Attorney General withheld news of Ben Stevens conflict of interest waiver bid from legislators

After Ben Stevens quit his job under Gov. Mike Dunleavy to become a lobbyist for ConocoPhilips in February, the company and the state claimed he did not need to get the public interest waiver required by state law.

The company claimed he would not be working on anything he had dealt with in the governor’s office.

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.”

Stevens quit Feb. 26 and Dunleavy tried to exclude him from the waiver process, contrary to state law. All of the waivers granted since the Murkowski administration were for former state employees who took jobs with less of a potential conflict of interest than is the case with the former chief of staff.

After the Alaska Public Interest Research Group questioned Dunleavy’s failure to provide a waiver, it became a news story in early March. Shortly thereafter, Stevens began a secret effort to start the process March 12, the process that the company and Dunleavy claimed was not needed.

What I think happened is that the attorney general and the governor granted a wink-wink waiver to Stevens to sign off on him taking the oil company job, but they were caught in the act.

They didn’t follow the law—which says the governor can waive the two-year requirement if he finds it is in 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,” the law says.

Stevens filed a request for a waiver March 12, asking for approval to work on “resource development issues,” including the Willow project, for ConocoPhilips. The Alaska Public Interest Research Group acquired the documents through a public records request.

Stevens, former Senate president, has a new job as an advocate for ConocoPhillips. He knows things from his time as Dunleavy’s chief of staff that create obvious conflicts of interest and possible violations of Sec. 39.52.180, the “restrictions on employment after leaving state service” segment of state law.

The request by Stevens shows that Attorney General Treg Taylor didn’t tell the whole truth to legislators during confirmation hearings March 15 and March 19 when he spoke about Stevens, the ethics law and the failure to approve an ethics waiver.

On March 15, Taylor said he “determined that, with the general job duties as described and then talking with Ben Stevens and with the governor’s office, that there was no need for a conflict waiver at this time because there was no conflict.”

Taylor said he had no doubt that a waiver was not needed “because of the activities that Ben Stevens is currently doing.”

As to “the activities that Ben Stevens is currently doing,” Taylor said he based his conclusions on comments by Stevens and the oil company, not on legal documents.

On March 19, Taylor said, “I’m guessing” that Stevens would ask for specific waiver in the future.

“At that point the governor and I would sit down and discuss what the aspect of that waiver was,” said Taylor.

Taylor concealed the truth from legislators about the waiver process for Stevens.

What Taylor failed to tell legislators at the March 15 and March 19 hearings is that Stevens had already asked for a conflict of interest waiver from Dunleavy and that Stevens would be working to advance the oil company’s position on the Willow project. There is no justification for concealing this information.

Dunleavy and Taylor granted the waiver for Stevens, with the governor signing April 5, clearing Stevens for work promoting the Willow project, saying it benefits the state.

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