Under questioning from a bipartisan legislative committee on Monday, the chairman of the Alaska Permanent Fund defended the board’s decision to fire former executive director Angela Rodell but declined to answer substantive questions about the reasons for the action.
Chairman Craig Richards said the board had years of “trust problems” with Rodell. Citing the confidentiality of board discussions and the possibility of a lawsuit by the ousted director, he refused to answer questions about the source of those problems, and he declined to say whether he or other board members have been in communication with Gov. Mike Dunleavy about the firing.
“We’re not here, prepared today to go into an in-depth, detailed analysis of here’s everything she did right and everything she did wrong,” Richards told the Legislature’s Budget and Audit Committee.
“That’s most unfortunate, because you had a month to prepare,” said Committee Chair Sen. Natasha Von Imhof, of Anchorage.
Legislators have been concerned that Rodell’s firing on Dec. 9 was the result of political pressure from the governor, who has appointed or reappointed five of the board’s six trustees. All five voted to fire Rodell; the sixth did not.
Richards said state law gives the board the right to hire and fire the fund’s executive director for any reason.
“Just because you can doesn’t mean you should — and that’s what we’d like to find out, is whether you should,” said Anchorage Rep. Chris Tuck, the committee vice chair.
The Permanent Fund’s earnings provide two-thirds of Alaska’s general-purpose state revenue, and under Rodell’s tenure the fund outperformed similar wealth endowments. Rodell herself gained international renown as the chair of the International Forum of Sovereign Wealth Funds, and days after her firing the Permanent Fund was named by a trade magazine as one of the top places to work in finance.
The board has a responsibility to deliver maximum returns, said Senate President Peter Micciche, of Soldotna. “A lot of this sort of reeks of something else,” he said of the dismissal.
At points during his testimony, Richards pushed back against legislators, saying that they themselves are politicizing the firing by holding a committee hearing on it. “What is best for the fund is to move on,” he said.
In 2018, the Alaska Legislature passed a law limiting annual withdrawals from the Permanent Fund to ensure its continued growth. Dunleavy has previously proposed temporarily breaking that limit to pay out larger dividends to Alaskans.
Rodell, following resolutions passed by the Permanent Fund board, frequently testified at legislative hearings against breaking the limit, advising lawmakers should follow a “rules-based approach” when spending from the fund.
Rodell has said her firing was “political retribution” by the governor’s appointees, though she said she does not have proof. She did not respond to a text or phone call seeking comment Monday.
“I believe my removal to be political retribution for successfully carrying the board’s mandate to protect the fund and advocate against any additional draws over the (percent of market value) spending rule ... which is contrary to Governor Dunleavy’s agenda,” Rodell said in an earlier letter to the Budget and Audit Committee.
Dunleavy has repeatedly said he had no role in the firing.
Richards told lawmakers that Rodell’s argument doesn’t make sense because the board has passed resolutions in support of the annual withdrawal limit and against overspending.
Last June, however, Revenue Commissioner Lucinda Mahoney advocated the Dunleavy plan and its one-time overdraw from the fund.
Mahoney is the vice chair of the fund’s board and was in charge of Rodell’s performance review this year.
Testifying Monday, Richards described long-term tensions between the board and the executive director. At a meeting this fall, Rodell and Mahoney argued over a proposed bonus program for Permanent Fund employees. There was “visible tension” during that meeting, Richards said.
Rodell’s 296-page personnel file, released last week after a public records request filed by the Anchorage Daily News, includes several years of performance reviews, and from 2018 through 2021 those anonymous evaluations show board members losing trust in Rodell.
“It often feels as if the board is being managed to the (executive director)’s agenda, as opposed to the ED trying to internalize and achieve the board’s agenda,” a board member wrote in 2018, before Dunleavy came into office.
“In my opinion, the (executive director)’s relationship with the board of trustees is broken,” said a board member’s comment in 2019.
“Does not embrace the vision of the board but instead tries to control the board to achieve her own vision and points of view,” one board member wrote in December.
It isn’t clear from the personnel file whether specific actions drove these and similar comments. No board member’s name is attached to them, and Rodell still received raises — her latest coming at the start of 2021.
Richards declined to answer questions from legislators about the source of the comments but did say that the evaluations formed only part of the basis for the board’s decision to fire Rodell.
As Monday’s meeting concluded, Von Imhof and other legislators said they intend to hold further meetings on the issue.
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