Alaska seeks outside attorneys for ethics complaints against top officials

The State of Alaska is looking to hire private attorneys for a delicate job — investigating ethics complaints against the governor, lieutenant governor, or attorney general. Bids are due Aug. 24.

The state has to reach outside because its own top lawyer can't handle these cases. Under the Executive Branch Ethics Act, the attorney general reviews ethics complaints against most state employees, but not those against the governor, the lieutenant governor, or the attorney general. Complaints against those three go to the State Personnel Board, which hires independent counsel to act in the attorney general's place, with the attorney general's authority. The board can hire that counsel without even notifying the Department of Law — a firewall the Legislature built to keep the process away from the officials it can reach.

The process is also confidential by law. Complaints against the three officials are kept secret, and the board's meetings on them are closed until it finds probable cause. The state's solicitation names no specific complaint, and under the law it couldn't. Whether one is pending now is not something the public can know unless probable cause is found.

The board is not fully separate from the officials it can investigate. Its three members are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Legislature, so the body that handles complaints against the governor is chosen, in part, by the same office. The independent counsel it hires, though, works on the board's authority, in the attorney general's place, rather than the administration's.

The mechanism has handled some of Alaska's most prominent ethics cases. In 2008, independent counsel hired by the board cleared Gov. Sarah Palin in the "Troopergate" firing, finding no probable cause that she violated the ethics act. In 2020, the same process ended with Gov. Mike Dunleavy agreeing to repay the state about $2,800 over two mailers from a public-funded advertising campaign, without admitting wrongdoing, after the counsel cleared most of the campaign.

Questions from prospective bidders are due Aug. 7, and bids Aug. 24.