Governor-elect Mike Dunleavy has asked potentially more than a thousand state employees to resign and re-apply for their jobs.

An email release from his transition team says while most incoming governors request the resignation of employees who serve at the pleasure of the governor, Dunleavy’s request extends to all at-will employees, though because he's not yet governor, he has no official power yet to enforce the request.

The memo, provided to Channel 2 by an employee who received it, asked for resignation letters on or before Friday, Nov. 30. Dunleavy will be sworn in and take office the following Monday. It asked for the resignations' effective date to be listed as "upon acceptance by the Dunleavy administration," and said that the resignations will not be automatically accepted.

Sarah Erkmann Ward, a spokesperson for Dunleavy’s transition team, says the request covers all employees who serve as exempt or partially exempt employees, regardless of their level. The Alaska Department of Administration says approximately 1,500 state employees fit that category. Minta Montalbo, the Department’s spokesperson, said she didn’t have an exact number available because Dunleavy’s request came in after close of business.

A state database of employees acquired by Channel 2 earlier this year showed more than 15,000 State of Alaska employees.

Both Mintalbo and Erkmann Ward said that some partially-exempt employees, like public defenders and others, are protected by statute, but neither could give a definitive number of the employees whose resignations were requested.

Dunleavy’s transition team noted that his request is broader than is customary.

In 2014, then-Governor-elect Bill Walker asked the same of leaders in the Parnell administration. His transition leader at the time, Bruce Botelho, said then that those employees could request to work with the incoming governor if they chose to.

Today, Botelho, who served as the state's attorney general under Governors Hickel and Knowles, said that while Dunleavy has no power to direct state employees to do anything until he takes office on the first Monday of December. “That does not prevent the transition team from making that request with the governor,” Botelho said, “and the governor can do that, and state employees would be expected to comply.”

The state employee who shared the memo with Channel 2 said it came from Dunleavy's Chief of Staff, Tuckerman Babcock.

Babcock confirmed that the memo had been sent out with his signature and said that Gov. Walker's administration had sent it out.

Dunleavy directs employees who want to reapply for their jobs to do so through his transition team's website, governormikedunleavy.com.