Local officials in Holy Cross, a small community in the interior of Alaska, denied a recall application filed by the group, "Concerned Citizens of Holy Cross."

The group is trying to recall the entire city council of the small community on the grounds that it allegedly mishandled several of its duties, which included the filing of financial disclosures, providing worker’s compensation for the city’s employees, hold scheduled elections or hold meetings on a regular basis.

The recall application was denied by city officials in Holy Cross on Friday just as an election was to take place in Holy Cross today. The elections today, were originally supposed to take place last October, but were postponed until February 29th. They were postponed again when the city failed to file mandatory documents and the council members whose terms were expiring failed to declare their candidacies. Although, according to Holy Cross officials, the election was postponed for a funeral of a local resident. It is reported that the reason for the postponment was that it would have been disrespectful to hold an election on the same day as that funeral.

According to state officials, the claims put forth by the “Concerned Citizens of Holy Cross” have merit. It has been documented that Holy Cross has not filed financial disclosures since 2005, and have missed that March deadline again this year. The City of Holy Cross has also failed to provide worker’s compensation insurance for its four workers for almost two years. The penalty for that alone is quite expensive. Four employees for two years can bring penalties close to $2.5 million.

Another issue that alleged to have happened is the attempt to obtain a $600,000 grant using falsified or fabricated documents. The attempt to obtain that grant was unsuccessful. Investigations into the grant shows that minutes of meetings were fabricated for the submission to attain a Indian Community Development Block Grant.

The Holy Cross Council was to provide a public meeting prior to applying for the grant, but records showed that the meeting did not take place and falsified minutes were submitted by the city on two occasions claiming that the meetings indeed took place. Investigations showed in particular, members not in attendance, and not even present in the community at the time of the alleged meetings, making motions in favor of the ICDBG submission.

Council members blame most of the problems with inheriting a community with lax leadership and blame the problems on inexperience and lack of knowledge. They have said nothing of the fabricated minutes or the lapse in insurance coverage for their employees however.