After salary commission coup, Dunleavy placed loyal follower on personnel board

Donald Handeland, a young Republican engineer loyal to Gov. Mike Dunleavy, did not sign the recall petition, making him eligible for any number of positions within the Dunleavy administration.

Handeland was a campaign volunteer for Dunleavy in 2018 and an assistant campaign treasurer on the Dunleavy 2022 campaign. A resident of Eagle River, he is a former treasurer of the Republican Party and a regular small donor to Republicans.

Handeland, a 2011 Mount Edgecumbe graduate who is now a civil engineer, claims that he was a volunteer on the Ted Stevens campaign in 2002, the Frank Murkowski campaign in 2002, the Lisa Murkowski campaign in 2004, the Sarah Palin campaign in 2006 and the Don Young campaign in 2006. He lists himself as a GOP volunteer in every election since he was in grade school.

Dunleavy appointed Handeland to the Alaska Commission on Postsecondary Education in 2021. Then Dunleavy appointed him a second time in 2023.

Dunleavy appointed Handeland to the Alaska Student Loan Corporation Board of Directors in 2022.

Dunleavy appointed Handeland to the State Officers Compensation Commission in March 2023.

Five days later, 4 minutes into a 15-meeting of the compensation commission, Handeland was elected as chairman with no debate and no sense of shame. It had all been prearranged. The only discussion before the vote was this comment by Handeland, “Yeah, I’d be honored to serve.”

The commission was supposed to be “independent,” but Handeland was not independent of the governor. Administration officials had told him that after he was chairman he could expect a motion from one of the other new Dunleavy appointees to raise legislative pay to $84,000.

Handeland’s first order of business as chairman was to ask for a motion to ignore a requirement in state law that meetings of that commission required 20 days public notice.

He and the four other new members did not have the power to “waive” the state law, but they went ahead. Then they approved the pay raises sought by the governor and legislative leaders.

Here is a refresher on the corrupt process used by Dunleavy and legislative leaders a year ago to get themselves pay raises.

Handeland’s willing participation and leading role as chairman of Dunleavy’s compensation commission coup is reason enough for the Legislature to refuse to confirm Handeland to the latest important position he has been granted by Dunleavy.

The governor picked him to serve on the State of Alaska Personnel Board, arbiter of state ethics for the executive branch.

Dunleavy appointed Handeland to the personnel board on September 18 last year, filling a vacancy created when Craig Johnson was elected to the Legislature a year earlier.

During a cursory confirmation hearing March 21 on Handeland that lasted 12 minutes, no one asked Handeland about his participation in the compensation commission coup and what he did to raise salaries for legislators and key members of the Dunleavy administration.

Handeland downplayed his service to the state on the compensation commission. He did not mention that he was the chairman or how he had been instructed in advance on what he was expected to do.

“I was briefly on the state officers’ compensation commission,” is all he told legislators at his hearing.

According to Dunleavy’s boards and commissions website, Handeland was a member of the compensation commission, but not “briefly.” He was a member until his term expired on March 1, 2024, according to the governor’s staff.

The compensation commission, which has three vacancies, hasn’t met since that 15-minute meeting a year ago at which Handeland became chairman, so maybe he just assumed he was no longer a card-carrying member.

Handeland also said he is on the Alaska Student Loan Corporation Board, but the governor’s boards and commissions website claims his term expired on March 1 and the position is vacant.

At his confirmation hearing, Handeland should have been asked about whether it was ethical on his part to take part in the compensation commission coup.

He said he will not take part in any executive branch campaigns this year. But there are no executive branch campaigns this year, so that doesn’t mean much.

Asked at his confirmation hearing what he brings to the personnel board with his experience, he said:

“I mean, as a public member, I mean I guess the experience that I have, I’ve served on boards in the past. I don’t have anything I guess specifically related to personnel. My mom was personnel director in Nome for the City of Nome, so I kind of have a little bit just kind of hearing stuff from her as to how it relates to employees and stuff. But I don’t have, I guess, direct experience in that. I mean I also do have an MBA from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. And so I have, I guess, some business experience and stuff as that relates to employment law, a tad of that. I would tend to defer to the lawyers that we, we work with on any of that stuff.”

Handeland will face a confirmation vote when the Legislature meets in joint session this spring.

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