Alaska mayor's office paid for grandkids' basketball camp trips - media

By Steve Quinn

JUNEAU (Reuters) - Five grandchildren of an Alaska mayor attended basketball camp in California paid for with funds from her borough, local media reported on Friday, citing official documents.

North Slope Borough Mayor Charlotte Brower's office did not return calls for comment on the report, which the reports said were based on documents from a public records request.

The Alaska Dispatch News said the borough paid $8,400 for the flights and fees for the grandchildren to attend the five-day Michael Jordan Flight School in Santa Barbara last year, according to the records. It bills itself on its website as "among the finest youth basketball camps."

The records also detailed tens of thousands of dollars worth of cakes and crafts bought from two of Brower's daughters with borough funds with some of the cakes apparently costing more than $500 each, the media reports said.

The local television news channel KTUU said a law firm appointed by the borough Assembly earlier this month is investigating the payments, at Brower's request, and that she has said she did not approve or promote any purchases from her family using borough funds.

A document from that meeting notes that "there have been questions from members of the community regarding the legitimacy of these procurements, the procurement process and document security within the North Slope Borough and the mayor's office."

The North Slope Borough is the state's largest borough and home to several of Alaska's major oil fields. Although larger than the state of Minnesota, it has a population of only about 9,700 residents.

(Reporting by Steve Quinn; Editing by Daniel Wallis)