Alaska Beacon

The top runner-up in Alaska’s top-four primary election for governor is calling for No. 4 finisher Charlie Pierce to either publicly deny an unconfirmed workplace harassment claim against him or withdraw from the race.

“Today I am appealing to Charlie to either step up and fight back against any false salacious attacks that have been made against him; or conversely salvage his remaining dignity, resolve to yield the field before the Sept. 5 deadline, and let his conservative supporters know that he is endorsing the Kurka/Hueper campaign going into the general elections,” said Christopher Kurka, a Republican state representative from Wasilla and a candidate for governor.

If Pierce and his running mate, Edie Grunwald, withdraw by the end of the day Monday, Kurka and his lieutenant-governor candidate would take their place.

By text message, Pierce said he and Grunwald are not dropping out of the race.

“And I have no comments related to Kurka,” he said.

In unofficial results from the Aug. 16 primary, incumbent Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy finished first, followed by Democratic candidate Les Gara, independent candidate (and former governor) Bill Walker, then Pierce.

Last week, Pierce said he would resign as mayor of the Kenai Peninsula Borough in order to focus on the general-election campaign for governor. Three days before Pierce’s announcement, members of the local Borough Assembly were briefed on the result of a secret legal investigation that occurred earlier in the summer.

The political website the Alaska Landmine has claimed that investigation involved a workplace harassment situation between Pierce and a borough employee.

Pierce, members of the Borough Assembly and borough employees have not denied the claim, saying only that they are unable to discuss it because of confidentiality rules.

Grunwald said she doesn’t know the details of what happened in the Kenai and said she will fulfill her obligation as his running mate.

“I talked to him last night, and he said he’s in the race and he’s going to campaign. We’re going to do our best,” Grunwald said.

“I mean, this may sound cliche, but I’ve made a commitment, and I need to fulfill my obligation to the voters and the donors and Alaskans,” she said.

“If anything,” she continued, “if things go forward, it gives Alaskans another option. If not, well, then it’ll fall out how it falls out. Sometimes these election things, you don’t really know what’s behind the scenes.”

On the same day that Kurka urged Pierce to act, Eagle River Republican Sen. Lora Reinbold withdrew her endorsement of Pierce’s campaign, saying that “a number of issues have surfaced regarding candidate Pierce.”

Reinbold was Pierce’s lone major endorsement of the ongoing governor campaign, as most Republicans have backed Dunleavy. She declined to say whether she believes the claim against him but said she continues to support Grunwald.

Kurka, who has called Dunleavy insufficiently conservative, suggested that Pierce may seek to stay in the race and run an unserious campaign in order to help Dunleavy.

“If Charlie doesn’t intend to run a serious campaign, he still has time to honor the wishes of his supporters who want a conservative alternative to Dunleavy. That is of course assuming Pierce has not duped his supporters, and has been secretly working with Dunleavy all along,” Kurka said.

Janet Minock got a knock on her apartment door the morning of Aug. 23. It was two Anchorage Police Department officers telling her that her 35-year-old daughter, Nastashia Minock, was dead.

According to Janet Minock, the police officers told her this: Nastashia was found unresponsive at Hiland Mountain Correctional Center around 1:30 a.m. Aug. 23. They started CPR and called the paramedics, who worked on her until about 2:30 a.m. They couldn’t revive her and pronounced her dead.

“I asked them, ‘Why did this happen? How did it happen?’ And they said, ‘We have no information,’” Minock said.

They gave her a business card with the name of an Alaska state trooper on it and said to call him if she had any questions. She called and so did her daughter, June Alick.

“And we’ve been trying and we can’t get him and they’re not calling us back. We’re just going in circles here, it seems like, getting no answers,” Minock said. “So, I don’t know what’s happened. Why was she found? I mean they should have been watching her. I’m starting to get mad because they won’t tell me anything about what’s happened to her.”

Nastashia Minock is one of two people who’ve died after only one day in Department of Corrections custody last month. She was brought in on Aug. 22 at 6:43 a.m. and was pronounced dead on Aug. 23 at 2:35 a.m. at Hiland Mountain Correctional Center.

Austin Wilson, 34, went into Corrections custody on Aug. 4 at 5:05 p.m. and was pronounced dead on Aug. 5 at 1:20 p.m. at Anchorage Correctional Complex.

Minock and Wilson were each in the care of the Alaska Department of Corrections for less than 24 hours.

Janet Minock and others want to know whether the state is doing what is necessary to prevent deaths like these. And they want to know if the public is getting a full picture of what is going on inside Corrections facilities.

“Deaths happening so quickly is not normal,” said Megan Edge, communications director for the ACLU of Alaska and director of the ACLU of Alaska’s Prison Project. “These are young people. I have a lot of questions. It’s absolutely not normal.”

Some of her questions include: Did these people have mental health concerns or issues? Did they have drug addiction or alcohol addiction? Did they have pre-existing medical conditions? What were their conditions in custody? Were they in isolated cells? Were they on suicide watch? Were they detoxing?

“There are a lot of unknown variables here, and I want to know more and I think DOC is responsible for sharing more,” she said.

Another person, David Bristow, 62, died last month at Anchorage Correctional Complex within 18 days of being taken into custody. According to a Corrections press release, Bristow was taken into custody on July 21 and pronounced dead on Aug. 8.

Of the 10 people to die in Department of Corrections custody in 2022 so far, four have taken place in August.

Corrections reporting of deaths is inconsistent

In the past few years, several people have died in Corrections custody within a day, days or a few weeks of being taken into custody, according to information provided in department press releases.

The majority of them took place in 2020. That year, Corrections saw 14 deaths total, though Corrections only reported nine of them. “During COVID, there was concern that the Department would violate HIPAA, so while we tracked all deaths, not all were sent as press releases,” wrote Department of Corrections Public Information Officer Betsy Holley. COVID-19 was a contributing factor to five deaths in 2020, one death in 2021 and one death in 2022, wrote Holley.

In practice, Corrections said it issues a release for every death when legally possible. There are gaps though.

For instance, the first two deaths to take place in Corrections custody this year — those of Lawrence Lobdell and Luke Dennis — were not reported at all, either by Corrections or the Alaska State Troopers, which is the agency that investigates all deaths that occur in Corrections custody. Holley said that was an oversight.

The third, fourth and fifth deaths in 2022 – those of Kitty Douglas, 20; Leefisher Tukrook, 28; and Jarvis Sours, 46 – were reported by the Troopers, though the dates of when they entered custody is not listed. The rest of the 10 deaths to take place this year – those of James Wheeler, Wilson, Bristow, Minock and Robert Vann – were reported by Corrections.

Corrections did issue releases for a number of deaths that took place within days or weeks of the person being put into custody.

In December 2020, 27-year-old Natalia Andreaknoff went into Corrections custody on Dec. 4 and was pronounced dead the same day at Hiland Mountain Correctional Center.

William Olsen, Jr., 48, was taken into custody on Nov. 19, 2020, and had a medical emergency at Anchorage Correctional Complex the following day on Nov. 20. He was transported to Alaska Regional Hospital where he was pronounced dead on Nov. 25.

Edwin Clawson, 38, was found unresponsive in his cell on March 18, 2020, two days after going into custody. He was pronounced dead on March 22 at Mat-Su Regional Hospital. The Corrections release said the death was being investigated as a suicide.

Zenon Habros, 61, was pronounced dead at Anvil Mountain Correctional Center in Nome about two weeks after going into Corrections custody.

Aaron Lamont, 27, died on July 13, 2020, after less than three months in Corrections custody.

There are other people in recent years whose deaths took place soon after going into custody. In 2019, Noah Price, 23, went into Corrections custody on May 5 and died on June 26 at Wildwood Correctional Center. In 2021, Gregory Rendon-Duarte, 39, was remanded on March 25 and died on May 13 at the Mat-Su Pretrial Facility.

Family and friends called her Nus

The last time Janet Minock and June Alick, Nastashia’s mom and sister, saw her was on Aug. 20, three days before the knock on Minock’s door. Nastashia had visited her mom at her apartment. Other family members were there. Nastashia was in good spirits and she stayed for a while. Before she left, she hugged everyone and said she loved them.

“She was happy and laughing. And now she’s gone,” Minock said, crying. “And we’re trying to figure out how and why. And we’re trying to figure out who’s investigating and who’s taking care of this. We need to know what really happened.”

Nastashia Minock was born in Bethel on February 14, 1987, and raised in Pilot Station. She moved to Anchorage in 2004. Family and close friends called her Nus. Her favorite color was pink and she loved going on walks, Alick said.

“She just enjoyed being around family and kids, and she loved watching cartoons,” Alick said.

“She’s always laughing and joking, telling stories. If she saw you being down, she tried to cheer you up,” Minock added.

Nastashia was an alcoholic, they said. Her struggle with alcohol got worse when she lost custody of her kids around 2010, Minock said. Nastashia had four children. More recently, Nastashia used to live with her mom, then on and off with a boyfriend; otherwise, she was unhoused.

Due to her issues with alcohol, Minock and Alick wonder if her death at Hiland was connected to alcohol withdrawal. They don’t think she was properly monitored while in custody.

“The way they’re saying it is she was found; it doesn’t sound like she was being watched,” Minock said.

Alick said she spent one week in Corrections custody in 2007. “They really didn’t care for the ones that needed help that were going through withdrawal. They just left them alone,” she said.

“They say they take care of them, but they don’t,” said Minock.

State says recent deaths are being treated the same as others

Corrections has an intake screening process to identify medical issues including substance use and withdrawals, Corrections Public Information Officer Holley wrote in an email.

“If we observe signs of use or the prisoner reports current use, additional protocols are in place to identify someone who may be at risk for going through withdrawals and to provide assistance during the withdrawal process,” she wrote.

Staff members use clinical measurements to track withdrawal symptoms. “If a patient’s score reaches a certain level, notification to a medical provider is made for further evaluations. Prisoners who report use or who are observed to be under the influence at remand are referred to substance abuse counselors for additional screening or assessment. DOC has several in house treatment programs that address individuals with varying degrees of substance abuse,” Holley wrote.

How often people in prison are monitored or checked depends on their medical status, according to Holley.

Nastashia Minock was pronounced dead at 2:35 a.m. on Aug. 23. The last security check that was done on her before she was found dead was at 1:40 a.m. Holley wrote. According to the family, that’s around when police said she was found unresponsive. It is not known when she was last checked on prior to being found unresponsive.

Wilson was pronounced dead at 1:20 p.m. on Aug. 5. The last security check on him before he was found dead was at 12:16 a.m. Aug. 5, according to Holley.

When asked if the sudden deaths of Minock or Wilson raised any red flags, Holley wrote, “Every death in DOC is of equal concern, and we treat all in-custody deaths with the same thoroughness and sensitivity.”

“It is important to note that our staff is most often administering life-saving measures prior to a death,” she wrote.

The Troopers investigate every in-custody death and the State Medical Examiner’s Office determines the cause of death. Due to confidentiality, Corrections does not release medical information. Holley said Minock’s family would need to contact the State Medical Examiner’s Office to find out what caused her death. Janet Minock and June Alick said they had not been informed of this.

According to Chief Medical Examiner Gary Zientek, the autopsy is typically performed the day after the death, but may take four to six weeks or longer to finalize due to how long toxicology results can take. As part of the medical examiner’s review, “We typically review circumstances, scene description and photos, medical history, any other pertinent history.” If a family wants a copy of the autopsy report, the family must request one.

In addition to the Troopers, Corrections conducts its own confidential investigation “to determine the cause and circumstances surrounding the death as well as any related deficiencies in policies, procedures or practices,” according to its death of prisoner policy and procedure, which has been in place since July 2014 and, Holley wrote, is currently under review.

After the internal investigation is complete, the department is supposed to issue a press release which provides the State Medical Examiner’s final determination of cause of death as either natural, accident, homicide or suicide. It is unclear if this practice currently takes place; the department’s press release archive does not include any.

Administration disbanded unit aimed at reducing deaths

Megan Edge, communications director for the ACLU of Alaska and director of the ACLU of Alaska’s Prison Project which focuses on decarceration and addressing problems within the prison system, has also worked for the Department of Corrections as the public information officer from 2017 to early 2019 when she resigned.

In her experience, when people died so soon after entering custody, Edge said it’s been “people who are detoxing, people who should have been on some sort of super suicide watch, or were on suicide watch and something failed.”

Edge said people are indeed screened, but the process is “basic” and “not super detailed.” If Corrections is waiting for someone to become sober, that person is oftentimes put into a “dry cell,” which Edge likens to solitary confinement. “That’s mostly how they detox people unless they’ve changed something,” Edge said. Holley wrote that people are not put into a “dry cell.”

When Edge worked for Corrections, then-Commissioner Dean Williams had put in place an internal professional conduct unit. Williams was one of the authors of a 2015 report on the Department of Corrections that found numerous problems contributing to deaths within the state’s prisons and jails.

“One of the reasons the professional conduct unit was put into place was because things were not being adequately investigated, sometimes trooper responses can be incredibly slow, or they’ll just take a report that the staff put together and say, ‘This is what happened,’” Edge said, adding that it can be hard to get people to talk to troopers.

When the new administration started, Edge said the professional conduct unit was discontinued.

In search of answers

Besides grieving the loss of their daughter and sister, Janet Minock and June Alick are trying to find out information. They’ve made several calls to the Alaska State Troopers and to the Department of Corrections since learning of Nastashia’s death. As of Tuesday, a week after the death, they said they still haven’t gotten any calls back.

“They really need to look into this,” Alick said. “How they take care of inmates, especially when they’re on drugs or alcohol. They really need to watch them because these are people regardless of what race they are – doesn’t matter.”

“They shouldn’t be treated any less than they are already because they have issues too in their lives. And they shouldn’t be treated like animals, just thrown in a cage and just be left alone and learn to fend for themselves with their situation, especially with the withdrawals. They’re ignored and I think that’s a very sick thing to do.”

The Alaska Division of Elections will announce the unofficial winner of the special election to replace Congressman Don Young in a 4 p.m. livestream broadcast on the division’s Facebook page.

Though certified results won’t be available until later this week and a few votes may remain uncounted on Wednesday, the result is expected to bring decisive results in Alaska’s first ranked choice election.

Alaskans will be watching to see who represents the state in the U.S. House of Representatives for the next four months, but national observers will be watching as well.

“The Division of Elections has officially run the geographically largest, physically largest, ranked choice voting ever in American history,” said Chris Hughes, policy director of the national Ranked Choice Voting Resource Center, a national nonprofit devoted to informing the public about ranked choice voting.

How we got here

In November 2020, following a multimillion-dollar electoral campaign, Alaskans voted by a narrow margin to approve Ballot Measure 2, which created a new election system.

All candidates for an office run in the same primary election, and the top four candidates, regardless of political party, advance to the November general election, where a winner is chosen by ranked choice voting.

After the votes on Ballot Measure 2 were certified — and the results confirmed with a hand count of more than 361,000 ballots — officials began what they thought would be a two-year process of education and implementation.

When Congressman Don Young died in March, forcing a special election, that timeline was cut by three months.

Alaskans chose four candidates in a June special primary election — it was the first statewide election to be conducted principally by mail due to the compressed timeframe — but the No. 3 finisher, nonpartisan candidate Al Gross, withdrew from the race for reasons that remain unclear.

The Division of Elections declined to replace him with the No. 5 finisher, Republican Tara Sweeney, a decision upheld by the Alaska Supreme Court after a lawsuit. The division said it was too late to replace Gross under the law.

That left Republicans Sarah Palin and Nick Begich III, plus Democratic candidate Mary Peltola.

On Aug. 16, the three appeared in two races, one on the front side of the ballot and the other on the back: A pick-one primary for a two-year U.S. House term that begins in January and the state’s first ranked choice election, which will decide who finishes Young’s term.

The winner is expected to take the oath of office at the U.S. Capitol soon after Congress reconvenes in September.

How votes were counted

When it happens on Wednesday afternoon, the ranking behind ranked choice voting won’t be exciting. A Division of Elections official will check a box or click a mouse on a computer screen, and within a few minutes, the results will pop up.

That’s only possible, however, because of a massive effort to collect and scan about 192,000 ballots cast in this election. (That’s about one in three registered voters, and the precise number won’t be known until the results are certified.)

On Aug. 16, tens of thousands of Alaskans cast votes at 401 polling stations spread across the state.

In 270 of those stations, voters stuck their ballots into a scanner atop a ballot box. The scanner recorded the results and transmitted them digitally to elections headquarters in Juneau.

The ballots themselves were collected, as were the scanners’ memory cards, and flown to Juneau for double-checking. In many cases, those sealed packages of ballots arrived one day later, said Tiffany Montemayor, the division’s public relations manager.

At 131 other voting stations — mostly in rural Alaska — voters dropped their ballots into a box without a scanner. At the end of the night, voting officials hand-counted the ballots and called the results into one of five regional offices.

Afterward, the ballots were packaged into sealed boxes and mailed to Juneau for scanning.

Right now, the process isn’t a fast one — on Tuesday afternoon, temporary workers and a member of the division’s full-time staff were feeding the ballots, one by one, through a scanner. (An automatic, batch-fed scanner should be ready by November.)

The by-mail process has also caused some problems because of the slow pace of mail delivery. As of Tuesday, the ballots of 10 precincts hadn’t arrived in Juneau, Montemayor said. If they arrive before 4 p.m. Wednesday, they’ll be scanned and included in the result that day.

As long as they arrive before certification, they’ll be included in the total, Montemayor said. She said the division will be sending November’s ballots by express mail.

Absentee ballots were sent to each of the regional offices based on the voter’s home address, and election officials have been verifying ballot envelopes against the state’s voter rolls, then scanning the ballots within if the vote was valid.

Questioned ballots — those flagged for special attention for one of a variety of reasons — have gone through a similar review process.

In the end, all valid ballots — whether they were cast in person on election day, in early voting or by mail — end up going through a scanner.

How the sorting works

When the appropriate button is pressed on Wednesday, the software program in charge of doing the ranking behind ranked choice voting starts a step-by-step process.

First, ballots that have no votes are dropped from the total.

As of Tuesday, about 3,900 voters submitted blank ballots, effectively voting for “no one.”

The other ballots are sorted by who was ranked as the voters’ first choice: Palin, Peltola, Begich and “write in,” a category that covers all write-in votes collectively, regardless of candidate.

Because first-choice votes have been published already, we know that Peltola is leading, followed by Palin, Begich and all write-in candidates combined.

If one of the three candidates had more than 50% of the vote, they’d win automatically, with no ranking needed. That isn’t the case here. Ranking is needed.

The write-in category, as of Tuesday, had 2,954 first-choice votes, the least of the four options. That will be eliminated first. We won’t know how many votes each write-in candidate had.

That breakdown only happens if the write-in category is in first place or within 0.5% of first place.

When the write-in category is eliminated, anyone who picked a write-in vote first has their ballot go to their second choice, if there is one. If there isn’t a second choice, the ballot is dropped from the total, going to “no one.”

The software then looks at the totals for each candidate. If a candidate has more than 50% of the remaining votes — the number cast, minus the number of votes for “no one” — they will win.

For this election, there are so few write-in votes that it’s impossible for one of the three candidates to get above 50% at this point, so the software goes to the next round.

In the second round, Begich is the lowest finisher and is eliminated. Voters who picked him as their first choice have their votes instead go to their second choice. If a write-in was their second choice, their ballot goes to their third choice. And voters whose first choice was a write-in and whose second choice was Begich will also have their ballot go to their third choice.

If there’s no second or third choice, the ballot goes to “no one.”

Pre-election polling indicates that fellow Republican candidate Sarah Palin is likely the second choice of most Begich voters, which may make her the winner.

It isn’t clear whether that will happen. Peltola has more first-choice votes than Palin, and if enough Begich voters pick Peltola or no one, Peltola will win.

The final result will be posted on the Division of Elections website soon after 4 p.m., and it will show the result of each round of sorting. The division has created a sample report to show what that will look like.

The division could have done this sorting after election day and created a preliminary, incomplete tally, but officials decided to wait until Wednesday, the deadline for absentee ballots to arrive from overseas.

National experts in ranked choice voting advise doing a preliminary tally, but division officials said they wanted to avoid public confusion.

What comes afterward?

After Wednesday’s preliminary result, a review board in Juneau will spot-check the scanners’ work by hand, using randomly selected batches of ballots from across the state.

The division has said it intends to certify the result by Friday, and Sept. 7 is the deadline for a candidate to request a recount.

If the result is within 0.5% of all ballots cast, the state will pay for a recount. If the margin is larger than that, the requestor pays.

The deadline to challenge the election result in court is Sept. 12.

In 2020, the state conducted a special hand count of results in order to reassure the public about the accuracy of its voting systems. No special hand count has been discussed or is planned this year, elections officials said.

All paper ballots and ballot stubs will be stored for 22 months after the election results are certified.

Alaska’s next ranked choice election will take place Nov. 8 for the statewide general elections for governor, U.S. Senate, a full term of the U.S. House, and for state House and Senate.

The results of those ranked choice elections are expected Nov. 23.

A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that the results livestream would be on the Division of Elections website. It will be on the division’s Facebook page. The story has been corrected.

The University of Alaska faculty union filed an unfair labor practice complaint against the University of Alaska administration on Monday. The two parties have been negotiating a new faculty contract for the past year.

The complaint, filed with the Alaska Labor Relations Agency, alleges the university administration unlawfully declared an impasse, illegally implemented its “best and final offer” and engaged in direct bargaining with the faculty through email updates, bypassing the negotiation team.

“We really didn’t want to go this path because it delays everything by several months. It is expensive for both parties and adds stress to our faculty when they realized that a new contract will not be in place for an extended period of time,” said Abel Bult-Ito, professor of neurobiology and neurophysiology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and president of the faculty union.

“It’s not good for anyone, but the university administration has been so unreasonable that we just have to follow this path,” he said.

The union has previously said filing an unfair labor practice complaint was an option, but delayed doing so to prevent escalating the situation, Bult-Ito said. At this point, though, the administration continues to drag out the mediation process.

“And so we want to increase the pressure on the university. They violated the law and that needs to be addressed,” he said.

Associate vice president of public affairs Robbie Graham, speaking on behalf of the administration, said the university administration is aware of the filing and is reviewing it.

“However, the university firmly believes that it has been bargaining in good faith from the earliest days of negotiations, and will continue to do so. Our public statements have been factual, providing appropriate transparency about the negotiations to the university community,” she said.

Graham said the university will respond to the United Academics filing.

Salary concession

The two parties last met Aug. 22 in mediation. At that time, the administration did not accept the faculty union’s latest proposed contract and, instead, responded with another offer, which is confidential.

In the union’s latest contract proposal, the union made a concession by accepting the administration’s most recent compensation offer – increases of 3%, 2.75% and 2.5% over three years, which is slightly up from the original “best and final offer.”

The union originally asked for salary increases of 5%, between 3% and 7%, and between 3% and 6% over three years, with the latter two years’ increases determined by the consumer price index.

The roughly 1,000 faculty union members have received one 1% increase over the past six years.

The two parties also disagreed on non-monetary issues regarding disciplinary procedures, academic freedom issues and inclusion of all bargaining unit members in all elements of the contract.

Alaska Labor Relations Agency process

Following an unfair labor practice complaint being filed, an Alaska Labor Relations Agency hearing officer will conduct an investigation and issue findings.

If the hearing officer finds that there is no probable cause to believe that an unfair labor practice occurred, then the officer will issue findings saying that and the case would be dismissed. A party has the option to appeal that decision to the board.

If the hearing officer finds there is probable cause to believe that an unfair labor practice occurred, then it would get referred to the board and the board would conduct a full hearing. After that, the board issues a decision that would determine whether an unfair labor practice had occurred and what the remedy is.

While this process plays out, the two parties can still reach an agreement. The two parties have another mediation session scheduled on Aug. 31. United Academics intends to participate despite filing the complaint.

“Absolutely,” said Bult-Ito. “We have and always will be bargaining in good faith, and we still want to get a joint agreement with the University. But this is one of the things that we can do to address the illegal conduct by the university administration.”

The university administration plans to be there as well, Graham said. “The university is committed to the mediation process with the expectation of finding common ground with the faculty union on the remaining issues.”

The Kenai Peninsula Borough hired an Anchorage legal firm to conduct a “confidential, internal investigation” in July, the borough’s attorney said Sunday, but he declined to say whether the investigation involved outgoing Mayor Charlie Pierce, now a candidate for Alaska governor.

A contract provided by borough attorney Sean Kelley following a public records request says the firm was “engaged to provide legal services in connection with an HR investigation” and to defend the borough against any claims related to the investigation.

Pierce announced on Friday that he will resign as mayor on Sept. 30 and said in a written statement that he was quitting to focus on his run for governor.

His statement took place three days after a committee of the Kenai Borough Assembly held a pair of closed-door meetings to discuss “a specific legal matter that may have an immediate adverse effect upon the finances of the borough.”

All nine members of the Borough Assembly have declined to say whether the issue involves Pierce. Borough Assembly members either failed to return phone messages, declined comment or said they were unable to discuss the matter because it took place in executive session.

Pierce has not answered questions asking whether the issue involves him.

On Sunday afternoon, his lead spokesperson, Peter Zuyus, said he would be leaving the Pierce campaign. It was not immediately clear whether Zuyus’ resignation came in response to the investigation; a call seeking clarification was not immediately answered Monday morning.

Kenai Peninsula Borough attorney Sean Kelley said that in July, the borough hired Ashburn and Mason, an Anchorage firm.

“That investigation was completed in July. Any internal documents or memorandum prepared for the purpose of or regarding the investigation are covered by attorney-client privilege, or attorney work product doctrine, or constitutional individual privacy protections, and cannot be released absent court order,” he said by email.

In 2019, the Kenai Peninsula Borough agreed to pay $150,000 to its former HR director to settle a lawsuit claiming that Pierce fired her after she revealed she had a terminal case of cancer.

The political website Alaska Landmine published an article Friday speculating that Pierce had resigned as part of a new workplace harassment settlement.

Kelley said that is untrue.

“Mayor Pierce voluntarily resigned. There is no settlement agreement that required or called for Mayor Pierce to resign. There is no applicable settlement agreement. There has been no monetary settlement. There are no signed agreements,” he said.

Asked whether the borough is facing a lawsuit, Kelley said, “I cannot comment on threatened or pending litigation, including the existence or non-existence of threatened litigation, except to say that the KPB has not been served with a publicly filed quasi-judicial administrative or judicial complaint related to any of the allegations raised in Alaska Landmine story (or any other similar news stories on this).”

The top four candidates in Alaska’s primaries for governor, U.S. Senate and U.S. House were settled on Friday, as the state released the unofficial final primary results.

There were 191,823 ballots cast in Alaska’s first open primary under the election system voters approved in 2020. The number of ballots was the third-highest primary total in state history.

The top four finishers advance to the ranked choice general election under the new election system.

For governor, Republican incumbent Mike Dunleavy and his lieutenant governor running mate Nancy Dahlstrom led their race with 40.42% of the votes, followed by Democrats Les Gara and Jessica Cook at 23.07%; independents Bill Walker and Heidi Drygas at 22.77%; and Republicans Charlie Pierce and Edie Grunwald at 6.59%. Only 568 votes separate the Gara-Cook and Walker-Drygas tickets.

In the U.S. Senate, Republican incumbent Lisa Murkowski led with 45%, followed by Republican Kelly Tshibaka at 38.58%, Democrat Pat Chesbro at 6.83% and Republican Buzz Kelley at 2.13%.

The first-preference vote count is nearly complete for the special election to fill the remaining four months of the term of Alaska’s lone member of the U.S. House of Representatives. However, overseas ballots in that race will continue to be counted through Wednesday, when the state Division of Elections will tabulate voters’ ranked choice votes to determine the winner. The vacancy was caused by the death of Congressman Don Young.

Democrat Mary Peltola has received the most first-preference votes, at 39.64%, followed by Republicans Sarah Palin, with 30.94%, and Nick Begich, with 27.84%. Since Peltola won’t receive a majority of these votes, elections officials will count the next-highest-ranked choices of those whose first preference was one of the write-in candidates or the third-place finisher, which is shaping up to be Begich.

In the primary for the full U.S. House term starting in January, Peltola had 36.81%; Palin, 30.21% and Begich, 26.18%. Republican Tara Sweeney finished fourth at 3.75%; since she is withdrawing, her place on the ballot would be replaced by Libertarian Chris Bye, who received 0.62%.

The only candidate for the Alaska Legislature who missed out on the general election ballot as a result of the primary was Kieran Brown, the Constitution Party candidate for a Fairbanks-area House seat. All other races had four or fewer candidates, so they all advanced to the general election.

The closest state Senate primary results were in a South Anchorage district, where Republican former Sen. Cathy Giessel received 35.64% to Democrat Roselynn Cacy’s 33.67% and Republican incumbent Sen. Roger Holland’s 30.69%, and in a Fairbanks district, where Democratic incumbent Sen. Scott Kawasaki received 48.8%; Republican Jim Matherly, 44.44%; and Republican Alex Jafre, 6.76%.

In one Anchorage state House race, Democratic incumbent Rep. Andy Josephson and Republican Kathy Henslee tied at 1,781 votes, while Alaskan Independence Party candidate Timothy Huit received 244.

Candidates have until Sept. 5 to withdraw and not have their names appear on general election ballots. If a candidate withdraws in congressional and legislative races with more than four primary candidates, the candidate with the next most votes in the primary would be added to the ballot. If a candidate for governor withdraws, their lieutenant governor candidate would become the candidate for governor and choose a new running mate.