Gov. Sean Parnell's hire of state Sen. Gene Therriault last year is drawing scrutiny, with a rival candidate for governor saying Therriault should be fired and now activist Andree McLeod producing a document she says proves the hire illegal.

The Parnell administration says the document does not prove that at all.

Therriault said Monday he has no intention of following former Rep. Nancy Dahlstrom, who resigned from the Parnell administration this month after Attorney General Dan Sullivan said there was an "appreciable risk" a court might find her hire illegal.

Both Dahlstrom and Therriault left the Legislature for newly created positions in the Parnell administration. The Alaska Constitution and state law do not allow legislators to be "nominated, elected or appointed" to any state job that was created while they were in office. They must wait a year before taking such a job.

The Parnell administration maintained the hiring was legal because the jobs were not technically created until after the legislators had left office. McLeod said the document she obtained from the governor's office through a public records request proves otherwise. She sent the document this weekend to the Daily News and many others.

Therriault left the state Senate on Sept. 13.

McLeod obtained a "Request for Personnel Action" form signed by Linda Perez of the governor's office on Sept. 1 and by Therriault Sept. 12. The document says Therriault acknowledges "I am being appointed" to a state position (he was being made Parnell's energy adviser).

The document gives an effective date of Sept. 14, the day after Therriault resigned from the Senate.

Parnell spokeswoman Sharon Leighow said other documents that McLeod received include a screen print from the payroll system showing the job was created on Sept. 21, and made effective as of Sept. 14. That's after he left the Senate, she said.

The Sept. 12 date Therriault put next to his signature on the "Request for Personnel Action" form was a Saturday. He said he looked over the form that day and started the job Monday the 14th. He said he did not deliver the document to the governor's office until the following Thursday, when he happened to be in Juneau.

McLeod said the job was created on Sept. 1, when Linda Perez of the governor's office put her signature on the "Request for Personnel Action" form. That form is what created the job, she said, not when it was put into the payroll system. Therriault was still a sitting senator at the time, and the hire was clearly illegal, McLeod said, with no break in service between Therriault's two jobs.

OPPONENTs TAKE AIM

The Therriault hire has become an issue in the governor's race. Ralph Samuels, running against Parnell in the Republican primary, this month called on Parnell to fire him. Samuels said "Parnell's actions violate the spirit of the Alaska Constitution and state law."

KFQD radio host Dan Fagan, who supports Samuels, has been hammering Parnell on the issue, both on his website and on the air

Harry Crawford, a Democratic state representative running for Congress, on Monday weighed in: Therriault should resign, he said.

Therriault fired back at Samuels in a Monday interview. "It's very selective that Ralph Samuels didn't have that to say when other people were hired and he was a sitting legislator," he said.

Samuels was in the state House during the administration of Gov. Frank Murkowski, which hired legislators Robin Taylor, Bill Hudson and Alan Austerman in similar fashion. Samuels was in King Salmon on Monday, but his campaign manager, Willis Lyford, said Samuels did not publicly criticize the hire until after the attorney general himself conceded this month there were potential problems.

Attorney general Sullivan reviewed the legal issues in response to criticism of the Dahlstrom hire this spring.

Sullivan said his Department of Law gave initial advice to Parnell that the hiring was OK, but his fuller review revealed the "appreciable risk" that a court would disagree with the advice. Sullivan has said he believes Parnell, Dahlstrom and Therriault acted in good faith, following what his department had found legal. Sullivan's spokesman, Bill McAllister, did not return messages Monday asking for Sullivan to comment on the legality of Therriault's job in light of the document produced by McLeod.

A PENSION BOOST

Parnell says he followed the advice of the Department of Law and the practice of Alaska governors for decades in hiring the state legislators. He said Dahlstrom chose to resign, and that he didn't ask her to do so or think she should.

Therriault's $110,000 a year pay has the potential to greatly increase his state pension if he remains in the position. Retirement pay is based on the three highest earning years in state government, and Therriault's previous work as a legislative staffer, while paying more than his legislative salary, did not come close to his current pay.

That could mean a difference of roughly $30,000 a year in pension if he remains in the position for three years, a Daily News analysis indicates. Therriault said he could not immediately confirm the figures.

Therriault, whose title is senior policy adviser for in-state energy, has worked on issues such as the proposed consolidation of the Railbelt utilities. Asked if he plans to stay in the position, he responded Monday that "I keep coming to work."