PETERSBURG, AK Petersburg city councilor Sara Stoner says she’s resigning.
Stoner recorded a commentary over the phone with KFSK Tuesday morning, and in it she said she would no longer be on the council. Stoner is one of two councilors subject to a recall effort by local residents this summer. Recall supporters say she and other council members met in private, in violation of a state law on open meetings. In her commentary, stoner says she has not broken the law. She points out that she was at a winter legislative meeting of the Alaska Municipal League in Juneau during the time that one of the alleged private meetings took place.
Allegations of private meetings, and counter-charges of spying to prove the allegations have spawned a lawsuit between one city councilor and the city’s harbor master. The accusations were also a factor in the council’s decision to part ways with the city manager.
Stoner was the top vote getter in a four-person race for two seats on council last October. At the age of 24, the commercial fisher was the youngest person elected to the city council in recent memory and she campaigned on a platform of fiscal responsibility in local government. She garnered statewide attention last year after starting a petition drive to seek governmental aid for the high cost of commercial fishing fuel. She is most of the way through her first year of a three-year council term.
The vacancy will be filled by a majority vote of the remaining city council members…and that appointee will serve until the october election.