You are hereState spent nearly $300K fighting governor's ethics complaints; Most expensive investigation may have been driven by Palin herself
State spent nearly $300K fighting governor's ethics complaints; Most expensive investigation may have been driven by Palin herself
By Pat Forgey
Juneau Empire
Alaska has spent nearly $300,000 investigating ethics complaints against Gov. Sarah Palin, who calls the complaints "harassment" against her and expensive for the state to defend.
Palin has accused bloggers and political opponents of bringing "frivolous" ethics charges against her.
"How much will this blogger's asinine political grandstanding cost all of us in time and money?" Palin asked after the state Personnel Board dismissed another complaint last spring.
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cost pretty much what you want to make it look like. It is in the Administration's interest to make these things look expensive, so they try to gin up a billing number for everything. Assuming this is the case that has come to be called "Troopergate," the only extraordinary cost really is the cost of the investigator/report writer. All the DOP and Law employees were going to get paid whether they did anything or not, so maybe there was some cost for things that didn't get done, but the regular State employees who did the research, copied the documents, etc. go paid what they always get paid for those weeks. Maybe they didn't do something they might otherwise have done, but they didn't get any extra salary for doing this unless they were some low-level clerk who maybe got a little overtime. And the only additional costs were some copying and some airline fares. They just charge everything and everyone who did any work on it to the cases. Makes a good argument for a bigger budget next year.
Did any of you, oh, I don't know........actually read the article?
The minimalist list identifies cases only by the year and a three-digit case number. State Personnel Director Nicki Neal refused to identify them more specifically, so connections between known investigations and the costs released could not be verified
2008-002, 2008-003, 2008-004 - $187,797.62
Let me spell it out for you: The $188,000 is assigned to 3 cases, not just Troopergate. It is impossible to tell how much was due to Troopergate alone without more evidence.
"However, the timing, scope and other factors of the single largest expense appear to fit the case Palin filed against herself that cost $187,797 to investigate. That's almost two-thirds of the total $296,042 of all Personnel Board investigations in the last two years."
other factors of the single largest expense appear
Note the use of the word appear......
Try this:
Appear suggests the giving of an impression that may be superficial or illusory: The house appears to be deserted.
look: give a certain impression or have a certain outward aspect; "She seems to be sleeping";
It's not a certainty. However it's likely to be the case. The only way we will know with certainty is if Palin releases her testimony like she promised.
Palin's testimony has nothing to do with accounting issues.
The Personnel Dept didn't say how much Troopergate cost, likely because they can't tell. They were investigating other bogus claims at the same time, including one prepared by union attorneys.
15-0. That's Palin's score in ethics complaints. If this was a fight, it would have been stopped long ago.
If Palin released her testimony it would identify what complaints were included. She could also direct the Personnel Board to release the information since she is the one that brought up the cost issue.
""How much will this blogger's asinine political grandstanding cost all of us in time and money?" Palin asked after the state Personnel Board dismissed another complaint last spring."
Remember open and transparent government? Remember "Hold me accountable"? What happened? Where is it?
Releasing her testimony would do nothing to address the issue of how much it cost.
What are you going to do, analyze her deposition and then charge by the word?
Did you pack your lunch or ride the bus? Answer the question, yes or no.
Palin's testimony would let the people know if those three cases that amount to over half of the amount it cost the state was from Palin filing an ethics complaint on herself as the Juneau Empire article suggests.
Palin should release her testimony to the public and direct the Personnel Board to identify which cases cost how much. Again, she chose to bring up the cost of the ethics complaints, so she should provide ALL the information for the people of Alaska can make an accurate assessment.
What does she have to hide? Why isn't she keeping her word to the people of Alaska to release her testimony? What happened to her promise of open, transparent and ethical government that she ran her campaign on?
I wonder how much the state spent in the court action against Exxon and their Point Thompson leases only to cave when they realized they were about to get their a** handed to them in court? I'd like to see an accounting of that.
That's funny, I thought I heard that Exxon 'caved' and started drilling again in Pt. Thompson after years of stalling. Guess not.
State reinstates Exxon's Point Thomson leases
ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- It's been a bitter fight for months, but late Tuesday afternoon, Exxon Mobil Corp. got the go-ahead from Department of Natural Resources Commissioner Tom Irwin to start drilling at Point Thomson.
for dealing with Jim. I don't have the patience. He's such a kool-aid drinkin' bot!
unsurprising: only one of the ethics complaints required investigators to fly back and forth across North America in order to conduct depositions, all on the State's dime
it'll also be interesting to see how much of the Governor's "half-million dollars" of personal legal defense was also the result of this single, self-inflicted complaint. i'd wager it's about the same percentage
Ironic (or is it iconic)
And its no suprise that GINO happens to be the number one assnine blogger who cost the most on the financial spread sheet when she filed charges against herself. Also interresting that the cost has dropped $300,000 although that appears to be the Palin administrations way of doing bidness.
Now hit rewind - Governor Palin's emails will be released today. Email Gate delays probably cost her a lot of legal fees also. The original cost of these emails was inflated about $60,000 and months of stall tactics and salad talk explanations turned that exercise into a big joke. Legal Gate is just a rewind of Email Gate. More stall tactics and overinflated costs with GINO panhandling for an amount in legal fees twice that! I am ashamed of this Governor and believe me, more people are spilling the beans than ever. Hang on Alaska, maybe we'll get that recall we all asked for Christmas this year.
Happy 4th of July, United We Stand Alaskan Bloggers
That's all I want! Alaska deserves so much better.