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

[No Weatherman]

No.

Only evil Republicans appoint family, friends, and donors.

Democrats are bipartisan and unbiased in their appointments.



On Fri, Oct 24, 2008 at 10:03 AM, Kai Eiselein, Editor
<editor at lataheagle.com> wrote:
> 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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>>
>
>
>
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>>          mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
>> =======================================================
> Kai Eiselein
> Editor, Latah Eagle
>
> =======================================================
>  List services made available by First Step Internet,
>  serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
>               http://www.fsr.net
>          mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
> =======================================================
>