The Sitka Assembly, acting as a quasi-judicial body, denied a second-level public records appeal at its meeting Tuesday night (4-28-26).
Austin Cranford said he submitted a public records request to the city in February to understand how the city is handling sign-on bonuses and high turnover at the police department. He claims staff’s response included unlawful redactions and denied the existence of some documents.
“People listening tonight might wonder why I keep fighting the city on these issues, filing appeals and pushing back,” Cranford said. “I do it because demanding that our government follow its own laws is how we protect our home.”
Cranford is a former assembly candidate, and the son of former police sergeant Gary Cranford, who sued the city and settled for over $300,000 out of court. And it isn’t the first time Austin Cranford has challenged the city. He sued the city last year alleging censorship on the city police department’s Facebook page. He also had two public records appeals in February of 2024.
In his appeal on Tuesday, Cranford asked the assembly to order the release of unredacted records and direct a secondary search for records of alleged communications regarding several police officers who resigned over bonus disputes.
Municipal Attorney Rachel Jones said Cranford asked the clerk’s office to perform a level of analysis and research of records that’s not contemplated by the Alaska Public Records Act. She compared clerks to records librarians, whose job it is to grab documents that can be quickly identified.
She said if someone requests a copy of Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit, that’s a request for a document that exists. She said requests for the entire works of Tolkien would require a bit more research, but since libraries are organized by author, a librarian can easily locate the information. But in her analogy, she said Cranford’s request took things a step further.
“If somebody comes in and says, ‘I want every record in your library that contains the word ‘hobbit.’ Now we’re looking at the complete works of Tolkien, every academic paper about Tolkien, newspapers, magazines, fan fiction, maybe anthropology reports saying Neanderthals look like hobbits. Maybe political satire saying, ‘This guy looks like a hobbit.’ That becomes research, where the librarian needs to know all of the content of the documents to assess whether this category applies to them or not.”
Jones said Cranford was attempting to get a research and investigation project off the ground by using the public records process inappropriately.
Assembly members unanimously agreed that the clerks did their duty to produce records that existed and were asked for, and ultimately denied Cranford’s appeal.
“We’re fortunate the law is all about accuracy and language,” said Assembly Member Tim Pike. “And I think that’s the issue that I see in front of us. And as a consequence, I think based upon the language that was submitted, the clerks have supplied that particular information.”
The number of public records requests the City and Borough of Sitka receives annually has quadrupled in the past decade. Earlier this year, the assembly approved about $21,000 for a two-year contract with an online platform designed to manage public records requests. The city hopes to start using the portal by June.
