Rosemarie Alexander, KTOO – Juneau
Juneau District Attorney Doug Gardner is the new director of Legal Services for the State Legislature. He was hired Tuesday by the Legislative Council to replace Tamara Cook, who is retiring after nearly 30 years as the top legislative lawyer. The Legislative Council met in executive session in Anchorage to consider the selection. Legislative Affairs Director Pam Varni says the job is more than head of legislative legal. Varni says the job pays about $131,000 a year.
Gardner is heading into his 10th year as head of the DA’s office for Juneau and Sitka, where he’s the top prosecutor and also manages about ten people. Before making the transition from civil to criminal law in 2002, Gardner was a supervising attorney in the AG’s office, where he also worked on transportation and oil and gas issues. He says he “loves” the legislative process and will start his new job on January 3rd.
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