Alaska Urged to Consider Impeaching Governor : Grand Jury Report Charges Abuse in Handling of Bid for State Office Space

A grand jury recommended Tuesday that the Alaska Legislature consider impeaching Gov. Bill Sheffield, saying that his administration has not served the public interest in the way it handled bids for a state office building contract.

“The evidence heard by the grand jury . . . discloses serious abuse of office by Gov. Bill Sheffield and his chief of staff,” said the grand jury’s 69-page report, which was released to reporters immediately after it was cleared by Superior Court Judge Roger Pegues.

“Under the Alaska Constitution, the governor, as head of the executive branch, wields enormous power and influence,” the report said. “Thus, he has a special obligation to use that power for the public good and not to advance private interests.”

The grand jury was investigating whether Sheffield and John Shively, his chief of staff, manipulated lease requirements so that one company could win a state contract to provide 32,000 square feet of office space in Fairbanks. That company, McBirney & Associates, won the non-competitive, 10-year lease in February.

“The grand jury believes, based on the evidence presented during this investigation, that the Sheffield administration has not best served the interests of the public and is unfit to fulfill the inherent duties of public office,” the report said.

“Therefore, the grand jury recommends that the Legislature be called into special session so that the Alaska Senate may consider the evidence presented to and the findings of the grand jury for the express purpose of initiating impeachment proceedings.”

“The whole thing is kind of unbelievable,” Sheffield, a 57-year-old Democrat, told the Anchorage Times by telephone Tuesday afternoon from Seward.

Sheffield, a millionaire hotel chain owner who was elected to office in 1982, said that he had not read the grand jury’s report and did not “have much in the way of comment except to say that I disagree with it.”

Legislative leaders said that they would meet today in Juneau to discuss the report and the possibility of calling the Legislature into special session.