The return of Walt Monegan!

Courtesy of Alaska Dispatch News:  

Gov. Bill Walker announced Monday that he had accepted the resignation of Alaska’s corrections commissioner after the release of a scathing report detailing widespread failures and dysfunction that may have led to deaths in Alaska jails. 

Walker said he received the resignation of Ron Taylor on Sunday. At an 11 a.m. Monday news conference following the report’s release, Walker said Walt Monegan, the former Anchorage police chief and state commissioner of public safety, would temporarily take over Alaska’s prison system during a search for a replacement. 

Walker had ordered the outside review in August after a string of highly publicized prisoner deaths that stirred public outcry and drew some lawmakers’ attention. 

“It’s clear as a result of this that the system is broken,” Walker said at the news conference. “And we’re going to fix it.”

Well if Governor Walker wants the prison system in Alaska fixed, he could probably not do much better than putting Walt Monegan on the job. 

For those of you who have been reading here since 2008, I do not need to explain who Walt is, and why this is a big deal.

For those of you who have not heard of Walt Monegan, here is his Wikipedia page, and at the bottom of the Dispatch link there is an explanation as well.

However for those looking for a brief synopsis, it goes like this:

Then Governor Sarah Palin hated Trooper, and former brother-in-law, Mike Wooten.

She and her husband tried to convince then Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan to fire him.

Walt could find no reason to do so, and explained that their personal vendetta against the guy was not just cause.

In retaliation, Palin fired Monegan.

There was an investigation into the firing, which after much public pressure was finally released as the Branchflower Report.

That report exonerated Monegan of any wrong doing, and instead revealed the pettiness, and retaliatory nature of Palin and her husband.

And yes all of this happened WHILE Palin was running as John McCain's VP.

On a personal note I once interviewed Walt when he was running for mayor of Anchorage, which you can read here, and when I was being threatened and harassed after my now notorious Splitsville post I reached out to him and he gave me some good advice.

In short Walt is an incredibly honest and ethical man, who I have no doubt will serve our Governor well, just like he once tried to do for a certain half term loser too ignorant to take his advice.