The Legislature needs to begin monitoring the APFC and other state corporations as part of the checks and balances essential to preserve or rebuild public trust.

This is not just a task for the trustees, as Gov. Mike Dunleavy has claimed.

The six-member Board of Trustees is clearly divided over how to deal with the behavior of trustee Gabrielle Rubenstein, who has been described in leaked emails as inserting herself into corporation operations in ways that are inappropriate for a trustee.

That’s one of the takeaways from the special meeting Wednesday, which included a sharp exchange between Craig Richards and Jason Brune. Richards referred to inappropriate actions by unnamed trustees, while Brune complained that Richards was making “large allegations.”

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The Alaska Legislature held its annual joint session to consider confirmation or rejection of people placed on boards and commissions by Gov. Mike Dunleavy since last year, rejecting 3 of 81 appointees.

There were legislative confirmation hearings on many of those up for a vote, but the confirmation process is almost always superficial and cursory.

The Legislature rejected three nominees, Bob Griffin, Mike Porcaro and Mark Sayampanathan. Griffin was on the state school board, Porcaro was on the Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission and Sayampanathan was on the Worker’s Compensation Board.

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The trustees of the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation still have time to correct the serious mistake they’ve made on the agenda for the special meeting Wednesday about the leak of documents related to the meddling of trustee Gabrielle Rubenstein in fund operations.

Missing from the agenda is any chance for public comment at the special meeting that begins at 8 a.m.

The trustees may claim that there is no need for public comment on a matter of internal security that should be kept confidential.

No one has suggested that any of the leaked emails are fakes. What they show is the most serious leadership crisis in the history of the fund. This must be dealt with in the open.

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By ROBIN O’DONOGHUE

Senate Bill 165, sponsored by Sen. Matt Claman, fixes the harm done by Attorney General Treg Taylor last October when he unwisely implemented a corrupt arrangement to benefit only him, Gov. Mike Dunleavy and Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom. It simply reads that the Department of Law, including the attorney general, may not represent or advise the governor, the lieutenant governor, or another public officer or former public officer in a matter in which that public officer or former public officer is the subject of a complaint filed under the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act.

Senate Bill 17 proposes to reset limits to political campaign contributions. Our campaign finance laws are intended to restore the public’s trust in the electoral process and to foster good government. The campaign disclosure law directly limits the influence of contributors on candidates by limiting the size of campaign contributions.

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The spokesman for the group opposing Proposition A, which is on the ballot Tuesday in Fairbanks, says that with “the exception of exceptional anti-faith and anti-family propaganda, our local school board has a dismal record of success.”

Josh Church, who represents Tammie Wilson’s “Citizens for Transparent Government,” expressed his views of the Fairbanks schools last year in a piece he wrote for a right-wing Anchorage blog. He said it’s the fault of the community that the schools aren’t doing a better job.

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The special election Tuesday in Fairbanks is about saving our schools, the quality of which has everything to do with what kind of future Fairbanks will enjoy or endure.

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The House Finance Committee stripped the $300 million blank check from a bond bill Friday for the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority.

The change, if it survives the rest of the legislative process, means AIDEA would have to come back at a future date with a specific plan on how it would like to use the $300 million.

The decision is a step toward establishing checks and balances with the state-owned development bank, which is controlled by the governor.

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The haphazard handling of the Dunleavy administration response to the landmark court ruling on correspondence schools continued Friday with Gov. Mike Dunleavy reversing the position he had taken two days earlier.

“This is literally a disaster, potentially, an emergency because of its magnitude,” he told reporters Wednesday.

It is not literally a disaster. And it is not an emergency. It is a problem that can be solved. It’s hard to do that, however, when the governor and his attorney general are more interested in creating hysteria and getting people angry than in solving the problem.

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Radio talk show host and adman Mike Porcaro led the “red pen” campaign in 2019 to harass legislators who balked at Dunleavy’s plan for $1.6 billion in budget cuts that would slash every state and local government service.

Porcaro claimed the government could be smaller, with no income tax and no reduction in Permanent Fund Dividends. That was a complete fantasy, of course.

He now says it was just show business.

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The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority has refused to explain how it came up with the $300 million bond plan under review by the Legislature.

It has also refused to explain how it came up with another amendment—one that has yet to be officially added to a bill—that would also allow the corporation to borrow $100 million without bothering with legislative approval, up from the current $25 million.

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