Board of Ethics Meeting

All right, well, current time is 3:47 PM on April 21st. Call this meeting of the Board of Ethics to order. Uh, Miss Slucky, would you call roll? Yes, I forgot to mention, Mr. Chair, if you could use your mic so that it picks up on the audio.

Oh, I've got it. I've heard the button. All right, as we work, we're still at 3:47 PM on April 21st, 2026, and bring this meeting of the Board of Ethics to order. Miss Slucky, if you would call roll. Mr. Gulbreath?

Present. Miss Mogadam?

Present. Miss Giss? Present. I believe Mr. Drummond was excused here. Yes, ma'am.

And Miss Wiss, uh, resigned this morning. So you have 4. First item we have today is reviewing minutes of our previous meeting.

And everyone's reviewed those? The board would entertain Making a motion to accept those minutes. So moved. And second? Second.

Any discussion? Seeing here none, the motion is to approve the minutes of our previous meeting. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. And those opposed?

Seeing there are none, the motion carries. Next item on today's agenda is disclosure Commissioners, we are in unfinished business discussing the ethics complaint for potential violation 2026-01, which I believe the board should be informed of. Does anyone have any potential conflicts or disclosures to make with respect to today's business? Seeing and hearing none, next item we have on today's agenda is item 5, unfinished business, that is ethics complaint for potential violation 2026-01, confidential.

And I believe the board would have made a motion to go into a closed session here. So moved. And a second.

Second. Any discussion?

Seeing, hearing none. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. And those opposed?

Seeing, hearing none. Motion carries, and we'll go into a closed session here.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. You are in open session. Thank you. And definitely would ask that the record reflects that we did have a motion that carried— that we did have a motion that carried to extend our meeting today to 5:15 and subsequently to 5:30 this evening while we were in our executive and deliberative sessions respectively.

Next item we have on the agenda this evening is at 6:00 new business, which we have done.

And that's the next item we have on today's agenda is at 7, public participation. We do have someone out of the board in here. How are you this evening? I'm doing well. Do I speak from here?

Wherever works for you.

Yes, brother. Yes, if you can say spell your name for the record. Yes, good evening. My name is Haim.

Haim Wenger. That's H-A-I-M W-E-N-G-E-R.

Okay. And I live in the Taku-Campbell neighborhood. I work as a commercial pilot here in town and as a medevac first responder. And I'm here tonight to actually advocate a little bit for the Campbell STEM school. Because the Anchorage School District voted to close the school, and the process that they used to do this has— is— feels greatly unethical.

And it's been detailed in public comments about how the school board essentially has been ignoring public testimony, been ignoring new facts. Their methodology for this ignored their own internal processes. And it also— we've been hearing, getting strong suggestions of it might have violated not only their own internal process for their history, but also the Open Meetings Act. And with that, we have been going— uh, sorry, the Save Campbell STEM Parents and this organization has been coming to the school board meetings asking them to reveal their methodology. And we've even filed FOIA requests for this, of which We've heard nothing.

We've heard crickets. And I can explain about this methodology that we've used to try and get, uh, resolution through their own process. But it seems like they very much wanted to go ahead and say, "We made a decision, and now we must move on." Despite this lack of transparency, the lack of due process, and the, the, um, and possibly a number of other open charges, there's also numerous times where they've reversed their own rationale And, um, and because of that, we have appealed to the mayor before, we have appealed to the— and we've been trying to work this every which way. And I only heard about this board on Saturday. So forgive me if I'm late and I'm new to this of how to actually make it work.

I'm not a politician. And—. But I'm so grateful to hear this because I do believe in clear and transparent and open government. So I can give you I can give you specific reasons and rationales, but I also know it's very late, and I'd like to work within your system to actually, like, open this up. And there's plenty more that I can bring.

So what's best next for you? I don't know. You're quite alright. So typically whenever we hear, uh, complaints, for example, of potential ethics violations You know, we do receive those on a form that the Board of Ethics puts out that, you know, gives you an opportunity to sort of cite to where in the municipality's code of ethics the conduct appears to be inconsistent with the municipality's ethics. From there, that gives us an opportunity to, with counsel, look at those facts and see if it's something that rises to the level of an ethics violation.

And as we did tonight, you know, take some testimony here from witnesses and to really wrestle with the issue and see if it's something that falls within our purview. Um, great. I'd be very, very happy to fill out this form and to move forward with this because I can document this, but there's been, um, assembly members for the 8th Bridge Assembly that have said that just because they went through a legal process, this is due to lack of proper notification. Um, the charges that I would like to bring you lack of proper notification, reversal with, um, reversal of several rationales, um, not disclosing their methodology or their own metrics, um, because— and we've asked for this both publicly and in person, and they've openly said both on KSKA, on the radio, that we always did this previously according to a certain methodology that we hope to again in the future. But they're voting and trying to close my neighborhood school with, um, 6 business days notice, of which there was no— there was under 1 day business notice for, um, to offer any testimony, despite the fact that there was numerous, like, and there was 1981 Supreme Court case that said you— that 5 days business notice— no, 7 days business notice was not actually sufficient notice.

They also never notified the community. It was just parents via text message. And according to the city's own ordinances, you're supposed to give, um, 21 days written notice. Um, and they said this on public radio. We've They've— so, like, yes, I will be happy to provide all of this evidence.

You should also be aware that the SAFE— there is a group of parents that I am not involved with, but it's called SAFE Campbellston, that brought a lawsuit against the school district that currently is going underway just for the legal side. But Assemblyman, uh, person— all main names, I guess— Erin Baldwin, Dasey And two others as well said, "Just because something is legal doesn't mean that it's ethical." And it definitely now, when they're talking about open and transparent government, they've— every time that we've asked for questions, it's been met not only with no answers, but almost a sort of scorn and disdain and dismissiveness. And that isn't right. So— I'll be happy—. It's 5:30, you guys have gone a long time.

I will be very happy to provide this, and I only found out about it on Saturday, so thank you for your attention.

For your time. Um, tell me what my next steps are. Sure, Karissa and I can talk to you after the meeting. You can fill out the form on the website. Thank you.

The last thing that I would say is that they are trying to transfer the teachers out of the school, and they're trying to— no, they have a schedule to transfer the teachers out of the school and the principal out of the school and transfer the students. There is very much an active clock ticking for this, so We're doing what we can, but even if the school doesn't survive, this is not the way that I need Anchor School District to build trust with the community, with parents. And this is the reason why so many political decisions— this is politics, but it's the reason why, like, bonds fail. So I can certainly, um, Mr. Chairman, Valerie, you know, provide you with more and fill out this form. So, but I'd like to open this on up, and I can certainly bring in some more experts more evidence.

I just wanted to make sure that we got one of your pockets. I appreciate you speaking to us today. You know, definitely, like he said, the form is online, and, you know, we do have a pretty narrow scope here. Definitely encourage you to look at the code of ethics and see, you know, if there's anything in there that kind of falls— that this content that you're seeing falls into there, and move forward accordingly. Okay?

Yes. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you. Thank you.

All right, any other members of the public on the overhead? Seeing and hearing none, any comments from members of the board today? That would warrant a motion to adjourn. So moved. And second?

Second. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. And those opposed?

Motion carries. Board of Ethics adjourns at 7:00.

35 Today. 5:35.