This is just off the top of my head so please bear with me through the bits I’ve probably got wrong but…
In trying to keep current with all the many ethics complaints lodged against Gov. Sarah Palin, the investigations either reported on or instigated by The Immoral Minority and Celtic Diva’s Blue Oasis (both ventures to which I have made modest donations ) and the online descriptions of the fund itself (both at the fund’s website and scanning the C4P blogs) I am hit this morning with the troubling thought that, perhaps, the fund itself is a sham.
The Alaska State Personnel Board purportedly responsible for deciding whether or not a complaint has merit enough to be investigated, has dismissed more than a dozen of the 18 known ethics complaints lodged. So, no investigation and therefore no need for defense, right?
My understanding of ‘how it works’ is that a complaint is filed. The board reviews the complaint and decides whether or not to proceed with an investigation or dismiss the charge. If it is to proceed, the next step is an investigation. After that, if the investigation proves fruitful, allegations become charges and the Governor needs then to answer said charges in a court of law. The Governor would at this point need to hire an attorney to defend her actions.
Help me out here Alaskans - why, if so many ethics violations complaints were dismissed at the first step in this process, was there ever a need for this collection of funds from the public? Surely the part about the Alaska State Personnel Board deciding if a complaint has merit or not is in it’s very basic job description and therefore already paid for?
Would not the governor’s need for defense only become necessary if a charge was finally made by the state? Why should Sarah Palin need a ‘defense fund’ for ethics violations complaints which were truncated at the earliest point of the procedure?
From my perspective this is either fraud in itself – or I’m missing a big piece of the puzzle. I’m not understanding why any governor would need to reimburse their personnel board for an initial inquiry already mantled by payroll.
Sarah Palin herself has many times told the press that it is the responsibility of the Alaska State Personnel Board to ‘look into and make determinations’ of these complaints. This was her justification for having the Troopergate decision overturned, was it not?
For the sake of arguement: If a policeman in Alaska, through the normal course of his duties is accused of misconduct does he have to personally pay for the investigation ‘before’ it’s an actual charge? I can’t imagine this being the case. It would seem to me that only at the point in an inquiry where it is determined a complaint might have merit and the officer is asked to stand down while a full investigation is underway, that there is an attorney assigned to the officer for defense.
Are elected officials so different?
So here are my concerns:
1. If determining whether or not a complaint lodged against an elected official in the state of Alaska is one of the duties of the Alaska State Personnel Board, why would Sarah Palin need a privately collected defense fund to pay for that inquiry?
2. Why would Sarah Palin need to hire a defense team prior to being charged with any allegations of wrong-doing? Especially when these complaints have been summarily dismissed before charges were made as frivolous. If one hasn’t actually been charged with wrong-doing, where is the need for defense?
3. If determining whether a complaint against a public official warrants investigating or not is the job of the Personnel Board, and the Governor is collecting monies from citizens to also pay for these determinations, does this mean someone on the personnel board is being paid twice?
Your input is greatly appreciated – OzMud
To comment on this post please scroll back to the title: Alaska Trust Fund: The part I don’t understand - and click on the word comments.
July 3, 2009 at 5:37 pm
I think that the key thing you are missing as far as the actual investigation of a complaint is that the personnel board is hiring lawyers to make a determination as to whether a complaint has merit. They are dismissed once the lawyers say that it has no merit, which is why the personnel board has come up with these dollar figures. The personnel board is made of 3 volunteers who are nominated for the job by the Governor (all were originally nominated by Murkowski, but Palin kept them all on and reappointed one of them), and do this when ever they get around to it, with no set schedule, no pay. They are not capable of making a determination of these complaints alone (I don’t think anyhow) and must hire the job out.
Now having said that, I am unsure of why Palin needs a lawyer to defend her against a complaint prior to an investigation/determination as to whether or not a complaint has merit. My guess is that the way they are working this is that the Palin lawyer is being allowed to provide a “defense” if you will as to the actions of his client (Palin) and then the complaints are dismissed/found to be without merit. That is the only thing that make sense to me, otherwise there is just no reason to state that these ethics complaints have run up that much money for Palin herself.
The bills are also supposed to include the fees for her family and friends so I am guessing that $600,000.00 total includes Todd’s lawyer fees for the Troopergate issue as well as her friends in AK admin who were subpoenaed as well. Now if those legal bills are included in the total, then I can understand why it is so high, but that would mean that Palin is lying to everyone by insinuating that these are her bills alone and not a cumulative dollar amount for bills regarding the Troopergate case.
Then there is the fact that Palin’s attorney is doing PR work for her as well, taking time to do interviews and such, so no doubt he is charging for all of that as well.
July 3, 2009 at 5:40 pm
**Clarification**
When I said the bills were supposed to include fees for her family and friends, I meant that the money raised for the Legal Defense Fund included these bills in their statement as to why they were raising money to pay off such large legal bills.
July 4, 2009 at 12:10 am
Since we all know how much Palin lies, I have no doubt the figure is vastly inflated. What bills there are would come from the Troopergate and Travelgate affairs, neither of which were frivolous. Yeah, she’s hoodwinking her followers. A fool and his money are soon parted.
July 4, 2009 at 1:27 am
Palin did not need to hire a lawyer, the state actually pays for the defense of the governor in ethics violation charges. Her legal fees resulted from the lawyers she brought in after the VP nod, who swooped in from other states to defend their precious VP commodity from scandal, which resulted from their poor vetting of said candidate.
Palin refiled an ethics charge against herself for the sole purpose of it being heard by the appointed committee rather than the legislative branch which had been called upon to hear the Troopergate charges. The legislative body (Branchflower report) in fact found her guilty of violating ethics laws. The McCain campaign only publicized the findings of the appointed committee of those who serve at the will of the governor, who not surprisingly, found her not guilty.
Typical Republican spin on the truth — a tactic Americans are just getting wise to, thanks to the internet.
It’s odd how the Democrats will eat their own (Blago) at first sign of trouble — and oust them — whereas the Republicans will spin and accuse the media of liberal bias or any other card they can think of to distract from reality.
Right now, Coleman (R), Steele (R), Ensign (R), Sanford (R) and more are being investigated by the FBI. Ensign and Sanford are in the news, but we don’t hear a peep about Coleman or Steele, both of whom are accused of financial malfeasance akin to Blago pay to play.
Furthermore, Palin herself was guilty of the very same failure to report car benefits as Daschle, and Daschle lost his appointment because of it, while Palin skated right on by after cursory excuses blaming the media for picking on a woman.
The Fourth Estate is in dire shape here in America, and they are most certainly not liberal, democratic, or doing their duty to inform the public.
Love your blog.
July 4, 2009 at 1:34 am
p.s. the money in her “Trust Fund” can go to anyone she decides to give it to, for any reason. It is also protected from ever having to give an accounting in a court of law (don’t ask me how that’s legal). The “Trust Fund” is nothing but a way to milk money out of her supporters. She can give that money to her family, friends, or herself for any reason.
They merely used the legal fees as an excuse to create it. I highly doubt Palin will actually offer any of the money to her friends who took the advice of her lawyers and refused to respond to the subpoenae issued. Notice that any ordinary citizen who failed to comply with a subpoena would be in jail, but if you are covering for a Republican (Rove, Palin, etc) all is excused.
We will never know how that money is spent, as the disbursement of it is shielded from public knowledge.
I would never give to a politician who hid so much from the public, since our government is constitutionally mandated to be open and transparent. Who enforces that? The people.
That’s why nothing has happened to Palin and the Bush War Mongers. The American people have become complacent and lowered their expectations to accommodate Bush as a President.
Obama is raising the bar again, thankfully.
July 4, 2009 at 1:42 am
Sarah Palin’s game is to game the system, meaning use lawyers as a means to avoid following the law by muddying the waters. I also agree with not that sarah on the state of the 4th Estate in America, and an excellent example is the Washington Post’s recent attempt to sell access to lobbyists, members of so-called think tanks, and others to members of congress and the current administration. There are no major networks devoted solely to providing information to citizens, only media outlets that take whatever positions on the issues that rake in the most money.
July 4, 2009 at 1:52 am
What I can’t understand is why the IRS is not involved in an investigation.
July 4, 2009 at 2:01 am
not that sarah Says:
It is also protected from ever having to give an accounting in a court of law (don’t ask me how that’s legal).
Well it was posed and answered like this. The Federal government says it is a “states issue”, and in AK, the people who could potentially ask for an accounting, the APOC (AK public offices commission), says it has no intention of doing so.
The reason Palin hired a private lawyer is that if she had someone in the AG’s office defend her then it would be part of the public record and disclosable under the FOIA and or the public records request. With a private attorney everything can remain confidential.
As for the “legal fund” , she has it set so that any member of her family, and any close family relationship can withdraw up to $13,000.00 yearly without a reason. It is a seriously slick set up.
July 4, 2009 at 2:03 am
grammy11 Says:
What I can’t understand is why the IRS is not involved in an investigation.
Oh don’t be so sure that they aren’t. It has been reported that the IRS is indeed looking into some issues, not related to this stuff, but once they start looking, no doubt they will continue to pursue it.
July 24, 2009 at 9:29 am
EyeOnYou – The state did not hire lawyers to look over the ethics complaints. The layers are on staff and handled these complaints as part of their normal duties. The Palin camp has already been forced to admit that the bulk of the cost that they cited to Alaska for the ethics complaints were derived by estimating the per hour work of on staff legal council that would have been paid the same amount of money in the absence of any complaints. There is no indication that anybody was paid over-time to handle them.
I have no idea why Palin supposedly has such high legal bills. The bulk of the money Alaska spent on investigaing Palin was for Troopergate, but although the legislatures investigation fond her guilty, the Personal Board that serves at her pleasure dismissed it, and nothing came of it. I won’t be surprised if this some kind of scam cooked up between the Palins and her “legal council” to bilk supporter of money.