State revenue department conceals unauthorized leave by the boss on a public record

Some of this post by Jeff Landfield about Revenue Commissioner Adam Crum is pure guesswork and speculation, but the misuse of the public records law to conceal unauthorized leave without pay seems solid to me.

In short, Crum took a trip to Hawaii and filed a leave slip after the fact. When Landfield submitted a public records request, the department redacted the essential part of the document.

The big black box is there as a claim that the information it conceals is a private matter between Crum and his employer, Gov. Mike Dunleavy.

It was a leave slip/report for the week of April 2, approved by Crum’s supervisor Rachel Bylsma, Dunleavy’s deputy chief of staff, but with a hidden catch.

According to the redacted document, everything about Crum’s leave was fine.

Crum’s department was claiming that the type of leave he was on was a state secret—whether it was annual leave, sick leave, family leave, workers comp, military leave, authorized leave without pay or unauthorized leave without pay.

The type of leave Crum was on was not a state secret. But the department and Crum were trying to hide embarrassing information. That is a misuse of the public records law.

The state revenue department released this redacted leave request about Revenue Commisioner Adam Crum in response to a records request from the Alaska Landmine, concealing the portion of the form that specifies exactly what kind of leave he took and whether it was authorized.

Landfield wrote that a person with experience in these matters suggested that he make a records request to the governor’s office since the deputy chief of staff signed the leave request/report and would also have a copy.

The governor’s office did not get the word from Crum that the type of leave he was on was secret.

The governor’s office released an unredacted version of the document. This was the right thing to do as the leave request/report and all information on it is a public record.

One look at this document and it is obvious why Crum’s revenue department wanted to hide the details.

The unredacted version of Adam Crum’s leave request/report shows that he submitted it as 37 hours of annual leave. However, Dunleavy’s deputy chief of staff crossed that off and checked it as unauthorized leave without pay, putting her initials next to that block.

Crum’s April 10 request that he get annual leave from April 2-8 was denied by Dunleavy’s deputy chief of staff.

She crossed off that box and claimed it was unauthorized leave without pay.

Alaskans deserve to know whether it was Crum himself who signed off on the redaction.

The response to Landfield’s public records request came from Aimee Bushnell, but it is not clear who decided to conceal the truth.

It is clear that if Landfield or anyone else challenged the redaction, there is no chance that the appeal to Crum would succeed.

Crum and Dunleavy need to come clean about why he took unauthorized leave, why he tried to hide this from the public and why he still has a top state job.

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