The Legislative Budget and Audit Committee emerged from an executive session on Thursday to vote to approve spending $100,000 on a legal team and inquiry into the firing of Angela Rodell, former executive director of the Alaska Permanent Fund Corp.
Last week, the committee called the chair of the board of Alaska’s sovereign wealth fund before the committee. Craig Richards, however, was careful to not answer the committee’s specific questions, although many of those questions may have been answered in the public release of Rodell’s annual performance review.
The committee’s chair, Sen. Natasha von Imhof, was given subpoena power by the committee to force people to appear before the committee to answer questions.
The motions appear to be the first time in Alaska legislative history that the Legislature will get into the day-to-day business of the corporation, which is run as a separate entity owned by the State of Alaska. Breaking through the firewall that has separated the corporation from politics may be a bridge that, once crossed, forever changes the way the Permanent Fund Corporation is managed.
“We will provide a list of people that we would like the firm to contact and depending on what that person says when they initially answer the phone or email or whatnot, if they agree then the firm will proceed,” said von Imhof. “And if they say ‘I don’t want to agree’ then we will discuss.”
It’s especially meaningful that the investigation is being done in an election year, with von Imhof being talked about as a potential candidate for governor.
