Police Chief: Palin Fired Me For Campaign Contributors

The Washington Independent reported on Monday that another Sarah Palin firing scandal had been overlooked:

Early in her tenure as mayor, the city council threatened to recall her over accusations that she fired the city's police chief, Irl Stambaugh, and the library director, Mary Ellen Emmons, without warning. She accused them in a letter saying: "I do not feel I have your full support in my efforts to govern the city of Wasilla. Therefore I intend to terminate your employment ..." (The Anchorage Daily News, via nexis)

Ultimately, Palin let the library director have her job back; though Stambaugh's position was not returned. The police chief took the matter to court, where a judge sided with Palin, saying city law allows the mayor to fire the police chief without cause.

ABC News today gives more information on this scandal. The police chief says he was fired because her campaign contributors, including bars and the NRA, didn't like his work:

After taking over as Mayor of the small town of Wasilla, Palin fired the longtime local police chief. The former police chief, Irl Stambaugh says he was fired because he stepped on the toes of Palin's campaign contributors, including bar owners and the National Rifle Association.

Stambaugh's lawyer, William Jermain, says the chief tried to move up the closing hours of local bars from 5 a.m. to two a.m. after a spurt of drunk driving accidents and arrests.

"His crackdown on that practice by the bars was not appreciated by her and that was one reason she terminated Irl," said Jermain.

Comments

[getitrightamerica]

Disgruntled former employee. Yeah, that's impartial journalism.
If you have ever held a real job you would know "Its my way or the highway". It was her perogative to clean house. Good for her. If a cabinet member doesn't follow the gameplan, they will get canned too. Its called executive decision. Something few people can seem to grasp (including Obama).
Was the librarian almost fired over closing the bars earlier?

[ibsteve2u]

"It was her perogative to clean house."???

Now remember your argument, should Congress pass higher taxes.

You have no right to complain, as it is Congress' "perogative " - and job - to fund the American government.

[levelshot]

LOL! What a Good Gotcha!!!

[drzoon]

closing bars at 2am is not a BAD THING unless of course you are a republican (drunk) who needs a drink before you go to work.

DON'T SHOOT THE MESSENGER!

if its true.... ITS TRUE.

[drzoon]

wait until you hear the reason she fired the librarian!

[KiwisCanFly]

getitrightamerica

U are quick to judge!

During her mayoral administration most of the actual work of running this small city was turned over to an administrator. She had been pushed to hire this administrator by party power-brokers after she had gotten herself into some trouble over precipitous firings which had given rise to a recall campaign.

http://www.andrys.com/palin-kilkenny.html

From a bio written by Ann Kilkenny, who lives in Wasilla, known Palin since 1992 and is a voter registrar and teaches a voting program in schools.

[dbm1966]

Disgruntled former employee means upset former employee. It is impartial. It passes no judgment on whether the decision was right or wrong; it just states that the former employee is upset..

In most states, the majority of civil servants are not employees at will. There must be some sort of progressive discipline or an offense so serious that it calls for immediate termination. Top-level employees do not receive this protection. Whether she was abusing her executive power by terminating the police chief was probably the issue here.

[ibsteve2u]

Look on the bright side:

In some parallel universe, Obama picked Hillary Clinton as his VP....so McCain chose Laura Ingraham.

It could be worse.

[Whatshop]

Heaven forbid! HA HA HA

[AlanBJ]

Oh my goodness, people....

We better stand up and do it right now!

She is a vindictive snake and does not have the temperament to be in 2nd command of the United States of America.

Russia and the rest of the world must be laughing their a s s e s off.

McCain - Palin: Wrong Temperament and Judgment to be in control of the American People.

Stand up people...get the news out there for the uniformed.

[KiwisCanFly]

CLAIM VS FACT Part 1:

�"Hockey mom": true for a few years
�"PTA mom": true years ago when her first-born was in elementary
school, not since
�"NRA supporter": absolutely true
�social conservative: mixed. Opposes gay marriage, BUT vetoed a bill
that would have denied benefits to employees in same-sex relationships
(said she did this because it was unconsitutional).
�pro-creationism: mixed. Supports it, BUT did nothing as Governor to
promote it.
�"Pro-life": mixed. Declined to call a special legislative session on some pro-life
legislation
�"Experienced": Some high schools have more students than Wasilla has
residents. Many cities have more residents than the state of Alaska.
No legislative experience other than City Council. Little hands-on
supervisory or managerial experience; needed help of a city
administrator to run town of about 5,000.
�political maverick: not at all
�gutsy: absolutely!

http://www.andrys.com/palin-kilkenny.html

From a bio written by Ann Kilkenny, who lives in Wasilla, known Palin since 1992 and is a voter registrar and teaches a voting program in schools.

[xargaw]

I wonder how all the evangelicals will feel about her supporting the bar owners and not caring about drunk driving.

[DixieMelody]

They always look the other way when it's happening in their own backyards and the perpetrator has a big ol' red "R" after his/her name.

[dbm1966]

O.k., I understand, assuming there were not retaliatory reasons, why it would be important to have the police chief's support as mayor. Of course, we haven't heard why she did not feel she had his support, or at least I haven't seen the explanation.

But the librarian? What support did she need from the librarian? Was the librarian refusing to remove books about creationism from the library? Was she refusing to burn books that contained issues offensive to fundamentalists?

These stories really make her look like a nut case. Is she going to try to explain?

[DFutureIsNow]

Looks like the other shoe is about to drop, she is done.

[JoelNH]

Other shoe? I think the whole closet just tumbled out onto the floor. We are knee deep in shoes.

[TroubleNYC]

But they thoroughly vetted her! You know, the McCain people claim they used the FBI resources to vet her. What authority does a Senator have to do such a thing?

[MsLiz]

The FBI does not provide that service.

[TroubleNYC]

Exactly. Another lie. So they state the FBI was involved to give their poor vetting process some credibility.

[wesx]

I like to here that instead of wasting the extra money it is good to her say give it back to the people of the state.NO NEW TAXES and dont vote for anyone that is going to raise taxes and waste more of our money

[Grunty1]

Leaves out McCain for wasting multiple trillions of dollars already.

[BatedBreath]

Or maybe he was fired in retribution for mr. palin's dui.

[Daisy1111]

The DUI was from 20 years ago. 20 years ago when O was snorting coke.

Are you guys that desperate - a 20-year DUI ticket? Oh please

[Lauren1959]

But was he driving?

[Grunty1]

He was fired much less than 20 years ago.
Is temporal mechanics too difficult a subject?

[dbm1966]

Sort of like linking Obama to a bombing that occured almost 40 years ago.

[ordinaryguy]

he was snorting with "w"

[Mr772]

That desperate? Are you kidding? Do you understand the issue? We are talking about a track record and history of repeated abuse of power, it sound like more of the McSame to me.

[mediamarv]

I guess she's a maverick drinker too... needs an extra shot at 4am some evenings....

[woodguru]

The only thing that could be worse than Cheney, a female Cheney, she sounds like a hormonal mess who has several issues surrounding the use of her position and power to align support and eliminate opposition.

Small town tyrant makes good!

[KiwisCanFly]

CLAIM VS FACT Part 2:

•open & transparent: ??? Good at keeping secrets. Not good at
explaining actions.
•has a developed philosophy of public policy: no
•”a Greenie”: no. Turned Wasilla into a wasteland of big box stores
and disconnected parking lots. Is pro-drilling off-shore and in ANWR.
•fiscal conservative: not by my definition!
•pro-infrastructure: No. Promoted a sports complex and park in a city
without a sewage treatment plant or storm drainage system. Built
streets to early 20th century standards.
•pro-tax relief: Lowered taxes for businesses, increased tax burden on
residents
•pro-small government: No. Oversaw greatest expansion of city
government in Wasilla’s history.
•pro-labor/pro-union. No. Just because her husband works union
doesn’t make her pro-labor. I have seen nothing to support any claim
that she is pro-labor/pro-union.

http://www.andrys.com/palin-kilkenny.html

From a bio written by Ann Kilkenny, who lives in Wasilla, known Palin since 1992 and is a voter registrar and teaches a voting program in schools.

[wackygranny]

check out time.com she wanted to ban books too. for foul language. She should check out Levi's face book

[KiwisCanFly]

YUP

While Sarah was Mayor of Wasilla she tried to fire our highly respected City Librarian because the Librarian refused to consider removing from the library some books that Sarah wanted removed. City residents rallied to the defense of the City Librarian and against Palin's attempt at out-and-out censorship, so Palin backed down and withdrew
her termination letter. People who fought her attempt to oust the Librarian are on her enemies list to this day.

http://www.andrys.com/palin-kilkenny.html

From a bio written by Ann Kilkenny, who lives in Wasilla, known Palin since 1992 and is a voter registrar and teaches a voting program in schools.

[KiwisCanFly]

CLAIM VS FACT Part One:

•“Hockey mom”: true for a few years
•“PTA mom”: true years ago when her first-born was in elementary
school, not since
•“NRA supporter”: absolutely true
•social conservative: mixed. Opposes gay marriage, BUT vetoed a bill
that would have denied benefits to employees in same-sex relationships
(said she did this because it was unconsitutional).
•pro-creationism: mixed. Supports it, BUT did nothing as Governor to
promote it.
•“Pro-life”: mixed. Knowingly gave birth to a Down’s syndrome baby
BUT declined to call a special legislative session on some pro-life
legislation
•“Experienced”: Some high schools have more students than Wasilla has
residents. Many cities have more residents than the state of Alaska.
No legislative experience other than City Council. Little hands-on
supervisory or managerial experience; needed help of a city
administrator to run town of about 5,000.
•political maverick: not at all
•gutsy: absolutely!

http://www.andrys.com/palin-kilkenny.html

From a bio written by Ann Kilkenny, who lives in Wasilla, known Palin since 1992 and is a voter registrar and teaches a voting program in schools.

[emmaspeaks]

Other than JM's inability to vet her, the big issue is that she has no time to prove herself. Obama had months to be totally vetted, won 18 million votes, worked on policies, worked with many high ranking political figures and knows what is going on. We could list it all out, but I don't have the time and energy. Others are better at that than I am. I will pose this difference. PTA (have never heard if she had an office) vs, President of Harvard Law Review. Obama has managed more people and more money. He has been out there selling all his ideas and we know him. I feel this is rev. wright in cliff notes and there's no time to get to the end of the book.

[CaliTLC]

The Repubs will say that she is fully vetted after her speech tonight. Guaranteed. They will expect all of the inquiry to stop and further claim sexism. They are STILL saying that Barack Obama is an unknown. Go figure.
Obama-Biden 2008-2016