Angela Rodell, the former CEO of the Alaska Permanent Fund Corp. whose abrupt firing in 2021 resulted in a lengthy investigation into accusations it was politically motivated, said Sunday she is running to be Juneau’s mayor against two-term incumbent Beth Weldon.
Rodell, who said she plans to register as a candidate Monday, is the only person as of early Monday morning challenging Weldon. The candidate filing deadline for three Juneau Assembly seats (including the mayor’s) and three Juneau Board of Education seats open in the Oct. 1 municipal election is 4:30 p.m. Monday.
[Related: Mayor Beth Weldon seeking third term amidst personal and political challenges]
In an interview, Rodell said she is making her first-ever run for public office because she believes her experience matches up well with issues Juneau is facing. In addition to serving as the APFC executive director staff member between 2015 and 2021, she is a former Alaska Department of Revenue commissioner, served six years on the Juneau Airport Board, and most recently was a staff member for state Senate Majority Leader Cathy Giessel (R-Anchorage).
“I’m a firm believer in partnership with our private businesses in town,” Rodell said. “I think we need to work with them to come up with solutions. And I just don’t hear that pro-business, pro-private enterprise, pro-jobs voice anywhere in either from the mayor’s office or from the Assembly.”
“We’ve gotten accustomed to government providing some sort of continuous safety net, I feel like, and instead it’s turned into our parents’ basement where it feels warm and safe and easy and good. And instead we really need to be looking at how we can help create jobs, how we can talk about housing — and talk about housing throughout the price point to create affordability…We have to talk about how to support families. What will it take to keep families in Juneau (and) keep the kids in the school district? I don’t hear those conversations.”
Aside from Rodell’s political positions, the most publicly visible evidence for residents evaluating her executive abilities is her time as the head of the APFC, which manages the state savings account now valued at more than $80 billion.
Rodell, at the time of her firing by the APFC’s Board of Trustees, said it was political retribution for opposing what she called a plan by Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy to overdraw the fund to, among other things, allow for a larger Permanent Fund dividend. All five of the trustees voting to fire Rodell were appointed by Dunleavy.
However, an eight-month investigation declared the trustees fired Rodell because “a series of circumstances — many of which were perceived differently by different Trustees — resulted in a majority of Trustees losing confidence in the Executive Director’s leadership,” according to an investigative report by a law firm hired by state lawmakers to conduct the probe. The report concluded her firing was not influenced by the governor, but trustees didn’t follow the evaluation policy and process called for under its charter — although their action was legal.
Rodell, on Sunday, said she’s accepting of having her past work under scrutiny.
“Unlike any other candidate running for office you’re going to be able to read and reread my entire personnel file,” she said. “And no one ever gets that opportunity with someone running for office.”
Referring to the differences with the trustees that led to her dismissal, Rodell said “my leadership style is designed to bring people together. But sometimes people don’t like a consensus solution.”
Rodell was asked by the Empire how she would seek consensus solutions as mayor with an Assembly that she feels doesn’t currently have the same pro-business priorities as hers.
“I think that speaks to the need for compromise,” she said. “We’ve gotten — I feel like politically, just in general — our conversations tend to turn towards unification, that we all have to have the same voice, we all have to say the same things. And I think when you have the diversity of voices around the table and you come from these different perspectives with goals there’s ways to meet each other where we need to come to. So just as important as the pro-business voices there are other voices that need to be heard and considered around the table as well. And all I’m asking is that you hear me out and that you understand my position.”
Rodell is the second local candidate in three days to declare who was a prominent state official whose job ended with a controversial termination. Neil Steininger, former budget director for Dunleavy until being fired last year due to alleged differences in budget philosophy, filed as the lone candidate so far for the District 1 Assembly seat on Friday.
While both Rodell and Steininger are downtown residents who worked for high-ranking state Republican leaders — and are expressing some overlapping reasons for running — she said she didn’t talk to Steininger beforehand about their respective plans and there’s no effort to run a like-minded slate of candidates for the Assembly. However, she said, “I’m excited that he’s running for the downtown seat given his background as the OMB director and some of the things he’s done.”
As of 8 a.m. Monday four candidates were registered for the District 2 Assembly seat representing the Mendenhall Valley and out the road. They are Emily Mesch, Nathaniel “Nano” Brooks, Dorene Lorenz and Maureen Hall.
The only school board candidate to file so far is incumbent Elizabeth Siddon. Seats held by Will Muldoon and Amber Frommherz, who have not yet publicly stated their intentions, are also on the ballot.
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at mark.sabbatini@juneauempire.com or (907) 957-2306.
