PALMER -- The longtime director of the Alaska Division of Agriculture is leaving that position at the request of Gov. Bill Walker, who wants an aggressive new vision for getting Alaska-grown produce in stores.
Franci Havemeister was appointed agriculture director in 2007 by high school classmate and former Gov. Sarah Palin.
The 51-year-old Wasilla resident is related by marriage to one of the Matanuska Valley's only surviving dairy families. Her more than eight years as Alaska's top agriculture official makes her one of the longest serving directors at any state division, officials say.
Havemeister said Friday morning she was asked to step down during a phone call three weeks ago with the Alaska Department of Natural Resources commissioner and deputy commissioner. Her last day on the job is Dec. 4.
Havemeister offered few specifics about why she was asked to leave, except that Walker was looking for a change.
"Of course I was at the will of the governor and that is totally within his prerogative to remove and replace anyone that he sees fit, and he has chose to look at someone else," she said.
The governor's office issued a press release about the decision on Friday morning but until then had remained mum about the upheaval.
Walker, who talks up the Matanuska Valley's "eight times sweeter" carrots, said during a brief phone interview Friday afternoon that he wants Alaska to more aggressively market locally grown produce to grocery retailers. He met recently with Fred Meyer president Lynn Gust and spoke by phone with Safeway's president about selling produce grown in Alaska whenever possible.
"We should be exporting out of Alaska instead of importing," Walker said. "I really think there's more we could be doing. I look at what we do on salmon as far as the first Copper River reds."
That doesn't mean shipping the first carrot of the year to Seattle, he said. Instead, the state should help growers capitalize on Alaska's agricultural advantages.
"I just don't know that we've ever pushed that," Walker said.
The agriculture division does include the Alaska Grown program "designed to increase consumer awareness and consumption" through the familiar blue, green and yellow logo.
The state Board of Agriculture and Conservation will start the search for a new director at its next meeting Thursday in Palmer, according to board member Al Poindexter, owner of a greenhouse business in Anchor Point.
Poindexter learned of Havemeister's departure on Thursday when deputy DNR commissioner Ed Fogels called him.
"He just said that the governor is looking for somebody with vision that can lead the division and try to get some results, and that he appreciated what Franci had accomplished to this point but he was looking for somebody that was more aggressive," Poindexter said.
He was surprised by the news and said Havemeister was a good manager and maintained the status quo despite budget cuts and resistance to state agriculture funding in Juneau, as exemplified by the Legislature stripping funding for the state-run slaughterhouse in Palmer.
Havemeister presided over a time of some turmoil at the division, including the federal prosecution of a Valley creamery operation and continued financial struggles at the inmate-staffed Mount McKinley Meat and Sausage slaughterhouse.
Fogels, Havemeister's direct supervisor for five years, debunked rumors her departure was triggered by an investigation into the meat plant.
"There's nothing the division has done that's untowards," he said. "The state was forced into running a meat plant. A lot of people don't realize DNR has three employees that run the meat plant … technically they're corrections officers. It's a weird situation."
Palin appointed Havemeister to the position in August 2007. Havemeister showed up in a front page New York Times story the next year as "one of at least five schoolmates Ms. Palin hired, often at salaries far exceeding their private sector wages," the newspaper reported. The paper also repeated the contention that she "cited her love of cows" as a qualification for the state's top agriculture job.
Havemeister on Friday said that quote came during the national press corps frenzy over Palin when an interviewer asked about life growing up in Alaska.
"I told her even as a little kid I always liked cows and it was ironic that I ended up marrying the son of a dairy farmer," she said.
Havemeister's background before taking over as director of a $7.2 million state agency included working as a real estate agent and for a church. She is the daughter-in-law of Jean and Bob Havemeister, a longtime Valley dairying family with the only local large operation in Mat-Su.
She started the director position at an annual salary of about $95,000. She now earns a little over $127,500 due to standard merit increases over eight years, according to Fogels.
Havemeister said Friday she doesn't have anything lined up at this point besides spending time with three grandchildren due in the next three weeks.
She called her departure bittersweet: part pride in the "honor" she had of serving as director and part relief at leaving behind the worries of the job as the Legislature gears up to return to Juneau for the regular session that begins in January.
"I'm going to go home and enjoy the holidays and not have to worry about session," Havemeister said.