Roger Griffin at a candidate forum during his run for mayor in 2015. (Emily Files)
Skagway Assembly candidate Dan Henry now faces two complaints lodged with Alaska’s campaign finance watchdog.
The Alaska Public Offices Commission will consider a second citizen complaint against Henry, who is running for office in the Oct. 3 election.
Skagway resident Roger Griffin filed the latest complaint. Until recently, Griffin was running as a write-in candidate for mayor. But on Tuesday, he withdrew his candidacy. He said in an email that the campaign was getting too ‘ugly.’
While Griffin is withdrawing from the race, he is also challenging Henry’s suitability for office.
He accuses Henry of failing to report required information on candidate financial disclosure forms.
Griffin alleges that Henry did not report gifts greater than $250 on filings in 2014 and 2015. During that time, Henry represented the city while it was negotiating a new tidelands lease with ClubLink, the parent company of White Pass and Yukon Route Railroad. White Pass controls a large portion of Skagway’s waterfront and is seeking to prolong its agreement with the city.
Henry and other city representatives traveled to Florida during negotiations with ClubLink. Griffin says Henry should have reported lodging and meal expenses paid for by ClubLink during these negotiation trips.
Griffin’s complaint doesn’t end there. He also accuses Henry of failing to report debt in his most recent campaign disclosure paperwork.
In 2016, Henry was fined more than $600,000 after pleading guilty to failure to pay federal income taxes. He was also sentenced to a year in prison. Outside of the federal case, Henry was fined $22,000 by APOC for incomplete disclosures in which he listed no income over $1,000.
Henry’s 2016 APOC case was initiated by a citizen complaint from Griffin.
In his most recent complaint, Griffin asks for an expedited hearing, since Henry is running for office. Griffin writes “Because Mr. Henry is a repeat offender who treats the financial disclosure requirements of Alaska…in a cavalier manner, his fitness to serve is at issue.”
Now Henry faces two APOC complaints: one from Griffin and the other from Skagway resident Lynne Cameron. Cameron’s complaint makes the same allegation about Henry not disclosing the debt he owes to the IRS and state.
Both complaints are on the agenda for APOC’s meeting Sept. 13.
What Mr Griffin is not saying in either of your interviews of him is that he and his wife were asleep and an unknown person woke them up in the middle of the night screaming threats against him if he ran for office as mayor!!What kind of town have we turned into
Where honest people are threatened out of running??
What kind of city are we also when the assembly and our mayor covers up for the misdeeds of a convicted IRS cheater???What about the city quartet taxes that were most likely cheated on since he cheated the taxes?This is about $30,099 that the city did not get.Why doesn’t our mayor ever give an honest answer on this???People have the right to know this-every other business pays their quartley taxes??