[Vision2020] Palin Appointed Friends and Donors to Key Posts in Alaska

[Tom Hansen]

>From the Los Angeles Times at:

http://tinyurl.com/5ns4e3
 
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Palin appointed friends and donors to key posts in Alaska, records show
100-plus jobs went to campaign donors or their relatives, sometimes 
without apparent regard to qualifications. Several donors got state-
subsidized loans for business ventures of dubious public value.
By Charles Piller

October 24, 2008

Reporting from Anchorage — Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, plucked from relative 
obscurity in part for her reform credentials, has been eager to tout them 
in her vice presidential campaign.

"I took on the old politics as usual in Juneau when I stood up to the 
special interests and the lobbyists and the big oil companies and the good 
old boys," Palin told the Republican National Convention in her acceptance 
speech. She said that as a new governor she "shook things up, and in short 
order we put the government of our state back on the side of the people."

By midway through her first term, she had signed an ethics reform bill, 
increased oil profit taxes and tweaked Big Oil again by awarding a gas 
pipeline contract to a Canadian company.

In some other respects, a Los Angeles Times examination of state records 
shows, her approach to government was business as usual. Take, for 
example, the tradition of patronage. Some of Palin's most controversial 
appointments involved donors, records show.

Among The Times' findings:

* More than 100 appointments to state posts -- nearly 1 in 4 -- went to 
campaign contributors or their relatives, sometimes without apparent 
regard to qualifications.

* Palin filled 16 state offices with appointees from families that donated 
$2,000 to $5,600 and were among her top political patrons.

* Several of Palin's leading campaign donors received state-subsidized 
industrial development loans of up to $3.6 million for business ventures 
of questionable public value.

* Palin picked a donor to replace the public safety commissioner she 
fired. But the new top cop had to resign days later under an ethics cloud. 
And Palin drew a formal ethics complaint still pending against her and 
several aides for allegedly helping another donor and fundraiser land a 
state job.

Most new governors install friends and supporters in state jobs. But 
Alaska historians say some of Palin's appointees were less qualified than 
those of her Republican and Democratic predecessors.

University of Alaska historian Steve Haycox said Palin has been a 
reformer. But he said she has a penchant for placing supporters, many of 
them ill-prepared, in high posts. He called it "cronyism" far beyond what 
previous governors have done and a contradiction of her high-minded 
philosophy.

Terrence Cole, an Alaska political historian, said Palin had in some cases 
shown "a disrespect for experience."

Administration officials disputed such criticism. They said campaign 
contributions were not a factor in state appointments. Frank Bailey, the 
state's directorof boards and commissions, in speaking for Palin, who was 
not available to answer inquiries from The Times, said, "We are always 
seeking the best-qualified folks."

In a little-noted sequel to Palin's controversial dismissal of her public 
safety commissioner, the governor replaced Walt Monegan with former small-
town Police Chief Charles Kopp of Kenai. The appointment unraveled almost 
immediately in what Cole called a vetting catastrophe.

A previous sexual harassment complaint came to light and Kopp had to 
resign two weeks after taking over. Alaska paid him $10,000 in severance.

After another of Palin's campaign donors and fundraisers landed a civil 
service job with the state department of transportation, GOP activist 
Andree McLeod filed an ethics complaint against the governor and several 
aides, alleging that improper pressure was used to help Tom Lamal.

Lamal, a public school teacher in Fairbanks until he retired in 2006, was 
hired as a right-of-way agent despite reports of internal conflicts over 
whether he was qualified under state law.

E-mail messages between Palin aides, obtained by McLeod under the state 
public records act, indicate that the hiring was pushed "through the 
roadblocks" by a deputy to one of Palin's appointees. And Palin aide 
Bailey sent Lamal a congratulatory note saying, in part, "Well now your 
foot's back in the door and maybe we can tap you for other things."

Lamal declined to be interviewed for this article.

Palin spokesman William McAllister declined to comment because of an 
ongoing state personnel board inquiry.

Palin told the Anchorage Daily News in August that her office merely 
worked to fix a "glitch" that prevented Lamal's hiring because of outdated 
job requirements, and that no favors were given.

In other state appointments, records show that all five Palin selections 
for the powerful Natural Gas Development Authority, which oversees a 
proposed gas pipeline project, were donors. They included Kathryn Lamal, 
wife of Tom Lamal.

She appointed Kristan Cole, a school friend and a campaign donor, to the 
Board of Agriculture and Conservation, a farm regulatory position that by 
state law must go to people with strong business experience. Cole is a 
real estate agent.

All three appointees to the Board of Public Accountancy, which oversees 
the accounting industry, gave to her campaign for governor, as did all 
three appointees to the Local Boundary Commission, which regulates 
contentious land annexations by local governments.

Palin reappointed donor Steve Frank to the Alaska Permanent Fund Corp., 
which manages Alaska's $29-billion oil revenue nest egg. Frank, a former 
Republican legislator, is married to another leading donor, Linda 
Anderson, a lobbyist for power and tourism companies, among others.

The Permanent Fund position earns a $400-a-day honorarium. Most other 
board and commission appointees receive per diem and travel expenses. 
Regardless of compensation, experts said, such appointments are coveted 
for their power and prestige, or as a political stepping stone.

Palin spokesman McAllister said that most Cabinet-level officials she 
appointed were not donors. In every state, he added, people who "apply to 
serve in a voluntary role are typically supporters of the governor."

Records show that Palin donors obtained state-subsidized business loans 
from the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, or AIDEA, 
whose mission is to encourage "economic growth and diversification of the 
state, including expansion of small businesses."

In one case, Jae G. Lee, a former Los Angeles businessman who is the 
proprietor of Party Time, a rundown grocery store and bottle shop in 
Anchorage, sought a $2.7-million state loan to buy an aging strip mall in 
midtown Anchorage. It was on the market because of a glut of similar malls 
in the area, all of them losing customers to big-box stores.

Lee and his wife, who had contributed $3,000 worth of office space to 
Palin's 2006 campaign, won the low-interest, state-backed mortgage 
although it was unclear how the old mall would add jobs. Lee said he did 
nothing to improve his acquisition, but with the cheap loan his profits 
have been robust.

Lee said he did not seek Palin's help to obtain the loan.

Two other state-backed loans with favorable terms and questionable 
development benefits went to Palin contributor and local dentist Scott 
Laudon and his partners. The investors got $1.2 million to refinance debt 
on Northern Lights Village -- a gritty collection of shops including 
massage and tattoo parlors, a secondhand-clothing store and a video 
arcade. Its neighbors along a 1 1/2 -mile stretch of Northern Lights 
Boulevard in midtown Anchorage include a dozen strip malls.

Laudon and other partners also received $3.6 million to buy two automated 
car washes in Anchorage. The benefit to Alaska, according to the approval 
documents, was the retention of five jobs -- which would have remained 
without the subsidy. Laudon declined to comment.

The Times requested documentation on the Lee and Laudon loans, including 
interest rates, from AIDEA on Sept. 25, but the agency has not released 
the materials and has declined to discuss details.

The agency "probably looked at it this way: 'This is a good loan that will 
be paid back,' " said Bob Poe, former AIDEA chief. "That helps them 
produce income to make other loans, much like a bank." As economic 
development, however, both loans sound questionable, he said.

Three Palin appointees to the AIDEA board also gave to her campaign for 
governor. This year the board picked Palin donor Ted Leonard as chief 
executive of the $1.2-billion agency. His principal credential was having 
been financial manager of tiny Wasilla, Alaska. Palin appointed him to the 
city post when she was mayor.

Agency spokesman Karsten Rodvik said that Palin was not directly involved 
in the selection and that Leonard was the top applicant because of his 
long and diverse experience in finance and economic development. He also 
said that AIDEA managers were "not aware" of any influence by Palin or her 
aides on any loans.

Some of Palin's other appointments have been controversial.

Franci Havemeister, one of several of Palin's childhood friends tapped for 
leadership jobs, heads the state agriculture division. A former real 
estate agent, she was ridiculed in Alaska after it was reported that she 
had cited among her qualifications for the job a childhood love of cows.

And Palin's choice for attorney general, Talis Colberg, stirred 
considerable puzzlement: He was virtually unknown beyond her circle near 
Wasilla. Colberg, who had a solo law practice and little management 
experience, now oversees 500 professionals.

Colberg was criticized by both Republican and Democratic legislators for 
his handling of the recent investigation of Palin's actions in a 
controversy involving her ex-brother-in-law -- a state trooper -- and 
Monegan. A Superior Court judge overruled Colberg's move to quash 
investigative subpoenas in the case.

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Seeya round at Farmers' Market and the Homecoming Parade, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho
UI '96
 
"We're a town of about 23,000 with 10,000 college students. The college 
students are not very active in local elections (thank goodness!)."

- Dale Courtney (March 28, 2007)


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