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Parnell begins organizing administration
Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell, just elected governor in his own right, has begun the organization process for his administration. Parnell had been lieutenant governor, becoming governor in 2009 after Gov. Sarah Palin resigned, and inheriting her administration.
Parnell said Nov. 3, a day after the election, that he will be evaluating top appointed officials.
“Like every governor before me, I am requesting resignations from commissioners, deputy commissioners and directors and asking them to submit letters of interest if they would like to keep those positions,” he said.
Parnell said he would go through an evaluation process for each of them, retiring some and keeping others. Some signed up for a four-year term and didn’t expect to go on, he said, “and others I would like to replace.”
Transition teams by area Parnell also talked about the transition structure, saying he’s going to do the process a little differently.
What’s typical is the appointment of a transition team for each department, but departments don’t work in a vacuum — they interact with other agencies, the governor said.
As an example he noted that the departments of Administration, Law and Public Safety work together every day. Rather than breaking the transition down by departments, it will be by topic area where there are common interests among a group of agencies and public stakeholders, he said.
Bryan Butcher, who is with the Alaska Housing Finance Corp., has been named transition coordinator and will be organizing the transition groups, which will be broken into resources, energy and the environment; health and education; infrastructure; science, technology and communications; financial services; public safety and justice; and the military.
Parnell said chairs and co-chairs for the transition teams should be named within the week. Draft recommendations will be released to the public, and he said he expected initial work will be completed in December.
—Kristen Nelson
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