Ethics complaint against Palin aide dismissed (Updated)

Posted by Alaska_Politics

Posted: June 23, 2009 - 2:13 pm

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From Sean Cockerham in Anchorage --

The state has dismissed an ethics complaint filed by Andree McLeod against Kris Perry, a close adviser to Gov. Sarah Palin and the director of the governor's Anchorage office.

McLeod charged that Perry did political work on the state's time. Her complaint focused on Perry's travels with the governor on the vice-presidential campaign trail and afterwards.

The complaint was dismissed by the attorney general's office. (McLeod said it went to the AG's office rather than the personnel board because it was a complaint against a state employee rather than the governor or lieutenant governor.)

The dismissal said there was no evidence "suggesting that Perry misused her state time in any substantial way or did not intend to benefit the public interest when accompanying the governor on her trips."

It said the purpose of Perry going with the governor on the vice presidential campaign trail -- and later to Georgia when Palin campaigned there for Sen. Saxby Chambliss -- was to ensure Palin remained in contact with state business. That required Perry to be at political events, it said.

"We would not have been surprised to learn that, during the fall campaign period, or even the day in Georgia, Ms. Perry did something that may appear to be a campaign activity. But the appearance of impropriety does not establish an ethics violation. ... The record clearly shows that Ms. Perry gave far more of her personal time to the state of Alaska than she may have used state time, if any, for non-state related or unavoidable personal activities," said the dismissal.

It was signed by Julia Bockman, ethics attorney in the attorney general's office.

I'll post the full letter of dismissal as soon as I get it. (Update --click here to read the dismissal. )

The governor's office put out a response complaining McLeod filed the complaint even after Perry obtained an opinion from her state ethics supervisor, Linda Perez, saying it was OK for her to travel as Palin's state liaison.

“It is outrageous to file an ethics complaint against a state employee who sought and obtained ethics guidance in advance,” Mike Nizich, the governor’s chief of staff, said in a written statement. “This is not about ethics. This is not about holding the governor or state employees accountable. This is pure harassment.”

The governor's office said it was the 15th dismissed complaint against Palin or her staff.

Palin did agree to settle one complaint by reimbursing the state several thousand dollars for her children's state-funded travel. The deadline for that reimbursement is today (UPDATE -- Palin paid $8,143 for the reimbursement.)

McLeod called the dismissal of her complaint a "whitewash" done in-house by the governor's team and said she was told she couldn't appeal.

"Beyond a shadow of a doubt this dismissal demonstrates a breakdown in the complaint process. All the evidentiary documents I have point to Kris perry campaigning on the public's dime and time," McLeod said.

McLeod has had multiple ethics complaints against Palin dismissed, although, in response to one of her complaints, a personnel board investigator did recommend ethics training for a close aide of the governor.

The governor's office said that "in the past two years, the state of Alaska has spent millions of dollars processing ethics complaints, public records requests, and related lawsuits."

That's the first time I've heard the state use the word "millions" to describe the costs.

I'll ask the governor's office for a breakdown of how they figured it.

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