Opinions

Alaska’s government is embarrassing itself with expensive PR contracts, stonewalling

For those of us deeply leery of government, it largely being a nexus between nincompoopery and super-inflated egos, it is no surprise when it does something really dumb — even less of a surprise when it does it again and again.

Take, for instance, Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s administration, which too often seems to have a tin ear, to go out of its way to exhibit a certain level of bureaucratic arrogance that, at times, seems almost palpable. Some say it is aggravated by the administration’s failures to communicate. Others swear it is incompetence.

You could argue either way. There were, among other things, the embarrassing failures to vet political appointees early on, along with inexplicable and unexplained contracts and appointments of people with questionable qualifications. Then, there are the unanswered policy and budget questions concerning the budget, the Permanent Fund and its annual dividend, along with concerns about where the money to run government will come from.

None of that is new. Many of those questions were rampant during the Palin years, and before, and remained alive and well in the years and administrations since. As if to underscore that point, the Dunleavy administration in only the past few days has racked up two more gaffes for its lengthy list of them.

Who knows what administration officials were thinking when the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services signed on the dotted line with two Anchorage-based public relations firms to spend more than $3.2 million in federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act funding to hire public relations firms to handle public communications and education?

One of the firms tapped for the contracts — through “emergency procedures” no less — is headed by Dunleavy administration insider Sarah Erkmann Ward, the president of Blueprint Alaska LLC and previously the communications director for Dunleavy’s transition team. “Emergency procedures,” by the way, allows contract awards while bypassing the usual bidding procedures.

Anchorage-based Blueprint Alaska in June received a two-month $440,000 contract, Alaska’s News Source (KTUU) reported. The state says the firm has been assisting in messaging on social media, mailing information to Alaskans and setting up events, the station reports. The contract has been extended three times and could amount to as much as $1 million before it ends.

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The second, $2.2 million contract was awarded in October to Brilliant Media, which played a major role in the defeat of a proposed oil tax in the November election. The pact is set to run through June, but can be extended for a year, the station reported.

A reasonable person could be forgiven for thinking that in a state government absolutely festooned with public information officers, spokesmen and deputies — and, of course, assistants to the deputies — there might be people already on staff to handle any messaging the government might require. Surely, finding and using those people would be better than dipping into money earmarked to keep people in their homes and their businesses open.

The second recent attempt by the Dunleavy administration to shoot itself in the foot popped up in an Anchorage Daily News story about the sketchy job the state and some police agencies are doing when it comes to collecting and processing legally mandated DNA samples.

In a piece headlined, “Alaska requires that DNA be collected from people arrested for violent crimes. Many police agencies have ignored that,” reporter Kyle Hopkins pointed out the number of reported violent crimes increased in Alaska between 2013 and 2017, from 4,669 to 6,320, but the number of DNA samples sent to the state crime lab decreased.

Hopkins continued:

“Meantime, a 2016 audit of the state crime lab found that it had not expanded its services or increased the speed of evidence processing despite its move into a new $90 million building in 2012.

“The Department of Public Safety would not make the state crime lab’s sexual assault and CODIS program supervisor, Michelle Collins, available for an interview. The department also denied requests for an interview with Randi Breager, a special assistant to the public safety commissioner who prepared the report that said troopers and police in Alaska are rarely swabbing for arrests.”

You may wonder, as many of us did after reading of the department’s refusals, how a state agency can blow off a legitimate request from a newspaper for a legitimate interview for a legitimate story and do it with impunity. What happened to the open and transparent government Dunleavy promised? A newspaper has the absolute right to ask questions. The state has an obligation not to hide the truth.

Neither Dunleavy nor the public is well served by the administration ducking obvious, legitimate questions. It leaves people wondering: What are state officials hiding?

Watching these guys, it is no wonder so many of us are leery of government.

Paul Jenkins is editor of the AnchorageDailyPlanet.com, a division of Porcaro Communications.

The views expressed here are the writer’s and are not necessarily endorsed by the Anchorage Daily News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, email commentary(at)adn.com. Send submissions shorter than 200 words to letters@adn.com or click here to submit via any web browser. Read our full guidelines for letters and commentaries here.

Paul Jenkins

Paul Jenkins is a former Associated Press reporter, managing editor of the Anchorage Times, an editor of the Voice of the Times and former editor of the Anchorage Daily Planet.

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