The PFD wars claim fund’s CEO Angela Rodell

Angela Rodell has recently been fired as the director of the Permanent Fund Corporation by the board of trustees in what was a 5-1 vote. It should be noted that the five who voted to terminate her employment are all appointees of Gov. Mike Dunleavy. The one member who voted against firing her is an appointee of the last governor Bill Walker. The sacking of Angela Rodell should be of concern to every Alaskan who cares about the long term fiscal health of the state. During her tenure as the director of the Permanent Fund Corporation she grew the fund to a record 80 billion dollars in value, on top of this she was widely respected in international circles when it came to management of a sovereign wealth fund. The fact that no reason has been given for her firing is even more disturbing because it is a sign that there is an underlying political motivation to getting rid of Ms. Rodell. The reason she was most likely fired was she was a very vocal opponent of the Alaska Legislature violating the percent of market value draw that has been governing the management of the fund since 2016.

She consistently spoke against paying out massive dividends which would violate the percent of market value formula and would destroy the financial health of the fund in the long term. Gov. Mike Dunleavy has made it clear since becoming governor that he wants to pay out massive dividends no matter what the cost is to the future of the state. He has tried to impose draconian budget reductions to get more money for massive dividends when the public outcry was too much he backed away from that. He then began deploying a stealth approach to try and change the legislature’s makeup to get a majority in either body to vote for massive dividends.

The last election cycle had two unfortunate casualties of this being Senators Cathy Giessel and John Coghill and now it seems he is removing Rodell so there will be no opposition at the Permanent Fund Corporation. The governor is probably going to appoint a massive dividend advocate to replace Rodell at the helm of the corporation which means this person will be incompetent and will go along with the governors disastrous fiscal plans. The only way the legislature can save the corporation from the governor’s extremist agenda is to do two things, first expose the political nature of the firing and second to not confirm any other candidate the governor nominates to replace Rodell. Senator Natasha von Imhof as the chairwoman of the Legislative Budget and Audit committee has stated that she will hold a hearing on January 17th to determine what exactly went into the board’s decision to fire Rodell. She needs to place the five board members who voted to fire Rodell under oath so there will be serious legal consequences for them if they lie to the legislature about the firing.

The second thing she should do is get subpoenas for all of the board documents relating to the firing of Angela Rodell. It should be noted that Senator von Imhof should not be afraid to issue subpoenas for the governor’s chief of staff and other political staff in his office who could potentially have been involved in working to oust Angela Rodell. Senator von Imhof needs to be aggressive in her investigation into this matter. The governor is targeting the future of Alaska yet again and it is critical for her to hold him accountable and not allow him or his lap dogs in the valley delegation to get away with attempting to destroy the Permanent Fund Corporation.