New York, NY – A state investigator is arguing that Unalaska Mayor Shirley Marquardt violated state law by sending a controversial e-mail during October's mayoral race, and should be fined for it.

"A preponderance of the evidence supports [the] allegation that the mayor's use of her city office--her city e-mail address, signature and computer--represent the use of public municipal funds and authority to take sides and wield influence in a candidate election," Alaska Public Offices Commission Investigator Jeff Berliner wrote in a memorandum dated Wednesday and released to KIAL Friday.

The memorandum reports Berliner's findings after a nearly three-month APOC investigation into a complaint filed in November by Unalaska resident Jeff Hancock, who alleged that Marquardt had run afoul of several state statutes in using her city e-mail account to send a message about her opponents in the 2007 mayoral race. Berliner is recommending that the Alaska Public Offices Commission fine Marquardt $500 for:

- Using public resources for campaign activities,

- Disseminating a non-neutral "get out the vote" message in her capacity as a city official, and

- Failing to identify a campaign message as such.

Berliner is also recommending another $500 fine for accepting corporate contributions, something he argued that Marquardt had done by running part of her campaign from her office at Samson Tug & Barge Co. without compensating the company.

"Inherent in Mayor Marquardt's assertion that she conducted campaign activities at Samson Tug and Barge, rather than City Hall, is the inadvertent acknowledgment that she has received a corporate contribution through her use of company equipment and facilities," Berliner wrote.

Berliner's findings are recommendations to the commission, not a final action. APOC's five commissioners will meet on February 7 in Juneau to determine what, if any, action to take against Marquardt.

Marquardt is Anchorage, and couldn't be reached for comment by e-mail, cell phone or phone calls to City Hall. Berliner said Friday he believed Marquardt was planning to attend the commission meeting.

In an August 29 e-mail to At-Sea Processors Association President Stephanie Madsen and Pacific Seafood Processors Association President Glenn Reed, Marquardt had expressed concern over efforts by the Unalaska Union Coalition--an ad-hoc group of local longshoremen's and city employees' unions, which were supporting rival mayoral candidate Shannon Morrison--to oppose her bid for reelection. "They are going all the way with organizing in Unalaska and this election is the start," she wrote, and continued that "It is going to be so important to get the vote out... ."

Reed's organization represents shoreside processing plants in Unalaska, from which a large number of employees had registered to vote, prompting suspicions that Marquardt was trying to mobilize a bloc of voters to cast ballots on her behalf. Former UniSea production manager and City Council member Rocky Caldero conceded to Berliner that this was not an unusual practice.

"There's a phrase here in Dutch Harbor--'turning the plants on'--which refers to getting processing plant workers out to vote to support the industry," he said.

According to the memorandum, Marquardt told Berliner that the e-mail "was a pretty crabby personal message to friends." Both Madsen and Reed previously lived in Unalaska and were involved in the city government; Madsen served on the Unalaska City Council for nine years, and Reed worked as assistant city manager for three years. "I was not campaigning, just complaining... to a couple of old friends who no longer live in Unalaska or vote here, but could certainly empathize with my frustrations regarding current Union negotiations in Unalaska," Marquardt told Berliner.

Both Madsen and Reed, however, told Berliner they thought the e-mail was an unwise idea. Madsen described it as a "mistake," albeit an innocent one.

Reed told Berliner that the e-mail's "take-home message was to get people at the [processing] plants registered to vote. It seems to me it would have been better if she had not sent it from her city address." He said those concerns led him to hold off on forwarding the message to seafood industry colleagues in Unalaska until after the deadline for voter registration had passed.

Hancock declined to comment at length about Berliner's memorandum, saying he didn't want to appear to be trying to influence the commission's final decision. But he described the report as "thorough and well done."

"It looks like the process is working, and I'm interested in seeing how the commission responds to the investigator's findings," he said.

[News Director Charles Homans is out of the office this week, but can be reached at charles@kial.org.]