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Rain hammers Girdwood, and the Washington Post says it’s climate change

Suzanne Downing
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60
Rain hammers Girdwood, and the Washington Post says it’s climate change

Heavy rain in Southcentral Alaska washed out roads from Girdwood, south of Anchorage, to the Sterling Highway on the Kenai Peninsula. Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson went to Girdwood, the southernmost neighborhood of the Anchorage municipality, to survey the damage and express his appreciation to work crews working to restore the roads.

The Washington Post said the weather on the Kenai Peninsula was made worse by climate change.

“The deluge, intensified by climate change, has flooded communities south of Anchorage and transformed trickling waterways into raging rivers. Excessive amounts of snow, measured in feet, have buried the high terrain, and the long-lasting storm won’t fully relent until Wednesday,” the Post wrote, without evidence that the rainstorm had anything to do with climate change. But the climatologists said it it was so.

Girdwood is, of course, in a rainforest, as is much of the Chugach range, known as the most northern rainforest in the world.

The narrative is any change in the weather is climate change, but the Seward Highway and the Kenai Peninsula wash out in places on a regular basis.

The 1986 Kenai flood in October was easily as dramatic, but climate change was not the rage back in the day with the mainstream media:

Then there was the Seward flood in September of 1995:

And the Kenai flood of October, 2002…

The Kenai 2006 flood was also in October …

View the Kenai Borough’s gallery of annual flood photos at this link. They go through 2012.

Hot air: Biden rolls out his plan to regulate methane, which could impact Alaska

Suzanne Downing
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16
Hot air: Biden rolls out his plan to regulate methane, which could impact Alaska

President Joe Biden has announced at the United Nations climate change summit in Glasgow, Scotland that he will use his powers to regulate methane that comes from oil and natural gas development.

Biden said he will direct the Environmental Protection Agency to limit the methane coming from all existing oil and gas rigs in the U.S., reversing the relaxed regulations of the Trump Administration. Biden will also seek to end the exemptions for legacy oil fields.

For Alaska, it’s an unknown. Because Alaska has the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, which seeks to maximize conservation, Alaska has not been a big emitter of methane. In fact, oil fields in Alaska re-inject natural gas into the oil fields to force out more oil, rather than flaring it, as is done in other states. The commission ensures that field operators prevent waste, protect correlative rights, improve ultimate recovery and protect underground freshwater. The Commission also administers the Underground Injection Control program for enhanced oil recovery and underground disposal of oil field waste in Alaska.

The announcement by Biden could put a chill on oil development in places like North Dakota and the Permian Basin.

Hilcorp, which operates much of the North Slope since British Petroleum exited the state, is one of the larger emitters of methane in the nation, primarily because it takes over aging fields in Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Louisiana, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wyoming and improves them. Part of that improvement is making them more efficient, which includes repairing things like leaks. The Houston-based company doesn’t get credit for improving old fields so they lose less methane, but will probably find the new regulations punishing.

The 100 nations attending the United Nations climate change summit have vowed to cut global emissions of methane by 30 percent over the next eight years, a goal that is hard to imagine.

Biden said his new mandate will create jobs in the methane-detection field, as well as jobs capping abandoned oil wells and fixing leaks.

Although the announcement came as a surprise to some, it was not a surprise to oil producers. The president, immediately after taking office in January, directed federal agencies to prepare these regulations in advance of the expected United Nations summit, where some of the richest people on the planet flew in private jets to determine how the earth’s poorest people will be prevented from improving their lives.

Administrative order: Dunleavy steps up to protect Alaskans from federal overreach

Suzanne Downing
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44
Administrative order: Dunleavy steps up to protect Alaskans from federal overreach

Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy took action against the efforts of President Joe Biden to undermine the sovereignty of the State of Alaska.

The governor issued Administrative Order No. 325, laying out the steps Alaska’s state government will take to protect its constitution and the rights of Alaskans from blatant federal overreach.

“The Biden Administration has imposed a long list of encroachments against the State of Alaska in attempts to control the health and welfare of Alaskans,” Dunleavy said. “The recent actions or attempts are threatening the State’s sovereign authority under the 10th Amendment. We will not let the federal government usurp our power. We will fight against these threats, enforce Alaska’s sovereignty and protect the rights and freedoms of all Alaskans.”

The Biden Administration, over 11 months has introduced many plans which jeopardize the constitutional rights of individual Alaskans.

The Biden Administration introduced a plan that would force banks and financial institutions to provide the Internal Revenue Service with personal information from private bank accounts when cumulative financial transactions of $600 or more occur in a year.

“After Americans expressed outrage, the IRS proposed increasing the financial threshold. The Biden IRS proposal would monitor the banking activities of Alaskans and store their financial information – violating existing protections for such records under the Federal Right to Financial Privacy Act,” the governor said in a statement.

He also addressed federal overreach on the Must Read Alaska Podcast on Tuesday, which can be heard at this link:

Must Read Alaska Podcast links.

The Department of Justice under President Biden plans to use Federal law enforcement personnel and resources to monitor, and potentially prosecute, parents as potential domestic terrorists, for protesting issues at local school board meetings (like mask mandates, curriculum choices, and other issues).

President Biden is also directing the Occupational and Safety Health Administration to implement regulations requiring that private employer, and certain public employers, with over 100 employees mandate their employees to be fully vaccinated or to submit to regular COVID-19 testing.

Lastly, last week the Biden Administration attempted to mandate that all federal contractors require their employees to be vaccinated without clear statutory authority. Earlier, they imposed vaccine mandates on military and National Guard members without adequate protections in place for individuals with religious objections.

To fight this federal government overreach, the Dunleavy Administration is ordering:

  1. The Attorney General to review any federal vaccine mandate issued by the Biden Administration and determine whether there are legal grounds to challenge such mandates in court. 
  2. To the extent allowable by law, no state agency shall participate in, or use state funds or personnel, to further a federal vaccine mandate for employers. 
  3. The AG will review and oppose efforts by the Federal Government to monitor and negatively affect the ability of Alaskan parents to exercise their constitutional rights by participating in school board meetings. 
  4. To the extent allowable by law, no state agency shall participate with a federal agency, or spend state funds to participate in, or further any action by a federal agency that infringes on the constitutional rights of Alaskans. Nor may a state agency take actions that would unconstitutionally chill free speech or infringe upon other constitutional rights exercised by citizens against or in support of local school district policies. State agencies shall continue to enforce the criminal code of the State of Alaska.
  5. If a federal agency proposes action to a state agency that would require a state agency to act in a manner that may violate the Alaska or U.S. Constitution, the agency’s commissioner shall immediately inform the Attorney General for the State of Alaska and seek legal advice as to how to proceed.

Read the full Administrative Order here.

UA president says vaccines will be required

Suzanne Downing
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60
UA president says vaccines will be required

In a reversal from two weeks ago, University of Alaska Interim President Pat Pitney says that Alaska’s higher education campuses, research sites, and contractors will need to be vaccinate for Covid-19.

“Without acting on this vaccine requirement, we could lose substantial federal contracts, and with them jobs that support more than 750 employees and their families,” said Pitney. “In addition, the ripple effect of the loss of these contracts would be widely felt as UAF’s research enterprise works with local contractors and suppliers across the state.”

The decision is in response to President Biden’s executive order (EO) 14042, Ensuring Adequate COVID Safety Protocols for Federal Contractors, which requires all employees paid by or supporting new or modified federal contracts to be vaccinated by early December. The order requires not only people directly paid by federal contracts, but also anyone who works to support them or works in the same facility to get a Covid vaccine.

UAF currently has $200 million in multi-year federal contracts impacted by the executive order, and expects close to $100 million more in the coming months. UAF competes nationally for many of these contracts. While neither the University of Alaska Anchorage nor University of Alaska Southeast face federal contract modifications at this time, UA continues to evaluate the situation and may have to extend the requirement to employees in other UA locations to comply with new contract modifications or other federal funding stipulations.

The university is also monitoring several legal challenges to the executive order. The Arizona and Florida attorneys general have both challenged the order in federal court and requested temporary restraining orders to halt implementation. Late last week, Alaska joined several other states in challenging the order. Pitney said she supports the State of Alaska’s efforts to challenge the scope of the executive order.

A court injunction on vaccine requirements resulting from any of the pending legal actions will not impact this vaccination requirement. The university will be bound to those conditions until the contracts are concluded or future modifications or executive orders are enacted.

University President Pitney won’t mandate Covid vaccines at this time for UAF

Assembly agrees to homelessness strategy negotiated with mayor, but it’s too late for the plan to be enacted this winter

Suzanne Downing
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23
Assembly agrees to homelessness strategy negotiated with mayor, but it’s too late for the plan to be enacted this winter

The Anchorage Assembly on Monday night unanimously agreed to a strategy that three of its members negotiated with the Bronson Administration over the past several months to address the issues surrounding chronically homeless and vagrant people in Anchorage.

The homelessness compromise was crafted over 22 meetings and more than 800 hours of negotiations between three members of the mayor’s team and three members of the Assembly, including Meg Zaletel, Chris Constant, and John Weddleton.

The resolution passed by the Assembly to agree to the policy will move along on an exit plan for returning the Sullivan Arena to its intended use. For more than a year and a half the Sullivan has been providing cots and toilets for homeless men and women, at a cost of $7,500 for each client per month, and more than a million dollars a month.

Mayor Bronson wanted to see that situation resolved before winter, but the Assembly bucked him on his plan for a temporary structure that would have sheltered 450 persons. Bronson suggested negotiations because the Assembly liberal majority was unwilling to appropriate the funds needed for his comprehensive “navigation center” that would be designed to help people break whatever cycle they are in that leads to them living dangerous lives on the streets and in the woods of Anchorage.

But it all comes too late for this winter. There is no way to build the shelter in time for the cold months.

The next step in the facilitation is to identify where the various properties are going to be for the agreed-on five-point plan: The navigation center; housing for those who are not chronically but who are acutely homeless; a facility for the medically fragile; a facility for women and children; and a facility to deal exclusively for alcohol and drug issues.

For example, about 40-50 people in the Sullivan Arena have jobs but just need housing; they could be assisted by the navigation center to find apartments and get them through the apartment rental application process.

The next step for the mayor’s team is to do a census to find out how many people fit into each of the categories. If there are 100 who need drug or alcohol rehabilitation, for example, then the Mayor’s Office wants to right-size that facility.

The key to the whole plan is to get a facility constructed or identified for the navigation center.

There are many more steps; the Assembly has just adopted the policy. The Assembly still holds the keys because the liberal majority of nine can block the appropriation for the policy if it wants to keep battling the mayor and delaying the process.

The Assembly also agreed to the mayor’s request to once again suspend the plastic bag ban, which was put in place not long after the bag ban was enacted in an effort to keep virus-ridden reusable bags from being brought into retail stores. Mayor Dave Bronson asked that the suspension of the plastic bag ban go through April, but the Assembly only agreed that it be in effect until January.

Muni attorney tells Assembly: Chief equity officer can be fired for cause — or for no cause — per charter and constitution

Suzanne Downing
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25
Muni attorney tells Assembly: Chief equity officer can be fired for cause — or for no cause — per charter and constitution

On Monday, the Anchorage Municipal Attorney sent a memo to the Assembly leadership in response to the Assembly’s October letter saying the mayor could not fire the city’s chief equity officer. Mayor Dave Bronson had fired Clifford Armstrong III in mid-October.

The attorney memo explains that the ordinance that created the position of chief equity officer violates the Charter and the separation of powers doctrine.

“The Chief Equity Officer serves at the pleasure of the mayor and, like other at will mayoral executive appointees, s/he can be dismissed for any reason or for no reason at all. The ordinance the Assembly passed is a clear violation of the Mayor’s authority established in Charter,” Municipal Attorney Patrick Bergt wrote.

The former equity officer had been hired by the unelected acting mayor Austin Quinn-Davidson during her last days of office; she served as the unelected mayor for eight months and it was one of her final acts, along with wrecking the municipality’s website.

The ordinance creating the position was passed by the Assembly and signed by former Mayor Ethan Berkowitz in 2020; it says that the mayor cannot fire the person who holds this job position without the permission of the Assembly.

That’s against the municipal charter and the Alaska Constitution, according to the Bronson Administration.

The Alaska Constitution vests “all local government powers” in boroughs and cities. It authorizes the voters of a first class city to adopt a home rule charter and provides that  “a home rule borough or city may exercise all legislative powers not prohibited by law or by charter,” the Office of the Municipal Attorney wrote.

Accordingly, “an ordinance is invalid if it conflicts with [our] charter.”

The Anchorage Charter states that the mayor shall appoint all heads of municipal departments, subject to confirmation by the assembly, on the basis of professional qualifications. Persons appointed by the mayor serve at the pleasure of the mayor.

“Our Charter is plain and unambiguous—executive mayoral appointees  serve at the pleasure of the mayor and therefore may be dismissed by the mayor without cause. The express language of our Charter clearly, unequivocally, and unconditionally vests in the mayor the authority to remove mayoral executive appointees for any reason or for no reason. It is also significant that our Charter explicitly limits the mayor’s executive appointment power by requiring Assembly confirmation of specific appointees; it places no such limitation on the mayor’s removal power, however,” the attorney wrote.

Municipal code further says that the Assembly has no authority to displace the mayor’s power to remove mayoral executive appointees, and that the mayor need not show cause for such removal: Executive employees are “at will” employees and serve at the pleasure of the mayor or the responsible official of the appointing authority.

“Employees occupying an executive position are appointed by and serve at the pleasure of the responsible official for the appointing authority. As such, the responsible official may dismiss, demote or suspend any employee occupying an executive position for any reason, or no reason, without right of grievance or appeal. The code acknowledges that the mayor, and only the mayor, may terminate executive mayoral appointees,” the memo said.

Therefore, the ordinance that created the chief equity officer position, AMC 3.20.140.A.1.b. and 1.c, “unlawfully infringe upon the powers granted to the mayor by Charter 13,” Bergt said.

“An ordinance creating “for cause” and durational term protections of an executive mayoral appointee usurps the mayor’s executive function. Separation of powers between and among the three branches of government is a long recognized, well-settled, and core doctrine of American jurisprudence. The doctrine is intended to preclude the exercise of arbitrary power and to safeguard the independence of each branch of government: “One branch’s threat to the independence of another . . . may therefore violate separation of powers,'” he wrote.

Last month, the Assembly authorized the hiring of an outside attorney for $50,000 to fight the firing of the former chief equity officer, and also sent a letter to the mayor saying they do not recognize that Armstrong III is indeed fired.

Assembly refuses to accept mayor’s firing of equity officer, says he is still employed
Bronson names new equity officer

Anchorage Assembly sets up to brawl over 83 nominations from Mayor Bronson to boards, commissions during special meeting

Suzanne Downing
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16
Anchorage Assembly sets up to brawl over 83 nominations from Mayor Bronson to boards, commissions during special meeting

The Anchorage Assembly will hold a special work session on Nov. 4 from 1-3 pm to review Mayor Dave Bronson’s nominations to boards and commissions. Bronson has reappointed 10 people and nominated 73 new volunteers to various civic panels that advise the city.

The work session can be watched streamed live at this link.

The meeting will be conducted remotely with Microsoft Teams software. The phone number to call in is (907) 519-0237. Meeting Conference ID: ​723 849 169​​​​​ #​

In case of Microsoft Teams failure, the meeting will resume using the following conference bridge phone number: (907) 273-5190. Participant Code – 721227#​​

The nominations for board and commission appointments, as well as links to their resumes,​ can be found on the agendas for the Assembly Regular Meetings on Oct. 12 (Items 10.D.1-10.D.22 and 10.G.1-10.G.4) and October 27 (Items 10.G.2-10.G.3 and 11B. and 11.C.) The link is here.

While not part of this work session, a new batch of nominations will be included in the agenda for the Nov. 9 regular meeting, the Assembly said in a press release. Those will be reviewed by the Assembly at a later date.

The Assembly has turned down three of the mayor’s appointments to executive positions in his administration. They turned down Dave Morgan to run the Department of Health, Sami Graham to run Libraries, and James Winegarner as the director of the Real Estate Department.

The Assembly appears to be setting up for another brawl with the mayor over his appointments to the volunteers who offer their time and talent. Last week, the Assembly majority sent a series of questions to the mayor about his appointments, their qualifications, and specifically requested he make changes to his appointment schedule for the Elections Commission:

Questions sent to the Administration on October 26:

  1. What outreach and advertising was done to recruit the new appointees? Was the outreach done in a way that ensures broad community representation on the Boards and Commissions (several have specific requirements to meet geographic and demographic diversity)?
  2. There are 29 people whose terms expired in October 2021 who were not reappointed. How many of those submitted applications or indicated to their board/commission that they intended to serve out a new term? Can the Assembly have access to these applications? Were all existing members adequately informed that they would need to reapply for their positions (the past practice was to reappoint without a new application)?
  3. Several Boards and Commission have very specific requirements outlined in municipal code for who fills each seat, and sometimes technical requirements for appointees. Do the new appointments maintain these requirements?
  4. There were 23 people who expired prior to 2021, but according to OnBoard, that person was still serving (perhaps unaware that they had expired). Some of these were reappointed, but some were listed on the Administration’s appointment documents as Vacant and new appointees were put forward.
    1. Of those, how many were still actively participating in 2021?
    2. How many reapplied for their seats?
    3. How did the Administration determine which Members to reappoint and which ones to replace?
  5. The staggering is off for the Election Commission. Would the Administration be willing to readjust the new appointment for Seat 4 for one year to expire in 2022, to bring the Commission back into alignment with the code to have staggered terms?
  6. Jocasta Olp was appointed to the Health and Human Services Commission on 3/23/21 (see AM 183-2021), but does not appear in OnBoard. Can we assume that she is filling Seat #6?

The Assembly has also assembled a worksheet with all the names of those people who were not reappointed to seats.

2021-1104_Anchorage-Assembly_Boards-and-Commissions-Work-Session-BackgroundDownload

Covid daily count dropping: 352 new cases on Halloween

Suzanne Downing
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7
Covid daily count dropping: 352 new cases on Halloween

The number of people who tested positive for Covid-19 on Oct. 31 was 352. For the Oct. 29-31 weekend, the total was 1,547 for new cases in Alaska, including the 352 on Sunday. There has been a decrease of 8 percent in new cases from the previous week.

Currently, 190 Alaskans are hospitalized with Covid-19, making up 19.3 percent of all hospitalizations, a decrease from last week. Also a decrease are the number of hospitalized Covid patients on ventilators. Last month the number of patients on ventilators spiked to 38 at one point. That number is now 28.

96 of the 118 ICU beds in the state are occupied and 779 of 1,100 non-ICU beds are occupied. The number of beds relates to whether there is staffing to take care of patients, and the base number tends to change. These occupied beds are being used by Covid and non-Covid patients.

Three more Alaskans died over the weekend with the cause attributed to Covid, bringing the state total to 702 since the pandemic hit Alaska in March of 2020.

60.3% of Alaskans 12 and older have been vaccinated.

The vaccination rate by by region:

  • Juneau Region: 80.3%
  • YK-Delta Region: 77.3%
  • Other Southeast Region – Northern: 76.2%
  • Southwest Region: 70.5%
  • Other Southeast Region – Southern: 68.1%
  • Anchorage Region: 64.1%
  • Northwest Region: 62.7%
  • Other Interior Region: 60.5%
  • Fairbanks North Star Borough: 52.9%
  • Kenai Peninsula Region: 50.5%
  • Matanuska-Susitna Region: 43.7%
Daily Covid count: 560 Alaskans caught it

Gov. Dunleavy: ‘No, Joe, mandates are not the answer’

GUEST CONTRIBUTOR
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Gov. Dunleavy: ‘No, Joe, mandates are not the answer’

By GOV. MIKE DUNLEAVY

By now it should be clear to anyone paying attention that President Joe Biden, with the help of many in Congress, is attempting to transform this country at break-neck speed into something that most Americans will not recognize. We are less than a year into his administration and are fully engaged in a serious battle for this country’s future. 

President Biden’s vaccine mandates are more examples of federal overreach that could have serious consequences for Alaska and must be fought.

That is why the State of Alaska joined nine other states in filing a lawsuit on Oct. 29 challenging the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate for companies that do business with the federal government. And rest assured, Alaska will join with many other states to take legal action as soon as the Biden administration follows through with its announcement to use the Occupational Health and Safety Administration to force any private business with more than 100 employees to require its workforce to either vaccinate or submit to weekly testing.

Beyond the fact that my administration believes these mandates as applied to contractors and private businesses are unconstitutional, Alaska is a perfect example of why the Biden mandate is completely unnecessary. 

Regardless of what armchair politicians and political detractors say, if people are truly honest with themselves, they should recognize that Alaska has handled Covid better than nearly every other state in the U.S. We led the U.S. (and most of the world) in testing very early in the pandemic. Additionally, unlike Texas and other states, we never had a mask mandate. We were also the first to remove our emergency declaration, even though other states like South Dakota continued theirs for months after ours ended. 

Even with today’s delta variant surge, Alaska has some of the lowest death rates in the country. We have the second-fewest deaths and the fourth-fewest deaths per capita. Just over the past month, my administration has also brought 457 health care workers to Alaska to aid our providers.

When vaccines became available, Alaska led the nation in distribution and vaccination rate. Not because of force or coercion, but because people freely chose to get one. Our state was the first to provide monoclonal antibodies as an effective therapeutic for Covid, and despite what some are falsely claiming, the State of Alaska has never prevented doctors and pharmacists from prescribing or dispensing other therapeutics, such as Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine. I have always advocated for individuals to work with their doctors to establish the best treatment possible for Covid and will continue to do so.

I have also been very public about opposing mandates related to Covid. While there is evidence that some Covid mitigations help, mandates cannot eradicate this virus. Despite this reality, the President chose to mandate vaccinations for federal workers, those who contract with the federal government, and for our brave women and men in the military. 

The U.S. and Alaska constitutions prevent me as governor from overriding some federal decisions on mandates. Thus, not I, nor any governor, has the legal authority to nullify Biden’s mandate for federal employees or the military. Opposition to this part of the mandate will have to come from individuals and Congress, and it will be litigated at the highest levels.

I applaud Sen. Dan Sullivan for speaking out recently against the President’s mandate. Our federal delegation, and ultimately the U.S. Supreme Court, are the proper means by which this part of the mandate should and will be attacked.

It is important to address some confusion about how the mandate impacts private businesses. This part of the mandate has not been implemented by the Biden Administration, and as of yet, not even a proposed rule has been released. Despite this, some companies are choosing to require their employees to get vaccinated. 

Any employee negatively impacted by a private company’s human resources policy should discuss that with their employer and their collective bargaining unit if applicable. 

Let this be clear: I am opposed to government mandates of any kind related to the Covid-19 vaccine, but not because I oppose the vaccine. Data shows that the vaccine is an effective way to protect people from getting seriously ill and dying from the virus. 

It is possible to be pro-vaccine and anti-mandate. I’m opposed to vaccine mandates because I do not believe that the government should use the force of law to make people get a medical treatment they don’t agree with or don’t need, perhaps because they’ve already contracted Covid and have natural immunity. 

I also believe we should be very cautious when intruding into private businesses decisions, workplace rules, and vaccination policy. Just as I don’t believe the government can order a private business to require vaccines, I don’t believe that government should keep private businesses from requiring a vaccination if they think that it is best for their employees and customers. 

Using the power of government to dictate to an employer whether they can or cannot require vaccination is a slippery slope that all should be leery of. 

Our system of government, with its three branches and system of checks and balances, is not only unique but is the reason why we do not have dictators and despots. It protects us from the tyranny of the majority through our representative form of government. 

Some have sown the seeds of disharmony in our state by politicizing the virus and insisting that I mandate what they want and limit the freedom of others. That is a road on which I will not travel because it leads to a destination that Alaskans do not want to reach.

Tyranny, whether it comes from the left or the right, is still tyranny that we should all fear.

– Gov. Mike Dunleavy

Tyranny, whether it comes from the left or the right, is still tyranny that we should all fear. One of the main purposes of the U.S. and Alaska constitutions is to outline what powers the people give government. It is a limiting document for government, and we should all be thankful for that. 

I am often asked by Alaskans to “do something.” This can be a dangerous request. Thank goodness for our constitutions, for the “something” I do today that tests or exceeds the bounds of executive power could become a regret that lasts far longer.

Be very careful what you wish for when your “side” temporarily holds power. The Constitution’s limiting powers are in place because the Founding Fathers understood that the challenging days that we’re seeing now would be a test for all of us, and that tyranny and despotism are always just a step away.

We must remember Benjamin Franklin’s quote attributed to him after the signing of the Constitution in 1787 when asked what kind of government had just been created: “A republic, if you can keep it.”

One of the main purposes of the U.S. and Alaska constitutions is to outline what powers the people give government. It is a limiting document for government, and we should all be thankful for that. 

I took an oath to protect and defend our constitution and republican form of government, and that includes accepting the limits it places on my executive power. I will not break my oath.

Mike Dunleavy was elected Alaska’s 12th governor in 2018.

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