In a confidential memo sent Dec. 2 to Anchorage Assembly members, municipal attorney Dennis Wheeler expressed unhappiness with public criticism of a report he prepared evaluating whether then-Mayor Mark Begich misled the Assembly last year about the state of the municipality's finances. Some Assembly members have said the report, which found that Begich violated a municipal charter requiring the mayor to report budget shortfalls to the Assembly, is flawed and riddled with errors.

"I do not want this to be how our relationship works," Wheeler wrote.

Wheeler's report on whether Begich hid financial information from the Assembly during his time as mayor was released Nov. 18. Since then, some members of the Assembly, as well as Begich's former chief financial officer, Sharon Weddleton, have said that they believe Wheeler's report is poorly researched and full of mistakes.

Wheeler declined to comment for this story.

Assembly member Dan Coffey said Wheeler is a "straight shooter" and an "honorable guy," and the people who criticize Wheeler's report are the same people who refused to be interviewed as he was researching it.

"Here's the deal," Coffey said. "The critics who say he missed something, (those are) the same people who wouldn't come talk to him."

Assembly member Elvi Gray-Jackson said she thought Wheeler's memo was overly defensive, and there was little reason for the document's secrecy.

"Nothing else is confidential, so why should this be confidential?" she said.

Gray-Jackson also said she thinks it's time to leave the matter behind. At a recent community council meeting, she said, she was asked when the Assembly is going to forget about these reports and accusations about the Begich administration and get back to working for the city.

"It's a witch hunt, and we need to move on," Gray-Jackson said.

Coffey disagrees. He wants to order a forensic audit to determine whether the Assembly was misled, and he says it would be worth the $40,000 to do it.

"If we're going to prosecute a poor guy for not having a gate on his Dumpster, we sure as hell ought to hold the top executives of the city responsible for their actions," he said.

At a meeting earlier this week, the Assembly voted to accept Wheeler's report. At that same meeting, assembly member Mike Gutierrez said he didn't trust Wheeler and there were places where the report contradicted itself. Gutierrez later apologized to Wheeler.

In his memo, Wheeler said his office should be given the chance to address concerns about the quality of its work. It's wrong, he added, for assembly members to cast doubt on his report without identifying actual errors.

"Truth is, this office worked long and hard on the report; we believe the process and the report were fair, upfront with witnesses, and thorough," he wrote.

Wheeler clarified in the memo that his report recommends a third party audit the city's records to determine whether Begich violated any laws. He closed by saying his "door is open to anyone -- Assembly member, employee, or former employee" -- who wants to discuss the report.

Contact Joshua Saul at jsaul_alaskadispatch.com.