Rarely have we seen a clearer example of the Dunleavy administration misusing the state public records law than the clumsy effort to cover Curtis Thayer’s tracks in the firing of University of Alaska researcher Gwen Holdmann from the Dunleavy energy task force.

Holdmann is the founding director of the Alaska Center for Energy and Power. She had been vice chair of the task force, appointed by Dunleavy March 22, a perfect choice for that volunteer position. She is an expert on Alaska energy matters.

In Dunleavy’s press release that day, his office quoted Holdmann as saying she was honored to be part of the group. “I am honored to work with this diverse group of Alaskans to develop a sustainable path toward energy independence for the state. Alaskans are innovators, and I believe that in working together, we can come up with creative strategies to meet our energy needs for today, and for the future.”

Dunleavy named Thayer as the other vice chair the same day. Thayer, a career Republican operative and advocate of shrinking government, has held a variety of jobs in and around the political ecosystem for decades, going back to his work as an assistant to Rep. Don Young. His latest government job is as executive director of the Alaska Energy Authority.

On June 9, Dunleavy removed Holdmann from the task force with no explanation. She was replaced by UAF Chancellor Dan White, who should be the first to say that Holdmann should not have been removed and should have remained on the task force because she did nothing wrong and has excellent credentials.

Despite Thayer’s claims to the contrary, it’s clear that Thayer was a prime mover in getting rid of Holdmann, sending a three-sentence nastygram to Holdmann and two employees of the governor’s office two days before Dunleavy removed her.

Vice Chair Thayer sent an email to Vice Chair Holdmann and two Dunleavy staff members, whining that Holdmann was not a team player. He suggested she was not following the “direction” of Dunleavy and Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom.

Her alleged offense?

She was writing a series of eight detailed articles for the public examining the complex issues and tradeoffs Alaskans have to confront in dealing with energy and Thayer had not seen them before they appeared.

She wrote these articles not as a member of the task force, but as a senior energy researcher and associate vice chancellor for research at UAF. This work was part of her university job and she doesn’t answer to Thayer or report to him. Nothing about these articles detracts from the task force.

Thayer pompously wrote: “I am disappointed you have decided to write these articles without sharing in advance. You have factual errors in your first paragraph and the series is causing trust issues with the task force. We need to work together and take our direction from the governor and Lt. Gov.”

If there are errors in the paragraph cited by Thayer, it is not the grievous matter that Thayer suggests. He didn’t bother to identify the alleged mistakes, which is what you do when you try to make something out of nothing.

Perhaps he objects to her assertion that Bradley Lake power costs less than 5 cents per kilowatt hour, the cheapest power in the Railbelt.

The AEA website says Bradley Lake power averaged 4 cents a kilowatt hour from 1995 to 2020. But the budget document submitted by Thayer’s agency to the state says the cost is 4.5 cents per kilowatt hour, the cheapest power on the Railbelt, which is less than 5 cents a kilowatt hour.

To prevent an informed public discussion of Holdmann’s removal, the Dunleavy administration is claiming that Thayer’s complaint about Holdmann and email exchanges with the governor’s office, both before and two days after Thayer’s complaint, are state secrets.

We only know about Thayer’s laughable complaint because Holdmann released it to reporter Nat Herz, who asked her for it after the Dunleavy administration claimed Thayer’s words are top secret.

This is what the Dunleavy administration says the public should be allowed to know about Thayer’s complaint. Nothing.

This is Thayer’s three-sentence complaint. Holdmann released it to reporter Nat Herz after the state refused to do so.

Thayer told Herz, who runs the Northern Journal news site, that Thayer was “not the decision maker in the process” that led to Holdmann’s firing.

Sure. The decider was Dunleavy. But Thayer and the governor’s staff wanted her gone. Why? The articles by Holdmann are a valuable contribution to the discussion of energy options. Read them here.

My guess is that Thayer has concluded that a heavily subsidized in-state gas pipeline is the only option worth promoting, but Holdmann thinks there is more to consider and the alternatives need to be out in the open. The true believers in the bullet line don’t want to hear that.

The secrecy about this runs counter to the state law on open records. It’s an obvious attempt to hide what Thayer and the governor’s office did to get rid of Holdmann.

The state also claims that a five-page email from John Espindola of the governor’s office to Thayer under the subject line “Holdmann task force position” is confidential.

Holdmann should certainly have access to what the Dunleavy administration is hiding.

The secret Espindola email should be released, if for no other reason than as part of the legislative review of whether he should hold the new state job Dunleavy placed him in on June 12, as a member of the Regulatory Commission of Alaska.

Espindola, the former “personal assistant” to Dunleavy, does not meet the qualifications in state law for a position on the RCA. This situation has not been covered by Alaska news organizations.

Espindola does not have a law degree, is not a member of the Alaska Bar Association, and does not have a degree in any of the six academic fields listed in state law or five years of work experience in those positions, as the law requires.

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Dunleavy administration misuses public records law to conceal how Curtis Thayer and governor’s office lobbied to fire UA energy expert from state energy task force