Wells Fargo drops Iditarod sponsorship. Mat-Su looks into dropping Wells Fargo. Are the two connected?

The Matanuska-Susitna Borough mayor, a veteran musher, contended on Monday that Wells Fargo's decision to pull its sponsorship of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race sped up an ongoing review of the company's performance as the borough's longtime bank.

But borough officials say the bank review has no connection to the sponsorship and that it started months before Wells Fargo severed its financial ties to the race in May.

The borough intends to put the bank contract out to bid next month — as planned all along, according to Cheyenne Heindel, the borough's finance director.

"We knew it was something that needed to be done and we're in the process of tackling it," she said.

Heindel said her department started to review Wells Fargo's banking services a year ago and realized it was time to put the contract out for bid to see if others could do better. It's been more than 15 years since the borough sought bids for the bank contract.

Mat-Su Borough Mayor Vern Halter said in an interview Monday, however, that the borough started its bank review before Wells Fargo dropped its sponsorship but the bank's decision to sever ties to the race "certainly sealed the deal."

"The dropping of the sponsorship certainly accelerated things," said Halter, who has competed in more than a dozen Iditarod races, his last in 2005.

Halter told the Iditarod Trail Committee at its annual membership meeting in Wasilla on Saturday that he would "prefer that the borough have a new banking situation where these people love the Iditarod as much as we all do."

He praised Wells Fargo Alaska employees as "fantastic," but said when the bank "kind of weak-kneed walked away from the Iditarod sponsorship, that was offensive to me."

"We want a banking institution that stands up to things like that," Halter said in an interview Monday.

The borough is home to dozens of professional distance and sprint sled dog mushers as well as countless recreational sled dog kennels. Halter himself has a sled dog kennel in Willow that offers summer tours.

David Kennedy, Wells Fargo spokesman for the Alaska Region, said in a statement Monday that the bank valued its relationship with the Mat-Su Borough and wanted "to continue providing the borough with financial services and guidance to help streamline its operations and save taxpayers' money."

"Discontinuing one sponsorship in no way diminishes our support for the community as a whole," he said. "We will continue to invest in Alaska."

The borough runs on a nearly $400 million budget, about two-thirds of it state school funding, said Borough Manager John Moosey.

News that Wells Fargo had dropped its Iditarod sponsorship came in May in an announcement from People for Ethical Treatment of Animals, which claimed victory in the bank's decision. The Iditarod chief executive blamed the loss of the longtime sponsor on "manipulative misinformation" spread by "PETA and others."

But Wells Fargo refused to say whether outreach from PETA and its supporters influenced its move to end its sponsorship. It said the decision came out of its regular reviews of where it allocates marketing resources.

Both the Iditarod and Wells Fargo have declined to say how much money the bank contributed to the race. In 2017, it was listed as a "lead dog partner," the second-tier of sponsorship. Alaska Business Monthly reported in 2014 that those contributed between $100,000 and $250,000 a year to the race.

[Iditarod blames PETA for loss of longtime race sponsor]

During Saturday's Iditarod Trail Committee meeting, Halter said the borough would have to go through a bidding process to find a new bank, which he said "takes quite a bit of time." However, Halter acknowledged that when it came to which bank the borough would select, he had little say. Halter, 68, was elected mayor in 2015, a position that's largely a ceremonial one limited to line-item vetoes and breaking tie Assembly votes.

Moosey said he is meeting with local Wells Fargo officials in a few weeks, along with Halter and Assembly member Randall Kowalke to "talk through" the sponsorship issue. The mayor, Kowalke and Assembly member Dan Mayfield voiced concerns to him about the sponsorship decision, Moosey said.

He also said there is a distinction between the borough's administrative policies and contracts, and its position on public issues, including the Iditarod sponsorship.

"We cannot tie who we do business with based upon who they support, who they don't support. I want to make that kind of clear," he said. "But I think as a public entity we would like to have our say with Wells Fargo on, 'What the heck are you guys doing? Why come out and do this — why essentially trash the Valley?' "

At Saturday's Iditarod meeting, Halter and Assemblyman Kowalke also handed race officials a $25,000 check to fund work on the Iditarod Trail around Finger Lake and the Rainy Pass area. Both were problematic stretches of trail that have prompted organizers to move the official Iditarod start from Willow, in the Mat-Su Borough, to Fairbanks. The Iditarod start has moved north in 2017, 2015 and 2003.

"The goal is to try to keep a restart here in the Valley," Halter said in Monday's interview.

The money came from funding that the Assembly set aside about five years ago for trail improvements. The Assembly approved the $25,000 grant last month.