Dunleavy's former personal assistant becomes chairman of state utility regulator

John Espindola, whose 2023 appointment to the Regulatory Commission of Alaska led to a new law this year making it harder for the governor to put unqualified people on the commission, is now the chairman of the RCA.

In a meeting Wednesday, the other commissioners chose Espindola, the former personal assistant to Dunleavy, to preside over the commission, replacing Robert Doyle.

There is already one vacancy on the five-member commission. There will soon be two.

I’ve been told that Commissioner Doyle mentioned Wednesday that he plans to resign. Doyle had been elected as chairman of the RCA June 26 for the fiscal year that began July 1.

Doyle’s departure will leave Espindola, Robert Pickett and John Springsteen as the only members.

A law approved this year includes a requirement that a commissioner have a college degree in a relevant area and five years of actual experience “in the field associated with the degree.”

The work of the RCA is highly technical and competent commissioners need a technical background.

As I wrote here last summer, nothing that Espindola did during his years of working for the state as a “personal assistant” and policy analyst for Dunleavy qualified him to serve on the Regulatory Commission of Alaska.

It was clear that the work Espindola did in New Mexico in the years before he hired on with Dunleavy in 2018 did not meet the minimum educational and professional requirements spelled out in state law about the people entrusted to regulate Alaska’s utilities.

Espindola does not have a law degree, is not a member of the Alaska Bar Association, does not have a degree in any of the six academic fields listed in state law or five years of work experience in those professions. However, he did not sign the Dunleavy recall petition.

Alaska legislators concluded that the law had to be changed to tighten the qualifications. The bill they approved does that and provides a hefty pay increase, which is justified, because the commission is an important one that deals with utility rates across the state. Sen. Cathy Giessel pushed for this change.

Espindola has a degree in political science from the University of New Mexico and worked in plumbing and construction. The State of New Mexico says he has two contractor licenses and worked for Lua Plumbing LLC, which had its license expire in 2019. He has a MM-98 license for plumbing work of various types and a GF-9 license for utility line work.

The biography posted on the RCA website is vague about what he did in New Mexico, except to say he spent more than a decade in construction.

“In 2018, I began my service to the people of Alaska when Governor Dunleavy came into office. For over three years I served the governor as his personal assistant,” Espindola wrote on his LinkedIn page.

WRONG CHOICE: Fairbanks assembly member Barbara Haney has had a great many complaints about plans to replace the animal shelter in Fairbanks. On Thursday night, however, she chose to skip a borough assembly committee meeting at which the shelter was a key topic, choosing instead to attend a legislative fund-raiser for Mike Cronk.

Haney should have skipped the fundraiser and done the job she was elected to do. The next time Haney complains about the animal shelter plans, she needs to be reminded that she chose to skip a key meeting.

The animal shelter needs more design work and the assembly moved to advance the project and incorporate public comments.

HIGHWAY MONEY: Anchorage Rep. Zack Fields says that the Department of Transportation and Public Facilities confirmed to him that the state had expected at least $50 million more than it received in the so-called August redistribution of federal highway funds. Another source puts the total at $60 million.

Despite multiple requests, the transportation department has refused to tell me what projects will not be funded because of this reduction. The department has also refused to explain why it failed to qualify for the money.

Fields said that he has asked the department to give him the correspondence from the federal highway agency that details the rejection. I will write about it here when he forwards it. The Dunleavy administration is not handling this well.

ACTING DIRECTOR: Meanwhile, Joe Kemp has been replaced as the northern region director of the transportation department. Katherine Keith has been named the acting director.

GENIUS AT WORK: What follows is Donald Trump’s unfiltered answer to a simple question at the Economic Club of New York about how he would reduce child care costs. I agree with those who complained about news reports that simply said he gave a “jumbled” answer. Those reports failed to reveal his incoherence.

“Well, I would do that, and we're sitting down—you know, I was, somebody, we had Senator Marco Rubio, and my daughter Ivanka was so impactful on that issue. It's a very important issue. But I think when you talk about the kind of numbers that I'm talking about, that—because look, child care is child care, it’s—couldn't, you know, it’s something, you have to have it, in this country you have to have it.

But when you talk about those numbers compared to the kind of numbers that I'm talking about by taxing foreign nations at levels that they're not used to—but they'll get used to it very quickly—and it's not gonna stop them from doing business with us, but they'll have a very substantial tax when they send product into our country. Those numbers are so much bigger than any numbers that we're talking about, including child care, that it's going to take care.

We're gonna have—I look forward to having no deficits within a fairly short period of time, coupled with the reductions that I told you about on waste and fraud and all of the other things that are going on in our country, because I have to stay with child care. I want to stay with child care, but those numbers are small relative to the kind of economic numbers that I'm talking about, including growth, but growth also headed up by what the plan is that I just—that I just told you about.

We're gonna be taking in trillions of dollars, and as much as child care is talked about as being expensive, it's relatively speaking not very expensive compared to the kind of numbers we'll be taking in. We're gonna make this into an incredible country that can afford to take care of its people, and then we'll worry about the rest of the world.

Let's help other people, but we're going to take care of our country first. This is about America first. It's about ‘Make America Great Again.’

We have to do it because right now we're a failing nation, so we'll take care of it. Thank you. Very good question. Thank you.”

Your contributions help support independent analysis and political commentary by Alaska reporter and author Dermot Cole. Thank you for reading and for your support. Either click here to use PayPal or send checks to: Dermot Cole, Box 10673, Fairbanks, AK 99710-0673.

Write me at dermotmcole@gmail.com

h