Time to resign

Enough already with the fudging and weasel-wording. Former state Sen. Gene Therriault should resign - and quickly - from his $110,000-a-year post as senior energy adviser to Gov. Sean Parnell.

Parnell hired Therriault and former Rep. Nancy Dahlstrom for newly created positions in his adminstration, despite a constitutional prohibition on lawmakers to being nominated, elected or appointed - for a year after leaving office - to any state job created during their tenure in the Legislature.

Parnell, who now is asking Alaskans to re-elect him governor, says technically the hirings were legal because the jobs were not created until the two left the Legislature. Technically?

Dahlstrom had the good grace to resign after the attorney general finally said there was an “appreciable risk” a court might find her hiring illegal. Therriault, who left the state Senate on Sept. 13, says he will not quit.

Now, activist Andree McLeod says she has, from a public records request, a "Request for Personnel Action" form dated Sept. 1 and signed by Linda Perez of the governor's office - and by Therriault on Sept. 12. with an effective date of Sept. 14, the day after Therriault left the Legislature. Therriault acknowledges on the form, the Anchorage Daily News reports, ‘ "I am being appointed" to a state position.”

This round may go to McLeod, but it is not over.

The argument now rages over who signed what and when, and what it all means, but it all ignores the glaring point. The governor of the state of Alaska ignored the spirit of the Alaska Constitution to get around the law. He now is trying to find something, anything, to justify his action. Running a state on technicalities is not the best course. It is not even an acceptable course. Alaskans deserve better from their government than politicians wrapping themselves in shades of gray to do whatever they want.

The best thing that could happen now is for Therriault to resign and for Parnell to apologize to the people of this state.

Enough already with the fudging and weasel-wording. The longer this goes on, the more it looks like business as usual in Juneau.

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