Unalaska, AK – The Alaska Public Offices Commission ruled today that Unalaska Mayor Shirley Marquardt broke the law when she sent an e-mail about local union organizing activities in August.

"I think this [e-mail] definitely was sent to influence the election," said Commissioner Elizabeth Hickerson.

The commissioners also ruled that Marquardt was in violation of state public office statutes when she conducted campaign activities from her office at Samson Tug & Barge Co. But they found that another e-mail Marquardt sent that month about a former City Council colleague was legal, though perhaps unwise.

The decisions emerged from a five-hour hearing in Anchorage, in which APOC's five commissioners heard two complaints against Marquardt. The first, from Unalaska resident Jeff Hancock, concerned an e-mail about rival candidates in the upcoming city elections that Marquardt sent to two executives for seafood industry groups. The message was sent from her official e-mail address and typed on a city-owned computer, which Hancock argued amounted to using public resources to further a partisan campaign.

APOC Investigator Jeff Berliner agreed after his own inquiry into the incident. He told the commission today that while the mayor's transgression may have been relatively minor, allowing it would set a dangerous precedent.

"Sanctioning this activity opens the door to future violations," Berliner said at the hearing. "If this is allowed, public officials will feel free to use publicly funded communications with impunity to express political views on candidates. This is a very slippery slope."

Except for one member who abstained from voting, the commission unanimously agreed today.

Marquardt's attorney, Thomas Amodio, argued against that charge on the grounds that the state statutes clearly prohibited the use of money alone, not other resources like computers and e-mail accounts. He said after the hearing today that in making their decision, the commissioners blurred that line.

"They believed they were upholding the law," Amodio said. "I believe they were rewriting it."

Marquardt couldn't be reached by cell phone this afternoon, and Amodio said she was en route back to Unalaska. In her own testimony, the mayor said the e-mail was an expression of her frustration with the political atmosphere in the community leading up to the election. She described her message as an "unprofessional, whining, complaining rant," and said she was embarrassed when it became public. But she argued that the allegations against her resulted from an overzealous interpretation of a legal gray area, and likened her position to that of a ship captain getting fined for running aground in a channel where authorities had moved the marker buoys without notifying anyone.

"I guess I don't know how to operate under those circumstances, and I think anybody would find it difficult," Marquardt told the commission. "But I believe I did the best I could."

Commissioner Roger E. Holl disagreed, saying, "I think there are some important principles [here], and they are pretty clear in the law."

In the report he submitted to APOC in January, Berliner argued that Marquardt's use of Samson office equipment for other aspects of her campaign constituted another violation, in that it was technically an illegal corporate donation, even though she had bought her own office supplies for the work. The commissioners agreed, voting 3-1 with one member abstaining again.

But the commission rejected a second complaint, by former Unalaska City Council member Joanna Aldridge. That one concerned another e-mail from Marquardt to city consultant Mike Hubbard and City Manager Chris Hladick, in which Marquardt wrote that she wished Aldridge, who had recently filed for reelection, would stay in Seattle, where she was at the time. Aldridge argued that this was another example of Marquardt using city resources to further her political agenda. A majority of the commission voted that it was not.

Although the commissioners decided against Marquardt in the Hancock case, they also decided against penalizing her much for the violations: She was given a total fine of $150.

Hancock was on vacation in Tennessee today and attended the Anchorage hearing by telephone. He said afterwards that although the penalty was small, he felt the commission had made the right decision.

"It's a matter of principle, and I believe that principle was upheld this afternoon," he said. "I'm satisfied with the outcome of this."