DNR gives records denial power to two job titles, no named employees

Two job titles at the Alaska Department of Natural Resources now carry the power to refuse a public records request. The one-page order names Commissioner John Crowther, who signed it, but no employee receiving the authority.

Crowther signed the order Thursday, assigning his authority to deny records requests to the positions of Special Assistant 2 and Appeals Coordinator. It applies "to the employees in the following positions, including any employees acting in the positions," takes effect immediately and stays in force until a DNR commissioner revokes it.

The order supersedes all prior delegations under the same regulation to DNR personnel, though the public record does not show what those were. A standing order Crowther approved effective Oct. 24, 2025, and published in January, carried forward all previous delegations without naming any.

The department has not said why the authority moved from people to positions, or whether more or fewer employees can now issue a denial. Who holds the two posts was not established. No published figures show how many records requests DNR receives, how many it denies or how many denials are appealed, so the practical scale of the change remains unclear.

Elsewhere, delegations name people. Department of Administration Commissioner Paula Vrana delegated the same authority to Brittany Patzke on Nov. 12, 2024, alongside Deputy Commissioner Dave Donley, Public Information Officer Forrest Wolfe and division directors for requests to their units. The Department of Environmental Conservation named Jessalynn Rintala, an Environmental Program Specialist 4 in the Office of the Commissioner, in a notice published Oct. 29, 2024. A 2022 Department of Administration notice is titled for the employee it names, Brent Wittmer. A 2022 Department of Health and Social Services delegation covers denials for the Division of Family and Community Services.

Position-based delegation is not unprecedented. The Department of Labor and Workforce Development issued one in June 2023 under then Acting Commissioner Cathy Munoz, covering employees in specified positions, including acting employees, and superseding all prior delegations.

DNR's only other public records delegation on file dates to Feb. 21, 2025, when then Commissioner John Boyle delegated to "Ken Diemer, Supervisor, Units Section, DNR Division of Oil and Gas" the authority to decide an appeal of a denial of a Nov. 18, 2024, records request from the law firm Reeves Amodio LLC. That notice was archived about a month later.

The new delegation stays in the state notice system until Sept. 10, 2036. Under the Alaska Public Records Act, a denied requester has 60 working days to appeal to the agency head.