.
“APOC ruled, and APOC penalized, and that was fully within their purview to do that,” Perez-Verdia said. “And that’s, from my perspective, outside of the purview of the Assembly.”
But some Assembly members, like South Anchorage’s Zac Johnson, pointed to Martinez’s actions when APOC commissioners questioned him. In their ruling, the commissioners described Martinez as “evasive” during questioning and described his testimony as not credible.
Martinez’s response to APOC’s investigation could compromise the public’s trust in the Anchorage Assembly, Johnson said.
“I think that the crux of this is that the testimony offered by the member to APOC was not credible,” Johnson said. “It’s not that there was an APOC violation. It’s that testimony piece.”
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The Assembly voted 8 to 3 to censure Martinez, with members Perez-Verdia, Anna Brawley and Daniel Volland opposed.
In response to the APOC ruling, some Assembly members have also scrutinized Martinez’s use of city funds for travel he took in his capacity as an Assembly member.
Handeland and fellow Eagle River Assembly member Jared Goecker reviewed some of Martinez’s travel records and said some travel was not related to city business. They allege Martinez charged the city per diem costs for days he was not acting as an Assembly member.
The two members, along with Johnson, put forward a resolution that calls on the municipal attorney to investigate Martinez.
Martinez, in a statement to the Assembly, said he followed standard municipal processes when he made the travel and per diem requests. He questioned the scope of the proposed investigation.
“My question is whether the proposed investigations are intended to assess the compliance with existing policies governing expenditures, or whether it contemplates evaluating the legislative judgment of an individual member in allocating an authorized office budget,” Martinez said.
East Anchorage Assembly member Yarrow Silvers proposed an amended resolution that calls on the municipal attorney to also look into any potential problems with how the city handles travel, disclosures, reimbursements and oversight. The amendment also asks for recommendations on ways to improve accountability.
“Somebody approved member Martinez’s travel, and so I think it’s important to remember that it was approved travel,” Silvers said. “If it was non-compliant, I think that we need to have this review to look at our policies more closely and see if they lead to non-compliant travel.”
Brawley, the Assembly’s chair, said the city’s office of Internal Audit is also reviewing all Assembly travel from January 2025 to April 2026 to see if it followed city procedures.
Assembly members debated the investigation resolution until midnight, the mandated deadline in city code for an Assembly meeting. The resolution on whether to investigate Martinez’s use of city funds was bumped to the next Assembly meeting, scheduled for Aug. 4.