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Josiah Patkotak recall, North Slope Borough, Alaska (2025)
| Josiah Patkotak recall |
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| Officeholders |
| Recall status |
| Signature requirement |
| See also |
| Recall overview Political recall efforts, 2025 Recalls in Alaska Alaska recall laws County official recalls Recall reports |
An effort to recall North Slope Borough Mayor Josiah Patkotak did not go to a vote after recall organizers failed to collect a sufficient number of petition signatures.[2] The first recall effort began on February 13, 2025, but was deemed insufficient by the county clerk. The second recall effort began on March 4, 2025, and the petition was approved for circulation by the county clerk on March 21.[3] Recall organizers needed to collect signatures equal to at least 25% of the total number of voters in the last regular election.[4]
Recall supporters
Recall organizers cited the following reasons for Patkotak's recall in their application for a recall petition:[3]
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Grounds for Recall: The Mayor must be recalled for misconduct in office, incompetence, or failure to perform prescribed duties. The Borough Charter requires the Mayor’s compensation to be fixed by ordinance and makes the Mayor responsible for supervising the enforcement of the Charter, yet the Mayor chose to knowingly violate the Charter by collecting compensation in excess of his fixed salary to pay for travel expenses for his family. The Borough Charter provides the Mayor is responsible for proper administration of borough affairs, yet the Mayor has failed to perform this duty by misusing the Borough plane for non-medical errands, approving excessive nepotism waivers and compensation for the CAO and four of his immediate family members, misusing public funds to open an office in Anchorage. The Borough Code provides that ethical behavior involves the commitment to take individual responsibility in creating a government that has the trust and respect of its citizens, and that the Mayor has a solemn responsibility to avoid improper conduct, yet the Mayor has the Borough paying for his families lavish travel expenses and is paying employees and contractors to support him. These items and others constitute misconduct in office, incompetence, and failure to perform prescribed duties. [5] |
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Recall opponents
As of April 2025, Ballotpedia had not yet identified a response from Patkotak.
Path to the ballot
- See also: Laws governing recall in Alaska
Alaska allows the following grounds for recall: "misconduct in office, incompetence, or failure to perform prescribed duties." To start the recall process, supporters must file an application for a recall petition containing the signatures of 10 voters who are sponsoring the petition. If a municipal clerk determines the application meets the requisite requirements, the petition will be approved to circulate. To get the recall on the ballot, supporters must collect signatures within 60 days of the recall petition getting approved. For an at-large officeholder, the petition must be signed by a number of voters equal to 25% of the votes cast for that office at the last regular election. For an officeholder who represents a specific district, the petition must be signed by a number of the voters residing in the district equal to 25% of the votes cast in the district for that office at the last regular election.[6]
Recall context
- See also: Ballotpedia's Recall Report
Ballotpedia covers recall efforts across the country for all state and local elected offices. A recall effort is considered official if the petitioning party has filed an official form, such as a notice of intent to recall, with the relevant election agency.
The chart below shows how many officials were included in recall efforts from 2012 to 2024 as well as how many of them defeated recall elections to stay in office and how many were removed from office in recall elections.
See also
- Ballotpedia's Recall Report
- North Slope Borough, Alaska
- Recall campaigns in Alaska
- Political recall efforts, 2025
- County official recalls
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Recall Elections Blog, "Alaska: North Slope Assembly President and Mayor (who are father and son) are both facing petitions," April 6, 2025
- ↑ Alaska Public Media, "Effort to recall North Slope Borough Mayor fails to collect enough signatures for a vote ," June 12, 2025
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Alaska Public Media, "Effort to recall the North Slope Borough mayor is moving forward ," accessed April 16, 2025 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; name "petition" defined multiple times with different content - ↑ Alaska Public Media, "Recall effort targets North Slope Borough mayor over use of public funds for family’s travel," accessed April 2, 2025
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Alaska State Statutes, "Title 29. Municipal Government; Chapter 26. Elections; Article 3. Recall." accessed October 16, 2023
