A Guide to the Office of the Ombudsman
by: State of Alaska, Office of the Ombudsman
What the Ombudsman does:
The Office of the Ombudsman is designed to help citizens who have complaints about State of Alaska agencies. Ombudsman staff can review agency actions, but we ask that you first use all the possible administrative appeal procedures. We encourage you to use all the grievance and appeal processes offered by the agency you are dealing with before complaining to the Ombudsman. If you are not sure how to appeal or file a grievance with the agency, we can refer to the right person or process.
If you try to solve your problem directly with the agency but are still not satisfied, the Ombudsman can look into whether the agency acted in a way that is contrary to law, unreasonable, unfair, oppressive, arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, unnecessarily discriminatory, based on mistake of fact or improper or irrelevant grounds, unsupported by an adequate statement of reasons, inefficient, discourteous or otherwise erroneous.
What the Ombudsman doesn't do:
The authority of the Ombudsman is limited by law, so it's helpful to know what the office can and can't do. Here are some important things we do not do:
· We don't give legal advice.
· We don't get involved in court cases or review a judge's decision.
· We don't review a district attorney's decision whether or not to prosecute.
· We don't investigate local police departments or other city departments but we can investigate the Alaska State Troopers.
· We don't take complaints that you have known about but not taken action on for more than one year.
· We don't take complaints from one person on behalf of another unless it is a parent or guardian on behalf of a minor child.
If you have questions about whether you fit in any of those categories, call and talk to our staff.
How to file a complaint:
Complaint forms are available on the Ombudsman website http://www.state.ak.us/ombud.
You can also call and have a complaint form mailed or faxed to you. When you complete the complaint form, it is important to attach copies of the grievances, appeals or correspondence to the agency about your problem. Complaints that fall within the Ombudsman's authority to investigate are assigned to an investigator, who is required to contact you within 15 days to let you know what the Ombudsman can do to help.
Ombudsman complaints are confidential by law. The identity of complainants and the Ombudsman's files are confidential. The Ombudsman cannot release your name or information without your permission. The Ombudsman cannot be forced to testify or release confidential materials.
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