Legislators question Irwin firing
GAS LINE: Legislature could nix deal if it decides governor acted improperly.
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By SEAN COCKERHAM and WESLEY LOY
Anchorage Daily News
Published: October 29, 2005
Last Modified: October 29, 2005 at 07:20 AM
Republican leaders of the Legislature tried to talk Gov. Frank Murkowski out of getting rid of state Natural Resources Commissioner Tom Irwin and say Murkowski's decision to ignore their advice could have serious consequences.
"I think it is going to have a very negative impact," House Speaker John Harris, a Valdez Republican, said Friday.
The Republican governor on Thursday announced Irwin was losing his job, and six top officials in Irwin's department quit in protest.
Irwin's removal came days after he wrote a memo to Attorney General David Marquez saying the governor was giving up too much in the ongoing negotiations with oil companies over taxes and royalties the state would collect if a natural gas pipeline is built to the Lower 48.
Murkowski is authorized to cut a deal with the companies by the Stranded Gas Development Act that the Legislature passed in 2003. Harris said he will investigate whether Murkowski violated the intent of that act by removing Irwin.
"The intent was to have the commissioners from all different departments have an equal say in it and not be pushed out," said Harris. "I think that's what happened. One of the commissioners had a dissenting viewpoint and was pushed out."
The Legislature could kill the governor's deal with the oil companies if it decides he has acted improperly. No matter what, top legislators said, the loss of Irwin and the resignations of other resource department officials will make them take a harder look at whatever gas deal Murkowski asks them to approve.
Irwin's removal has ignited a storm of criticism. Even Lt. Gov Loren Leman, also a Republican, said Friday that he wouldn't have done it and that Irwin "is one of the most honest, honorable people I know."
Murkowski said Thursday that he and Irwin mutually agreed Irwin should go. The governor said Irwin was removed because he would not support the gas deal Murkowski is pursuing.
Harris said that top Republican leaders met with Murkowski's senior aides on Thursday shortly before the governor told the public Irwin was out. The legislators, Harris said, told the aides to tell Murkowski that Irwin shouldn't be fired.
"I think we were fairly emphatic. We thought that would ... cause a serious blow to people's feelings about the administration," Harris said.
Others at the meeting, Harris said, were Senate President Ben Stevens and Rep. Ralph Samuels, both of Anchorage, and House Majority Leader John Coghill and Sen. Gene Therriault, both of North Pole. All are Republicans. Harris said they met with Murkowski Chief of Staff Jim Clark and Mike Menge, the governor's senior energy adviser who is replacing Irwin as natural resources commissioner.
Therriault said the group's message was that firing Irwin would be "counterproductive." He said that's because it would result in the loss of Irwin and other good people.
Murkowski spokeswoman Becky Hultberg said Clark, the governor's chief of staff, told her that the legislators brought up the subject of whether Irwin should be fired.
"They expressed the concern that from a management point of view they understood it might happen but from a political point of view they thought it would be very negative," she said.
Hultberg said the governor's office didn't want to respond specifically to Harris' suggestion that the governor might have violated the intent of the stranded gas act. She said there has been a lot of discussion among members of the governor's negotiating team about the concerns Irwin raised in his memo.
"As the governor has acknowledged, there were differences of opinion and some differences of opinion still remain. But it's the governor's job to listen to those opinions and set a policy direction," she said.
Hultberg said Murkowski is aware that what happened to Irwin is likely to put his gas deal under more scrutiny when he gives it to the Legislature for approval.
"He welcomes that scrutiny ... He is focused on getting to the point where people can judge for themselves," she said.
Whatever deal Murkowski strikes with the oil companies will go out for public review, and ultimately must be approved by the legislature. Until then, with the negotiations continuing, the terms are confidential.
Irwin's memo revealed serious infighting among Murkowski's negotiators over the terms and questioned the legality of the governor's negotiations with the companies.
Marquez responded Thursday that the questions Irwin raised involve policy, not legal issues.
Irwin has said he never meant for the memo to be put out to the public and considered it to be attorney-client privilege. But Murkowski, who released the memo at a press conference last week, said it was neither marked nor sent over like a confidential document, and he felt the public had the right to know Irwin's concerns.
Lt. Gov. Leman said he doesn't understand why Murkowski blindsided Irwin by putting it out.
"I think doing so unnecessarily politicized this issue," Leman said in an interview.
Anchorage Democrat Rep. Ethan Berkowitz, who is running for governor in 2006, said the Legislature should get an "independent counsel" to look into Irwin's charges.
Anchorage Rep. Ralph Samuels said the governor has the right to pick his team. It will be up to the Legislature to decide if the team made a good gas deal, he said.
Ken Boyd, formerly director of the state Division of Oil and Gas and now an oil industry consultant, said the departures of Irwin and his staff will surely slow down progress toward a gas pipeline contract.
"The word the industry hates the most is uncertainty. Anytime you create uncertainty, it's a cause for delay," he said. "You've taken a few people out of the room there that have a lot of knowledge. If this thing ever gets to the Legislature, somebody has got to present it. And some of the people who would have done that aren't there now."
Dan Dickinson, a longtime Revenue Department official and member of the governor's gas pipeline team, said it's never good to lose experienced people. But a lot of the negotiating work is already done, he said.
"It's not going to be a fatal flaw," he said. |
