AIDEA turns to Dave Stieren to improve its image with $1.4 million

Here’s the easiest $1.4 million the Alaska Legislature can save in the next month.

Any agency that wants to give $1.4 million to former Dunleavy cheerleader Dave Stieren for a publicity campaign deserves to have $1.4 million removed from its budget.

Stieren’s latest habit is calling those who disagree with him Communists.

The agency in question is the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, which decided to spend $1.4 million on publicity over the next two years without any discussion or debate.

The AIDEA board, which consists of Dunleavy supporters who always have money to throw around, did this at its April 10 meeting in Ketchikan.

Adopting a communications budget should require some advance planning, study and details. But that is beyond the ability of the AIDEA board, a lackluster group that functions as a rubber stamp.

The Northern Journal reports that AIDEA executive director Randy Ruaro directed all questions to AIDEA publicity man Dave Stieren, a longtime government employee who attacks government spending and enjoys insulting anyone who disagrees with him.

“Mothership AIDEA has done, frankly, little to nothing on a consistent basis to tell our story,” Stieren said in an email to reporter Nat Herz.

“We're far more than roads,” Stieren said. “But since we've really not promoted or showcased our efforts in traditional finance areas, I understand the narrative or lack thereof that folks may have.”

What AIDEA needs is more transparency and a new governor who will encourage its political hacks to pursue their dreams in the private sector.

Stieren claims that although the resolution allows AIDEA to spend $700,000 this year and $700,000 in 2027, the agency may not spend that much. It depends on what contractors propose, he claims.

This is not a conservative approach, especially since the board members had no questions or comments on the $1.4 million plan.

I’ll remind you that AIDEA has continued to hide the $250,000 “independent” economic study that was completed more than two years ago and withheld from the Legislature.

Here is a typical example of Stieren’s publicity skills from this past weekend, as quoted by the Northern Journal: “When commie libs attack AIDEA, they attack projects like this,” Stieren said about the Ketchikan shipyard.

Dunleavy rewarded Stieren with a state job for years in which Stieren complained about others and created propaganda for Dunleavy, portraying him as a brilliant leader.

In 2023, AIDEA rewarded Stieren with a new PR job and called him an “infrastructure development officer.”

A week ago he whined on a Facebook page that referred to Mary Peltola’s opposition to trawl bycatch and again discovered the “Commies” aiding Peltola.

The alleged AIDEA infrastructure expert also claims that wanting to extend the oil taxes that Exxon and ConocoPhillips pay to Hilcorp is not fair to Hilcorp.

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