JUNEAU — The Alaska Permanent Fund’s board of trustees used a “deficient” performance evaluation process to justify firing CEO Angela Rodell, who said her removal was “political retribution” for opposing Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s budget plan to overdraw the fund, but an eight-month independent investigation found no credible evidence that Dunleavy was involved in Rodell’s ouster.
Rodell, who served as the corporation’s CEO from 2015 until 2021 and led it to years of strong returns, was abruptly fired during a board meeting last December. There was no explanation given and the board did not anticipate Alaskans would want to know why the firing decision was made, the investigation found.
That lack of an explanation frustrated legislators. In January, a legislative committee approved a $100,000 contract for an Anchorage law firm, to conduct an investigation into Rodell’s ouster. It released its 65-page report Sept. 28.
Attorney Howard Trickey said the investigation led to three main findings: The trustees who voted to fire Rodell gave separate and independent reasons for doing so, but they shared a loss of confidence in her as CEO. The board did not follow an objective process set out in its own charter to evaluate Rodell’s performance. And investigators found no credible direct or circumstantial evidence that the governor was involved in her firing.
The board of trustees had threatened to sue over the investigation into its decision to fire Rodell.
Since 2018, the Permanent Fund has provided two-thirds of state government revenue using a rules-based system to make an annual 5% draw from the fund. Rodell had said her firing was “political retribution” for opposing a budget plan proposed by Dunleavy, which would have overdrawn the fund by $3 billion beyond that structure, partly to pay for a larger Permanent Fund dividend.
Investigators deposed the six members of the board who served at time of Rodell’s ouster, five of whom were appointed by Dunleavy and voted to fire her. They all testified under oath that the dividend had not influenced their decision to fire Rodell. Instead, there was a consensus among those five trustees that they had lost confidence in Rodell as CEO and that there was “a strained relationship.”
Several trustees said they fired Rodell after a heated board meeting last October when she and then-trustee Lucinda Mahoney, then commissioner of the Department of Revenue, had a tense exchange about a plan to increase bonuses for investment staff. Mahoney felt that was inappropriate with a $1,114 dividend being paid earlier that year.
The trustees also said that they were “troubled” by a press release Rodell issued in June last year on the verge of a state government shutdown, which warned about the negative impacts that could have on the fund’s investments. Those trustees argued that statement inappropriately pushed the Alaska Permanent Fund Corp. into the political process.
Former trustee William Moran, who was appointed by former Gov. Bill Walker, was the lone no vote against Rodell’s ouster, and said he found Rodell’s performance to be “exceptional.” He testified that he didn’t hear complaints from the other trustees about that June press release until October. Rodell issued a similar press release in 2017 before another potential shutdown and no issues were raised at that time.
Board members also discussed a tweet Rodell posted during legislative debates in August last year on the dividend, which stated what the Permanent Fund’s balance would be if Dunleavy’s plans to overdraw the fund by $3 billion were enacted. Richards testified he believed that was a “backhanded critique of the governor” and members of the governor’s office privately flagged similar concerns at the time with Mahoney.
The investigation found that Richards spoke to members of the governor’s office in the months leading up to Rodell’s ouster to say that there were “serious performance issues” and that she might be terminated. There were other discussions described with members of the governor’s office, including Dunleavy’s then-chief of staff, but the investigation found no credible evidence that Dunleavy had orchestrated Rodell’s firing.
The investigation found the board had not used an objective annual appraisal process when evaluating Rodell’s performance for several years before she was fired, with her most recent review being the most haphazard. She received “little guidance” on her job performance, whether she was meeting expectations or how she might improve.
Investigators stated that using an objective evaluation process for a CEO, which is set out in the board’s charter, could help eliminate the trustees’ biases and allegations of political influence. But trustees’ lack of confidence in Rodell as CEO “is a sufficient legal reason under the legal standards applicable to at-will employment in Alaska,” the attorneys leading the investigation said.
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