AK - Documents show deep role of governor's staff in response to National Guard complaints

[Blue_In_AK]

This should be the nail in Parnell's political coffin. He won't have to worry, though, as I'm sure he has a nice, cushy job waiting for him at ConocoPhillips.


http://www.adn.com/article/20141031/documents-show-deep-role-governors-staff-guard-complaints

An initial review of Alaska National Guard-related documents released by the state Friday in response to a media lawsuit shows the Parnell administration received more complaints about the guard than have so far been reported.

But so many words and paragraphs among the 596 pages of emails and attached documents were redacted by state lawyers and the administration that the significance of some of the correspondence was difficult to discern.

As abbreviated and scattered over time as the first batch of released emails are, they still shed light on how Gov. Sean Parnell’s office responded to crises and concerns in the guard and show the deep involvement of two of Parnell’s top aides: chief of staff Mike Nizich and his deputy, Cindy Sims.

Sims specialized in sexual assault matters and doubled as the governor’s director of international trade. Nearly all the email conversations about problems in the National Guard went through Nizich or Sims, or both.

The attorney general’s office made the document dump Friday afternoon in response to a court order in a public records lawsuit brought by Alaska Dispatch News and Alaska Public Media. The news organizations sued the state after records requests going back to May were denied or ignored by the governor’s office.

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