Dunleavy, attorney general recycle flawed 2019 plan to give themselves free legal help for ethics complaints

The simple question to Attorney General Kevin Clarkson four years ago about proposed regulation changes to allow him and the governor to provide free legal help to each other in ethics cases deserved a simple answer.

“Who requested the proposed amendments?”

Rather than answer, Clarkson had a deputy write: “The regulations were proposed to address an identified need—the attorney general instructed the Department of Law to propose the amendments.”

The deputy attorney general who refused to answer that question for Clarkson in 2019 was Tregarrick Taylor, who is now the attorney general.

The Dunleavy/Clarkson plan was never adopted. A legislative legal opinion concluded that the idea of state officials bestowing free legal help on each other was a violation of state law and unconstitutional.

Like the proverbial bad penny, Taylor has brought back the plan for the mutual aid legal society, recycling the proposal without informing the public of why the old plan was abandoned in 2020.

One reason it was dropped was the conflict with state law. Another reason is that all of the public comments were negative. Read all 321 pages of them here.

Under the resurrected Dunleavy/Taylor plan, if an ethics act complaint is filed against the governor, the lieutenant governor or the attorney general, they will be allowed to use public funds to defend themselves, even if they violated the ethics law.

There was no reason to adopt the regulations four years ago. There is no reason to adopt them now.

Here is the FAQ from Taylor’s department, which does not reveal that these proposed regulations are recycled, why they were abandoned or the obvious conflicts of interest. The AG works for the governor and is not a disinterested party. The lieutenant governor is also an underling of the governor.

The FAQ is deceptive in that it does not make clear that the governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general have to pay for their legal representation under current law.

This letter from three legislators in 2019 provides a strong case for why this regulation change should be stopped again. Under existing rules, state employees who are exonerated from ethics complaints can get reimbursement for their costs.

You can submit written comments on the proposed regulations to Stacie Kraly at Box 110300, Juneau, AK 99811-0300. Or send email comments to ethics.regulation.public.comments@alaska.gov by Sept. 11.

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