Renkes files made public

March 11, 2005

DAWN De BUSK/Frontiersman reporter

One month after former Alaska Attorney General Gregg Renkes' surprising resignation, the state personnel board on Tuesday dismissed the ethics complaint filed against him.

As part of the settlement, Renkes agreed to allow investigative files compiled by former U.S. Attorney Robert C. Bundy in his report for Gov. Frank Murkowski to become public information, although Renkes' personal financial information as well as any records regarding investments other than KFx Inc. stock will remain confidential.

Not only did the board dismiss the ethics complaint, which was filed last fall by Rep. Eric Croft, D-Anchorage, and former Wasilla mayor Sarah Palin, a Republican, but the board ruled that no future complaints could be filed against Renkes.

"The board dropped the complaint and gave no more reason to keep it confidential, no more excuses," said Palin in an interview Wednesday. "This is a victory for Alaskans. Renkes can't hide behind a cloak of confidentiality."

As part of the settlement agreement, Renkes will have five days once he receives the Bundy files to make his own copy and identify the portion that contains information the board decided would remain confidential.

"Eric Croft and I have been in favor of full and complete disclosure," Palin said. "His other holdings would shed light on what his supervisor allowed him to engage in. His supervisor being Gov. Frank Murkowski, of course."

"It goes back to the foundational problem that Alaskans face: Murkowski chose to ignore the process that's set up by state law to deal with serious concerns about an attorney general," Palin said. "The governor chose to ignore the personnel board's ability to get the task done in favor of protecting his friend. The boys in Juneau are very tight. Obviously, they protect one another. That's detrimental to an open and accountable government."

The board decided to enter into a settlement agreement instead of further investigating Renkes, citing the cost as part of the reason.

"In light of the foregoing, and the facts that the expense to the State of going forward with an investigation of the complaint could be substantial and that any likely sanctions for a substantial violation of the Ethics Act by Renkes, if such a violation were found, would achieve no more than the responses Renkes has already made, the parties have entered into this Settlement agreement," the settlement document stated.

In early October 2004, it became public that Renkes had stock holdings in KFx, a Denver-based company that stood to gain if the state put together a coal deal with Taiwan. As part of his job, Renkes had been pushing the Alaska-Taiwan business deal. KFx created a process of treating coal that would create a higher quality product for the industrial market.

Just after news surfaced of Renkes' financial and personal involvement with KFx, he deleted e-mails from his computer, according to a report put together by Bundy, who had been appointed by the governor to look into the Renkes allegations.

Croft and Palin filed an ethics complaint against Renkes.

Three months later, Bundy released his report, which stated that although it was a close call, Renkes did not violate the executive-branch ethics code because his $120,000 in KFx stock was not considered legally significant by state standards.

However, Bundy's report did conclude that the former attorney general broke the law by not seeking ethics advice before coordinating the business deal.

"This is important: The facts of the case that came out in Bundy's report are not a vindication of Renkes' behavior," Palin said. "It did not exonerate Gregg. But he tried to spin it to make himself look good."

"But he engaged in an ethical lapse and a plain conflict of interest," she said.

Alaska's lax executive-branch ethics code needs to be strengthened, she continued.

"Unfortunately, there's evidence that we need more laws to make people take the high road and do the right thing," Palin said. "It's unfortunate that we have to write more laws instead of trusting an attorney general would know a conflict of interest when he saw it."

"It would cost the state a heck of a lot of money to do two investigations instead of one," Palin said. "The first investigation should have been done (by the state personnel board) the day Renkes deleted his records from his computer."

The governor's office launched the independent investigation two days later.

Renkes announced his resignation Feb. 5, citing the negative effects of news media and political attacks as one reason for stepping down from his office. He also said expressed a desire to "focus my time and energy on my family," according to a statement released at the time of his resignation.

A week later, Gov. Murkowski appointed Scott J. Nordstrand as acting attorney general until a new top state attorney is selected.

Murkowski's spokesperson, Becky Hultberg, did not return a phone call by press time Thursday. Renkes could not be reached because his phone number is not listed.