Smoking gun document proves Parnell broke the law

When Nancy Dahlstrom admitted to Glen Biegel and  I over the phone that the governor offered her a job while she was a legislator, that she quit her legislative post to take the state job created while she was a legislator and that she and the governor had been talking about the position for months, I knew at that moment she would have to resign. She did late in the afternoon on a Friday in an attempt to minimize media coverage.  

Now a new smoking gun document obtained by activist Andree McLeod reveals without dispute, question, or controversy, Governor Sean Parnell broke the law again when he hired Gene Therriault while he was still in the legislature.

The official document entitled State of Alaska Request for personnel action shows the Therriault hiring not only violated the state constitution but also broke Alaska law.

The constitution and state law prohibit a legislator from accepting a job created while they are in the legislature. They are required to wait a full year after their legislative term expires before they can work for the state if the job was created while they are in office.

Article 2, section 5 of the constitution and Alaska statute 24.05.0404 reads,

“During the term for which elected and for one year thereafter, no legislator may be nominated, elected, or appointed to any other office or position of profit which has been created, or the salary or emoluments of which have been increased, while he was a member.

The law could not be any clearer on the subject.

The document below reveals in direct violation of the law the Parnell administration created Therriault’s job on September 1^st, a full 13 days before he left the legislature.

The document also shows Therriault accepts the job and signs the documents for the new position while still a legislator. He signed his new job papers on the 12^th of September and he resigned his legislative position the next day on the 13^th. 

You don’t have to be Perry Mason to figure this one out. This is as a clear violation of the law as you will find and the governor who is a lawyer knows it.

Parnell’s hiring of Therriault is a much clearer violation than his illegal hiring of Dahlstrom. At least when Parnell broke the law the second time with Dahlstrom he waited until after she quit to do the paperwork. With Therriault they were so sloppy they left no doubt this is a clear violation of the Alaska constitution and state law.

You’ll remember Gov. Parnell still did not ask Dahlstrom to resign even after his Attorney General Daniel Sullivan gave a legal opinion saying the hiring would not stand up in court. Dahlstrom did the right thing and resigned on her own.

But don’t expect Therriault to do that any time soon. Therriault is a tier one employee. He worked as a legislative staffer before he was elected to office.  His pension is based on his highest earning months. He earned $24,000 as a legislator and his new illegal job pays him $110,000. His illegal position could yield him an extra $4100 a month in pension benefits for the rest of his life.  With his legislative salary he was set to get a monthly pension check for approximately $1000. With his new illegal job he could get up to $5100 a month for the rest of his life if he can stay on the job just a few more months.

In this case Parnell will have to muster up the courage to fire Therriault. When it comes to courage Parnell doesn’t have much muster.

When the Dahlstrom story first broke AG Sullivan promised to come on my radio show and explain how she was hired in the first place. He’s been on vacation and we should see him on the broadcast this week. Sullivan did the right thing in refusing to go along and look the other way when Parnell illegally hired Dahlstrom. I suspect Sullivan will have no problem coming out and declaring the Therriault hiring an even clearer violation of law with the revelation of the smoking gun document.