Therriault keeping his job despite 'smoking gun'

UPDATED: Former Alaska state Sen. Gene Therriault says his hands are clean, his conscience is clear and he's sticking with his $110,000-per-year job as energy aide to Gov. Sean Parnell despite accusations of a job-grabbing jump too hasty from the Legislature to the governor's office.

In an interview Monday, Therriault said his situation is different from that of former Rep. Nancy Dahlstrom, R-Eagle River, who stepped down from the Legislature after talking to Parnell about a new post as a military adviser in the governor's office. After Parnell created that job, she quit and took it, only to have Anchorage talk show host Dan Fagan cry foul.

Fagan noted the Alaska Constitution makes it a no-no for the governor to hire sitting legislators to fill new administration jobs. The state attorney general, apparently caught off guard by questions about the Dahlstrom hire while a guest on Fagan's show, subsequently promised a legal review of the matter. He came back with an opinion that the Dahlstrom hire was indeed illegal, though he tried to backstop the governor by claiming "the long-standing nature of this practice."

Dahlstrom quickly resigned anyway. Fagan promptly suggested Therriault do the same. Parnell countered with the "long-standing nature" defense. And there things stood until Monday morning.

That's when Fagan added heat to the fire with a post on his website headlined "Smoking gun document proves Parnell broke the law." The document displayed on the page appears to indicate Therriault's new, high-paying job was created Sept. 1, 2009 -- 13 days before the former Senate minority leader from North Pole quit his old, low-paying job.

Theirriault said the date on the document (which Fagan obtained from activist Andree McLeod, who received it through a public records request) is misleading. He believes Fagan is misinterpreting what is there.

"The document's effective date is the 14th," Therriault said, and his resignation from the Senate took place on the 13th -- a day earlier.

Even worse than that Therriault said, is that Fagan is wrong in claiming that the former lawmaker signed his new job papers on the Sept. 12, the day before he quit the Senate. It was actually four days after the resignation, Therriault said.

"I actually happened to be in Juneau on the 17th," the former Interior lawmaker said. The papers officially putting him in the job were signed while he was in the capital city.

Not only is Therriault of the belief he and Parnell followed the letter of the law, the former lawmaker is of the opinion he didn't even bend the law's intent, although he admitted he has not talked to Attorney General Dan Sullivan about that.

Sullivan, in a July 1 opinion on "The Ineligibility Clause" of the state Alaska Constitution, noted his belief the prohibition on legislators taking jobs in the executive branch was to be viewed broadly. The attorney general noted the state Supreme Court has in previous cases concluded the clause "has several related purposes, preventing legislators from creating government positions with an eye to occupying those positions; avoiding the appearance of impropriety; and protecting the members of the Legislature from influence -- either conscious or subconscious -- on their judgment and conduct created by personal interesting in newly created offices.''

Therriault, however, said it would have been pretty hard for Parnell to meet the latter threshold, because when Therriault was working as a legislator, Parnell was still the Alaska lieutenant governor with no power over anything but elections. Parnell didn't become governor until after Sarah Palin's resignation, which didn't officially take place until July 26, 2009. Parnell hired Therriault less than two months later and before the start of the next legislative session.

"There was no vote trading or bartering,'' Therriault said. "Nobody knew Palin was going to be leaving her office. Parnell had no way of knowing. We didn't have any conversations.

"I'm not sure what the impropriety would have been.''