Alaska Politics Blog : Troopergate looks to have dominated state costs for ethics complaints

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Erika Bolstad

Erika Bolstad covers Alaska issues, including the congressional delegation, from Washington, D.C., for McClatchy Newspapers. Before joining the bureau in 2007, she spent seven years as a reporter at the Miami Herald, where she covered politics, government and the state legislature. E-mail Erika at ebolstad@adn.com.

Sean Cockerham

Sean Cockerham writes about Alaska state politics. He's worked for the ADN in Anchorage and Juneau, covered the legislature for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, and covered Washington state politics for the Tacoma News Tribune. E-mail Sean at scockerham@adn.com

Kyle Hopkins

Kyle Hopkins covers rural affairs, general assignments and politics for the ADN. He covered the 2006 campaign for governor, has blogged extensively about Alaska politics, covered Anchorage city government and was a reporter based in the Mat-Su. He grew up in Southeast Alaska and previously wrote for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and Anchorage Press. E-mail Kyle at khopkins@adn.com and also find him on our rural Alaska blog, The Village.

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Troopergate looks to have dominated state costs for ethics complaints

Posted by Alaska_Politics

Posted: July 1, 2009 - 8:43 am

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From Sean Cockerham in Anchorage --

The state personnel board has now posted its expenses for dealing with ethics complaints against Gov. Sarah Palin and her staff, saying the costs has been nearly $300,000 over the past year.

Most of the expenses --$187,797 -- appear to have come as a result of the "Troopergate" investigation of Palin that the governor herself initiated. Palin did so because, she contended, the Legislature's investigation on the matter was politicized and she was seeking the appropriate venue to deal with the allegations.

That figure could also include the related claim by the Public Safety Employees Association that Palin or her staff improperly disclosed information from personnel records of state trooper Mike Wooten. The personnel board investigator dismissed the PSEA complaint.

Click here to read the expense list.

I was off yesterday when the numbers were released, so I've just started going through them. But the other biggest case expense -- $43,028 -- was also from last year.

The personnel board expense list doesn't specify the nature of each case listed so it takes some deduction to figure out which costs are associated with which complaint. The list calls them "independent counsel expenditures" and only provides case numbers followed by total expense incurred per case.

The board won't say which case numbers correspond with which complaint, or provide a detailed breakdown of the expenses.

The chronology of the list suggests that the $43,028 could be the complaint where Andree McLeod contended Palin and some staff members used their influence to get a Palin supporter a job in state government.

The complaint against Palin was dismissed but the board investigator did recommended ethics training for one of the governor's closest aides.

That was the first known personnel board complaint made against Palin last year (on Aug. 6) and it is case number 2008-001 on the personnel board expense list just released. It's the first case number on the list, right before what appears to be the Troopergate investigation it immediately preceded.

The third biggest case expense listed -- $29,962 -- is also from last year. Based on the chronology, it's possible that is the complaint made against Palin for having the state pay for her children's travel. Palin ended up settling that complaint by agreeing to reimburse the state about $8,000 for several trips.

The personnel board decided to publicize the costs after complaining about the expense of ethics complaints filed against Palin or her staff (the best estimate now seems to be 18 of them.)

Click here for a chronological list of known ethics complaints.