Letters to the Editor

Letter: Loyalty demand misguided

I read with dismay Sunday’s well-researched article on the new administration sending out to 1,500 state employees an email demanding they submit letters of resignation. As noted, to keep their jobs, the employees must submit a “statement of interest” affirming that they “… want to work for the Dunleavy administration” and they “… want to work on this agenda.” As the email pointedly stated: “It is a reminder (that) we serve the public and the public elects … the governor.”

Please, ADN, in future articles, call this what it is: a demand for a loyalty oath pledging allegiance — not to Alaska, but to the new governor. Finally, I note with alarm the demoralizing effect this will surely have on the Department of Law. What possible agenda should an ethical state prosecutor submit to? An oath that he or she disregard particular laws (such as SB 91)? An oath to seek the maximum penalty in every case, disregarding the reality that limited Alaska court system and Department of Corrections resources need to focus on violent offenders and sexual predators? I could go on.

— David George

Anchorage

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