Haines Assembly censures Morphet for release of police complaints

This week, the Haines Assembly formally reprimanded member Tom Morphet for releasing police complaints a few months ago.

Morphet brought four critical accounts of individuals’ interactions with Haines police to a public meeting in April. He said the complaints showed evidence of “intimidating tactics” and raised questions about police behavior.

Morphet’s actions were condemned by Police Chief Heath Scott and other officers, some of whom were named in the complaints.

Soon after, the union that represents the officers levied a grievance against the borough.

The union rep said Morphet violated borough code and the employee contract by making personnel matters public.

The union asked for Morphet to apologize and for the Assembly to censure him.

At a meeting Tuesday, Morphet himself started to make that motion.

“I make a motion that we censure Assembly member Tom Morphet,” Morphet began.

“That’s not appropriate at all,” Mayor Jan Hill cut Morphet off and asked that he recuse himself.

The rest of the Assembly then voted unanimously to censure Morphet.

Stephanie Scott explained to new member Sean Maidy what the reprimand meant.

“It’s just a public censure of the behavior and we can all learn from it – you don’t reveal certain things when you’re a member of the assembly,” Scott said.

If the Assembly hadn’t agreed to the union’s requests, the grievance would have moved to arbitration.

Sign up for The Signal

Top Alaska stories delivered to your inbox every week

Site notifications
Update notification options
Subscribe to notifications