State of Alaska will offer legal assistance for the governor as well as its lieutenant governor and the attorney general when there are ethics cases filed against these top officials.
According to an announcement in the public domain released on Friday the Attorney General Treg Taylor signed a law that allowed an attorney’s legal defence on Thursday and it was ratified by Lieutenant. Governor. Nancy Dahlstrom’s team in the afternoon of Friday. The change takes effect November. 12.
The idea is similar to the one proposed by the former Attorney General Kevin Clarkson in 2019. Following the legislative attorneys and public members asked legal and constitutional questions regarding the proposal that the Administration of Governor. Mike Dunleavy withdrew the idea.
The administration revived the idea in August. During an open-comment period of 30 days the Department of Law received more than 120 letters and emails in opposition to the plan.
An examination of the comments obtained via a public records request does not support the plan.
The current law allows the state to compensate top officials for private-hired legal assistance in certain instances and in situations where officials are cleared.
The Assistant Attorney General Cori Mills wrote via email, that hiring an attorney it is more expensive than utilizing internal counsel.
“In this case the department will provide the initial representation to ensure that it is in the best interest of the state and, if the violation is discovered and the penalty is assessed, the cost is paid through the official in charge of public affairs.”
In order to receive legal representation from the state attorney generalan official named by the governormust affirm that it’s in the public’s good interest for them to fight a claim made against the governor or the lieutenant governor. If there is an action brought in the name of attorney general the governor has to sign the declaration.
In response to emails, Mills said that the new rule “helps reduce the chance that the ethics complaint procedure is used to target or even become prey to predators. Ethics complaints can be filed at no cost by anyone who believes there is a infraction of the ethical code; it is not possible to take action available to anyone who files fraudulent or predatory ethics complaints, however it costs both the state and the party of the complaint time and money for defending.”
Many critics of the reform have claimed they believe the system was susceptible to self-dealing. attorney general has been appointed by governors, and is given the power to provide state-funded legal assistance.
“I honestly, am not happy with the plan in that I’m unable to understand how they could define frivolous issues that might need an attorney general assist or assisting with non-frivolous issues when the attorney general should not be involved.” added the senator. Matt Claman, D-Anchorage and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
In the Alaskan Executive Branch Ethics Act, complaints about Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and Attorney General are reviewed by an independent counsel appointed through the State Personnel Board, whose three members are appointed by the governor, and subject to confirmation by the legislature.
The website of the board lists no meetings until August 2022.
The ethics process in Alaska is unclear. The law of the state exempts this process from Alaska Open Records Act, and the disclosure of a complaint would be illegal under the state law.
In 2009, in response to an avalanche of ethics-related complaints about then-Gov. Sarah Palin, Attorney General Dan Sullivan said that the state would cover the public official’s privately-hired legal defense in certain instances. Sullivan currently serves as the state’s senior U.S. senator.
In the event that the employee was cleared or acted within the scope of their duties, and recorded reasonable expenses, as well as the government had funds to pay the legal cost the state could be able to pick the bill, Sullivan wrote.
“I believe that the the former Attorney General — and now U.S. senator. Dan Sullivan — used what I believe to be an equilibrist strategy,” Claman said.
Claman and others who have criticized the new strategy said it could lead to a resurgence of staffing issues at the Department of Law. If lawyers are representing the governor as well as other top officials, they may not have the time to handle sexual assault and domestic violence cases, for example.
There are still concerns about the legality of this new regulation. In August, Senator. Bill Wielechowski, D-Anchorage requested legislative lawyers to determine if the new rule is in accordance with the state law and Constitution.
Although the new rule is not written in the same way as the proposed rule for 2019, lawyer Noah Klein, it is still a matter of debate as to whether it is in the public’s interest, and if it’s in violation of the power separation rules.
The Alaska Public Interest Research Group that criticized the 2019 plan and made critiques of the idea and said it’s the responsibility of the Legislature to decide.
“With the self-interested ethics regulations changes, which have now been signed into law Governor. Dunleavy along with Attorney General Taylor have created an unethical process that allows them along with other Alaska high-ranking officials to operate for years under the cover of darkness while they violate our laws and regulations on the dime of Alaskan taxpayers,” said Veri di Suvero the executive director of the group. “Not only does this move not take into account the widespread opposition of Alaskans and the public, but it also disregards the numerous opinions of Legislative Legal, which found these changes were illegal.”
The story first appeared in Alaska Beacon and is republished here with permission.
