Dunleavy's refusal to mandate Ben Stevens waiver fails to protect state interests

I’ve taken a closer look at the public interest waiver granted by the state in the case of former Natural Resources Deputy Commissioner Ed Fogels.

The text of the letter makes the decision by Gov. Mike Dunleavy to try to avoid the entire issue for Ben Stevens more egregious.

The law requires this review. Dunleavy is wrong to pretend otherwise. So is ConocoPhillips, given its past connections to Stevens and the Veco corruption scandal.

In a phone call in 2006 with Jim Bowles, then president of ConocoPhillips Alaska, Veco boss Bill Allen boasted about how Rep. Pete Kott and Stevens, then the Senate president, were working hard to stop an oil tax bill, which is what ConocoPhillips wanted.

“If there’s any way we can get this thing stopped, that’s the best possible outcome,” Bowles told Allen.

Now Stevens has left his chief of staff job with Dunleavy to work for ConocoPhillips, where he will be a company vice president. Most everything Stevens does in that job could create legal questions if the state does not follow the path called for in the law.

For two years after leaving the state payroll, a former official cannot work on certain issues, depending upon the scope of the former state job. This protects the state. It’s not enough for a governor and a company that hires a state employee to announce, as Dunleavy and ConocoPhillips did, that there is nothing to see here. Stevens will be occupied elsewhere, the company said.

For some perspective, let’s look at the case of Ed Fogels and what the state deemed necessary to protect its interests and the commitment Fogels made in taking a consulting position with far less potential for a serious conflict than has been created by Stevens’s situation.

Fogels left his job as deputy commissioner of natural resources in 2017 and sought a waiver to work for a small private consulting company advising the Lake and Peninsula Borough on environmental impacts of the Pebble mine project.

He was not going to work for or against the mine or as a lobbyist. His first request was denied under the Walker administration, but the second was approved under Dunleavy. The waiver process was to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest.

Fogels, who worked for the state for 30 years, “participated personally and substantially on a variety of matters involving the proposed Pebble Mine project” as a state employee, Peter Caltagirone, ethics officer for DNR, wrote on Feb. 22, 2019.

Fogels took part in briefings on permit applications and other Pebble-related matters, but he was not directly involved in making permit decisions, the letter said.

The law prohibits a state official, for two years, from “representing, advising or assisting a person for compensation regarding a matter that was under consideration by the administrative unit served by that public officer, and in which they participated personally and substantially through the use of official action,” Caltagirone wrote.

“Mr. Fogels is requesting a waiver to allow him to work for Jade North on behalf of the Lake and Peninsula Borough. He would be advising the borough exclusively on potential environmental impacts from the project, not in an advocacy role. To this end, Mr. Fogels will not act as a lobbyist, as defined by the Ethics At and APOC statutes, nor will he be involved in discussions or negotiations involving the permitting process,” the ethics officer wrote.

“Mr. Fogels has extensive experience in the mining industry and applying that experience and expertise to work for the Lake and Peninsula Borough to evaluate the environmental impacts from this project would be in the best interest of the public,” the ethics officer said.

DNR Commissioner Corri Feige and AG Kevin Clarkson signed off on the letter clearing Fogels to proceed, a process that benefits the state and the new employer.

Check out the way that the state handled more than two dozen other cases since 2005, trying to protect the state’s position, yet in the case of Ben Stevens there was no state review and no effort to make this safeguard work.

Your contributions help support independent analysis and political commentary by Alaska reporter and author Dermot Cole. Thank you for reading and for your support. Either click here to use PayPal or send checks to: Dermot Cole, Box 10673, Fairbanks, AK 99710-0673.