Barbara Haney has the biggest conflict of interest in the Savannah Fletcher case

On her X account, formerly Twitter, assembly member Barbara Haney uses the name Steamboat Landing, where she has attacked former assembly member Savannah Fletcher. Haney has the biggest conflict of interest of anyone on the assembly in dealing with a case involving Fletcher.

Four Fairbanks assembly members declared a conflict of interest in an ethics case regarding former assembly member Savannah Fletcher.

The case deals with a minor and technical matter, though political opponents of Fletcher are treating it like a capital crime.

The borough ethics code needs to be rewritten to avoid another needless waste of time and energy like this one.

The main point of this blog post, however, is that a fifth assembly member, Barbara Haney, should have declared that she is unable to make an impartial decision in this matter.

Haney said, “I think I can be fair.”

But all the available evidence says otherwise.

This is not only because Haney attacked Fletcher professionally through a complaint to the Alaska Bar Association—a claim that was found to be without any merit—but also because Haney is in court right now claiming it was illegal for the assembly to fine her $1 last year for the same kind of minor case that now involves Fletcher.

And then, most important of all, there is the Twitter/X account Haney created under the name Steamboat Landing @SL147DW.

In that account, Haney has referred to Fletcher in a derogatory manner on numerous occasions without revealing her real identity. She has accused Fletcher and others of “pay to play” on the assembly after the ethics complaint against her a year ago.

Fairbanks resident Kristen Schupp filed an ethics complaint against Assembly member Barbara Haney that led to a $1 fine that Haney is challenging in court as illegal borough overreach.

“How radical is Havana (sic) Fletcher? She made David Gutenberg (sic) look like a Republican. Indeed in the end, David voted more with Haney and Rotermund than with Fletcher,” Steamboat Landing wrote on November 17, 2024.

This was in response to a story about Rep. May Peltola’s loss to Nick Begich the Third.

On the same day, Steamboat Landing/Haney wrote that Peltola “spent her time campaigning with reviled Savannsh (sic) Fletcher. Peltola, like Fletcher, engaged in negative campaigns. Fletcher became noted for being a corrupt tyrant for her practices as PO (presiding officer) at FNSB. Sic semper tyranus (sic)!”

Sic semper tyrannis is Latin for “thus always to tyrants,” meaning that tyrants will be overthrown.

“Peltola attached her campaign to the radical Fletcher and campaigned extensively with her. There is more—like the matter of a certain North Pole widow—but the above was enough,” Steamboat Landing wrote.

The “certain North Pole widow” is apparently Haney herself.

Unrelated to this, Haney also used her X account to promote the lie that protesters were imported to Fairbanks in March.

Assembly member Barbara Haney, using her anonymous X account, called former assembly member Savannah Fletcher a “corrupt tyrant” last fall.

When presented with the details at the Tuesday assembly meeting by Fletcher of Haney’s complaint to the bar association against Fletcher and Haney’s court complaint about her $1 fine, Assembly member Brett Rotermund should have ruled that Haney was ineligible to vote on the minor ethics case against Fletcher.

Rotermund was in that position only because Mindy O’Neall, Scott Crass, Liz Reeves-Ramos and David Guttenberg declared a conflict of interest.

“I’m gonna rule that you do not have a conflict.” said Rotermund, a political ally of Haney and Tammie Wilson.

Haney has a bigger conflict than anyone else on the assembly.

The Daily News-Miner has good coverage of the matter.

As to the specifics of this case, here is the report of the ethics board.

As was the case last year with Haney and the $1 fine, this is a trivial issue that should be corrected with simple revisions to the ethics code and a $3 fine.

Fletcher made three radio ads two years ago trying to get more people interested in testifying to the borough assembly. She didn’t identify herself and the listening audience did not know who she was, so it was not political advertising.

The charge, in essence, is that she should have identified herself and said she was stating her own opinion. The ads were paid for with private funds.

The best testimony at the meeting Tuesday came from former UAF professor Rich Seifert and former assembly member and legislator John Davies.

The accusations against Fletcher are “beyond absurd,” Seifert said.

“If we continue to harass good citizens who want to stand for election and serve on the borough assembly, you can’t go up here and have this damn pillory that you’re creating to yell at everybody and punish them for a minor infraction. This lady was arguing for people to participate in the public process and make testimonies to the borough assembly. She wasn’t doing anything for her own advantage, nothing unethical really. And yet here we have all of this accusation, wanting to punish her beyond all measure. What’s the point? We need people we can trust to be on the borough assembly to make reasonable decisions,” he said.

Davies said the assembly should issue the $3 token fine, $1 for each ad, that is required by the ethics code. The ethics board called for no penalty. But the assembly code requires a penalty, which is where the $1 comes from.

“I think this whole thing is in the category of no good deed goes unpunished. I think the intent of Ms. Fletcher was to advertise what the assembly was doing and invite people to participate,” he said.

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