D.C. group calls for probe of Gattis

PALMER — More often known for its calls for investigations into members of the U.S. Congress, a national watchdog group has trained its sights on Mat-Su’s own state Rep. Lynn Gattis.

“Today, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) called on Alaska’s U.S. attorney and attorney general to investigate Alaska state Rep. Lynn Gattis (R-Wasilla) and her husband, Richard Gattis, for taking $65,225 of taxpayer funds in exchange for an easement on their land that they had no right to grant,” CREW’s press release issued Monday asserts.

But by the afternoon, Gattis had fired back.

“The recent call for an investigation against my husband and I is another politically motivated attack by outside interests intent on stopping projects that will benefit Alaska’s future,” she says in a prepared statement. “This is old hash served up warm again.”

Gattis represents an area east of Wasilla in the state House of Representatives. The land in question is a hay farm she and her husband own in Point MacKenzie. As part of its work on the Point MacKenzie Rail Extension, the Mat-Su Borough asked the Gattis’ for an easement to build a temporary road across their land. The deal fell apart in July 2012.

In November 2012, as Gattis was running for the state House, details of the whole thing came out.

“State agriculture officials discovered the Gattis easements violated state law as well as provisions of loans they took out from the state’s Agricultural Revolving Loan Fund,” according to Frontiersman reporting from the time. Simultaneously, the borough’s contractor on the project, Bristol Construction, realized it didn’t need the easements anyway.

“So in July (2012), the borough removed all the easements without ever using them. The borough had no legal right to ask for the money back and did not,” according to that Frontiersman report.

Gattis’ reply to the CREW press release mentions this.

“My family did not ‘decline’ to return the money that the borough paid us,” she says. “The borough is honoring a business contract and we were never asked to give the money back. I have great distain for Washington, D.C., getting involved in Alaskan projects, especially in such a baseless and inflammatory manner.”

But that’s not how CREW sees it. The organization called for a criminal investigation, alleging that the Gattises were guilty of scheme to defraud, mail and wire fraud, misapplication of property and theft.

“Rep. and Mr. Gattis abused their property rights to make a profit at the expense of Alaskan citizens. The Alaska attorney general and U.S. attorney should investigate immediately,” the group’s executive director, Melanie Sloan, says in the press release.

Contact Andrew Wellner at 352-2270

or andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com.

Past coverage of the Gattis easement issue:

• bit.ly/1h3nLAn