James Crump came to Alaska to find himself, and stayed in Alaska to share himself with us. His death on June 25 at Anchorage’s Pride parade was a blow not only to his family & friends, but also to our whole community. But just what is our community — and where do we go from here?

A week ago Wednesday, June 29, I went to the Service of Remembrance held for James Crump at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church. St. Mary’s has always been one of the really welcoming and inclusive churches in Anchorage. As its senior priest Father Michael Burke put that night, “All are welcome here — and all means ALL” — which seems to be a common saying at St. Mary’s. I’d first heard the phrase at St. Mary’s the previous Sunday (June 26) at the Pride ecumenical service, which, because of James’ death the day before at the start of Anchorage’s Pride parade, was in part a memorial to him. The ecumenical service was led by four local LGBT clergy from four different faith groups. One of them — Susan Halvor, a chaplain at Providence Hospital — led the June 29 Service of Remembrance.

There were a lot of people there: three members of James’ family up from the Lower 48; Elvi Gray-Jackson, who is my representative on the Anchorage Assembly and is one of our strongest allies in local government; James’ boss from the Municipality of Anchorage’s Department of Health & Human Services, where he was a nurse; some of James’ coworkers; fellow students and a faculty member from the University of Alaska Anchorage School of Nursing, where he’d gotten his nursing education; one of his patients, whom he had helped nurse to health; and lots of us from the LGBTQA community — most of whom were James’ friends, but some, like me, who had never known him.

I looked around, and I thought: I am so proud of my community.

It was a feeling like the one I had two years ago, after the introduction in the Anchorage Assembly of proposed ordinance AO-64. Under AO-64, sexual orientation and gender identity would have been added to the list of personal characteristics in Title 5, Anchorage’s equal rights code, that it’s prohibited to use as a basis for discrimination in employment, housing, public accommodations, education, and municipal practices.

The summer of 2009 in Anchorage featured a protracted period of public testimony at the Anchorage Assembly, with accompanying sign-waving and letter-writing both by ordinance supporters and those who opposed equal rights — led in particular by antigay pastor Jerry Prevo of the Anchorage Baptist Temple (ABT) who as usual made frequent use of hate-terms like perverted to describe LGBT people, and Jim Minnery, whose Alaska Family Council supplied red-shirted ordinance opponents with scores of red and white preprinted signs reading Truth is Not Hate and other begs-the-question slogans.

… (Of course truth is not hate. But the implicit claim: that these sign-wavers had the truth or that they were free of hate: not so self-evident. Three of them surrounded a friend of mine and told her she was going to hell. Is that love?)…

Kids on youth mission from Mississippi Avenue Baptist Church (MABC) of Aurora, Colorado were bused over by Anchorage Baptist Temple to wave signs printed by Alaska Family Council. June 17, 2009.

Lots of the the anti-ordinance sign-wavers weren’t even Anchorage residents, but had been bused and carpooled in from the Mat-Su (yet were permitted by Assembly Chair Debbie Ossiander to testify). Some of them weren’t even Alaskans: a group of teenage missionaries from Mississippi Avenue Baptist Church (MABT) of Aurora, Colorado, who were being hosted by ABT, spent several hours of their youth mission on two different days to wave signs on behalf of Prevo et al. urging the denial of equal protection under the law for citizens of a city and state not even their parents had right to vote in. Some of them were young kids, who just like Westboro Baptist Church kids, were used as billboards to carry their elders’ antigay messages.

One of the children bused in to wave signs for ordinance opponents on June 9, 2009. Courtesy Phil Munger of Progressive Alaska.

Hence the name given the summer by one commentator: the Summer of Hate — a name Anchorage’s LGBT community has used about that time ever since.

The ordinance passed the Anchorage Assembly by a vote of 7 to 4 on August 11, 2009, but was vetoed six days later by Mayor Dan Sullivan. It was the third time in Anchorage history that equal protection under the law for at least some LGBTQ people in Anchorage was granted, only to be stripped away again. In fact, it was Mayor Dan’s dad, George Sullivan, who vetoed our first equal rights ordinance way back in 1975 — also backed by Jerry Prevo and his ABT followers.

My nephew Miles and his two friends outside the June 17, 2009 public hearing at Anchorage Assembly

But back to my point: pride in my community. Part of the Summer of Hate took place during Pride week that year. And outside the Loussac Library where the Assembly chambers are housed, the Loussac’s big green lawn facing the major thoroughfare of 36th Avenue had become part of our Pride celebration.

Yes, the redshirts were there — the Christianists with their red and white Truth is Not Hate signs. But so were we, wearing not only blue shirts, but ALL the colors of the rainbow. We were having a big damn happy Pride festival right out there: people with signs most of them handmade, people with rainbow flags, people with hula hoops, my nephew Miles who showed up with a couple of his friends, unasked, just because my fight was also their fight. Gay, straight, trans, nontrans — it wasn’t just us, embattled: it was our nongay friends, too — our families, our allies.

I remember walking across that lawn toward 36th seeing a woman in a long skirt blowing bubbles, adding to the color and joy of the moment even in the face of the Truth is Not hate that was having a barbecue on another part of the lawn. That’s when I felt it: I thought to myself, I’m so proud of my people; and I realized in that moment that who I thought of as my people no longer just consisted of LGBT people, but of my non-LGBT friends and family and allies too. Our friends, our families, our allies. I saw a glimpse, then, of what life is in a place where difference is not just tolerated or accepted, but is celebrated. Every. Damn. Day.

I caught that same glimpse at the Service of Remembrance. I saw my community — LGBT and non-LGBT alike, all means all, gathered together to mourn but also to celebrate the life of a remarkable well-loved man in the presence of his family. And his family — his father, one of his two sisters, one of his three brothers, others of his family who have checked in on the first post we wrote about James’ death: it’s clear how much they all love him, how important it was and is for all of them to know how James was known and loved here, in this, the place he chose —as his sister put it — to share himself with.

I am so proud of these my people, this my community, this my extended family, and how my family and James’ family met and became family to one another.

This is what we have become. What a beautiful what it is.

* * *

Not that it’s all lovely and hula-hooped and bubble-blowing acceptance here. Not that everyone in Anchorage or in Alaska has had something comforting or caring to say to James’ family and friends after his death. A lot of the same Truth is Not Haters who were here in 2009 are still here in 2011, after all. And so, on the first stories published on local media websites after James’ death, some comments went in a mode exactly opposite to the love, care, and compassion that anyone who has lost a son, brother, and friend is in need to hear.

Two of the comments posted June 25 at KTVA Channel 11′s story about James’ death —

Well that is what happen when you are at a dirty little Faggit event

Just another example that gay life style can be deadly

— just two of the ugly slurs and hateful comments compiled by Christopher Constant and brought to the attention of the Anchorage Assembly and Mayor Dan Sullivan when Christopher testified before the Assembly on June 28.

Majik Imaje, site owner of A blog of ICE — a blog normally devoted to Inupiat art — wrote a post titled “ALASKA GAY pride (CANCELED)” comprising mainly a quote of a June 25 Fox News story about James’ death. But Majik Imaje (an invented name made up from the names of his four sons) first prefaced the news story with a cheery graphic reading “Let the PARADE * begin * !” and went on to claim,

PROOF: GOD does indeed work in mysterious ways. Let this be a message to all !!

— the death of a loved son, brother, coworker, caregiver, and friend reduced to an object lesson from a murderous God, by a man who didn’t even know James’ name — only his own unexamined prejudice.

Note, 11 July 2011: I have corrected details about Majik Imaje’s name based on comments made by David Eves, his apparent real name, at both Henkimaa and Bent Alaska. See comments for details.

Comments got so vile at the Anchorage Daily News that ADN shut commenting down on virtually every story about James’ death or the investigation into how it happened. KTVA Channel 11, for its part, ran a story on June 28 called “How Tolerant is Anchorage of Homosexuality?” —

Some of the things that have happened since a Pridefest parade walker was accidentally killed have brought up the question of just how tolerant Anchorage is of homosexuality.

After several media organizations, including KTVA, posted the story over the weekend, many negative comments soon followed, and some of the anonymous postings were just plain hateful.

Some people said the man who was killed deserved to die because they believed he was gay. We spoke with one of the Pridefest organizers who told us she does not think the comments represent how most people in Anchorage feel.

“I have never experienced the kind of hatred you are seeing on the website or in response to the news stories,” says Anne Marie Moylan, co-chair of Identity Inc.

When published on the web, the story soon accrued its own collection of frequently ugly comments, leading one commenter to lament on her Facebook page,

Are we returning to another Summer of Hate in Anchorage, Alaska for who we are as a community?

It’s not exactly what I hoped for on June 25, as I walked down H Street to the Park Strip praying, in part,

I pray that those who hate us open their hearts so far as not to use this death, this loss, as another avenue of hate. I know that’s asking a lot, but I pray for it anyway.

* * *

But wait.

Think about how parts of the larger Anchorage community have stepped up to help James’ friends, family, and community in the wake of his death.

Identity, Inc. Identity is, of course, the organization that organizes our Pride week. In one part its board, staff, and volunteers have been reeling from the impact James’ death has had on them both as an organization and individually as people; but in another part they’ve also worked hard and tirelessly to ensure that everyone who’s been most seriously affected — witnesses of the accident and of James’ death, especially — are being helped and cared for. Thank you, Identity, for all the work you do, and for the hard work you’re doing now, in the face of your own grief. Please let us know how we can help.

University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA). Three different UAA entities (the Psychological Services Center, the student health center, & the Dean of Students office) have offered free counseling both short term and long-term for those affected. As a UAA staff member myself, I can’t say how proud I am of how the University has stepped up to help us in our time of need. Thank you, UAA, and all the psychologists who are giving of your time to help us in our grief.

The faith community. Rev. Susan Halvor is acting as the central contact person for people in need of spiritual counseling, working with other local clergy both LGBT and non-LGBT. Thank you, Susan, and all the other clergy who are helping us to grapple with our loss.

Harriet Drummond (in pink) and Elvi Gray-Jackson (black dress and white sweater) shortly before the Pride parade began, June 25, 2011

Our local government. The Anchorage Assembly had its regular meeting on Tuesday night, June 28, just three nights after James’ death, and honored him there in the presence of his family. My Assembly representative Elvi Gray-Jackson and another of our Assembly friends, Harriet Drummond, had been banner-carriers in the Pride parade not far behind where James was walking when he was accidentally killed on June 25 — I’m not sure, but I believe they may have been witnesses. They introduced a resolution to honor and remember James Crump, who of course was an Anchorage municipal employee. According to the paperwork, the resolution was submitted by ALL the Assembly members — including the normally antigay ones — along with Mayor Sullivan, who two years ago vetoed AO-64. Harriet Drummond read the resolution, and it passed unanimously. Thank you, Elvi and Harriet, and all the members of the Assembly, and Mayor Sullivan, for giving honor to the memory of a man who so richly deserved it.

Resolution AR NO. 2011-183 honors James’ work as a nurse working with tuberculosis patients for the Municipality of Anchorage’s Department of Health and Social Services and as a loved member of the Anchorage LGBT community.

James Crump (left) and Michael Smith, ca. 2003. Courtesy Michael Smith.

Loved indeed. Though I never knew James, I’ve learned of him by way of the Pride ecumenical service on June 26; the Anchorage Assembly meeting on June 28 where he was honored; the Service of Remembrance at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church on June 29; the Circle of Support organized by Amber DoAll LaChores Sawyer at UAA. And last Friday a comment on the YouTube video I made of his honoring at the Assembly put me in touch with Michael Smith, who had been James’ partner for four years in the early 2000s. Michael had just learned that morning of James’ death, and he was desperate to talk with people who knew James, or at least knew what had happened. I talked with him for an hour. (People who would like to be put in touch with Michael can contact me at bentalaska2@gmail.com.)

I leaned that James Crump was a person –

James Crump receiving an ICOAA scholarship. Courtesy ICOAA College of Emperors and Empresses Scholarship Committee.

• who as a boy preferred National Geographic Magazine to the erector sets and slot cars enjoyed by his brothers because he liked reading about animals;
• who was such a good cook;
• who was a long-time member of Metropolitan Community Church of Anchorage;
• who wanted to be a nurse all his life, and finally realized that dream in 2009 at UAA with the help of four scholarships from a scholarship program of the Imperial Court of All Alaska;
• who had a cat he regarded as his son, named Fraidy, who died of cancer just a day before the Pride parade;
• who was very, very, very proud of his “man purse” and showed it off to his coworkers at HHS;
• who, even back when he worked at Fedex, made kick-ass cupcakes;
• who was hit hard by his mother’s death from cancer in 2000;
• who knew how to make friends, and did;
• who really really knew how to cook (there’s a theme here);
• who was there for his TB patients when they woke up, and helped them to get better;
• who could explain things to fellow students in ways that Nursing faculty never could;
• who loved to swim, and not only because of the lifeguards;
• who was always accepted and loved by his family, without regard to issues about sexual orientation;
• who one day told a Nursing professor that it was his birthday, and he wanted to see a baby born, and circumstances intervened to grant him his wish just 3 months ago (the baby’s name is Max);
• who brought joy to everyone he came in contact with;
• who used to speak with his family members about the community here he was part of, and his eyes would light up as he did so;
• who, by word of his sister, came to Alaska to find himself, and stayed in Alaska to share himself with us, because he loved us so much.

But why did he love us so much?

Here’s what I think. I think he saw the same thing that I saw as I sat in St. Mary’s at the Service of Remembrance. The same thing I saw when I walked across the Loussac Library lawn and saw a Pride celebration just elbows over from Truth is Not Hate, and saw a woman blowing bubbles, and thought, I’m so proud of my people. And knew that my people is not just an equation of “LGBT people + A for Allies”: but all my people, the people who not only love, but also fight for what they love, which includes justice and fairness and equality — which includes each other, everyone, all means all.

* * *

On June 25, I walked all over Delaney Park Strip, where Pridefest was held, taking photos as I had already been taking photos that morning before the parade began, before James died. At Pridefest: people who had known James, people who had not: people going on with their lives, celebrating what James would have been there to celebrate if he could. I wasn’t anywhere near the stage a lot of the time. At some point, I am told, someone on stage got on the mic and asked, Who here is not LGBT? And about half the crowd raised their hands.

Think about that. It’s not just “us” that is “our community.” Straight people like hanging out with us too. Straight people — more and more of them every passing year, every passing day — have an investment in equal rights for all (means ALL). My nephew Miles, my other nephew Jesse. Your niece. Our fathers and mothers and children and sisters and brothers. Our coworkers. Our bosses. People who love us and respect us just as much as James Crump’s family and friends and coworkers loved and respected him.

Think about that. Think about the fact that, of the 9 people nearest to James Crump when he died, all of them celebrants in the Pride parade —

— at least four are partners in marriages recognized by the State of Alaska — i.e., heterosexual marriages, “between one man and one woman,” as dictated by a 1998 amendment to the Alaska Constitution — and a fifth has also been identified as a “straight ally.” Think about the fact that all of these 9 human beings whether LGBT or non-LGBT wanted to be there, in that parade, and believed in its message of Pride, of “Step Up and Step Out”; that all of them, whether non-LGBT or LGBT, were shaken and shattered. Loss has nothing to do with sexual orientation or gender identity.

Nor does compassion. Think about the fact that Steve, the man who held James as he died is married, is “straight,” is a… well, please. Tell me. Is he an “A = Ally”? Or is he, simply, a human being who sees in you and me human beings with inherent worth and dignity? A human being who, at great cost to his own emotional equilibrium (there are no words for this) saw James, a human being, and gave him the gift of his love and presence and touch, so that James should not be alone in the moment of his death.

Yes. This is community. This is “my people.” This is what Truth is Not Hate fails to see, but which we all need to see, and to act upon, and fight for. John Aronno wrote it the other day:

Anchorage is a beautiful place to live, filled with the most amazing people I have been privileged to call as friends. But there remain rigid divisions that we need to man up and address. It’s easy to sit at home and make fun of the brazen idiocy of how politics works. But policy is different than politics, and politicians are different than statesmen. It’s time we demanded one over the other, in every category.

What happens if we stand up together? The future is ours. We just have to start showing up and claiming it.

Chris Constant wrote it too:

If you are wondering, I think this is what it is all about: Everything we do should pave the way for a better world beyond the reach of our lives. As they say, your reach exceeds your grasp. Any confusion or obfuscation of our mission as a community just evaporated.

Watch. We will recommit ourselves as individuals and as a community. We will fight harder, organize better, and love more. We will have more fun. We will reach more people who don’t understand the nature of our community. We will shine our light to dispel fear and darkness and to illuminate understanding.

Gay/lesbian, bi, straight, trans, nontrans, all means all: we are already the community that can do this, if we choose to. We’re the community James chose to share himself with. And we’re worthy of what he shared.

This one for you, James Crump.

If you or someone you know has been affected by the tragedy at the Pride parade in Anchorage, please be reminded that generous support has been offered by our allies in the community. You can get more information by calling the Gay & Lesbian Community Center of Anchorage at (907) 929-GLBT, (907) 929-4528. Or you can call the Psychological Services Center at UAA (907) 786-1795.

Except when otherwise credited, all photos by Melissa S. (Mel) Green, yksin on Flickr.

Related posts:

1. The Daily Tweets 2011-06-29: Anchorage Assembly honors memory of James L. Crump
2. Happy wedding! (for John & Heather)
3. A word about our friends

Harriet Drummond & Elvi Gray-Jackson talking with Pride parade Grand Marshal Doug Frank on Saturday, June 25, shortly before the accidental death of James L. Crump.

James L. Crump is the man who was accidentally killed in the first minutes of the Anchorage Pride parade last Saturday morning. I didn’t know him, but I’m writing quite a lot about him: his death has been shaking the Anchorage lesbian/gay/bisexual/trans/allied community ever since.

Last night my Assembly member Elvi Gray-Jackson and another of my favorite folks on the Assembly Harriet Drummond led the Anchorage Assembly in honoring James’ memory. It was a unanimous resolution — supposedly submitted by all 11 Assembly members as well as Mayor Dan Sullivan. But it was only Elvi & Harriet who were there at the Pride parade last Saturday — carrying a banner only a little behind where James was helping to carry his… until the accident that resulted in his death.  I personally think that several of the Assembly members only signed on (and the Mayor) because James was a well-like municipal employee — a nurse with the Muni’s Department of Health & Human Services.  But for Elvi & Harriet — it was heartfelt.

Harriet read the resolution in the Assembly last night. By the end, she had tears in her voice. Elvi was back behind the public testimony podium with members of James’ family — his parents, a brother, and a sister.  His family members were joined by numerous friends, present and former coworkers, and members of the LGBTQA community. I was up all night putting together a video of the event for my post on Bent Alaska about the resolution. The post also has the resolution’s full text.

A Service of Remembrance for James will be held tonight at 7 PM at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church at Lake Otis and Tudor. People are encouraged to bring something for a light potluck after the service.

• At Anchorage Assembly chambers for resolution by Elvi Gray-Jackson to honor & remember James L. Crump who died Saturday @ Pride parade. #fb #
• @melengland haven’t been on Twitter and just saw your tweet. thank you! in reply to melengland #
• RT @melengland: Tragedy @ Alaska Pride – Our prayers and love from NY @yksin http://t.co/4PY91N2 #ny4m #lgbt #nn11lgbt #fb #
• Just spoke w/ Elvi. She was originally going to introduce resolution in a couple of weeks but learned James’ family in town. #fb #
• Just got copy of AR No 2011-183 “A resolution of the Anchorage Assembly remembering recognizing and honoring the life of James L. Crump” #fb #
• Assembly meeting has not yet begun. People entering, most of Assembly here and seated. Some other business before resolution. #fb #
• I intend to video reading and discussion of resolution and will include in Bent Alaska post later tonight. #fb #
• Resolution honors James’ work as nurse for MOA Dept of Health & Human Svcs & as loved member of Anchorage LGBT community. #fb #
• Assembly just began. All assembly members here except Dick Traini. #fb #
• I think Ossiander just said resolution wd be heard at 530…? there are family members here. #fb #
• Traini now here. #fb #
• Harriet Drummond just said she had been at parade which was traumatic for so many & she is very glad resolution is happening. #fb #
• Now kicking out of twitter to be ready to video when resolution read. #fb #

Related posts:

1. Pride Slide: Photos from Alaska Pride Fest 2011
2. This one for you, James Crump
3. Anchorage PrideFest 2010

For other news stories & posts on this topic, see my bibliography on all things Sullygate.

Emailed on 13 April 2010:

Honorable Elvi Gray-Jackson
Honorable Dan Coffey
Honorable Patrick Flynn, Chair
Honorable Chris Birch
Honorable Harriet Drummond
Honorable Mike Gutierrez
Honorable Jennifer Johnston
Honorable Debbie Ossiander
Honorable Bill Starr
Honorable Sheila Selkregg
Anchorage Municipal Assembly

Dear Members of the Anchorage Assembly:

My name is Melissa Green. I have been a resident of Anchorage since 1982 (excepting a three-year period in Seattle), am a 19-year employee of the Justice Center at University of Alaska Anchorage, and have lived in Assembly District 4 since 2001. Though this letter is especially intended for my representatives on the Assembly, Elvi Gray-Jackson and Dan Coffey, this information is important enough to send to all of you.

I am writing to urge passage tonight of Assembly Resolution No. AR 2010-92 providing for an independent legal counsel to review and report to the Assembly on $193,000 in public monies paid out to the George M. Sullivan Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust.

The March 22 memorandum from Deputy Municipal Attorney Rhonda Fehlen Westover leaves many questions unanswered. The background timeline in the memorandum notably omits anything about the Sullivan Trust that occurred between 1984 and 2002. In particular, no mention is made of January 7, 1992, when former Mayor George Sullivan’s so-called “premiums” were reduced to $833.67 per year (see http://www.henkimaa.com/2010/03/20/a-sullygate-timeline/#1992) or of November 29, 1995 when Mr. Sullivan’s “premiums” were again reduced, this time to $555.84 (see http://www.henkimaa.com/2010/03/20/a-sullygate-timeline/#1995). Nor does the memorandum make any attempt to explain how these “premium” reductions were calculated, contrary to the Salary and Emoluments Commissions original resolution 82-1, which provided that Mr. Sullivan’s life insurance was to be provided “at the same rate and with the same coverage as in existence on January 1, 1982.” According to a memorandum from then-Manager of Records and Benefits Susan Lindemuth on February 18, 1982, the premium amount therefore should have been $1,042.20 per year, an amount confirmed in an August 4, 1982 letter from Susan Lindemuth to Mr. Sullivan.

No one with the Municipality or Assembly has yet explained this, or even made any attempt to explain it. Nor has anyone explained why the Municipality apparently never informed Aetna that George Sullivan had ceased to be an MOA employee when his accrued leave ran out on October 31, 1982. According to the letter of March 21, 2002 from Melissa K. Dietrick, Key Account Manager at Aetna (included as Exhibit M in the Westover memorandum),

The Municipality included Mr. Sullivan on the most recent life insurance census (from 2001) in the category of eligibility identified as, “all permanent employees covered under the Anchorage Municipal Employees Association Agreement, who are scheduled to work on a regular basis 20+ hours per week.” Aetna must assume that individuals listed on the census are eligible under the definitions of the plan. It is the employer’s responsibility to administer the eligibility of the benefit plan.

In other words, the Municipality lied to Aetna about Mr. Sullivan being a permanent employee covered under the AMEA agreement. No one has yet explained who exactly promulgated this lie, why they promulgated it, or why it persisted for what appears to have been the entire period of this so-called “life insurance policy” — leading to a considerable payoff earlier this year for the beneficiaries of the Sullivan Trust.

Furthermore, even if Mr. Sullivan had been covered by the MOA’s group insurance, he could not have been covered for $193,000. Per Ms. Deitrick’s letter,

However, the amount of life insurance for this eligibility group is not equal to $193,000. This group’s basic life insurance benefits are limited to $15,000 or $30,000. The premium for Municipality of Anchorage group life insurance is $.16 per $1,000 of coverage. or $28.80 annually for $1 5,000 benefits and $57.60 for $30,000.

Which again brings us to the question: who calculated the “premiums” in 1992 and 1995?

From other correspondence with Aetna’s Lynda Gable on January 30, 2002,

This means Muni kept those dollars on hand in the claims funds. I don’t know if intent was to have them handle a death claim directly, but Aetna never received any premiums. The insurance fund was the reserves that Muni held and those funds were never submitted to Aetna nor included in any of our premium calculations from a risk standpoint to the best of my knowledge. [emphasis added]

Which would seem to indicate that the changes in Mr. Sullivan’s “premiums” in 1992 and 1995 were based on something other than what his risk really was — and in contradiction to an email from Susan Lindemuth earlier on January 30, 2002, that

He was covered as part of the MOA group and therefore, part of that “risk”. There was no separate policy with Aetna or any other insurance carrier for him…and no separate “premium” was paid to any outside party. As the life insurance rates changed over the years, he was informed and paid the appropriate premium amount…or the kids paid on his behalf.

We had a split funded agreement with Aetna…so we paid the “retention” monthly and funded the life insurance claims when incurred. His coverage amount ($93,000 [sic]) was included in the volume reported to Aetna.

I have twice suggested to Assembly Chair Patrick Flynn that Susan Lindemuth should be contacted to address these questions (once on his blog on March 10, and again on March 11 when he was a guest on the Shannyn Moore Show on KUDO 1080 AM). Ms. Lindemuth’s apparent close relationship with Mayor Dan Sullivan’s chief of staff Larry Crawford — who was also City manager under mayors George Sullivan, Tom Fink, and Rick Mystrom, both of the latter under whose administrations the “premium” reductions took place — gives even more strength to the appearance of possible conflicts of interest, at best; and back-room dealmaking and public corruption at worst (see http://www.henkimaa.com/2010/03/22/sullygate-the-lindemuthcrawford-relationship/).

Ms. Westover’s memorandum points out that Mr. Sullivan, at his retirement from municipal employment, could have converted his group life insurance benefit to an individual whole life policy, but that he did not do so in part because of his reliance on the SEC Resolution 82-1 and his supposed continued participation in the MOA group plan. But had Mr. Sullivan converted in 1982, his private insurance premium at the outset (per a February 18, 1982 memo from Susan Lindemuth) would have been $961.00 per month ($11,532 per year) — which would have added up to over $285,000 over the past 25 years in the unlikely event his premiums would have remained the same. Instead, Mr. Sullivan and his family paid a total of $19,662.84 (per Dennis Wheeler’s February 2, 2010 memorandum to the Assembly) — a fraction of the cost of a private policy. Mr. Sullivan’s expectation of such a high rate of return for his Trust’s beneficiaries could in and of itself been a strong financial motivation for backroom dealing, so long as Mr. Sullivan had allies who were effect it.

After that, all that would be necessary would be a succession of administrations and assemblies who would simply throw up their hands and say “we have no choice but to pay” without investigating further. So far, that’s what we’ve had. But as a citizen of the Municipality of Anchorage, I hold that the Assembly has a responsibility to me and other Anchorage citizens to find out the truth of these matters.

Besides the questions listed in the language of AR 2010-92, here are some of my questions:

• Did Records and Benefits Manager Susan Lindemuth, or those under her supervision, fail to inform Aetna when his “life insurance policy” became effective on January 1, 1983 that he was in fact no longer an employee of the Municipality?
• Did Records and Benefits Manager Susan Lindemuth, or those under her supervision, fail to inform Aetna when the George M. Sullivan Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust was set up at the end of 1983/beginning of 1984 that he was in fact no longer an employee of the Municipality?
• Why was Aetna apparently never told that George Sullivan was a nonemployee until the fact came to light at latest in 2002?
• Why did Aetna apparently never receive information about George Sullivan such that he was not included in the risk for calculating premiums (per information given by Aetna in 2002)?
• How, then, were Mr. Sullivan’s so-called “premiums” reduced in 1992 and 1995? How were those “premiums” calculated?
• Were members of the Sullivan family and/or agents of the Sullivan Trust at any time aware of any of these failures on the part of municipal employees?
• To what extent were other municipal employees, up to and including municipal attorneys, city managers, and other appointed members of the administrations of mayors Tony Knowles, Tom Fink, Rick Mystrom, George Wuerch, Mark Begich, Dan Sullivan, and acting mayor Matt Claman aware of these failures?
• Why did it take until February 2010 for these questions to be asked — only after the monies were paid out to the Sullivan Trust?

Even if the Assembly can take no legal action to recover the public monies you authorized the Municipality on February 16 to pay out for this supposed “life insurance” policy, you can — and should — take action to find out why these missteps were taken, and who was responsible for them — no matter who they are.  That can happen if an independent investigation is undertaken, as called for in AR 2010-92.  I urge you to pass it.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Melissa S. Green

Related posts:

1. Sullygate: MOA Dept. of Law analysis; Ethics Board rules against Mayor Sullivan
2. Taking a Sullygate break
3. Talking about Sullygate on the Shannyn Moore radio show

For other news stories & posts on this topic, see my bibliography on all things Sullygate. (Fully updated as of 4/12/2010)

I took a Sullygate break for a couple of weeks, & everyone in Anchorage was pretty much focused on the last week’s municipal elections anyway.

But it’s time to break silence: the Assembly will be taking up the matter again at tomorrow night’s Assembly meeting (April 13).  That’s because there’s still a resolution outstanding related to the George M. Sullivan Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust, which was not dealt with at March 23 Assembly meeting.  This is Resolution No. AR 2010-92 introduced by Assemblymember Harriet Drummond [Ref #1] (you can also read the full text of the resolution in my March 20 post [Ref #2]), which shows up as agenda item 11.B under “Old Business” on the Assembly’s April 13 agenda.   As I summarized in my March 23 “livetweeting” post,

Drummond’s resolution: it was moved & seconded to postpone it indefinitely on the grounds that the memo from the deputy municipal attorney (in combination with the Ethics Board ruling today) had answered all questions — which it hadn’t. But — that motion failed along fairly predictable liberal v. conservative lines. Another motion postponed it to the April 13 meeting, after the municipal election. [Ref #3]

The other resolution discussed that evening, introduced by Matt Claman, was postponed indefinitely — effectively killing it. As I wrote on March 23,

Claman’s resolution: also moved & seconded, by the same people (Birch/Ossiander) to postpone indefinitely. This motion succeeded with a vote of all except Claman, mainly because his resolution called on the Sullivan “insurance” matter to be sent to the Ethics Board; but now the Ethics Board has already ruled.  Claman had written the resolution before knowing that Mayor Sullivan had apparently taken the matter to the Ethics Board himself. [Ref #3]

Reviewing the Ethics Board “ruling”

The “ruling” by the Municipality of Anchorage Ethics Board was less a “ruling” than an informal advisory opinion, prepared at Mayor Dan Sullivan’s request for such an opinion.  Basically, the Ethics Board — by means of a memorandum from Ethics Board Chair Marissa K. Flannery — said that Mayor Dan Sullivan had no direct financial interest in the George M. Sullivan Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust (in fact, by the rules of the trust, he was prohibited from benefiting from it himself); but —

The Board finds that your obligation to the Trust as a fiduciary creates a private interest that is distinct from the public interest at large. As such, the Board believes that you should have made a disclosure to the Board of Ethics on or before the City was required to take action related to the Trust. [Ref #4]

Mayor Sullivan had presented a copy of his father’s death certificate to the MOA Benefits Department in late 2009; the Ethics Board says that at that time, or shortly thereafter, he should have disclosed the potential conflict of interest to the Ethics Board because “Municipal employees who work under your direction would be required to take some official action related to the Trust.” [Ref #4] Mayor Sullivan also should have told the Ethics Board exactly how he proposed to manage the potential conflict of interest, so that the Ethics Board could review it to ensure that his approach was “sufficient to maintain the integrity of the decision making process” under municipal law. [Ref #4] The Ethics Board made no formal review of those factors, and to the extend it discussed them, depended upon Mayor Sullivan’s own account of the steps he had taken in his March 18, 2010 letter requesting the advisory opinion, as well as further information provided by him and by the Employee Relations Department earlier on March 23.

Now that I’ve looked at the Ethics Board memorandum more closely, seems to me that media reports after it was issued were titled a little more strongly than warranted.  For example, the Anchorage Daily News story, posted at ADN’s website on March 23, was originally titled “Board rules against Sullivan in trust deal” — creating a false impression  (1) that the memorandum was a formal “ruling” rather than an advisory opinion; (2) that the Ethics Board found more strongly against Sullivan than it in fact did.  Later, after that evening’s Assembly meeting, the article was lengthened and its title was made far more accurate: “Mayor should have revealed potential conflict, board rules — INSURANCE: City employees would have to act on the matter” [Ref #5] — but not before it had an effect on the title of my own post discussing the memorandum (before I’d had a chance to review it myself) — “Sullygate: MOA Dept. of Law analysis; Ethics Board rules against Mayor Sullivan”. [Ref #6]

Basically, the memorandum was important — but not nearly as big of a deal as some comment made it out to be:

1. It was not a formal opinion or ruling, but rather an advisory opinion, issued at Mayor Sullivan’s request.
2. It was not the result of a formal investigation of Mayor Sullivan’s actions to ascertain if they conformed with municipal law, but was based instead on Mayor Sullivan’s own account (and those of the Employee Relations Department).
3. It gave out no sanctions.

Whether it should have — that’s another story.  Section 2 of Assemblymember Matt Claman’s proposed resolution AR 2010-105 would have provided:

The current Mayor shall submit the question of whether he had a conflict of interest, and if so, how the conflict should be managed, to the Ethics Board for public hearing, complete review, and written report. [Ref #7]

But as the Assembly voted on March 23 to table Claman’s resolution indefinitely — effectively killing it — it is unlikely that any such formal ethics investigation, complete with public hearing and full review and report, will ever take place.  If Mayor Sullivan’s intent in requesting an advisory opinion was to forestall a full and public review, he succeeded.

It’s possible that if a full formal ethics review had taken place, it would have given pretty much the same findings that the Ethics Board made in its informal advisory opinion. Or it could be that the Ethics Board would find that Mayor Sullivan’s actives were even more questionable ethically. Either way, we’ll never know.

Reviewing the MOA Department of Law’s memorandum

A day before the Ethics Board memorandum came out, the municipal Department of Law issued a memorandum — by Deputy Municipal Attorney Rhonda Fehlen Westover — regarding the Sullivan Trust. Westover’s review was undertaken at the request of Assembly Chair Patrick Flynn. [Ref #8] I first saw the memorandum on March 23, before that evening’s Assembly meeting.  As I wrote at the time,

[T]he opinion of the MOA lawyers is very clearly that the MOA was obligated to pay, given that they could find no indication that MOA had ever informed the Sullivan Trust or its agents that George Sullivan was not in fact covered by the Muni’s group plan with Aetna.  While I remain suspicious of a backroom deal, so far there is no proof of one.  But there are still outstanding questions that to my mind demand investigation, such as why Aetna was apparently never told that Sullivan was a nonemployee until the fact came to light at latest in 2002; why Aetna in 2002 reported never receiving information about Sullivan such that he was not included in the risk for calculating premiums; or why his so-called “premiums” were reduced in 1992 and 1995. [Ref #6; emphasis added]

These questions still remain: Westover’s memorandum does not answer them.

Nearly two weeks after the Westover’s memorandum, Assembly Chair Flynn wrote on his blog,

In reviewing the available facts it appears at least four mistakes occurred during the decades-long process that led to the disbursal of these funds:

1. Back in 1982 the Assembly should never have passed the resolution calling for the extension of life insurance benefits to George Sullivan.  I don’t dispute that former Mayor Sullivan led an extraordinarily distinguished public service career but using public resources to extend special privileges almost invariably leads to, at the very least, the perception of impropriety.
2. When it first became apparent that the city’s private insurance carrier (Aetna) would not carry a life insurance policy for a former employee, in 2002, then-municipal attorney Bill Greene’s assertion that the city had to continue providing coverage without any apparent attempt to seek redress stuns me.  In my opinion his decision that, “there is no option to not provide the coverage,” represented an abdication of his duty to our city.  That said, once other municipal officials went along with Mr. Greene’s interpretation I do think the obligation was cemented.
3. As mentioned above, Mayor Dan Sullivan’s failure to disclose his role as trustee continues to surprise me.  I’ve witnessed him recuse himself on at least one other matter and Assembly members regularly provide disclosures on the record for even tenuous connections to issues before us.  I cannot understand why he wouldn’t have thought to do so, especially since I don’t think the outcome would have changed dramatically.
4. Finally, I take responsibility for the fact that the Assembly failed to get more of the information now available on the table prior to voting.  We relied on the Department of Law’s summary but should have asked for more details, and I apologize that we didn’t. [Ref #9]

But Mr. Flynn’s summation almost entirely ignores the questions I raised above.  After listing the four errors he ascertained, he went on,

So now what?

On one hand I honestly feel that a third-party review of this issue will reach the same conclusion reached by myself and the Department of Law; like it or not, the city was/is obligated to make this payment.  On the other hand, I also feel that the third-party review of financial matters in the waning months of the Begich administration will find no significant evidence of impropriety.  And since I supported the latter intellectual consistency suggests I should support the former, right?  Yet some might argue that, even if something was amiss in either circumstance, there likely isn’t any action the Assembly could take in response.  A reasonable point, but others argue we should at least get all the facts on the table. [Ref #9]

Nothing here about the problems that I’ve been elucidating on this blog from the very first, all of which seem to go back to the actions — or inactions — of longtime MOA Records and Benefits Manager Susan Lindemuth and those under her supervision.  Whether or not these actions, or inactions, were taken at the behest of the Sullivan family, the Sullivan Trust, or their agents; whether or not the Sullivan family, the Sullivan Trust, or their agents were aware of them — there is ample evidence in the record of something having gone awry in MOA Records and Benefits handling of the Sullivan “insurance” matter which demand answers.  Even if the Assembly can take no legal action to recover the public monies it paid out for this supposed “life insurance” policy, it can — and should — take action to find out why these missteps were taken, and who was responsible for them — no matter whose door they lead to.  And the only way that can happen is if an independent investigation is undertaken, as called for in Harriet Drummond’s resolution.

I’ve already suggested that an independent investigation is necessary due to the potential for conflicts of interest due to the relationship between Susan Lindemuth and Mayor Sullivan’s chief of staff Larry Crawford (also city manager under mayors George Sullivan, Tom Fink, and Rick Mystrom). [Ref #10] As early as March 10 I wrote in a comment on Mr. Flynn’s blog,

Start by asking Susan Lindemuth, who was Manager of Records & Benefits when this stuff was first set up. I’ve been told she now works in HR at the Alaska RR. [Ref #11]

On March 11, when Mr. Flynn was a guest on Shannyn Moore’s radio show on KUDO, when I called in and again mentioned the necessity to talk with Ms. Lindemuth, Mr. Flynn said that he knew Ms. Lindemuth well — which makes sense, given that he himself, according to his Assembly biography, works with the Alaska Railroad Corporation in marketing and logistics.  It’s likely that Mr. Flynn himself might have mixed feelings about following the evidence where it may lead, if only out of friendship — which further underscores the need for an independent investigation.

Here yet again is a list of questions — by no means necessarily comprehensive — to which the citizens of Anchorage deserve an answer:

• Did Records and Benefits Manager Susan Lindemuth, or those under her supervision, fail to inform Aetna when his “life insurance policy” became effective on January 1, 1983 that he was in fact no longer an employee of the Municipality?
• Did Records and Benefits Manager Susan Lindemuth, or those under her supervision, fail to inform Aetna when the George M. Sullivan Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust was set up at the end of 1983/beginning of 1984 that he was in fact no longer an employee of the Municipality?
• Why was Aetna apparently never told that George Sullivan was a nonemployee until the fact came to light at latest in 2002?
• Why did Aetna apparently never receive information about George Sullivan such that he was not included in the risk for calculating premiums (per information given by Aetna in 2002)?
• How, then, were Mr. Sullivan’s so-called “premiums” reduced in 1992 and 1995?  How were those “premiums” calculated?
• Were members of the Sullivan family and/or agents of the Sullivan Trust at any time aware of any of these failures on the part of municipal employees?
• To what extent were other municipal employees, up to and including municipal attorneys, city managers, and other appointed members of the administrations of mayors Tony Knowles, Tom Fink, Rick Mystrom, George Wuerch, Mark Begich, Dan Sullivan, and acting mayor Matt Claman aware of these failures?
• Why did it take until February 2010 for these questions to be asked — only after the monies were paid out to the Sullivan Trust?

Got any more questions?  Add them in comments.

But more importantly: call or email your Assembly representatives and demand an independent investigation. Tell them to pass Assembly Resolution AR 2010-92 at tomorrow night’s Assembly meeting.

Update 4/13/2010: Another legal analysis

And maybe that legal analysis from Deputy Municipal Rhonda Westover wasn’t so on top of the legalities after all.  Check out this morning’s post at The Mudflats, where Mudflatter “Legal Eagle” discusses the memorandum’s flawed legal reasoning. The analysis begins:

The MOA Dept. of Law’s memorandum analyzing the insurance payout is high flawed, and conclusory at best. It ignores several important legal principles, and conflates lines of contract law. It’s clear that it was written to support Dennis Wheeler’s contention that there was an enforceable contract, without a thorough analysis of Alaska law. [Ref #12]

Read the rest of the analysis at The Mudflats.  Then write or call your Assembly representative(s) and demand passage or AR 2010-92.

References

1. Resolution No. AR 2010-92, a resolution of the Anchorage Municipal Assembly to authorize engaging the services of independent legal counsel to review and report to the Assembly on the legal and contractual obligations, if any, and the authority of the Assembly, if any, regarding payment of $193,000 in municipal funds to the George M. Sullivan Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust, and providing for an appropriation. Assemblymember Harriet Drummond. Scheduled for discussion at the 23 March 2010 Anchorage Assembly meeting.
2. 3/20/2010. “Sullygate: Two resolutions to be introduced at Anchorage Assembly on March 23″ by Melissa S. Green (Henkimaa). Includes full text of resolutions to be introduced by Assemblymembers Harriet Drummond and Matt Claman.
3. 3/23/2010. “The Daily Tweets, 2010-03-23: Livetweeting Assembly meeting w/ Sullygate resolutions” by Melissa S. Green (Henkimaa).
4. 3/23/2010. “Re: Request for Advisory Opinion 2010-1″ by Marissa K. Flannery, Chair, Municipality of Anchorage Board of Ethics.
5. 3/23/2010. “Mayor should have revealed potential conflict, board rules — INSURANCE: City employees would have to act on the matter” by Rosemary Shinohara (Anchorage Daily News). A briefer version of this article was originally published on the ADN website as “Board rules against Sullivan in trust deal.”
6. 3/23/2010. “Sullygate: MOA Dept. of Law analysis; Ethics Board rules against Mayor Sullivan” by Melissa S. Green (Henkimaa).
7. Resolution No. AR 2010-105, a resolution of the Anchorage Municipal Assembly, regarding payment of $193,000 in municipal funds to the George M. Sullivan Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust. Assemblymember Matt Claman. Scheduled for discussion at the 23 March 2010 Anchorage Assembly meeting.
8. 3/22/2010. AR 2010-33: “Memorandum to Assembly Chair Patrick Flynn and Assembly Members re: Appropriation for George M. Sullivan Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust” by Rhonda Fehlen Westover, Deputy Municipal Attorney. Municipality of Anchorage, Office of the Municipal Attorney.
9. 4/3/2010. “Matters of (the George Sullivan) Trust” by Patrick Flynn (Patrick Flynn’s Blog).
10. 3/22/2010. “Sullygate: The Lindemuth/Crawford relationship” by Melissa S. Green (Henkimaa).
11. 3/10/2010. “Insurance information” by Patrick Flynn. (Patrick Flynn’s Blog).
12. 4/13/2010. “Municipality’s Legal Memorandum Looks Hinky. Show Us the Contract!” by Mudflatter “Legal Eagle” (The Mudflats).

Related posts:

1. Taking a Sullygate break
2. Sullygate: MOA Dept. of Law analysis; Ethics Board rules against Mayor Sullivan
3. Sullygate: Two resolutions to be introduced at Anchorage Assembly on March 23

Andy & BethAnne Clary, from campaign literature mailed to my home.

I’ve already voted — Tuesday before last, in fact, when I headed over to the Loussac Library to attend that evening’s Anchorage Assembly meeting & discovered absentee balloting already in progress.  I voted  for Dick Traini for seat F in the Anchorage Assembly.

A number of other progressive Anchorage bloggers have already weighed in on why other Midtown voters ought to vote for Dick Traini & against Andy Clary in the April 6 municipal elections.  Now it’s my turn.

Yesterday my friend John Aronno of Alaska Commons wrote, “I like Andy. He’s a nice guy. He also comes off as a highly intelligent person” [Ref #1].  I have no reason to doubt John, whose judgment has proven itself time & again since I first met him last year in the trenches of the summer-long battle of the Anchorage equal rights ordinance AO 2009-64 — a battle which is, of course, highly relevant to this election, not only because Andy Clary was on the “no” side of it [Ref #2].

Dick Traini. Courtesy Alaska Commons.

Later in his post, John reiterated Clary’s likability:

Andy Clary is a likable guy, and someone with crossover values, given his opponent, Dick Traini, who is about as likable as spring’s “break up,” or Michael Steele, or Paul Kendall. It honestly reminds me a bit of the Scott Brown election: elect the opposite of your values because you’re more pissed off at the person that claims to represent you. Traini hasn’t worked hard for this, and even I am in the camp where, either way, I won’t be happy. No one ends up represented well. Kudos, Midtown. [Ref #1]

Uh… well, thanks John.  That’s kinda how I feel about it too.  As a Midtown voter, I can at least take consolation that I’ll no longer be “represented” by this guy –

– but it’d be even better if I had a chance of being “represented” by someone who really did represent me. But that’s the nature of representative democracy — some people are “represented,” & the rest of us are screwed. Of course, the “other side” — whatever that side might be — has to deal with that same stinky win/lose fact.

But let me cut to the chase. Here’s some reasons to vote for Dick Traini rather than Andy Clary.

Reason #1: Dan Sullivan

This comes out of one of Andy Clary’s mailers that arrived in my mailbox:

In my book: not a great recommendation. In fact, it’s enough reason all by itself to pick Traini over Clary — especially coupled with the other side of the “support” equation: Clary’s support of Sullivan. Check out this video (courtesy Alaska Commons) of the candidate forum where Clary was asked to name one positive & one negative thing that former Mayor (now U.S. Senator) Mark Begich did as mayor, and one positive & one negative thing that Mayor Sullivan has done.

Clary couldn’t think of even one negative thing Sullivan had done. Well, I suppose it’s possible that Clary sees Sullivan as perfect — but that’s pretty troubling, if so.  In his campaign literature, Clary claims to have “an independent conservative viewpoint”: is his viewpoint independent enough to disagree with or oppose Sullivan on anything, or will he be just a junior version of Sullivan’s departing pal Dan Coffey?  The Anchorage Daily News reports,

On an Assembly that’s been fractious over Sullivan’s leadership, Clary makes it clear he is allied with Sullivan, who became mayor last July. He served on Sullivan’s transition team, held a fundraiser at McGinley’s, the pub Sullivan co-owns, and says of Sullivan, “Generally, I like what I’ve seen.” [Ref #3]

What about Traini?  The story goes on:

Traini said he donated $100 to Sullivan’s campaign for mayor, but the mayor didn’t reciprocate. “I have a good relationship, I think, maybe not the best.”

“I work with both sides,” said Traini. [Ref #3]

Reason #2: Opposition to equality under the law for LGBTQ citizens

Here’s a photo I took in the Assembly chambers on August 11, 2009, right after the Assembly by a vote of 7 to 4 passed the Anchorage equal rights ordinance, AO-64, which prohibited discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in employment, housing, public accommodations, & education. [Ref #4] That is, until the ordinance was vetoed 6 days later by Mayor Dan Sullivan. [Ref #5]

At the center in the grey jacket with red shirt is the Anchorage Baptist Temple’s Rev. Jerry Prevo, and beside him is ABT associate pastor, Rev. Glenn Clary — Andy Clary’s father. Prevo and ABT were, of course, prominent opponents of AO-64, going so far in their opposition as to bus Mat-Su Borough residents in to testify against it (a move permitted by then-Assembly Chair Debbie Ossiander, who is standing for re-election on April 6).

Despite his father’s affiliation with ABT, Andy Clary is not a member of Prevo’s church.  He’s a member of ChangePoint [Ref #3] — a fact which at least some of Clary’s supporters seem to believe means he is absolutely independent of ABT influence.  For instance, check out this comment on Dan Fagan’s Alaska Standard piece criticizing ADN reporter Rosemary Shinohara’s story about the Midtown race.  The commenter, Bryan, was responding to a previous comment by Anchorage pollster Ivan Moore:

There’s no connection!

What a bunch of BULL! Prevo is not Andy’s pastor. ABT is not Andy’s church.

SO WHAT CONNECTION ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?

Andy Doesn’t go to ABT… Prevo isn’t Andy’s pastor…

This faux connection is complete BULL and you should be ashamed. [Ref #6, reader comment]

A similar comment was made anonymously to a story about Andy Clary’s candidacy at the LGBTQ blog Bent Alaska. [Ref #7] But please — of course there’s a connection between Andy Clary and ABT, because of his father; and it’s not as if evangelical megachurch ChangePoint is at odds with the politics espoused by the pastor or members of evangelical megachurch ABT.  Aside from that, Andy Clary, as a staff writer for Dan Fagan’s conservative blog the Alaska Standard, made it clear that he opposed the ordinance, albeit in less strident tones than many of red-shirted “Christians” who testified last summer:

As I sat in the assembly chambers Tuesday night and listened to hours of testimony from both sides of the issue, I was concerned how much religion kept coming up in the discussion. Time and time again, those who stood up to oppose the ordinance would quote the Bible or call homosexuality sin. The whole setting became an us vs. them mentality and even I, reporting live from the event, kept a tally of how many testified on each side of the issue. I cringed at the tone of some of the testimony.

Now, before I go any further, let me say that I am opposed to the ordinance myself, but for very different reasons. You see, I am a committed follower of Christ, and although I believe homosexuality is not a lifestyle that Christ approves of, I see it no differently than other sins such as alcoholism or adultery. Why do we Christians lash out against one sin so differently than we do any other? We need to be reaching these people not tearing them down. [Ref #2]

Never mind that persisting in calling homosexuality a “lifestyle” or a “sin” akin to alcoholism or adultery is not a very good way of reaching “these people” — speaking as one of “these people” myself.  In his campaign literature, Andy Clary claims that “I know how to listen”; but like most of the redshirts who populated the Assembly Chambers last summer, his mind is already made up about LGBTQ people: he’s not listening to us at all.

And don’t forget: Clary couldn’t think of one thing wrong that Mayor Sullivan did.  This sign — carried by a demonstrator on August 17, 2009, after Sullivan’s veto of AO-64 –

– could just as well say “Assembly candidate Andy Clary supports discrimination.”

Well, what about Dick Traini?  Discussion of this race in the LGBTQ community has focused almost as much on Traini’s Mormonism as on Cary’s relationship to the church his father is a pastor of.  LGBTQ Alaskans remember all too well how the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS) financed the 1998 campaign against marriage equality in Alaska, as well as the Prop 8 battle in California.

But the LDS Church is taking a different stance on employment and  housing protections — and so, apparently, is Dick Traini.  Yesterday, E. Ross at Bent Alaska wrote,

Dick Traini is a conservative with an independent streak. He has also said that he could support a non-discrimination ordinance similar to the one passed in Salt Lake City with the approval of the Mormon Church. That ordinance added sexual orientation but not gender identity, and involved only housing and job protections. [Ref #7]

But just now I learned that in fact two ordinances were passed in Salt Lake Lake City last year — both of them endorsed by the LDS Church — and the second one extends the same protections on the basis of gender identity, that the first extended on the basis of sexual orientation. [Ref #8] In fact, both ordinances took effect just yesterday. [Ref #9] Congratulations, Salt Lake City!

Might that meant that Traini could possibly support a nondiscrimination ordinance that includes both sexual orientation and gender identity?  Maybe someone should ask.  In any case, better him than Clary, who like Mayor Sullivan supports discrimination.

Reason #3: Experience, or the lack thereof

As a Midtown voter whose also got another voter living at my address, I’ve gotten peppered with Andy Clary campaign mailer with their photoshopped attacks on Traini.  Ryan Knight at the Back Porch comments:

Throwing mud at your opponent, mocking them in pedestrian cartoons, and attempting to aggrandize yourself at their expense indicates immaturity and poor character integrity. You don’t win by bullying, and the actions Andy has engaged in towards Traini are not Christian. God is not going to give him a high-five for mockery, manipulation, and Machiavellian plots. If he thinks so, he needs to read the bible again, and spend some serious time getting up close and personal to God. [Ref #10]

The Mudflats described one of the mailers thusly:

His latest mailer puts Mr. Traini’s photoshopped head on the bodies of King George, Napoleon on a horse, the bust of Julius Caesar and some sort of leotard-clad union superhero.

Underneath these bizarre iconic images are the words…and I quote (including quotation marks and all caps):

“PLEASE BEWARE OF SPECIAL INTEREST POLITICIANS WHO MAY HAVE A LITTLE TOO HIGH OPINION OF THEMSELVES…” [Ref #11]

Yep, I got that one too.  Here’s what it looks like:

Here’s one I got earlier:

What strikes me about these cartoonish attacks is this:

They are red herrings intended to distract voters from Clary’s own lack of public service experience by deriding Dick Traini for his record of public service. Clary’s made a theme of referring to “career politicians” — clearly intimating that Traini is one. But is he? As Traini told KTUU Channel 2 News:

“That’s interesting,” Traini said. “Let’s see: I spent 20 years in the military, I worked civil service for 18 years, and I’ve taught college for 13 years — that’s my career.” [Ref #12]

Traini’s record of public service includes 10-1/2 prior years on the Assembly, in the 1990s and from 2001-2008.  Per the Anchorage Daily News:

On the Assembly, Traini was chairman for six years.

He was the driving force behind creation of Anchorage’s popular off-leash dog parks. He sponsored tougher laws for uninsured and unlicensed drivers.

He backed more serious penalties for DUI offenders, a tobacco tax to discourage young people from smoking, and an anti-stalking law.

Traini also tried to get rid of emissions testing for vehicles, arguing that Anchorage no longer needs such testing because our air meets federal quality standards.

But the Assembly ended up reinstating the testing. [Ref #3]

(Clary also apposes I/M testing.)

Compare the record of public service of Andy Clary, who owns an IT consulting service:

When asked at a candidate luncheon how he has served the community, he cited church work. He taught Sunday school, led men’s studies and cooked food for different events, for example. [Ref #3]

Right.  Nothing outside the church.  Nothing involving members of the community outside his own evangelical megachurch community of belief.

His ideas for what to do on the Assembly are just as limited in their scope, made up chiefly of standard conservative talking points (low taxes, free enterprise, etc.) and tech as the answer to just about everything.  Sometimes those ideas make sense –

One idea to save money is to rent to the state space that’s not needed for the city’s data center, said Clary. He’s also heard a city human resources and financial software system is performing poorly, and is costing the city time and money. He’d like to get that fixed. [Ref #3]

– and sometimes he’s clearly out of his depth. John Aronno reports:

Next, he wants to “allow police and fire to be more effective through improved technology in the field.”

Great. But if you approve of Sullivan’s approach to reducing emergency services, I don’t understand how fancying up the computers in a vacant office helps anyone in an emergency. [Ref #1]

Exactly.  Not to mention — just what does Clary even know about police and fire technology?  According to the ADN, he owns Think IT Alaska and develops Internet software for GeoNorth. [Ref #3] But I don’t see anything at either company’s website to indicate he has any knowledge much less expertise in the technologies routinely used by law enforcement officers or firefighters in the field. Does he even know what NLECT stands for, or what it does?  What’s his experience or knowledge of crime mapping, its benefits, its limitations?  Just as a couple of for instances.  These are specialized areas; a degree in Management Information Systems and ownership of an IT consulting company do not make him even remotely qualified as the go-to guy for looking to the technology needs of Anchorage Police Department or Anchorage Fire Department.  He’s talking out of some other part of his anatomy there than his mouth, sorry.

Clary’s inexperience and narrowness of knowledge really shows here, too — from the KTUU story on the Midtown race:

Traini says if he’s voted in to the Assembly, the U-Med district containing the University of Alaska Anchorage campus and several city hospitals will get extra attention.

“The University-hospital area there is a big economic engine for Midtown,” Traini said. “We’ve got to figure out how to get transit coming in there, the housing around it, and the demands of the people who go to college there.”

Clary says he’s got a hands-off approach to government involvement in private lives.

“I think some of the business owners are concerned that the city doesn’t need to be proscribing so much how land use is developed in that area,” Clary said. “I’m of the opinion that the private sector needs to lead that effort.” [Ref #12]

Has Clary never heard of government working with the private sector, for the benefit of both?  Hello?  Particularly when we’re talking about — hello? — an economic engine for the area that Clary is aspiring to represent.  Hello?

Andy Clary’s “fresh perspective”: Not really that new, not really that different, and — sorry — not really that bright

Just typical conservative talking points with a little IT added in.

It’s even clearer to me than it was before I started this post how much better a choice Dick Traini is than Andy Clary, whose chief qualification for running seems to be an ideological narrowness that matches that of Dan Sullivan, Dan Fagan, and the evangelical megachurch community.

Traini, for his part, is recognized for his ability to work with conservatives as well as progressives:

“I think I can get both sides to work together,” Traini said. “I have worked before with a liberal Assembly, I’ve worked with a conservative Assembly. I’ve worked with four or five mayors, depends on how you want to count. And we can all work together, because everybody down there wants what’s best for Anchorage.” [Ref #12]

Per the ADN,

former Assemblyman Traini, competing with Clary for the Midtown seat, regularly served as a swing vote between one camp and another on his prior years’ service. [Ref #13]

And we need that more than someone who seems poorly equipped to do anything other than be Mayor Sullivan’s yes-man.

I’m really glad I voted as I did. I hope other Midtown residents will vote for Traini too.

And do vote!  It’s important! Especially if you think Sullivan’s mayoralty sucks as much as I do: because this election, if it goes wrong, could serve to make his administration even suckier.

References

1. 4/1/10. “Andy Clary” by John Aronno (Alaska Commons).
2. 6/10/09. “Can you legislate morality?” by Andy Clary (Alaska Standard).
3. 3/31/10. “Political rookie faces veteran in Midtown Assembly race — Experienced Traini faces challenge from newcomer Clary for seat being vacated by Coffey” by Rosemary Shinohara (Anchorage Daily News).
4. 8/13/09. “Third time in 35 years: Anchorage’s equal rights ordinance” by Melissa S. Green (Henkimaa).
5. 8/17/09. “Protesting the veto: Photos” by Melissa S. Green (Henkimaa).
6. 3/31/10. “Daily News Reporter disgraces her profession” by Dan Fagan (Alaska Standard).
7. 4/1/10. “Bent Alaska: ABT pastor’s son runs for Anchorage assembly” by E. Ross (Bent Alaska).
8. 11/12/09. “LDS apostle: SLC gay-rights measures could work for state” by Rosemary Winters And Peggy Fletcher Stack (The Salt Lake Tribune).
9. 4/2/10. “New laws protect gay and lesbian rights in Salt Lake City” by Lisa Von App (Examiner.com: Salt Lake City Page One Examiner).
10. 4/2/10. “Midtown Anchorage Assembly Race Heats Up” by Jeanne Devon (The Mudflats).
11. 4/2/10. “The Gospel of Mudslinging” by Ryan Knight (The Back Porch).
12. 3/31/10. “Assembly election: Traini, Clary, Whittaker vie for Midtown seat” by Jason Lamb (KTUU Channel 2 News).
13. 4/2/10. “Assembly races could shift mayor’s clout — TUESDAY ELECTION: With 5 seats up for grabs, Sullivan could suffer or benefit depending on who wins” by Rosemary Shinohara (Anchorage Daily News).

Related posts:

1. My letter to the Anchorage Assembly
2. Sullygate: My letter to the Anchorage Assembly in support of Assembly Resolution AR 2010-92
3. Assembly report 1

For other news stories & posts on this topic, see my bibliography on all things Sullygate.

This is a brief update by way of saying, I’m taking a breather from Sullygate (the George Sullivan “life insurance” matter of concern to citizens of Anchorage) to focus a bit on writing.  I’ve got a deadline on a story I’m working on.

But I will be coming back to it.  In particular, to take a closer look at the memorandum issued the other day —

• 3/22/2010. AR 2010-33: “Memorandum to Assembly Chair Patrick Flynn and Assembly Members re: Appropriation for George M. Sullivan Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust” by Rhonda Fehlen Westover, Deputy Municipal Attorney. Municipality of Anchorage, Office of the Municipal Attorney.

— as well as the Ethics Board opinion issued on March 23.  Looking at first week of March for these.  I’m especially interested in the memorandum because of contentions made by certain conservative members of the Assembly on Tuesday that it answered all the questions.

No it didn’t.  It answered some but not all.

I’ll at least try to update my bib tonight.  My hands have been so achy I haven’t taken time to do so yet.

In the meantime, take a look at the comments on my first post mentioning the memorandum; and my livetweet of Tuesday’s Assembly meeting.

Related posts:

1. Sullygate: MOA Dept. of Law analysis; Ethics Board rules against Mayor Sullivan
2. Sullygate: Two resolutions to be introduced at Anchorage Assembly on March 23
3. Sullygate: Why we need an independent investigation

I’ve been Sullied! — a pin made by my friend Stef, who also made the Equality Works pins worn by me & lots of others last summer during public testimony on the Anchorage equal rights ordinance, which passed but was vetoed by Mayor Dan Sullivan.

Most of today’s tweets came from my livetweeting at the Anchorage Assembly meeting, where two resolutions related to Sullygate — the payout of $193,000 to the George M. Sullivan Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust of which Mayor Dan Sullivan is trustee — were introduced.  My March 20 post “Sullygate: Two resolutions to be introduced at Anchorage Assembly on March 23″ has the full text of both resolutions, one from Assemblymember Harriet Drummond and the other by Assemblymember Matt Claman.

Three events closely preceded the Assembly meeting, two of which I discussed in my post just before this one: (1) Deputy Municipal Attorney Rhonda Westover completed & distributed a memorandum which reviewed the history & legal aspect of the Sullivan “insurance” matter; & (2) the Muni Board of Ethics issued a ruling which found against Mayor Dan Sullivan, stating that he should have disclosed his potential conflict of interest with regard to his dual role as mayor and as trustee of the George M. Sullivan Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust.  I haven’t seen the actual Board of Ethics decision yet; I have seen (& posted) the Westover memorandum, & will be writing about that sometime in the next few days.

Event (3) was a rumor posted at a blog called Alaska WTF and discussed also at Immoral Minority alleging an extramarital affair between Mayor Dan Sullivan & a young woman named Bernadette Wilson who had apparently been hired by the Municipality as a party planner, and whose marriage to Chris Fournier had allegedly been wrecked as a result of the alleged affair.  The event Wilson apparently planned for the Muni was the last of several budget issues brought up (though without mentioning Wilson’s name or any monetary amounts) by Dianne Holmes at about 6:00 PM (after discussion of the two resolutions was over),  prompting a lengthy and detailed defense by Assemblymember Dan Coffey of MOA contracting practices in general and  event planning in particular under Mayor Sullivan as opposed to in the prior administration; Coffey by his own statement had “heard that there might be a comment like this” prior to the meeting. (So had I.)  I think we’re likely to be hearing more about the alleged affair in the next few days.

Update 3/24/2010: See the detailed account at The Mudflats of this incident at the Assembly, “The Strange Tale of the Mayor and the Party Planner”. As I commented there, Dianne Holmes had a 3-minute opportunity to comment, mentioned several budget issues, & only at the very tail end of it had one sentence in which she questioned contracting out for event planning — to wit, “That is my fourth question—why are we paying for event planners when the past administration seemed to do that in-house? “ She mentioned no names, no amounts. And then out came Coffey comes with a lengthy, detailed reply to that once sentence (ignoring the three other substantive budget issues Homes had mentioned) that was all outsize to the single sentence of her her “event planner” question — which was clearly prepared ahead of time — & which he even prefaced by saying he’d been warned she might say something about that.  Per the Mudflats post,

Interestingly, Mr. Coffey said he had heard “something like this” might be coming, and he was armed with a giant list of every sole source contractor that the previous administration had hired – speech writers, pollsters, the whole enchilada.  Then he tallied up the entire amount that the LAST administration paid out to all these wildly different positions.

As I commented at Mudflats, “The Coffey doth protest too much.”

The Mudflats post goes into background explaining who Bernadette Wilson is. Amongst other things, she worked on Dan Sullivan’s mayoral campaign and was the event coordinator for the Mayor’s Unity Dinner last September.

My summary of discussion on the resolutions

Drummond’s resolution: it was moved & seconded to postpone it indefinitely on the grounds that the memo from the deputy municipal attorney (in combination with the Ethics Board ruling today) had answered all questions — which it hadn’t. But — that motion failed along fairly predictable liberal v. conservative lines. Another motion postponed it to the April 13 meeting, after the municipal election.

Claman’s resolution: also moved & seconded, by the same people (Birch/Ossiander) to postpone indefinitely. This motion succeeded with a vote of all except Claman, mainly because his resolution called on the Sullivan “insurance” matter to be sent to the Ethics Board; but now the Ethics Board has already ruled.  Claman had written the resolution before knowing that Mayor Sullivan had apparently taken the matter to the Ethics Board himself.  (I heard some speculation that Mayor Sullivan had done so in an attempt to “pull a Palin” — that is, to bring a complaint against himself in hopes they’d let him off the hook, much as Sarah Palin when governor had filed an ethics complaint against herself with the Alaska Personnel Board in the Troopergate matter in an attempt to forestall the Alaska legislative investigation on Troopergate.)

My earlier tweets of the day

(The Assembly livetweet is below.)

• RT: @shannynmoore: is on the air…not flying…just radio…www.kudo1080.com // I thought you were just addicted to breathing. #
• RT: @celticdiva: RT @markos: Americans love success. USA Today poll: 49-40 support #HCR (via @Shoq) // I know I sure support it. in reply to celticdiva #
• American Medical Association: “Historic House Passage of Health System Reform Important Step Forward” http://bit.ly/ad4Boj #hcr #
• USATODAY.com “Opinions turn favorable on health care plan” http://bit.ly/9v9NKh #
• Robert J. Elisberg: GOP Applies for Health Care for Self-Inflicted Wounds http://huff.to/clOipk #hcr #
• USATODAY explains provisions of health reform bill http://bit.ly/cEm3b4 #hcr #
• MOA Ethics Board rules against Dan Sullivan in trust deal http://bit.ly/9M4dz9 #
• RT: @OTOOLEFAN: The Tea Party Movement is really just The Sour Grapes of Wrath. White grapes. #

Anchorage Assembly meeting

• I’ll be livetweeting the Anchorage Assembly meeting tonight, at least the Sullygate(s) portions. Heading down to the Assembly chambers now. #
• Livetweeting Assembly meeting on #sullygate Early stages of agenda right now. #fb #
• Consent agenda – Drummond’s is item B2 #fb #
• I see John Aronno of Alaska Commons over there, my old pal from last year’s AO-64 meetings, which were lots mote crowded. #fb #
• RT @crossedgenres: Terrific review of ” @crossedgenres Year One” at Tangent Online! http://bit.ly/abTbSK incl my story! #fb #
• Birch on Drummond’s resolution. He moves to postpone indef, Ossiander seconds. Based on Westover’s memo (asst muni atty) #fb #
• Claman asking Westover abt today’s Ethics Board decision #fb #
• Here’s AK Muckraker (Mudflats) sitting next row up from me. #fb #
• I didn’t find copies of the resolution on the wall coming in, so I’m going from memory. #fb #
• Drummond: Dept of Law & ethics stuff shd have been before Feb 2. There are still ?s that aren’t purview of Bd of Ethics #fb #
• Drummond also gives h/t to ADN for its story – good on ya Sean Cockerham #fb #
• Sorry for my typos using my iPod touch #fb #
• Coffey says nothing more to examine. I disagree there are still big ?s abt why the “premiums” went down, how Lindemuth screwed up #fb #
• Gutierrez: why was this check booked on 2009? #fb #
• Starr (like other conservatives here) think We know enough #fb #
• Motion to postpone indefinitely failed now talking abt until next mtg on Apr 13 – approved #fb #
• Claman’s resolution 2010-105 – put $19300 in escrow #fb #
• Birch moves to postpone indef Ossiander seconds #fb #
• Cons feel this res already answered by Ethics board determination. This res written before Claman knew Dan Sullivan went to EB himself #fb #
• Ossiander sounds very irritable tonight #fb #
• Everybody’s ignoring why check was booked last year long before Assembly even heard of this issue. #fb #
• Everybody also ignoring why did the “premiums” go down – possible misconduct by MOA employees #fb #
• Coffey: “Its politics not substance” #fb #
• Flynn supports indef postponement of this (but not Drummond res) #fb #
• Gray-Jackson: we’re still discussing b/c public is outraged #fb #
• Claman’s res postponed indef by vote of all except Claman #fb #
• There’s another item of Sullygatish interest I believe w/ in next hour, stay tuned #fb #
• Chambers filling up maybe on bike plan? Nice to be here w/out a lot of redshirts #Fb #
• Not sure if the other Sullygatish item I thought might be coming up will come up after all. #fb #
• But Drummond resolution will come up again Apr 13 – guess I’ll have to write letter abt probs w/ “insurance” still outstanding…. #fb #
• …b/c MOA Dept of Law memo from Westover didn’t cover all ?s #fb #
• @celticdiva I uploaded MOA Dept of Law memo today — see my most recent blog post. in reply to celticdiva #
• Leaving Assembly meeting shortly — gotta get home & let the dog pee. Outside. #fb #
• @celticdiva “I’ve been Sullied!” buttons made by buttonmaker extraordinaire Stef G. who also made Equality Works buttons last summer. in reply to celticdiva #
• Packing up & heading home to take care of dog, cat, & writing. #fb #

And lastly…

… a post-Assembly retweet of one of my favorite Twitterers, Jane Espenson of Buffy, Angel, Battlestar Galactica, & Caprica writing & producing fame.

• RT: @CapricaSeven: This is my tweet number 1066. Commonly known as the “Battle of Hastings” tweet. // I love tweeple w/ a sense of history #

Related posts:

1. Sullygate: Two resolutions to be introduced at Anchorage Assembly on March 23
2. Taking a Sullygate break
3. Sullygate: Why we need an independent investigation

I’ve acquired a copy of the MOA Department of Law memorandum prepared at the request of Assembly Chair Patrick Flynn for Flynn and the rest of the Assembly by Rhonda Fehlen Westover, Deputy Municipal Attorney, and sent on to them yesterday, & now I’ve uploaded it to my website.

• 3/22/2010. AR 2010-33: “Memorandum to Assembly Chair Patrick Flynn and Assembly Members re: Appropriation for George M. Sullivan Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust” by Rhonda Fehlen Westover, Deputy Municipal Attorney. Municipality of Anchorage, Office of the Municipal Attorney.

I’m on my laptop right now, which doesn’t have the full Adobe Acrobat software on it, so I haven’t been able to make bookmarks in the document for easy navigation.  I’ll do that later from home.  The document includes Westover’s background on the case and how the resolution calling for the $193,000 payout was prepared for the February 2, 2010 introduction in the Assembly; analysis providing the legal reasoning for why the MOA Department of Law believed the Muni to be obligated to pay out; & lots of attachments.  Some of the attachments are ones we’ve already seen, but there are a few additional ones.  For example, we now have the paperwork showing that the original trustee of the George M. Sullivan Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust was former Municipal Attorney Theodore Berns.

I’m still reading it, & I don’t have time to write any real analysis of it.  The legal reasoning makes some sense to me (myself being a non-attorney); though I wonder if it’s a full analysis in light of Alaska Statute of Frauds, AS 09.25.010.  Any attorneys out there who can read the memorandum & the Alaska Statute of Frauds & tell us what you think?

But the opinion of the MOA lawyers is very clearly that the MOA was obligated to pay, given that they could find no indication that MOA had ever informed the Sullivan Trust or its agents that George Sullivan was not in fact covered by the Muni’s group plan with Aetna.  While I remain suspicious of a backroom deal, so far there is no proof of one.  But there are still outstanding questions that to my mind demand investigation, such as why Aetna was apparently never told that Sullivan was a nonemployee until the fact came to light at latest in 2002; why Aetna in 2002 reported never receiving information about Sullivan such that he was not included in the risk for calculating premiums; or why his so-called “premiums” were reduced in 1992 and 1995.  As Harriet Drummond said at the February 16, 2019 Assembly meeting,

I was so concerned about this item that I called my insurance agent today and talked to her quite a bit about it.  I sent her the documents.  She was number one, shocked that in paragraph 3, on the second page where it said the premium varied from $1,042,00 in 82 to $555.00 since 1995, she says how did that happen?  Insurance costs never go down, they always go up.  And, her question to me, was how did the Municipality continue to accept premium payments from whom if there was no policy in existence, it was illegal for the Municipality to accept premium payments because the Municipality is not an insurance company, and is thus acting inappropriately. [Ref #1, page 7]

Even if Mayor Dan Sullivan committed no wrong, it’s worth an investigation to find out why and how the Municipality failed in its reponsibilities.  Many of the questions lead to Susan Lindemuth, who was Manager of Records and Benefits for the Muni from 1970-2002.

Meantime, the Anchorage Daily News has just reported that the Ethics Board has ruled against Mayor Sullivan, stating that

the mayor should have disclosed a potential conflict when he first presented his father’s death certificate to the city benefits department to start processing of the life insurance claim in late 2009.

The mayor should have told the Ethics Board about the potential conflict then because city employees who work under his direction would have to act on the matter, the board said. [Ref #2]

Should be an interesting Assembly meeting tonight.

Update: Livetweeting Assembly Meeting

Assuming the wifi connection at the Assembly Chambers will be decent enough, I’ll be livetweeting the meeting.  See my Twitter feed @yksin.

References

1. 3/22/2010. AR 2010-33: “Memorandum to Assembly Chair Patrick Flynn and Assembly Members re: Appropriation for George M. Sullivan Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust” by Rhonda Fehlen Westover, Deputy Municipal Attorney. Municipality of Anchorage, Office of the Municipal Attorney.
2. 3/23/2010. “Board rules against Sullivan in trust deal” by Rosemary Shinohara (Anchorage Daily News). Story as of 3:23 PM.

Related posts:

1. Taking a Sullygate break
2. Sullygate: My letter to the Anchorage Assembly in support of Assembly Resolution AR 2010-92
3. Sullygate: Why we need an independent investigation

I’ve written previously about the relationship between Susan Lindemuth and Larry Crawford. [Ref #1] Now a contact has brought my attention to the following record found through a database maintained by the Municipality of Anchorage Property Appraisal Division, which shows that Lindemuth and Crawford are 50/50 co-owners of the property which we already knew they both lived at (per searches on both their names at whitepages.com).  The record shows they purchased the property in January 2006.

You can find the record yourself by searching on the term Crawford Larry at the MOA Property Appraisal database.

Again, Susan Lindemuth was Manager of Records & Benefits for the Municipality of Anchorage from April 1970 to October 2000 — spanning the administrations of George Sullivan, Tony Knowles, Tom Fink, Rick Mystrom, & a few months into the George Wuerch administration.  (She has served since then as Director of Human Resources with the Alaska Railroad Corporation.) [Ref #1] Due to her longtime position with the Muni, she shows up several times in the record that has so far been made public about the George Sullivan “life insurance” policy.  She’s a central figure: her name appears numerous times in the timeline I posted early Saturday morning. [Ref #2] A commenter on my timeline post, Valley Independent, provided a great summary of Lindemuth’s responsibilities in the George Sullivan “life insurance” matter:

At best, Ms. Lindemuth failed to obtain and file documented proof that the insurance company would continue to cover George Sullivan after he could no longer be considered an employee; at worst, she was not truthful with the Salary and Emoluments Commission back in 1982. Either way, the Salary and Emoluments Commission failed to insist on seeing something in writing from Aetna confirming this. The lesson to be learned from this is that board and commission members need to be wary of taking the word of staff members as gospel.

In January, 1984, when the trust arrived on scene, Ms. Lindemuth should have reviewed the contract in effect with Aetna to make sure Mr. Sullivan was covered. Presumably, she would have discovered that only active employees were covered, and then elicited something in writing from Aetna at that time stating that he was, indeed, covered, or not. Assuming Aetna declared him ineligible for coverage, it would have been appropriate then to explain to the Sullivans that he could not be covered under the muni plan, and since nothing else had been contemplated by the Commission or Assembly, his premiums were being returned.

This has me wondering how many times the Aetna contract has been renewed by the muni, and whether Ms. Lindemuth was involved in the contract review process? If so, with her special knowledge, she should have been looking specifically for that item, and raising the issue when she saw only active employees were covered, with no provision for former mayor Sullivan.

My guess is that the “premium” adjustments were based on some spreadsheet of standard rates put together by Aetna…. Given that this was an unusual item, and that dealing with a former mayor could be a politically charged event, Ms. Kendrick’s letter should have been reviewed by Ms. Lindemuth, who, knowing the back story, should have questioned it. Likewise that of Ms. Barbeau, in 1995. [Ref #2, reader comment by Valley Independent]

Furthermore, as best I understand, Lynda Gable of Aetna established in an email to Karen Moore on January 30, 2002 that Sullivan’s “premiums” were never sent to Aetna; from Aetna’s POV, he was never included in the risk for premium calculations — despite Susan Lindemuth’s earlier email that day to Karen Moore that he was in the risk and that his coverage amount had been in the volume reported to Aetna. [Ref #2; see quotations from emails for January 30, 2002]

Larry Crawford is Mayor Dan Sullivan’s chief of staff.  He was also city manager under three previous mayors — George Sullivan, Tom Fink, & Rick Mystrom.  It was during the Fink administration in 1992 and the Mystrom administration in 1995 that reductions in George Sullivan’s “premium” were made — both during times that Crawford was city manager.  We now know, based on a letter written by (current) Assemblymember Dan Coffey to a constituent and quoted in full in a comment at The Mudflats yesterday, that there was a review of the Sullivan “insurance” issue during the Mystrom administration.  As city manager, Larry Crawford was almost certainly in on discussions at that time (as Wuerch’s city manager Harry Kieling was in 2002 and Begich’s city manager Dennis LeBlanc was in 2007).

(I’ve reproduced the comment with Coffey’s letter in full below.)

The apparently close relationship between a known key player in the Sullivan “insurance” matter, and another who was a member of several administrations — including the current one —  does not prove that either committed any wrongdoing with regard to the “insurance.” As I’ve written previously of them, “correlation does not mean that there’s necessarily a cause & effect relationship.” [Ref #1]

But with the possibility of conflicts of interest, it does make it all the more imperative to have an investigation of the “insurance” matter that is independent of any Anchorage mayor’s administration, past and present.

Comment at The Mudflats including Assemblymember Dan Coffey’s letter

Here’s the comment by Mudflats reader sueinak which includes the full text of Dan Coffey’s letter to her:

sueinak Says:
March 21st, 2010 at 4:27 PM

Here is a response I received from Dan Coffey after contacting all assembly members to asking them to delve further into the Sullied waters of the so-called insurance policy. Coffey seems to be interjecting some opinion on an unrelated issuse of union business & Begich along with a long trail of blame to the question asked:

Dear Ms *******:

Thanks for your inquiry. I am happy to respond.

Here is what I know. Much of what I know resulted from my inquiries prior to voting for the appropriation. Some facts, I have learned subsequently.

Deputy City Attorney Rhonda Fehlen is preparing a report which will be ready shortly. Ms. Fehlen is a career public attorney, not a political appointee. Rather than releasing the information that I have learned based upon my inquiries both before and after my vote, I will await her report. This report will outline in detail information from 1982 when the Assembly and Salaries and Emoluments commission dreamed up this idea. the Knowles administration supported this idea. The report will also detail information about ongoing reviews of this isue by other administrations throughout the years. I knew before my vote on the appropriation that the Mystrom and Wuerch administrations both reviewed this issue.

There is one piece of information which I learned after my vote on the appropriation. This issue (the 1982 action by the assembly and the salaries and emoluments commission) was review by the Begich administration in 2007. Their conclusion was that the MOA was liable.

I also learned that Mayor Sullivan does not receive any of the money under the trust.

Finally and only for what it is worth, this whole idea was a bad idea from the beginning. However, in my judgment, what was done in 1982, affirmed by the Knowles administration, re-affirmed by at least 3 subsequent administrations, premium payments by the Sullivan family over 3 decades, and the legal opinion of the department of law, all led me to approve the appropriation.

I would like to undo the Begich union contracts which result in an average union police man costing us $158,000.00 and an average union fireman costing us $137,000.00 coupled with the “closed shop” IBEW” contract which requires that all work (not just electrical work) done that relates to ML&P and departments of the MOA where IBEW is the bargaining units represents the workers, MUST be done by union contractors. Add up these costs and were talking 10s of millions over 5 years. The Sullivan issue pales in comparison.

Regards,
Dan K. Coffey
Anchorage Assembly
3606 Rhone Circle
Suite 100
Anchorage, Alaska 99508
Phone: 274-3385
Fax: 274-4258
e mail:
web site: http://www.itscoffeytime.com [Ref #3; emphasis added]

References

1. 3/16/2020. “Sullygate & Chronos, god of time” by Melissa S. Green (Henkimaa).
2. 3/20/2010. “A Sullygate timeline: 1982-2010″ by Melissa S. Green (Henkimaa).
3. 3/21/2010. “Sullygate and the Time Machine o’ Scandal – Get Ready to Ride!” by Jeanne Devon (The Mudflats); see comment #11 from sueinak.

Related posts:

1. Talking about Sullygate on the Shannyn Moore radio show
2. Sullygate: My letter to the Anchorage Assembly in support of Assembly Resolution AR 2010-92
3. Sullygate update 2: “Five administrations have been aware of this”

• Completely mindfried after finally completing my mondo Sullygate timeline. Check it out – http://bit.ly/cq8Qzs #fb #
• Complete #Sullygate timeline — 193,000 “life insurance” payout to Sullivan trust http://bit.ly/cq8Qzs #fb #
• Harriet Drummond comments @ that Matt Claman is also introducing a resolution re: #Sullygate ethics http://bit.ly/cq8Qzs #
• RT: @nethenekhthon: Spent the last six hours writin downtown with @yksin. Fabulousness. // The fabulousness was mutual! Enjoy your reading! #
• Homeward bound for the evening. Good thing I have leftover pizza from last night, don’t feel like cooking. #

Related posts:

1. Pawsore
2. Taking a Sullygate break
3. Sullygate: Two resolutions to be introduced at Anchorage Assembly on March 23