Palin's Wake - Personnel Board & Duty Station Bills - Plus Juneau Gets Replaced

I've watched two bills debated in the last two days that are before the legislature because of Sarah Palin.  Yesterday, the House voted to expand the Personnel Board (HB 348) and change how its members are appointed because of the questions raised when the numerous complaints against then Gov. Palin's  were heard by the three member board she appointed.  For fifty years of statehood, this had never become a problem.  That's not to say that there hadn't been a governor with problems - Gov. Sheffield was almost impeached - but there had never been an issue with the Personnel Board and a governor.

Then today, the House State Affairs Committee heard SB 244 to officially designate Juneau the governor's duty station.  After lots of questioning by the committee members it seems that this bill would change very little other than to make it law what has been custom.  It does clarify that the governor's base is Juneau.  The only thing I understood this to really clarify is this:

For calculating travel allowances (including lodging and meals), Juneau will be considered the governor's residence. 

What does this change?  Not much.  If a future governor decides not to move his/her family to the mansion in Juneau, the governor cannot be reimbursed for living in his/her own residence somewhere else.  But that was the case before.  This bill simply clarifies this.

The governor gets a cook in the mansion who buys and prepares all food at no cost to the governor.  But when traveling, the governor can claim a $60 a day food allowance.  Even if living in his/her own residence elsewhere.  This hasn't changed, the committee was told by Administration representative Kevin Brooks and Sen. Stedman staffer Darwin Peterson.  Palin did claim per diem and the state determined it was taxable according to a Feb. 2009 ADN article by Lisa Demer. But the article says the payments were for "meals and incidentals," not for lodging. 

What about if the governor drives from his residence to the Anchorage governor's office?  No change.  The state gives the governor a car and fills the tank. 

Gov. Palin painted herself as a maverick who doesn't do things like everyone else does.  She wasn't going to live in Juneau as her main residence so her kids could stay in their own schools.  Except Track did his last year in Michigan and Bristol went to school in Anchorage.  

People have asked before whether being mavericky has some larger state purpose or it's just doing things that make her own life easier.  They've pointed out that living in Juneau is part of the job of being governor of Alaska.  One could argue that given the travel a governor should do, it might come out cheaper if one is based in Anchorage.  I can't tell.  But I do know that the legislature is working this year to clean up things that became issues for the first time in our state's history, because of how Gov. Palin did things.

One more thing that Sen. Egan probably did not anticipate when he signed on as a co-sponsor to the bill.  Rep. Gatto asked why the bill made "Juneau," instead of "the State Capitol" the official duty station.  Rep. Johnson proposed a successful amendment to change "Juneau" to "the State Capitol" in the title and text of the bill.


Note on Photo:  We can do anything these days with Photoshop and you are right to always be suspicious, but this is an undoctored picture I got earlier in the session of the governor's mansion with a moving van in front.