The Count, Courts & The Corp The Count, Courts & The Corp January 22, 2022 Dear Friends and Neighbors, We're back in session! This Tuesday the legislature gaveled in the second session of the 32d legislature. There are a lot of legislative updates to come, but first let's check in with the other branches of government. On the Senate floor for the first day of session with Sens. Myers & Revak. (Check out Josh's fancy ascot!) The Courts We got lots of big news from the courts this week. First, the Alaska Supreme Court nixed the lawsuit challenging ranked choice voting. The full decision explaining their reasoning isn’t out yet, but the Court left the whole initiative in place. That means we’ll have an open primary election in August. Alaskans will vote for their one favorite candidate, regardless of party. All candidates will be on the same ballot. The top four will be on the November ballot for a ranked choice election where you can put them in the order you prefer. Our constitution says "Methods of voting, including absentee voting, shall be prescribed by law." Alaskans voted to put this new system into law, and it's not a huge surprise that the Court found no problems with that. I'm excited to see how it affects the public discussion of the challenges facing our state. I'm also curious to see how or whether it changes the way legislators work together. Some Republican activists say open primaries and ranked choice general elections will hand over Alaska politics to the Democrats. Some Democratic leaders say the switch will only help Republicans. At this point, it's up to Alaska voters to show us the way. Loser, Loser, Superuser The other big court news this week involved Gov. Dunleavy. He spends a lot of time in court suing and getting sued. A whole lot. He doesn't win much. True to form, this week he lost yet another case. This one was in federal court. Remember when he first got into office and asked just about every non-union state employee to submit a resignation so he could benevolently rehire them when they professed loyalty to his agenda? Two doctors at the Alaska Psychiatric Institute refused. The governor fired them. They won their court case a few months ago. The federal judge said the governor couldn’t fire an employee just for refusing to associate with his politics. This week the governor lost a similar case. A state attorney submitted the resignation, but put her objection to it in writing. The governor fired her. That, too, was thrown out as a first amendment violation. These may be at-will employees, but that doesn’t give the governor (or anyone) the right to fire them for unconstitutional reasons. Next up: we'll learn how much Alaskans have to pay these wrongfully fired employees for the governor's actions. Every governor replaces political appointees when he or she takes office. That's perfectly appropriate for jobs that drive the governor's agenda. Only our current governor has ever demanded a loyalty oath from every single non-union worker. But doctors, civil lawyers, and the people who handle grants to domestic violence programs don't give up their constitutional rights when they sign on to serve our state. It's nice having a constitution that says so. Reps. Story, Hannan, & I enjoyed visiting Floyd Dryden Middle School last Friday. The district was nice enough put out this picture on Twitter. The Corporation Session started off with a bang the day before we gaveled in. The Legislative Budget & Audit Committee had the dubious pleasure of listening to the chair of the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation board, Craig Richards. A few weeks ago I mentioned my alarm when the board summarily fired the executive director of the fund without warning or explanation. Mr. Richards' testimony Monday did nothing to settle my nerves. Mr. Richards did not give anything like an explanation for firing Ms. Rodell. He did not lay out issues with her personnel management skills. He didn't so much as hint at scandal or wrongdoing. He adamantly denied that the governor's commissioners who are trustees and actively promote overdrawing the Permanent Fund wanted her to stop actively working against pulling an extra, unsustainable $3 billion out of the fund to pay larger dividend checks. The closest he came to an explanation was in a series of statements that the director and the board didn't get along—a rationale so vague it could mean she failed to compliment his haircut. But when the questions started, his answers swung so wildly those of us in the room risked whiplash trying to follow them. He said Ms. Rodell just did administrative and PR work, so she wasn't responsible for the success of the fund. When questioned, he acknowledged she did more than that. Later he nodded in agreement when legislators pointed out the board wouldn't have given her years of good reviews and hefty raises if the investments had lagged. He also said multiple times that the board's overriding goal was investment returns for the fund. But he never said a single thing that so much as hinted at the executive director or her team falling short on delivering those. He said there was no politics in the board's action. But later, when he sniped at legislators for being 'political' by having an oversight hearing, he admitted the opposite, saying "there's politics going both ways here." He made a presentation on the law noting the legislature has oversight duties for the fund (a point he repeated later.) But after tacking and jibing for a couple of hours he complained that the legislature shouldn't have inconvenienced the fund or him personally by holding a hearing. He refused to answer a lot of questions, including about contact with the governor’s office. Later reporting showed there were meetings between the governor’s office and members of the board before they fired Ms. Rodell. The governor and one commissioner trustee were actually traveling together at the time. And there's another important set of facts that didn't come up at the hearing. When the committee chair asked if Mr. Richards planned to apply to be the next CEO, he denied interest, saying he lived in Anchorage and couldn't possibly. He tactically did not mention his work a little more than a year ago to get the fund to open an Anchorage office and give the board chair (himself) some of the powers of the CEO. The board shot down the extra office idea after an analysis provided by the executive director showed it would add costs but would not increase fund returns. The attempt to start down the road toward making himself chairman and CEO was illegal under Alaska law. The board shot it down, too, after staff pointed out the problems. Mr. Richards was about as far from disinterested as they come. There is not yet proof the governor had the Executive Director of the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation fired because of dividend check politics or personal revenge. To date those are the most likely explanations, but they remain only theories. The Legislative Budget and Audit Committee plans more hearings. The issue isn't about Angela Rodell. It's about the future of our state’s biggest investment and single largest source of income. Sen. Micciche was right during the hearing when he called it a "Founding Fathers-level Legacy." Will it continue to deliver services and income for our children and grandchildren? Or will it become a tool for executive branch politics? Stay tuned. All my best, Did someone forward you this newsletter? Did you fall into it through the series of tubes? Want more? SUBSCRIBE Events & Happenings Around District Q Juneau Murder Mysteries Retired journalists present true crime stories with a Southeast Alaska flair. The second one is March 5. Juneau Platypus Con It’s all fun and games at this board game and card game convention, starting Jan. 28. Juneau Quilled Come to the City Museum for exhibition of Kirsten Shelton’s art built around the rainforest we live in. It starts Feb. 4 (and there’s an artist talk on the 5th!) Haines Discovery Kits Get to the Haines Library and check out your discovery kit to open up a world of fun! Is there an event in our district I should know about? Please call or email! Snail Mail? Alaska State Capitol Room 419 Juneau, AK 99801 Call: 800 550 4947 907 465 4947 Email Me! ‌ ‌ ‌ Contact My Staff, the people who power the work: Edric Carrillo 907 465 6419 [email protected] Cathy Schlingheyde 907 465 6827 [email protected] Senator Jesse Kiehl | Alaska State Capitol, Rm. 419, 4th Avenue & Main Street, Juneau, AK 99801 Unsubscribe [email protected] Update Profile | Constant Contact Data Notice Sent by [email protected]