Gov. Mike Dunleavy refused to answer a simple question put to him at a press conference last week about the role of the governor’s office in steering a no-bid contract to Clark Penney, the grandson of a major Dunleavy benefactor.

Instead, he launched into an extended rant about Anchorage Rep. Zack Fields and Sitka Rep. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins, who had written him a letter of less than 100 words that could have been answered in short order.

“The commissioner of the Department of Commerce and Economic Development and the CEO/executive director of AIDEA provided conflicting, inconsistent, and in some cases false statements about this contract to legislative committees,” Fields and Kreiss-Tomkins said,

“We request that you correct the record and provide a simple answer to the question: Who directed the state to issue this contract?”

It appears that someone in the governor’s office directed the commerce department and AIDEA to make this no-bid contract a reality. The state violated numerous procurement regulations in setting up the $8,000-per-month contract and avoiding competitive bids.

Rather than deal with the political origins of the contract, Dunleavy launched into a Costanza-like airing of grievances. He blamed Fields and Kreiss-Tomkins for everything from long legislative sessions to lower Permanent Fund Dividends and the failure to solve the state deficit.

Blogger Matt Buxton of The Midnight Sun had the best account of Dunleavy’s unhinged response. Buxton wrote that the governor’s complaints, “which had obviously been compiled by his office, ranged from deliberately misleading to an outright lie— the latter that Kreiss-Tomkins took back per diem payments.”

Dunleavy said that the questions about the Penney contract were all dealt with a year ago. That’s not true.

There was a bit of press coverage a year ago, but all the important details emerged in public records released last summer that showed how the commerce department arranged to have AIDEA handle the financial details, for reasons that have never been explained. State officials said Bob Penney’s grandson was picked for the job by the “appropriate” officials.

On her blog, Dunleavy insider Suzanne Downing said the governor wanted Penney, criticizing those “implying it’s improper for the governor to contract with a trusted ally.”

Dunleavy won’t acknowledge that anyone in his office picked Penney for the contract, but he promises that there will be an investigation and a press conference at which all will be revealed.

“To answer your question, we’re looking into all of the details surrounding that contract and other contracts and once we are finished with our deep dive, we will come out and will have a presser on it,” Dunleavy told the Juneau AP reporter.

Dunleavy said “this issue was visited last spring, this contract. And the idea that an individual—small state—that has a last name that I guess, these two representatives . . .” and he repeated his problems with Fields and Kreiss-Tomkins.

Attorney General Kevin Clarkson told legislators last week his office plans to “review” the contract.

“We’re looking into it and we will get to the bottom of whether there was anything done improper and we will have a press conference on that,” Dunleavy said.

He doesn’t need a deep dive to be able to explain the role of the governor’s office in this contract.

Dunleavy tried to distance his office from the Penney deal, saying it was not a contract from the governor’s office, but from AIDEA, which is “a different corporation,” he said.

“We’re gonna find every piece and every detail. We want to be 100 percent sure because the governor’s office is a big office,” he said. “I know there’s the implication that there was a sweetheart deal with an individual. We want to make sure that there’s nothing been overlooked and there’s been no mistakes. We want to look into this thoroughly.”

This was a sweetheart deal.

To avoid the obvious conflict of interest in the investigation, the governor should have an independent investigator review the contract, not the attorney general. He should follow the precedent set by former Gov. Frank Murkowski who had an investigator from outside the administration examine ethics allegations against former Attorney General Gregg Renkes.

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