Guv responds
to jet column
The
governor responded by letter Tuesday to my newsletter about his
use of the state jet to connect with his yacht in Bellingham,
Washington, and using the jet on his three-city gubernatorial
announcement tour. There are two sides to every story so this
newsletter reprints the governor's letter to me and FYI, my letter
of response.
Dear
Senator Elton:
It has
come to my attention that you frequently expound in your constituent
newsletter on the use of the Department of Public Safety's aircraft.
Your most recent edition includes a report on several flights
on which my staff and I were passengers. Your commentary asks
the rhetorical question of your readers as to whether this use
of the state's aircraft is "right" or "wrong."
All of the flight segments you list --
indeed, all of this office's use of the aircraft -- include events
that are legitimate state business in the location to which the
aircraft flies, with the exception of Salt Lake City. The added
cost for that stop has been billed personally to me and paid.
The Bellingham trip was over a weekend
and the state plane overnighted in Bellingham and picked me up
in Pt. Hardy on Sunday night and back to Juneau.
The others, including what you describe
as an "I'm-running-for-governor" barn-storming trip,
were for legitimate state government events. While I did announce
my candidacy on the morning of May 26 in Fairbanks, the bill-signing
event in Anchorage (at Potter Marsh) and the refuge groundbreaking
in Kodiak were scheduled days in advance of my decision to run.
As a former journalist, surely you must know how intensely interested
reporters were to be able to talk to me, once my candidacy was
announced. Knowing that reporters would want to ask about my campaign,
my state staff made every effort to separate themselves from that
portion of the events at Potter Marsh and Kodiak.
Other flights you questioned included
Petersburg, where I, as governor, had participated in several
Little Norway Festival activities. I assume you would agree that
it is legitimate for the governor to attend events such as Little
Norway, wouldn't you?
I would also note that the cost of flights
for the jet, as reported in your newsletter, are a little 
different
from figures given in the past for the turboprop aircraft because
the hourly jet costs include a reserve for engine overhaul and
replacement, and the turboprops do not.
Your assertions in your newsletter, regrettably,
appear to be designed to lend the reader to believe it is wrong
for a governor to have an aircraft available to move around the
state on state business, or worse yet, use it. I won't debate
you on the merits of that, because this is the modern era and
Alaska is a huge state. (My conclusion is that you would prefer
the governor be limited to steerage on a biplane.) I would, however,
question your judgement in deciding what you choose to present
to your constituents.
Inasmuch as you once worked as a copy
editor, I would think you ought to have some idea of what constitutes
a fair and balanced presentation of the facts in a story. Yet,
your obsession in your newsletter over the state aircraft consistently
ignores the legitimate state business for which we use it.
While I understand the partisan flavor
and purpose of your newsletter, I would nonetheless request that
you be a little more forthright with your readers in how you present
your opinions.
Sincerely yours,
Frank H. Murkowski
Governor
Dear Governor:
Thank you for your letter about my newsletter
and the jet. Your letter is the basis for a good dialogue so I
just want to respond to a few points.
First, the opinions offered in each and
every one of the 247 newsletters I've done over the last six plus
years are mine. The opinions are not based on party doctrine,
caucus dynamics, or even the persuasion of friends. The newsletter
goes to all flavors of Alaskans, wherever they fall on the political
spectrum. It began as a newsletter to about 100 Juneau civic and
religious leaders in February 1999 and now goes to over 1,100
Alaskans around the state. Anyone who asks is added to the email
list.
I want to share my views and spark a
dialogue with Alaskans. Partisanship precludes dialogue and inhibits
my goal of learning more through the resulting dialogue than newsletter
readers may learn from me.
Second, the purchase and use of state
assets is a legitimate public policy discussion that ought not
be constrained by what is legal or illegal but also by the boundaries
of right or wrong.
Third, you've assumed incorrectly I believe
it is wrong for a governor to have an aircraft available. A correct
assumption would be I'm against purchase of the jet but oppose
with equal fervor the notion the governor be limited, as you suggest,
to steerage on a bi-plane. My preference is governors use commercial,
like most Alaskans, and a state-owned King Air turboprop when
necessary. That is a far cheaper option.
But beyond your decision to buy the jet
are legitimate questions about how you use the jet. I do 
think
it is flat wrong to use the jet to ferry you to your yacht in
Bellingham and pick you up later.
It would be odd for me to think otherwise.
Legislative ethics law discourages the use of office fax or copying
machines for non-legislative business. If that's the rule that
governs the use of legislative office machines, why should you
be able to use a state asset, piloted by state employees, to jet
you to and from your yacht?
On your campaign swing, facilitated by
the jet, you signed bills and attended a groundbreaking ceremony.
Alaskans can, and should, judge for themselves whether that balances
out the campaign component of the trip. In fact, they may be better
judges than me--I admit I may be feeling a tad churlish because
you were jetting off to your yacht then flying around Alaska signing
bills (that could be signed in your office) and attending groundbreaking
ceremonies while legislators were confined to Juneau in a special
session you called that flopped.
Finally, a short story that may help
explain why I disagree with your views on this matter. My parents
read my newsletter before it was sent and a comment my father
made was pertinent. He noted that, as a former Forest Service
manager, he had to enforce government asset rules. He said when
an employee was in travel status it usually wasn't appropriate
for that employee to drive a Forest Service pickup to a restaurant
if another restaurant was within walking distance. My dad shook
his head over your use of the jet to get to your yacht in Bellingham.
That's my dad. That's me.
Again, thanks for your letter. I understand
you think what happened is right. I hope you better understand
why I don't. I also appreciate that you, like many other newsletter
recipients, are not shy about being a critic. In many cases that
criticism leads me to see issues in a new light. In this case,
we must agree to disagree.
Sincerely,
Kim Elton
Phone: (907) 465-4947
Fax: (907) 465-2108
Mail: Sen. Kim Elton, State Capitol
Juneau, AK 99801
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Capitol Undercurrents
Keeping a schedule--
We're in special session and the Capitol halls are filled with
. . . tourists.
The 30-day special session is in a 10-day hiatus while many legislators
are attending a regional economic meeting in Alberta. So, instead
of chatting with colleagues, I've been chatting with visitors.
Thursday, four independent travelers were outside the office and,
in the course of our visit, they spoke of the difficulty they
had with ferry reservations. When they were planning the trip
this February, they said they were given a 2005 schedule and were
told it was an example of the ferry runs for this year. Eventually
they got reservations for the Fairweather but were just bumped
to a night run on the Matanuska because of a schedule change.
More Bush humor--
Marylou and I took my folks to Tracy
Arm last weekend on one of the day cruises. It was a great trip,
punctuated with bears, killer whales, seals, and mountain goats
in addition to the main feature--ice. The skipper was a great
captain and a great storyteller. When one black bear posed for
a few minutes on the beach before high-stepping it into the undergrowth
he noted the bear was "just like Donald Rumsfeld--when subjected
to too much scrutiny he scurries behind a Bush." He also
tweaked the passengers by saying one glacial valley was home to
some horses first transplanted there in the early '20s. He said
they were called fjord mustangs. It took some of us a few seconds
before we caught on to the joke.
Maybe this, maybe that--
The governor did tour the Bellingham ferry terminal before
getting on his yacht last May and some suggest that tour was the
real reason for jetting to Bellingham. One source in Bellingham
told us the guv's office called and said he'd be in Bellingham
on that date and so the port invited him to take a tour.
Something fishy, again--
Consumer Reports studied salmon sales in some groceries and found
almost one-half of the samples (10 of 23)
advertised as wild salmon were actually farmed. The magazine study
confirms recent findings by The New York Times that also found
farm salmon masquerading as wild in New York City. Like we did
after the state sting, we've asked our attorney general to look
into the findings. Wild salmon are one of our most important exports,
the state and the Alaska salmon industry have spent tens of millions
of dollars over the past quarter century distinguishing our high
quality wild product from industrial salmon from elsewhere. Now
it appears that many retailers are peddling the inferior product
under our wild cachet.
