Gov. Sean Parnell’s friends with benefits

In 2008, the New York Times swooped into the state after Sarah Palin’s veep announcement and wrote about how many friends she had hired as governor. “The Wasilla High School yearbook archive now doubles as a veritable directory of state government,” the paper wrote. Many of us already knew this to be the case, but we collectively shrugged our shoulders. This kind of stuff happens in Alaska all the time, in a small state with a shallow talent pool, in a place so far away from the rest of the country.

Successful people, in a position to do so, do often hire their friends and people in their social circles. Generally there’s nothing wrong with that. It can get a little murky, however, when you’re in public office and your friends and their friends are being paid with public money.

To be clear: just because something’s murky doesn’t mean that it’s wrong. But it is something to watch. And Gov. Sean Parnell’s penchant for hiring friends and being good to friends of friends, no matter how talented and well qualified, needs many more eyes on it than it currently has.

Parnell was a legislator from 1992 to 2002. It’s said that during that time among his closest friends were Sen. Pete Kellly, former Sen. Gene Therriault and former Rep. Mark Hanley.

Below is a list of what has happened to them and some of their staff since:

Sen. Pete Kelly left the Legislature in 2003 to work as a university lobbyist. Parnell hired him in 2009 as a special assistant in the governor’s office shortly after Palin resigned. Parnell supported Kelly in his bid to get back into the Legislature in 2012.
Back when Parnell and Kelly hung out together as legislators, Parnell got to know Kelly’s legislative aide Bryan Butcher. After winning the election, Parnell hired Butcher to be his commissioner of Revenue. More recently, Parnell moved Butcher to Alaska House Finance Corp. where he’ll serve as executive director, making a whopping $250,000 a year. It should be noted that Butcher’s qualifications include a degree in speech communication from Oregon University.
Shortly after Palin resigned, Parnell hired former Sen. Gene Therriault as a special adviser on energy. The hiring was ultimately deemed illegal by Alaska’s attorney general because Therriault had not yet been out of the Legislature for a year prior to the hire. Therriault then went to work for Golden Valley Electric in Fairbanks, where, among other things, he worked to try to get the state to help finance a natural gas liquefaction plant on the North Slope. After being liquefied, the gas would be trucked to Fairbanks. In 2012, Therriault left Golden Valley and Parnell appointed him to be the deputy director of Alaska’s Energy Authority, a division of Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, or AIDEA. In both of these roles, Therriault was instrumental in getting Parnell’s support for the trucking plan and the liquefaction plant. A bill was passed last legislative session which included $362.5 million of financing for the plan, including giving AIDEA the authority to offer $275 million in low interest financing.
Therriault’s staff did pretty well too. Joe Balash for one, went from Therriault’s office to work as a special assistant to Parnell. He then moved to DNR as deputy commissioner and is now the acting commissioner. Heather Brakes, also from Therriault’s office, is Parnell’s legislative director. Former Therriault staffer Wilda Laughlin was the DHSS legislative liaison until a recent ill-fated, hot mic issue. She’s still at HSS, but in a less high profile position.
Then there’s former Rep. Mark Hanley. He left the Legislature in 1998 to work for big bucks in the oil industry; however, he also worked closely with Parnell as a kitchen cabinet adviser and helped him prepare his first budget. Possibly coincidentally, in 2011 Mark’s brother Mike was appointed as Commissioner to the Department of Education. Kip Knudson who worked for Hanley was hired to run the state’s airports and later took over Parnell’s Washington D.C. office when John Katz retired. Michelle Toohey also worked for Hanley. She was in Parnell’s press office until moving to Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell’s office, where she is chief of staff.

It’s often the case that politicians hire friends and reward political support and loyalty. But just because it happens all the time doesn’t mean that we should collectively shrug our shoulders.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com

Personnel Board to take up same sex benefits

During its next meeting, the Alaska Personnel Board will consider a proposal that would allow same sex partners to take the same kind of leave when their partners have serious health conditions as those who have different sex partners.

As it stands now, even though state employees who have same sex partners are eligible for state benefits, they don’t get the same leave afforded to other employees when their partners get seriously ill.

The three member board is governor appointed. In this case, one of the members was appointed by former Gov. Sarah Palin. The other two are Gov. Sean Parnell appointees.

The board meets in Anchorage at 12 p.m. on Sept. 19, at the Bayview Building, 619 East Ship Creek Avenue.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com

Northrim Bank finds business in ObamaCare

At least one Alaskan private enterprise believes that there’s money to be made in the new health care law. Northrim Benefits Group, an affiliate of Northrim Bank, has started a service called Enroll Alaska that will help guide individuals through the new insurance marketplaces. Those marketplaces, or exchanges, are a key part of the Affordable Care Act, and will be up and running on October 1.

Depending on whom you ask and how it’s defined, anywhere from 66,000 to 139,000 Alaskans are uninsured or underinsured. Enroll Alaska hopes to be the broker of choice to as many of these as possible.

In the process, the business will also be educating Alaskans on the exchange, a role that our state government has appeared to have opted out of.

Agencies and nonprofits are also doing their part. In July, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services handed out more than $1,800,000 in grants to 25 Alaska health centers operating 168 sites to enroll the uninsured. And on August 15, HSS awarded another grant of $600,000 to be split between United Way and Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium for outreach.

In truth, however, you don’t need any of these services. You can sign up yourself here, and it doesn’t appear to be overly complicated.

Here’s Northrim’s announcement in full:

ANCHORAGE, AK- August 19, 2013- Northrim Benefits Group (NBG) is proud to announce the formation of Enroll Alaska. This new division of NBG is focused on individual health coverage for the nearly 66,000 uninsured or underinsured Alaskans. Enroll Alaska will help guide individuals through the new insurance marketplaces that have been created with the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and help those who may qualify for immediate tax subsidies.

Starting in 2014, there is a federal mandate that all individuals have health insurance, whether through an employer policy or purchased through a Federally Facilitated Marketplace. Individuals with household incomes between 100-400% of Federal Poverty Level may be eligible for premium assistance via a federal tax subsidy. Enroll Alaska will help individuals determine if they qualify for a federal tax subsidy and select a health insurance plan that is right for them and their family.

Enroll Alaska will have locations throughout the state to help individuals and families during open enrollment, which runs from October 1, 2013 through March 31, 2014. Enroll Alaska will be the go-to resource for questions regarding the ACA. Information can be found at www.enrollingalaska.com or by calling, 1-855-385-5550.

Correction: Northrim Benefits group is an affiliate of Northrim Bank, not a fully owned subsidiary.
Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com

Parnell’s communication team needs to get out more

There are many people in Alaska who believe that cutting taxes on oil companies is something that is necessary for the state’s economy. I’ve met many, from small shop owners to waiters to teachers. They know that more than 90 percent of Alaska’s economy is dependent on oil. They believe the oil companies when they say that the only way to stem the decline of production is to make Alaska a more fiscally attractive place to do business.

These are people who have no direct ties to the oil industry, but somehow they’ve internalized enough of the debate to be able to make up their minds.

I don’t know if I agree with them, but I have at least heard these people talk, and felt the pull of their stories. Apparently, nobody in Gov. Sean Parnell’s communications office has, because if they had, they would have put these people on camera to share their opinions instead of the people they chose to try to help gain support for Parnell’s tax bill and to try to buttress support against a repeal.

The governor’s press office sent out an email today, urging the media to take note of what people are saying about the tax bill. “Alaskans from across the state are speaking up about the opportunities they are seeing in their communities as a result of the More Alaska Production Act,” the press office said.

It then sent readers to the “More Alaska Production Act,” website, where four Alaskans talk about the impact the tax cut is having on their businesses and places of work.

All four Alaskans work for businesses that provide services to oil companies.

Don’t get me wrong. These are important businesses that put people to work. These are businesses that have huge effects on our economy, and the people who work for them are likely good people. Their voices should be heard.

It’s just that neither the engineer working for Ch2M Hill, the company that bought VECO, nor the CEO of Little Red Services, an oil services business, are going to win the hearts and mind of Alaskans who need to be won over.

What the “fiscally prudent” administration has seemingly done, once again, is to waste government money by preaching to the choir about the tax bill.

But what’s more disturbing is that the communications office, the one office that is supposed to actually communicate with the public, couldn’t seem to find anybody who isn’t directly tied to the oil industry to appear on camera. Perhaps stepping out of their cushy government offices and popping out of their tiny social bubbles would require too much work, to say nothing of answering media questions in a direct and timely manner.

Perhaps it’s easier to sit among themselves, chalking up to media bias the 50,000 signatures gathered to repeal the tax bill.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com

State Sen. Hollis French has filed to run for governor

Democratic Alaska state Sen. Hollis French has announced his intentions to run for governor against Gov. Sean Parnell. French filed papers with the Division of Elections on Tuesday. He’s “strongly leaning towards it,” but as of yet it’s a preliminary move to see how deep his support runs in the state, French said.

If he does run, he’ll cede his Senate seat, which is up in 2014. So far, only Republican Rep. Mia Costello has filed to run for that seat.

French, a former oil field worker and Anchorage prosecutor, has been a legislator since 2002. In the field of ever-shrinking Democratic lawmakers, he’s been known to be one of the most outspoken. He played a large role in the Sarah Palin saga known as “troopergate.” Since, he’s been particularly critical of Parnell’s oil tax break. As a member of what was formerly a bipartisan majority in the Senate, French did support oil tax reform, but fought hard against Parnell’s attempts at cutting taxes for the big three oil companies in the legacy fields.

With a Republican majority in the Senate, Parnell got his bill passed during the last legislative session, cutting taxes up to $650 million to more than $1 billion a year at current projected prices and at current production. The companies have said that such relief will help stem the decline of Alaska’s largest oil fields and incentivize production of the smaller fields.

French, however, sees it as a give away. If he runs and is elected, that’s the first thing he will try to undo.

“There’s a way to reform oil taxes that benefits both the state and industry in a business-like manner,” he said. He’s particularly critical of doing away with the windfall tax, commonly called progressivity, which increased taxes based on the price of oil.

“It was an enormous give for what we got in exchange,” he said. “We got nothing.”

French would also forward fund education, and accept federal money to expand Medicaid, something that Parnell has been on the fence about. Not accepting the money, is “as wrong as wrong can be,” French said, citing the harmful effects that not accepting the funds could have on Alaskans and particularly on small businesses.

“There are tens of millions of free dollars to the state that he’s turned his back on,” French said.

It’s unclear what effect French’s move will have on the nascent movement to draft the other outspoken Democratic senator, Bill Wielechowski, to run with independent candidate Bill Walker. Pollster Ivan Moore has been pushing the ticket, and has warned that it’s all but doomed if a Democrat runs.

French declined to comment on Wielechowski’s role in the race, but he did say that he thinks an independent running helps him. He pointed to 1994, when former Gov. Knowles squeaked with a win, beating the Republican candidate Jim Campbell by only 536 votes. In that race, Lt. Governor Jack Coghill ran on the Alaskan Independence Party ticket and received 13 percent of the vote. Had Coghill not been in the race, many of those votes would have likely gone to Campbell.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com

Book review: ‘Big, Hot, Cheap, and Right: What America Can Learn from the Strange Genius of Texas’

In the capital of the world’s mightiest nation, until the recent cloudburst of scandal, the preoccupations were the rights of men who want to be women and women who want to be men; the rights of illegal immigrants (no longer allowed to be referred to as such) to stay here and vote for Democrats; and the right of government to abridge the Second Amendment and confiscate our money to feed an expanding army of bureaucrats managing unworkable programs that no one understands—including the legislators who vote for them.

Meanwhile, in the capital of what was once the Republic of Texas, people tend to view the preoccupations of the Northeast, dwelt on by the national media to the near exclusion of anything of concern west of the Mississippi, as largely frivolous and irrelevant.

Erica Grieder, a senior editor at Texas Monthly and formerly the southwest correspondent for the Economist, has written a splendid book about the rich history and the social, political, and economic strengths and weaknesses of the Lone Star State, where the essentials of the American Dream are still taken seriously. “Americans tend to believe in economic mobility, in the idea that people can get ahead through talent and hard work….Texans are, if anything, even more committed to this belief than other Americans.” She quotes Julian Castro, the Democratic mayor of San Antonio, giving the keynote speech at his party’s 2012 national convention: “Now, in Texas, we believe in the rugged individual. Texas may be the one place where people actually still have bootstraps, and we expect folks to pull themselves up by them.”

Although the state contains the largest part of our border with Mexico, its immigration policy is “relatively relaxed,” and the Republican Party gets a much higher percentage of the Latino vote in Texas than in the country as a whole. The fact that Texas Republicans and Latino immigrants, as well as long-established Latino citizens, share many of the same economic and social beliefs and values casts doubt on the ultimate chances for success of national Democrats who hope to turn Texas from red to blue. Nor are those issues resonating among the left necessarily meaningful to Texas Democrats. “Compared to their national counterparts, they’re in favor of business and skeptical of taxes,” Grieder writes. “If transplanted to California, a typical Texas Democrat would be reclassified as a moderate Republican.”

The Texas Model, or the Texas Miracle, as Governor Rick Perry liked to call it during his disastrous presidential primary run, was based on a four-part “recipe” of low taxes, low regulation, tort reform, and “don’t spend all the money.” If it worked in Texas, Perry asked, why not in the rest of the country?

“The idea,” writes Grieder, “is almost as simple as he described.” Texas is one of only seven states without an individual income tax, and one of four without a corporate income tax. (Businesses pay a small tax on sales instead.) Combined with its coolness toward regulation, its suspicion of government stretching back to Reconstruction, and its respect for private enterprise, Texas provides a model for any part of the country willing to set aside the conventional collectivist economic pieties.

As Grieder points out, from June 2009-2011, the Texas model created over 40 percent of the nation’s net new jobs. And to top it off, she writes that, according to an analysis published in theEconomist in 2011, “Texas was among the 20 states that paid more in federal taxes than they received in federal funds.”

All of which is anathema to the current administration in Washington and to statists, like the hysteric Paul Krugman, who believe our economic problems can’t be solved without substantial tax increases. And when Governor Perry swaggered onstage during last year’s dreadful Republican primaries, asserting that the Texas way provided an alternative model for the nation, the hysteria was palpable. Krugman charged in the New York Times that the Texas miracle was a myth, an assertion vituperatively seconded by all the usual leftist suspects who control the Washington-New York media corridor.

As Grieder writes, Perry’s entrance into the race brought on near-panic, and “the national left’s reaction to Rick Perry’s narrative of jobs and growth in Texas looked like Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’s five stages of grief….Before the Democrats could reach the depression stage, though, they got a real miracle. Perry’s presidential campaign totally collapsed.”

In retrospect, what Grieder calls the “‘oops’ debate”—the uncomfortable moment of live television when Perry could not remember which cabinet departments he proposed to eliminate—unhorsed the governor, who entered the race with a certain cockiness that can so irritate non-Texans. (Remember the swagger of George W. Bush.) But like many Texans before him, Perry underestimated the opposition, rode into battle badly underprepared, and took a spectacular spill. As a result, writes Grieder, “Democrats lost interest in the supposed Texas miracle. As long as Perry wasn’t going to be the nominee, there was no longer any reason to worry about it.”

But as General Santa Anna discovered at San Jacinto, Texans learn from their mistakes, and Perry is back in the saddle, recruiting businesses from other states, selling the industrial policy which, as Grieder points out, has effectively saved Texas from becoming a one-horse, petroleum-dependent economy. “The Texas model isn’t an accident, in other words,” writes Grieder, who while not being a Perry partisan (she is rigorously non-political), believes that the economic policies he preaches and puts into practice might well provide a national alternative economic model.

On a recent recruiting trip to Chicago, where he spoke at the 2013 BIO International Convention, Perry delivered his recruiting pitch in a widely aired and much discussed ad:

This is Texas Gov. Rick Perry, and I have a word of advice for employers frustrated by Illinois’ short-sighted approach to business: you need to get out while there’s still time. The escape route leads straight to Texas, where limited government, low taxes and a pro-business environment are creating more jobs than any other state. I’ll be in Chicago next week to talk about opportunities in Texas, where we’re always open for business….it may be time for your company to hit the emergency exit.

The invitation prompted angry responses from Mayor Rahm Emanuel, slipping in the polls and struggling to come to grips with a record rainfall complicated by the inability of the city’s massive and massively expensive Deep Tunnel project, seemingly under construction since the days of Deep Throat, to drain off the flood waters. Governor Pat Quinn, no doubt with rainfall on the brain, responded quirkily, as is his wont: “His state, frankly, is water-challenged, and any company thinking of going to Texas better check their water.”

There are some conservative critics of Rick Perry’s successful campaign to land businesses from states like California and Illinois. Teresa Mull, blogging on TAS’ website, questioned the ultimate results of those efforts: “You can take the liberal out of the blue state, but can you take the blue state out of the liberal?” But many blue-state businessmen, offered the prospect of freedom from onerous regulations and taxes extorted by governments fighting to stave off bankruptcy, have easily shed those blue cloaks and emulated Davy Crockett, quoted approvingly by Mull: “You may go to hell. I’m going to Texas.”

This review was first published in the American Spectator and used here with permission of the author, John R. Coyne Jr., who is my father.

Conoco applies to drill a new well in NPR-A

Reuters is reporting that ConocoPhillips has applied for permits to develop a new field in the Mooses Tooth unit of the National Petroleum Reserve. It also applied for permits to build roads and other infrastructure needed to access the site.

The company hasn’t yet decided whether to sanction the project, however. That decision will come in the second half of 2014.

According to Reuters:

“The plans to expand in the reserve come after Conoco put ambitious offshore Arctic plans on the back burner. It said in April it would not seek to drill in 2014 in the remote Chukchi Sea off northwestern Alaska, where it spent more than $500 million in 2008 to acquire leases. Other companies also have plans to drill in the reserve. Three permits are held by Australia-based Linc Energy and two by Houston-based Hilcorp, both relatively new operators in Alaska.”

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com

Thank God it’s Friday: the independence edition

As many readers know, Bill Walker is no long running against Gov. Sean Parnell as a Republican. He is an independent candidate. Some, including pollster Ivan Moore, have been pushing Democratic Sen. Bill Wielechowski to run with Walker as his lieutenant governor. Moore has said that it’s the only way to win against Parnell, and that the two have a shot at the seat as long as the Dems don’t come in and muss things up by putting someone on the ticket.

Indeed, anything can happen in politics, particularly in Alaska, where independents (or non affiliated candidates) outnumber Democrats and Republicans combined.

In the spirit of independence, below are a few facts about Alaska’s past and present relationship with those who choose to go outside the two party system.

Out of the 23 legislators who convened for Alaska’s first territorial Legislature in 1913, only six belonged to one of the two major parties.
In the 1980 presidential campaign, U.S. Rep. John Anderson, running as an independent, finished second in Alaska behind the winner, Ronald Reagan, and in front of the incumbent, President Jimmy Carter.
Alaska state Rep. Carl Moses served in the House having been elected as a Republican, Democrat and as a member of the Alaskan Independence Party.* (He was also defeated once by a flip of the coin which was the way they broke the tie between he and current Rep. Bryce Edgemon).
U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, having lost the R nomination to keep her seat in the US Senate, waged a successful write-in independent campaign defeating Democrat Scott McAdams and Republican Joe Miller.
Wally Hickel served as the second and eighth governor of the 49th state, first as a Republican and the second time under the banner of the Alaskan Independence Party.*
When Alaska’s first state Legislature convened on Jan. 26, 1959, there was one independent in the two chambers: a man from Naknek by the name of Jay S. Hammond.
The last independent to serve in the Legislature was Edward Willis of Eagle River who served from 1993 to 1996.
In the last election cycle (2012), Ron Devon ran as an independent against Republican Sen. Cathy Giessel. He lost the race, 58.8 percent to 40.7 percent.

Note: there is a difference between being an independent (declining to affiliate with a political party) and the Alaskan Independence Party which believes in seceding and becoming its own political entity.

Mat-Su legislator’s son pleads guilty to federal drug charges

KTUU is reporting that the son of Mat-Su Valley Rep. Lynn Gattis pleaded guilty in federal court to being the ringleader of an international “bath salts” distribution ring. Robin Gattis is 20 years old. He was arrested in 2012, first by the state and then by the feds, and has been in custody since. The distribution ring had tentacles in China. According to KTUU, drugs from that ring were used by another 20 year old, only described as MGS, in a fatal overdose. Bath salts have nothing to do with either baths or salts, but are a stew of nasty chemicals that when used, act like speed.

Robin Gattis faces 20 years in federal prison. Gattis’ co-defendents include Anchorage residents Kevin Rupp, 21, and Haylee Hays, 19; Palmer residents Chad Cameron, 18, and Bren Marx, 20; Stephen Kimbrell, 20, of Soldotna; and Shane O’Hare, 23, of Wasilla.

Lynn Gattis was elected to her seat in 2012, despite her son’s problems. She beat her Republican primary challenger Mark Ewing with 61 percent of the vote, and won in the general with 73 percent.

She’s smart, quick witted, and is considered one of the rising stars in the Republican Party. Her chief of staff, Erick Cordero Giorgana sent out a statement that said Lynn Gattis and her husband appreciate everyone’s prayers and they also appreciate their privacy during this difficult time.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com

Former Alaskan Pete Rouse is said to be leaving the White House

The highest ranking Alaskan ever to work in the White House is talking about leaving his position. According to Politico, Pete Rouse, President Barack Obama’s former chief-of-staff and one of Obama’s most-trusted advisers, has told friends he will be leaving the administration this fall.

Many, including Obama, credit Rouse with playing a key role in Obama’s rise from a little- known U.S. senator to the presidency and he’s been silently, yet influentially,working behind the scenes since.

Rouse’s mother was the daughter of Japanese immigrants and grew up in Anchorage during World War I. His cousin was a municipal attorney for the City of Palmer.

Rouse came to Alaska in 1978 and stayed to work for Lt Governor Terry Miller, the first and last Republican he worked for. He left in 1983 to work in D.C. But he kept his Alaska voter registration and has always reserved a special place in his heart for the state, its citizens and their interests.

He was instrumental in placing some Alaskans in the Obama administration, like former state Sen. Kim Elton, who ~~is the~~ until 2012, was the director of Alaska affairs at the U.S. Department of the Interior.

When he was U.S. senator, Frank Murkowski praised Rouse on the Senate floor in 1999, and former Gov. Tony Knowles credit’s Rouse for Obama’s inclusion of the natural gas pipeline in his primary speeches.

Even today as one of the most important and powerful men in government, many Alaskans tell of meeting him in the White House, just steps from the Oval Office. .

It appears that he’s leaving the White House in the months ahead; however, given his role and behavior to date he’ll likely continue to be an adviser and confidant to Obama and he’ll always have a soft spot in his heart for Alaska and his friends here. The feeling, for many, is mutual.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com

F-bomb repercussions

The legislative liaison for the Department of Health and Human Services who told Rep. Bill Stoltze to “shut the f#%k up” over what she thought was a mute phone has been removed from her position. Wilda Laughlin will no longer be the face of the department to the legislature. Her replacement has yet to be chosen, HSS Commissioner Bill Streur said.

She’s not leaving HSS, but because of the incident, she will be doing more behind the scenes work. “She’s been a good worker,” Streur said.

The “shut the f#%k up” snafu happened on July 24, during a particularly tense House Finance Committee hearing on HSS’s budget. Committee members were becoming increasingly frustrated as time went on with what they perceived as the department’s lack of preparation and inability to answer questions. This frustration reached a boiling point earlier on Wednesday during the topic of federal sequestration, when members were scolding department officials for their inability to answer even broad questions on its impact to state programs.

Laughlin was on the phone listening and assumed that the phone was on mute when she screamed, “shut the f#%k up” as Chugiak Republican Rep. Bill Stoltze was talking

Stoltze is co-chair of the House Finance Committee, which approves HSS’s budget.

Streur recently spoke to Stoltze about the incident. He described the representative as “amazingly gracious.”

(Update: Jason Hooley, who is the director of Boards and Commissions, will be taking Laughlin’s job).

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com

More strange things done ‘neath Whittier’s midnight sun

There are only about 200 who live in the strange little town perched on this harbor in Prince William Sound. But in Whittier’s case, size doesn’t much matter. The people sure know how to kick up the controversy. First, in July, the citizens of the city recalled Mayor Lester Lunceford for supposedly violating an open meetings act during one of the city council meetings. Now Pete Heddell, one of the city council members who pushed for the ousting, has himself resigned on the heels of accusations that he violated city code.

Lunceford had the position for 11 years. After the recall vote, the talk of the town was that many of those who voted to oust him were actually residents of Anchorage rather than of Whittier. So, ten residents signed a petition to try to contest the recall vote, but they didn’t read the fine print that stated that all of them had to be present when they turned in their petition and that their signatures needed to be notarized. Only five showed in person and none had their signatures notarized, said city manager Tom Bolen.

It’s unclear however, even if they had done everything right, that the recall would have been overturned.

The city goes by where the state says someone is registered, and the state is less concerned where a person claims his or her home to be than if they are voting twice. In other words, residency documentation is relatively loose. Whittier city code does little to clarify the state’s position.

City code is clear, however, that a person’s primary residence must be in Whittier if they are on the city council.

Councilman Heddell had been receiving the senior citizen tax exemption for a property that he owns in Anchorage. In order to get that exemption, he claimed that the Anchorage house was his primary residence.

On Monday, Heddell told Bolen that he was resigning to spend more time in Washington state.

Bolen who took the job in March, has also been caught in the controversy. The open meeting act that Lunceford allegedly violated involved the firing of the former city manager and Bolen’s hiring. Bolen, however, has no plans on going anywhere. He just hopes all the drama is over and everyone can focus on running the city.

When he walked into the job there were about $8 million worth of state grants to the city that had yet to be used and some of those grants are on the verge of expiring. In other words, if they don’t use it, they could lose it. Some of the money is for projects that had never moved forward from design to construction. At least one of them—a $325,000 grant for railroad improvements—had even yet to be conceptualized.

The city is now working with the Railroad to push that project forward. It’s also working on replacing a culvert, a road project, and environmental restoration project and is applying for grants for harbor and road improvements.

The big issue, however, the one that’s plagued the city for nearly a half a century, is what to do with the Buckner Building, the dilapidated concrete mammoth structure built in 1953 with the intention to withstand bombs and keeping as many as 1,000 soldiers safe if a Cold War army invaded.

It now sits on the edge of town, bruised but not broken, taking up precious land, but because it would be so expensive to tear down, no one knows what to do with it.

“It’s so amazing that Whittier’s such a small town and that there’s so much going on,” Bolen said. “It’s somewhat overwhelming to grasp it all.”

Amanda Coyne amandamcoyne@yahoo.com

DOR Commish Bryan Butcher takes over AHFC

Bryan Butcher, the commissioner of the Department of Revenue, will now be heading up the Alaska Housing Finance Corp., the corporation announced today. Butcher will be taking over from Dan Fauske, who will be running the Alaska Gasline Development Corp., where he hopes to oversee the construction of an in-state natural gas pipeline.

Fauske is making $366,000 a year. Butcher was making $135,000 when he took the commissioner job in 2011. He will now be making $250,000 a year. Angela Rodell will be the acting commissioner of Revenue.

AHFC is a state owned corporation formed in 1986 and finances roughly 30 percent of Alaska’s mortgages. In 2012, it financed $416.2 million in such loans. The corporation also has bonding authority. At the end of 2012, it has more than $4 billion in assets and contributed more than $9 million to state coffers during that year.

Butcher has a Bachelor of Science in Speech Communications from Oregon University. Before working for Revenue, Butcher worked for AHFC as a legislative liaison and in public relations and government affairs.

Butcher took the job as revenue commissioner in 2011, and was put in the hot seat nearly immediately over oil taxes, where he was often criticized by legislators over his sometimes confusing and contradictory statements.

He was all but absent during the last legislative session, when an oil tax bill passed. Mike Pawlowski was Revenue’s face and voice for the tax break. Nonetheless, Gov. Sean Parnell praised Butcher’s role in the tax debate.

“Under Commissioner Butcher’s outstanding leadership, the More Alaska Production Act became a reality, Alaska achieved and maintained a AAA+ credit rating, and Revenue put in place a more reasoned and accurate long-term oil production forecast,” Parnell said.

AHFC’s board made the hiring decision. The job was not advertised. In an interview, Frank Roppel, chair of AHFC, said that because Butcher was such a good candidate, there was no need to conduct a hiring search.

“We felt that we had a very capable person and I doubt that we could do better in the open market,” Roppel said.

Roppel also said that it gives Wall Street comfort to hire a known quantity. Such comfort, he said, can translate into lower interest rates which are passed on to borrowers.

Contact Amanda coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com

Roundup of super exciting local utilities news

Utilities aren’t the sexiest of subjects to write about. But they do keep the lights on, the heat running, text messages coming, etc…And there’s a lot of big money at stake for those who run them. So, though the subject makes me nearly soporific, the past week or two have been busy times for many of our local utilities. And some of it’s actually interesting enough to wake me up. Here’s a rundown of the highlights:

The FCC approved the ACS/GCI wireless deal, forestalling what some predict as the imminent death of ACS, the one that’s been coming since Liane Pelletier took the reins, over-inflated the value of the stock by guaranteeing high dividends, and then left the company with an unsustainable business model. She was either a hero or villain, depending on when you bought or sold your stock in the company. One thing’s for sure: private equity puts her in the former category. In any case, both of the companies have done well with the announcement, and will need to continue to do well if they want to compete against Verizon and AT&T. GCI’s stock closed on Tuesday at $9.43, up from $7.69 on June 26, a week before the FCC approved the merger. ACS’s stock was as low as $1.55 this year. Tuesday it closed at $3.40.
Speaking of AT&T: the company announced yesterday that it has invested $45 million in its wireless and wired network in Alaska during the first half of 2013. Among other things, the investment now provides mobile AT&T broadband to Healy, Whittier, Hope, Gustavus, Angoon, Hydaburg and other sites along Sterling, Glenn and Richardson Highway
ML&P requested that the RCA consider and approve a 22 percent rate increase and it’s rumored that Chugach Electric maybe also looking at a rate increase. I’ve overheard people saying that the ML&P rate increase could provide an avenue of attack if for whatever reason at ambitious politician wanted to go after Anchorage Mayor Dan Sullivan. But then again, ambitious is the operative word here.
FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai toured the state meeting with regulated industry types and policymakers. I don’t know if he learned anything about, say, how important the Universal Services Fund is to Alaskans and a certain high profile, politically connected telecom business in Alaska. But I’m told he did learn quite a bit about how silver salmon run.
ENSTAR had a ribbon cutting ceremony in Homer commemorating the first delivery of gas to the community. Dozens of business leaders were there. Gov. Sean Parnell showed, as did a handful of local elected officials. After the speeches the ENSTAR meter was turned on and the crowd cheered for the community’s first delivery of natural gas. Unfortunately, the contractor was behind schedule, the invited guests we’re already committed and the decision was made to move forward with a commemorative event knowing that gas was just days away.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com

BW2 : A “squared” idea that sounds cool to some of Parnell’s opponents

Fourteen percent of Alaska voters are registered Democrats. About 27 percent are Republicans. The rest belong to the Libertarians, Alaska Independent Party and the vast majority are undeclared. So those who want to beat Republican Gov. Sean Parnell, whose term is up next year, had an idea: put parties aside and join the independent candidate for governor with the likely Democratic nominee.

And if those candidates are both named Bill, and both have last names that start with W, you’ve at the very least a good campaign logo: Meet “BW².”

It also doesn’t hurt that Bill Walker, the gubernatorial candidate, is a Republican at heart and that he’s friends with Democrat Sen. Bill Wielechowski, the potential lieutenant governor, and that both have the potential for populist appeal.

To be clear: right now, the scheme seems more of a quixotic Facebook campaign than anything. But the two have been talking about the possibility. Walker said that although he’s a Republican, he and Wielechowski agree on more issues than they disagree, particularly oil taxes.

Walker isn’t the firebrand on the issue that Wielechowski is, but he doesn’t think that the bill that passed, SB21, had the necessary investment assurances and said that he wouldn’t have voted for it if he were in a position to do so.

Pollster Ivan Moore, whose been pushing the BW²idea, is sure that this is the only chance to beat Parnell, whose support is relatively strong statewide and especially among Republicans.

“The only ticket that could possibly beat Parnell right now is a ticket that unites moderate Republicans, independents and Democrats,” Moore said.

“If the Democrats put someone in the race now, it dooms the Democrats and independents and instantly reelects Parnell,” he said.

Word is that the Democratic Party is none-too-happy about the possibility and has been trying to pressure Wielechowski to abandon the idea. But the party doesn’t really have that much leverage these days. Its numbers are down. Campaign finance reform that the Dems pushed for has greatly limited its fundraising ability. And its bench of candidates is dismally short.

If nothing else, it would be fun and could provide the kind of excitement that Parnell seems incapable of generating.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com