Feb 6: Mat Maid. The incompetence and lies of Commissioner Tom Irwin

On Monday, Commissioner Tom Irwin appeared on a local talk radio show to discuss AGIA and answer questions.

Towards the end of the show, a caller asked about the current situation at Matanuska Maid, the state run dairy that has been fallen deeper into financial trouble since Governor Palin made the decision to ignore advice to shut it down.

"The Creamery Board had an audit done on Mat Maid, clearly shows why the change was necessary to go to a new Creamery Board. Their audit showed what was being done in the past and that it was not being run efficiently," Irwin answered.

Irwin being untruthful 

There was no audit done on Mat Maid and Tom Irwin knows it because he was the one who authorized the firm to do the report.

In their cover letter dated December 14, Mikunda, Cottrell and Company stated very clearly: "We were not engaged to and did not conduct an audit".

An audit means they would have investigated any questionable expenses by conducting interviews with past management to fully understand the nature of the charges.

They didn't.

But yet Irwin repeatedly refers to this as an audit to try and cover up his incompetence as DNR Commissioner.

The analysis covered a thirty month period from January 2005 to July 2007.

During that time period, Irwin was the Commissioner of DNR and thus responsible for Mat Maid for 18 of those months.

This means Irwin is as much to blame for the dairy's management problems as anyone. After all, he was in charge for most of the time and had ample opportunity to respond before the situation got worse, but didn't.

The Dairy Ad-Hoc group started warning Irwin and Company as early as December 2006 about the impending economic collapse at Mat Maid due to a business model that could no longer compete in the free market.     

Former Creamery Board members have reported that Irwin ignored their pleas to stop the bleeding of cash from the dairy. In fact he didn't even bother to get involved until after the previous Creamery Board finally had no other option than to vote to shut the dairy down.

Now Irwin wants us to believe that it was all the fault of the previous board and management, when in fact his own people say that's not true.

Ralph Carney, who was brought with a new Creamery Board comprised of Governor Palin's friends and neighbors to straighten the dairy out, told KTUU news, " "The reason Matanuska Maid was financially not a viable organization and didn't have much of a future was because the cost of the milk went up. That turned their margins upside down".

After taking over in June of 2007, the dairy under the management of Irwin's new Creamery Board proceeded to lose more money in one month than Mat Maid had lost in 23 years. Today Mat Maid is faced with employee lawsuits, vendors who have yet to be paid and costs that are still accumulating even though the dairy was shuttered in December.

In fact, Irwin ignored all of the economic evidence provided last  June that the dairy was headed for trouble. In the end, all of the predictions that Irwin ignored, came true.

Now Commissioner Tom Irwin wants us to believe him when he tells us that AGIA is working....just like when he told us the dairy was working under the new management.

Incompetence and bending the truth seems to be Irwin's strong suit.