[Vision2020] Palin Appointed Friends and Donors to Key Posts inAlaska

[Kai Eiselein, Editor]

Don't all politicians appoint friends, family and donors? For some reason I 
highly doubt that it is endemic to one party or person....

--------------------------------------------------
From: "Tom Hansen" <thansen at moscow.com>
Sent: Friday, October 24, 2008 9:25 AM
To: <vision2020 at moscow.com>
Subject: [Vision2020] Palin Appointed Friends and Donors to Key Posts 
inAlaska

>>From the Los Angeles Times at:
>
> http://tinyurl.com/5ns4e3
>
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> 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.
>
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> 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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Kai Eiselein
Editor, Latah Eagle