Alaska doesn’t need to expand state bureaucracy with Dunleavy’s alleged ‘Office of Family & Life’
Gov. Mike Dunleavy announced to his right-wing religious supporters at fund-raising dinners in Anchorage and Fairbanks that he created an “Office of Family & Life” led by a $110,000-a-year state employee, but he has still not revealed the existence of this stealth office to the public.
And he has yet to release the videos he and Jeremy Cubas made about the office.
Cubas resigned from the state job last week after the publication of a news story regarding his incendiary remarks on rape, Hitler, minorities, Martin Luther King Jr., etc.
He was the “temporary director” of the OFL, according to Jim Minnery, a right-wing political minister and churchman who organized the dinners at which Dunleavy and Cubas spoke.
Cubas was temporary only in the sense that he disappeared from the job last week right before Nat Herz and Curtis Gilbert had their investigation posted by Alaska Public Media.
Cubas, father of nine, is a Catholic and attends the same church as Dunleavy. He was a photographer for Dunleavy before Dunleavy picked him to lead the OFL.
Minnery posted a photo showing the state seal and the name of the OFL, an outfit that has more than religious overtones to it.
“Our theme for our dinners where the OFL was introduced to the public was out of a letter written about 60 years after Jesus dies on a Roman cross. In it, the Apostle Paul implores a gathering of believers in what is now modern day Turkey to dig deeper into their faith and establish themselves on the deity of Christ,” says Minnery.
To be clear, the Minnery ministry combines right-wing politics and religion.
Minnery now wants nothing to do with Cubas after publication of what Minnery claims are opinions that are the opposite of what real Christians believe.
While Minnery says that “implementing the OFL meant that the Governor had to choose among people who are fallen,” (because all humans are fallen) Cubas is not repentant and Dunleavy is not explaining why he is spending public money on an office that is not about families and life, but about pontificating.
“We were getting out of the gate with this new office, working with the governor on advancing the importance of family and the importance of protecting innocent human life in Alaska from conception to natural death,” Minnery said on his podcast. “We will continue to do that. And Gov. Dunleavy is very passionate about that as well.”
Minnery said maybe the “background check” on Cubas was not as “thorough as it could have been.”
Background check? Who said there was a background check on Cubas?
“Yes, he did speak at some of our dinners. We’re just wanting to move forward, realizing that mistakes happened in terms of that hire, and ready to move on to bigger and better things, in terms of having a state like Gov. Dunleavy has said that’s the most pro-life in the country,” said Minnery.
“I want to thank the governor publicly for creating this office. It’s just a shame that it got out of the gate this way,” says Minnery.
In other words, mistakes were made.
But it’s not time to move on. We need to see the videos of Dunleavy and Cubas.
The alleged office, which I suspect is nothing more than a set of talking points that will be assigned to someone else in the governor’s office, is not something Alaska needs.
What we need is for Dunleavy to do much more about the deficiencies in state government in dealing with families and children.
It is hypocritical of him to claim to be ”pro-life,” while doing nothing to fix the gaping holes in our system that leave untold numbers of children in need of aid.
Dunleavy can start with a real response to the shameful situation described by Bethel Superior Court Judge Terrence Haas on April 19 in a six-page indictment of how our state mistreats some children and families.
Reporter Michelle Theriault Boots of the Anchorage Daily News had excellent coverage.
A 12-year-old child in foster care mentioned thoughts of suicide at school and she was hospitalized for a week before her parents, attorney, tribe and guardian ad litem were informed. She was all alone in the Alaska Native Medical Center.
This breakdown in communication with the people who are supposed to be looking after her is inhumane. It’s also illegal.
As Haas makes clear, it’s part of a systemic nightmare that escapes public notice because confidentiality is the norm. The Office of Children’s Services is a “system under stress,” he said, with high turnover, not enough social workers, not enough training, not enough resources.
“OCS’s staffing is not adequate and its staffing structure not appropriate to the job at hand,” he said.
Judge Haas said that even the Legislature doesn’t know what is happening in the secret realm where these complicated cases are decided. He said that most Alaskans would not be happy if they knew how we fund the system, operate the system, staff the system and how decisions are made.
Haas didn’t say whether he believes the governor is also in the dark about what is going on.
I’m guessing that Dunleavy and Cubas didn’t mention this poor 12-year-old girl at the Minnery ministry fundraiser and how the girl was left alone in the hospital for a week, with no family, friends or legal representatives stopping by, just the hospital staff.
A story like that isn’t appropriate material for fancy dinners where the governor and a $110,000 OFL employee can boast about how they are going to make Alaska the most family friendly state in the nation.
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