Keller working to repay shipping fines

WASILLA — After about two years, Alaska Rep. Wes Keller is still working to repay the state of Alaska for something he calls a stupid mistake.

In 2013, as reported in the then-Anchorage Daily News, Keller was traveling to Juneau for the legislative session and tried to send a magazine of handgun ammunition, an aerosol spray can of Static Guard and a cigarette lighter through Alaska Airlines air cargo. When he dropped off the luggage, Keller didn’t declare the items to the airline, and used the legislature’s shipping code. Ammunition, aerosol and flammable materials are prohibited from being shipped by federal law without a prior declaration.

As a result, the legislature was fined $7,000 by the Transportation Safety Administration, which the state argued down from $19,400. The news became public after a 2014 meeting of the state’s legislative council, according to the article.

Keller has owned the mistake since its disclosure, and vowed to repay the state the full amount. So far, he’s paid off exactly half via a combination of withheld pay and personal checks, said Jessica Geary, Finance Manager for the Legislative Affairs Agency. Keller contacted the office in January 2015 to begin repayment, Geary said. State policy does not require legislators to repay expenses of this nature, and the Legislative Council subsequently changed mailing policy to prevent the same thing from happening again, Geary wrote in an email to the Frontiersman.

“This was a fine that the Legislative Affairs Agency received due to Rep. Keller’s shipment of undeclared items and there is no requirement for it to be paid back,” she wrote. “The Legislative Council has since changed the Policy to require that shipments be checked by Agency personnel prior to use of our known-shipper account.”

Keller said he’s given $100 from his paycheck ever since.

“It was my foolishness,” he said.

Keller said he wasn’t able to obtain the full lump sum payment from his personal income (legislators are paid about $50,000 per year plus a per diem). He said he probably coulvd have borrowed it, but elected to have his salary docked instead. The state does not charge interest on expense abatement, Geary said.

Other details of the repayment were dictated more by the circumstances than by his actions, Keller said.

“I’m not at all saying I’m not responsible,” he said. “But if I had shipped as an individual, the fine arguably would have been very small; but because it was a big shipper, the system worked against the state.”

Keller said he hasn’t shipped anything via air cargo since the incident.

“I haven’t had a need to since, and I probably won’t again unless there are odd circumstances,” he said. “Now I’ve got my fingers burned, so I’m pretty careful.”

Contact reporter Brian O’Connor at 352-2270, brian.oconnor@frontiersman.com, or on Twitter @reporterbriano.