Last month, Gov. Sean Parnell released a brutal federal report on misconduct in the Alaska National Guard. Sexual assault reports were mishandled, and alleged perpetrators were promoted. Military aircraft were used for personal reasons. Two state officials have already resigned as a result of the abuses.
Now, the governor is playing defense, too. With only a few weeks left before Election Day, Parnell is rejecting claims that he did not respond to the problems quickly enough.
At 9:15am, Gov. Sean Parnell announced he was holding a press conference to take questions about the Alaska National Guard alongside Brigadier General Jon Mott, who had come in from Connecticut to help with the reform effort.
Less than two hours later, Parnell stood at the podium alone, and with First Lady Sandy Parnell in the audience instead. He explained the catalyst for the appearance was a headline in Thursday’s Alaska Dispatch News.
“‘Parnell Took Years To Act On National Guard Misconduct.’ I believe that statement was false and misleading,” Parnell said.
Parnell directed his remarks to Guard members, even though none were in the room and the brigadier general wasn’t there because of federal rules preventing him from holding press conferences. Parnell asked guardsmen to question news coverage that is critical of his response to their concerns, and reiterated that he checked in with recently ousted Adjutant General Thomas Katkus after each complaint his office received.
“Every time we got an allegation of misconduct, we investigated that with Guard leadership,” Parnell said.
For the next 30 minutes, Parnell mostly played defense. He offered that there will be further leadership changes within the National Guard, but he would only say he knew of three instances of this and wouldn’t name names.
Parnell also told reporters that he did not anticipate any changes to his own staff.
“To my knowledge, everybody in my office acted in good faith,” Parnell said. “They acted reasonably. They did it timely. I do have complete faith and confidence in my staff.”
Parnell called for an investigation into the force this spring, but National Guard chaplains first approached his office with concerns in 2010. He says the reason for the lag time was that he trusted Katkus that the appropriate processes were being followed.
“I think I was misled on a number of occasions about how well the system was working,” Parnell said.
When asked by reporters why he trusted the very leadership that was the subject of complaints, Parnell said there are some things he wishes he could have done differently. But he takes umbrage at news coverage that suggests he did not do enough.
“I took full responsibility for not discovering what I discovered in February and it taking that length of time to get there,” Parnell said. “But I will not take responsibility for a headline that says Parnell failed to act.”
A half hour after Parnell cut the press conference short to catch a flight, a group of a dozen protestors gathered outside his Anchorage office.
“Hey Ho! Sean Parnell has got to go!”
They were with Alaska Women for Political Action, and they waved signs that said “Stop the Violence” and “Hold Parnell Accountable.”
Barbara McDaniel is with the Alaska Chapter of the National Organization of Women, and she doesn’t think Parnell’s response went far enough. She believes Parnell has not released enough information on how his office handled National Guard complaints. She says the administration’s stance seems to be “trust me”
“When someone says that to you, you need to watch out,” McDaniel said.
McDaniel says she’s disappointed that the governor has turned down multiple records requests into how the Office of the Governor responded to complaints made about the Guard, including a request that was made by APRN.
She’d like to see some of those documents come out before the November election, but she doesn’t believe that will happen.
“Well, if I was running for office, I would definitely want to slow it down and have everything come out after I possibly won,” McDaniel said.
Parnell and his staff have listed privacy of victims as a reason for rejecting requests into office e-mail wholesale and not releasing even redacted information.
