The Corporation
Session started off with a bang the day before we gaveled in. The Legislative Budget & Audit Committee had the dubious pleasure of listening to the chair of the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation board, Craig Richards.
A few weeks ago I mentioned my alarm when the board summarily fired the executive director of the fund without warning or explanation. Mr. Richards' testimony Monday did nothing to settle my nerves.
Mr. Richards did not give anything like an explanation for firing Ms. Rodell. He did not lay out issues with her personnel management skills. He didn't so much as hint at scandal or wrongdoing. He adamantly denied that the governor's commissioners who are trustees and actively promote overdrawing the Permanent Fund wanted her to stop actively working against pulling an extra, unsustainable $3 billion out of the fund to pay larger dividend checks.
The closest he came to an explanation was in a series of statements that the director and the board didn't get along—a rationale so vague it could mean she failed to compliment his haircut.
But when the questions started, his answers swung so wildly those of us in the room risked whiplash trying to follow them. He said Ms. Rodell just did administrative and PR work, so she wasn't responsible for the success of the fund. When questioned, he acknowledged she did more than that. Later he nodded in agreement when legislators pointed out the board wouldn't have given her years of good reviews and hefty raises if the investments had lagged.
He also said multiple times that the board's overriding goal was investment returns for the fund. But he never said a single thing that so much as hinted at the executive director or her team falling short on delivering those.
He said there was no politics in the board's action. But later, when he sniped at legislators for being 'political' by having an oversight hearing, he admitted the opposite, saying "there's politics going both ways here."
He made a presentation on the law noting the legislature has oversight duties for the fund (a point he repeated later.) But after tacking and jibing for a couple of hours he complained that the legislature shouldn't have inconvenienced the fund or him personally by holding a hearing.
He refused to answer a lot of questions, including about contact with the governor’s office. Later reporting showed there were meetings between the governor’s office and members of the board before they fired Ms. Rodell. The governor and one commissioner trustee were actually traveling together at the time.
And there's another important set of facts that didn't come up at the hearing. When the committee chair asked if Mr. Richards planned to apply to be the next CEO, he denied interest, saying he lived in Anchorage and couldn't possibly. He tactically did not mention his work a little more than a year ago to get the fund to open an Anchorage office and give the board chair (himself) some of the powers of the CEO. The board shot down the extra office idea after an analysis provided by the executive director showed it would add costs but would not increase fund returns. The attempt to start down the road toward making himself chairman and CEO was illegal under Alaska law. The board shot it down, too, after staff pointed out the problems. Mr. Richards was about as far from disinterested as they come.
There is not yet proof the governor had the Executive Director of the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation fired because of dividend check politics or personal revenge. To date those are the most likely explanations, but they remain only theories. The Legislative Budget and Audit Committee plans more hearings.
The issue isn't about Angela Rodell. It's about the future of our state’s biggest investment and single largest source of income. Sen. Micciche was right during the hearing when he called it a "Founding Fathers-level Legacy." Will it continue to deliver services and income for our children and grandchildren? Or will it become a tool for executive branch politics? Stay tuned.
