From Sean Cockerham in Anchorage –

The Alaska Department of Law’s original advice to Gov. Sean Parnell that it was legal for him to give a state job to former Rep. Nancy Dahlstrom was apparently verbal, with nothing in writing.

That’s the result of a public records request filed by Andree McLeod, who asked for a copy of the Department of Law advice Parnell wrote about on his Facebook page on June 14. He wrote “before I took action and to do everything correctly, my staff sought the Department of Law’s advice on how to hire properly, my office relied on that advice and we followed that advice.”

McLeod asked for a copy of the advice. She heard back today from Assistant Attorney General Alan Birnbaum. Birnbaum wrote “we understand that the referenced advice was provided orally…accordingly, because no records are known to exist, this response represents a denial of your request.”

Dahlstrom resigned the job earlier this month after the Department of Law did what it said was a more thorough review.

It found an “appreciable risk” that a court would find the hire illegal because of the Alaska Constitution’s prohibition on legislators accepting jobs created while they were in office. Gene Therriault, who similarly left the Legislature for a new job in the Parnell administration technically created after he resigned from office, remains in his position as an energy advisor.