State fails to produce 'public interest waiver' for Ben Stevens to take ConocoPhillips lobbying job

As they took on new jobs, a wide variety of former state officials, such as Bruce Tangeman, Mark Wiggin, Ed Fogels and Angela Rodell, have been subject to the review process required in state law to protect the state’s interest.

Tangeman resigned in 2019 as revenue commissioner and before he could become a consultant to the North Slope Borough, he received a state waiver, “out of an abundance of caution.”

Fogels left his job as deputy commissioner of natural resources in 2017 and needed 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 working 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.

“I waive application of any restrictions for purposes of this employment,” Ethics Officer Peter Caltagiron, Commissioner Corri Feige and AG Kevin Clarkson wrote in February 2019.

Here is a document with waivers given for departing employees over the past 16 years, published by the Alaska Public Interest Research Group.

“This process is key to ensuring that particular state employees are acting in the public’s best interest, and not being influenced by financial prospects of a lucrative job,” AKPIRG said.

There is no excuse for the the decision by Gov. Mike Dunleavy to exclude Ben Stevens from this review process.

But it is understandable why Dunleavy refuses to put a detailed statement in writing saying that having Stevens working as a political functionary for ConocoPhillips is “not adverse to the public interest.” At this juncture, Stevens is the ultimate inside source about Alaska state government secrets.

Stevens has been hired by ConocoPhillips for his expertise in working with the Legislature and and administrative agencies, information that will allow him to promote the interests of ConocoPhillips. This includes keeping oil taxes low and preventing or promoting changes in regulation.

The restriction in state law would prevent him from using his expertise for the next two years unless the Dunleavy administration gives him a waiver. It may be that they ignored it because even Dunleavy wouldn’t sign off on a claim that Stevens’s new job doesn’t pose a conflict of interest.

The state claim that no waiver is needed because Stevens will not be a “lobbyist,”—which is defined in state law in a way that excludes many lobbyists—is irrelevant.

If you review the waivers granted since the Murkowski administration, all were for jobs in which the potential for a conflict of interest was far less than it is for Stevens.

AKPRIG has filed a complaint and asked for an investigation about why Dunleavy and Stevens ignored the waiver process, a safeguard in state law for good reason.

Stevens, a former Senate president who was involved in the VECO scandal 15 years ago, knows how to work with legislators and state agencies to block legislation and regulations that ConocoPhillips doesn’t support.

Former VECO boss Bill Allen testified that Stevens, who was on the VECO payroll, was a loyal soldier in the effort to keep taxes low.

Stevens is an expert on the inner workings of Alaska state government.

State law says an employee in Stevens’s situation “may not, for two years after leaving state service, represent, advise, or assist a person for compensation regarding a matter that was under consideration by the administrative unit served by that public officer, and in which the officer participated personally and substantially through the exercise of official action.”

The law also says this requirement can be waived if someone, in this case Dunleavy, decides that having Stevens work for ConocoPhillips “is not adverse to the public interest. The waiver must be in writing and a copy of the waiver must be provided to the attorney general for approval or disapproval.”

A spokeswoman for ConocoPhillips says not to worry, as “we are not going to have Mr. Stevens work on any matters that were under consideration in the governor’s office while he was there.”

ConocoPhillips wants Alaskans to believe Stevens will be the George Costanza of Alaska’s oil company for the next two years. It doesn’t pass the smell test to believe that Stevens will be cutting ribbons, handing out checks to charities, talking about the weather and never mentioning what levers to pull to defend Conoco’s interests in Juneau.

As the former chief of staff for Dunleavy, Stevens has inside information—knowledge and experience for which he was hired—about all state agencies and potential actions in which ConocoPhillips has an interest.

ConocoPhillips is saying Stevens won’t use what he has picked up about state government and legislators in the last two years when talking with anyone at ConocoPhillips or crafting a company strategy to block or advance policy changes. This is impossible to swallow.

If Dunleavy believes that having Stevens work at ConocoPhillips is not “adverse to the public interest,” he needs to say so in writing, issue a waiver, make the details public and try to defend his decision. The attorney general needs to do so as well.

Dunleavy tells Alaska Public Media that Stevens going to work for ConocoPhillips is no different than someone else going to a hospital or a union job. It is different, but that’s not the point. As chief of staff, he would be subject to the same review regardless of where he went to work in Alaska.

What is telling is that Dunleavy refuses to put anything in writing, out of an abundance of caution.

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