Personnel board appointments debated

Anchorage Republican Rep. Bob Lynn, who has been supportive of Palin, sponsored a bill that would make the governor pick from a list submitted by the chief justice of the state supreme court. Lynn said it would reassure the public.

"It helps protect and insulate the governor from what could be, and usually is, unfair criticism from the public that you have the fox watching the hen house," Lynn said Tuesday, as the bill passed its first committee.

Anchorage Democratic Rep. Les Gara, no fan of Palin's, favors Lynn's House Bill 348. Gara said he thinks some of the people filing ethics complaints against Palin went overboard. But he said the current system casts a lot of doubt about the rulings made by members of the Personnel Board, who he said could be political allies of the governor.

"I did not follow every complaint in any great detail. But you always do wonder whether a personnel board appointed by Republican governors is going to be objective when it looks at conduct by a Republican governor," Gara said.

The three members of the Personnel Board are charged in Alaska law with looking into ethics complaints made against the governor and other members of the executive branch. The current members were all appointed by Republican governors, although two of them aren't registered with a political party.

The board members have six-year terms and only one, Alaska Christian College President Keith Hamilton, was appointed by Sean Parnell, the current governor. Board member Debra English was reappointed by Palin in 2008 and Al Tamagni was appointed in 2006 by Frank Murkowski.

Lynn said he does not think there's been a problem with the Personnel Board.

"But there's always the perception out there and, in politics, perception often becomes reality in the public mind," he said.

Current law says only that the board members can't be state employees and no more than two of the three can be registered with the same political party. They are appointed by the governor and then confirmed by the Legislature.

Lynn's bill would expand the board to five members. He said that would provide more of a broad range of opinion. The panel would also need to include at least one member from each of the top two political parties in the state.

The governor would be required to pick from a list of at least three nominees from the chief justice of the Alaska Supreme Court, although the governor could reject the entire list and ask the chief justice for another.

Gara called that a loophole and said the governor shouldn't get to keep asking for new nominees over and over if he or she doesn't like the slate presented. But Lynn described it as a way to deal with potential separation-of-powers issues involved in the Legislature reducing a governor's ability to make appointments.

The attorney general's office raised the separation-of-powers issue Tuesday. But the Parnell administration didn't object to the bill as it passed from the House State Affairs Committee. The bill next goes to the judiciary committee, chaired by Fairbanks Republican Rep. Jay Ramras. Ramras last year deemed a "whitewash" the report commissioned by the personnel board that found Palin not responsible for any wrongdoing in the so-called Troopergate affair.

Zane Henning, who had two ethics complaints against Palin dismissed, testified last month to a legislative committee that elected officials rather than a governor's appointees should oversee the complaints. His concern seemed to resonate with some legislators. "I'm just wondering, is there maybe too close of a relationship there?" Sen. Kevin Meyer, R-Anchorage, asked during that hearing.

Assistant Attorney General Judy Bockmon said an independent counsel investigates ethics complaints against the governor, lieutenant governor or attorney general in an effort to separate the Personnel Board from those high-level officials.

The outcome of at least one Personnel Board case from the Palin era remains a mystery. Independent Counsel Tom Daniel on July 14 found "probable cause" that Palin's legal defense fund violated state ethics law. But the board has taken no public action and the fund's Web site still solicits donations.

Find Sean Cockerham online at adn.com/contact/scockerham or call him at 257-4344.