Attorney general criticized over Native adoption case

Sen. Hollis French, D-Anchorage, the chairman of the committee, said Sullivan's role in pursuing the Kaltag adoption case was a "chink in his armor." But French said he may ultimately vote to confirm Sullivan when the nomination comes before a joint session of the Legislature, probably in mid-April. French and Sen. Bill Wielechowski, another Anchorage Democrat, were Sullivan's two harshest critics on the panel, which generally gave him high marks for his qualifications, his service as a Marine and his ability to be a team player.

Sullivan was initially appointed by former Republican Gov. Sarah Palin. When she quit office in July, Gov. Sean Parnell, also a Republican, said Sullivan was his choice too for attorney general -- the state's top law enforcement officer, legal advisor to the governor, and boss of hundreds of civil attorneys, prosecutors and civil servants in the Department of Law.

The House Judiciary Committee passed out Sullivan's nomination Feb. 25th. The Kaltag case came up there too, raised by Rep. Bob Herron, D-Bethel, but the panel was generally friendly.

While adoption is generally governed by state law, the federal Indian Child Welfare Act gives preference to the wishes of tribes when the parties are Alaska Natives. One of Congress' goals in the law was to give some sovereignty to Native Americans in determining how to preserve their culture and to have as little disruption as possible in the lives of children coming from broken families.

French, who's running for governor, and Wielechowski said the state's efforts to block the placement decision by the Kaltag Tribal Council was bad for the child and so counter to prevailing law that a series of judges and appeals courts have ruled against it. Sullivan has hired outside counsel to take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

If the state is using the case to make a stand against tribal sovereignty, it's the wrong case, French said. The circumstances don't favor a ruling for the state, and real people are being hurt, he said.

"The facts in Kaltag are this," said Wielechowski. "You had a Mom who was convicted of murder and was a drinker. You had a Dad who wanted nothing to do with the child. You had the Kaltag tribe that took custody of the child, adopted her to residents who lived in Huslia. All participants consented to the tribal court doing this, all were Native, no one raised any concerns about the due process provided by the tribal court. The child is 10 years old, happy and healthy with the family, and the state comes in and wants to stop this."

The state should be happy that the tribe did the adoption work, saving the state money, he said.

"So from a policy perspective, I think this is a bad decision, and quite frankly to the Natives of Alaska, I think this is a slap in the face," Wielechowski said.

Sullivan responded that he had "respect for the Native community," and cited as evidence his recent decision to settle of a long-standing voting rights case in favor of speakers of Native languages. As for the Kaltag case, he said, the record about the adoption consent was not as clear as the tribe said it was.

"This is a case where in many ways the tribal court was trying to do the right thing -- I don't disagree with that," Sullivan said.

Sullivan was also asked about the recent loss of the personal data of 77,000 current and former state employees by a contractor working for the Department of Law, Price Waterhouse Cooper. The information linked names, dates of birth and social security numbers, he said -- information that could be used by identity thieves.

Sullivan said only 16,500 affected workers had taken advantage so far of a settlement that granted them at least two years worth of credit monitoring and indemnification if their identities were stolen.

Sullivan said there's no indication yet that anything bad has happened with the information.

"It could be sitting in a box," he said, knocking the wooden witness table.

But the state is also laying the groundwork for a criminal case if the information begins turning up in fraudulent financial transactions.

If two years pass and Alaskans find they're losing money because of the identity loss, the indemnification program with Price Waterhouse can be reopened, Sullivan said.

Sullivan is a commissioned officer in the Marine Reserves. He said he remains subject to call-up, as unlikely as that may be.