McLeod: Investigate the Systemic Corruption in the Palin-Parnell Administration

Andree McLeod to Senator, Representative
8/20/10

 

Ethics

Senate President Stevens and House Speaker Chenault:
I call on you to appoint a Special Prosecutor with full subpoena and investigative powers to investigate the systemic corruption in the Parnell-Palin Administration.  It is the Parnell-Palin Administration because, even though he is acting Governor, Sean Parnell has kept the Palin Administration in place.
The State Ethics Board is impotent and Ethics Board attorney Tim Petumenos, as vice president of the law firm Birch, Horton, Bittner & Cherot, contracts with the state for bond counsel and civil work.  Petumenos will not do anything to endanger those contracts since, as a shareholder, he shares in the income generated from those contracts. That is one reason he white-washed Palin’s Troopergate, Lamal hire at DOT, family travel and legal defense fund inquiries.
Matters to be addressed by the Special Prosecutor:
1.      Whether DNR Commissioner Marty Rutherford steered the gas line project to her former client, Trans-Canada. The Special Prosecutor would investigate to determine, among other things, if Trans-Canada played a role in drafting AGIA and whether Rutherford breached her duty to the state by sharing confidential information regarding any aspect of AGIA with Trans-Canada. 
 
2.      Why Joe Balash has been kept on the State Gas Line Team after had been offered a job by Enstar even though the Gas Line Team’s work involves Enstar.
 
3.      Whether the state procurement codes were violated by the RFP processes employed by DNR and the Department of Revenue for contracts related to in-state gas line work.
 
4.      Whether Enstar influenced any of the RFP awards related to in-state gasline work.
 
5.      Whether Todd Palin violated state statutes by lobbying state employees on commercial fishing issues that directly related to his commercial set net operations.
 
6.      What role DNR Commissioner Tom Irwin played in the hiring of his former boss Steve Haagenson as Executive Director of the Alaska Energy Authority. Also, whether Irwin used his state office to help orchestrate the give-away of the Healy Clean Coal Plant to his former employer Golden Valley Electric Association.
 
7.      Answers to questions about the Healy Clean Coal Plant raised by Andrew Halcro (Articles HCCP 1 & 2 attached)
http://www.andrewhalcro.com/healy_clean_coal_rewarding_cheats_and_con_men.
 http://www.andrewhalcro.com/the_healy_clean_coal_plant
 
8.      Whether Jim Palin (Todd Palin’s father) lobbied the state administration on behalf of Golden Valley Electric regarding the Healy Clean Coal plant.
 
9.      Whether Revenue Commissioner Pat Galvin breached the State’s obligation for good faith and fair dealing when he unilaterally terminated contracts between AIDEA and Homer Electric for the restart and sale of the Healy Clean Coal Plant. (Galvin to Nordmark/Debnam 12-30-08 letter attached)
 
10.  Why Sean Parnell and Revenue Commissioner Pat Galvin repeatedly refuse to disclose the identity of the 15 new oil and gas explorers who received $193,000,000 million dollars in cash, as stated in this July 10, 2009 Department of Revenue press release. (Jul 10 2009 press release attached)
 
11.  Whether Governor Parnell violated state statutes by engaging four state employees (Joe Balash, Gene Therriault, Pete Kelly and Curtis Thayer) as deputy campaign treasurers for his re-election campaign. Balash, Therriault and Kelly were all directly supervised in their state jobs by Parnell. (Deputy Campaign Treasurers list attached)
 
12.  Whether Parnell violated state statutes by hiring Curtis Thayer as Deputy Commissioner of Commerce shortly after Thayer coordinated Parnell’s first major in-state fundraiser in Anchorage for his re-election  campaign. Thayer has little to no economic development experience and has been involved for many years in political fundraising for Republicans and in government relations for Enstar.
 
13.  Whether Governor’s staff member Joe Balash was moved from Fairbanks to Anchorage recently at state expense and for the purpose of working on Parnell’s re-election campaign. If it is important for Balash to work in Anchorage re: his state duties, why was he allowed to work out of his home community in Fairbanks for the past three years?
 
14.  Who directed state employees Joe Balash and Curtis Thayer to call lobbyists and other potential campaign donors who had appropriations in the state’s proposed FY 2011 capital budget and advise them to come to a Parnell fundraiser at Bill Sheffield’s house just days before the capital budget was signed. Were promises and threats made by these state employees regarding quid pro quo’s of state appropriations for campaign donations? Were these calls made on state time and on state telephones?
 
15.  Whether Governor Parnell violated state law by orchestrating, with the participation of campaign donors Peggy Brown and Susan Christianson, state-funded ads by a private non-profit corporation that supported his re-election campaign platform against domestic violence? Whether the Alaska Network on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault violate their state grant agreement intermingling state monies with the in-kind contributions, discounts and freebies from unidentified sources they collected for the production and airing of these ads?  Did Parnell violate federal campaign laws by contributing $15,000 from his remaining 2008 Congressional campaign funds to the Alaska Network on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault after they aired the ads in question? Was this an attempt to skirt laws against the use of federal campaign funds to support a state campaign? Did Parnell also violate federal campaign laws by having the Alaska Network on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault use film footage in their ad campaign that was also used in Parnell’s 2008 Congressional campaign ads? Were Parnell campaign donations from Brown and Christianson in December 2009 just before the ads aired evidence of an orchestrated effort to use state funds through a private non-profit corporation to support his re-election campaign?  Was Parnell telling the truth in 2000 when he denied a family history of domestic violence in a Juneau Empire Article or in 2010 when he describes a family history of domestic violence in these ads?  (Brown and Christianson contributions, FEC Report, Apr 2000 article, KTUU Feb 2010 report attached)
 
16.  Whether Bill McAllister, Mike Nizich and Linda Perez violated state rules and laws when Bill McAllister received his salary while he traveled to Sweden on a family vacation upon being hired in July of 2008…without submitting any leave slips. (Nizich-McAllister stranded in Sweden email attached)
 
17.  Whether laws were violated when chief of staff Mike Nizich was kept on the ONLY ONE PUBLIC MEMBER SEAT of the Aerospace Development Corporation board, which prohibited a bona fide genuine true member of the public from being appointed to the board.
 
18.  And lastly, where the money trail leads with the whole Matanuska Maid affair.
 
There is much in the Parnell-Palin administration that needs looking into.  A Special Prosecutor appointed by you will go a long way to correct the unacceptable course of the Parnell-Palin administration. 
 
All too often, legislators have ignored what’s been right under their nose.  But, it was Martin Luther King, Jr. who said, “The time is always right to do what is right.”
 
Do right by your constituents.  Be good stewards.  Exercise your charge.  Appoint a Special Counsel so the people within the Parnell-Palin administration who are responsible for inappropriate conduct and improper actions can be held accountable. Maybe then, Alaskans might feel like they have been made whole.

Comments

[ManxMamma]

[this is good] What an incredibly powerful statement!

[daisydem]

[this is good]

Finally a call for a comprehensive look into the Palin/Parnell or as you are now calling for the Parnell/Palin administration.  I am still interested in the role of Parnell when Sarah was the absentee governor and Todd ruled with the emails and the inappropriate presence in the Governor's office(s)!

[Syrin from Wasilla]

Thanks for your comment.... I'm also interested in the actual role of Todd Palin ... I called it the Palin/Parnel Admin, hence my title.. I would assume that Andree' for the purpose of Parnell being the present governor uses his name first.

[sjohnson]

Alaska is very fortunate to have Ms McLeod.  I appreciate her thoroughness and tenacity.  I also admire her ability to stay focused on the violations without becoming overly emotional about it.  She is very professional.  She deserves all the support she can get.