Alaska Governor Sarah Palin today settled a state ethics complaint, filed against her in Alaska last October, by agreeing to pay back the state approximately $6,800 for nine trips claimed for her children to various functions paid for by Alaska's tax payers. [Palin was deemed responsible for a tenth trip on Thursday; the total cost is now closer to $10,000; and she may now owe more back taxes.]
The ethics complaint was originally filed during last year's presidential election by retired electrical lineman Frank Gwartney, from Anchorage, who called the travel expenses claimed by Palin "such a blatant misuse of state money."
A second-generation Alaskan native whose parents arrived on the Kenai Peninsula in the 1930s, Gwartney said he filed the complaint simply because he was "sick and tired of corruption in Alaska's government." He also charged the governor with altering travel records to indicate that her family members were on "official business" while traveling with her.
The response from the McCain-Palin campaign at the time was to attack Gwartney:
This is a purely political stunt less than six days from the election that not only violates the law that requires Personnel Board complaints to be confidential, but raises serious questions about the motives of Mr. Gwartney, a stated Obama supporter. Governor Palin has always acted with the highest standards of ethics.
Apparently not.
Today's "settlement agreement," as the document is titled, involves no admission of wrongdoing, blaming the expenditures on "little statutory or regulatory guidance."
Palin contended that her administration viewed the travel expenses as "official First Family business" and that Palin only takes her children on the taxpayers' nickel "to events they're
invited to."
Nonetheless, according to the Anchorage Daily News, lawyer Tim Petumenos, who was hired by the state Personnel Board to investigate the complaint (and who earlier exonerated Palin in the Troopergate affair), found that for nine trips claimed by Palin for her children, "the personal benefit outweighed the public benefit."
In a letter addressed directly to Gwartney, Puetnomos declared:
Following your complaint, I conducted an investigation and concluded that portions of your complaint merited action. A settlement with Governor Palin has been reached in lieu of the filing of an accusation...
According to Petumenos it didn't matter if Palin's children had been "invited" to an event or not. Included in those expenses where "the personal benefit outweighed the public" was the cost of Palin's daughter Piper flying on a state plane to the start of the Iron Dog race in 2008--a race in which Todd Palin was participating as a contestant.
It has not been a good week for the Last Frontier's ambitious governor. The ethics settlement comes in the immediate aftermath of Palin turning in her state-purchased Chevy Surburban and announcing that she had to pay taxes on reimbursements she received for living in her Wasilla home.
Only yesterday, Palin's chief political flak Bill McAllister held a news conference in which he declared:
The news media have been focused on the $8,500 the governor has collected in per diem annually while working in Anchorage, almost 50 miles from her home in Wasilla. But aside from the fact that the governor is legally entitled to these payments, the media have missed the larger point that the governor actually has saved the state money by not living year-round in the official residence in Juneau....Expense reports for per diem, lodging and travel for the governor and the first gentleman show a savings of more than $900,000 for calendar years 2007 and 2008, compared with the last two years of the previous administration.
Say what? Didn't Palin run against her predecessors as a reformer? And now she's comparing her record to theirs?
In fact, Palin spent more annually in 2007 on "conference fees" and "meals and incidentals" than either of her two predecessors in any given fiscal year.
What Palin, McAllister and those entrenched around her apparently don't get is that the Governor touts herself as a "reformer" and "fiscal conservative," while she herself has tapped the public trough frequently for her family's private benefit. Their hypocrisy apparently knows no bounds.
"Governor Palin ran on an ethics platform," said Gwartney from his home in Anchorage, "but she's no different than the rest of them. Apparently, she thinks she was elected Queen."
I'm interested to see how Geoff moves on to CPAC and it's rediculous circus of self-promoting misinformants in the crucial, desparate days ahead.
That has to be one of the funniest lines I've ever heard. Though it's neck and neck with "reformer" and "fiscal conservative". But it will never top "maverick".
I think Mr. Gwartney should run for office. I also think the people of Alaska should wake up to the fact that they're being robbed blind by the sneaky Palins.
These incidents are NOT independent. In fact this is an ongoing pattern of one ethical lapse after another. The pattern makes it clear that Sarah is a FRAUD. Sooner or later the Alaska voters will get tired of this behavior and do something about it. Until that happens we will stay tuned for further "surprises".
Loved that quote.
So she's a fiction writer too! (lol)
http://eye-on-washington.blogspot.com
One of the most troubling aspects of Palin's travel ethics violations is the fact that she altered or amended her travel expense reports well after the fact..... This is an ethics breach by any professional standard and has not even been addressed by Mr. Petumenos.
Mr. Petumenos is the same man who conducted the sloppy Personnel investigation of Palin's involvement in "Troopergate." Although there were contradictory statements from Palin and Monegan (the fired official), as well as contradictions with the Legislative investigation, Mr. Pet. didn't think it was important to pursue the contradictions and possible perjury.
Palin's attorney general was forced to resign recently over similar questions of expedient legal shenanigans. It's time Mr. Pet. was challenged as to why he is so hasty in closing the books on these cases when perjury and significant ethics violations ( amending reports after the fact) are still left unaddressed.
These case dispositions are unfinished.....and sound dirty.
Call me skeptical....but the "wiggle room" afforded this governor seems too generous time after time.
Thank you for your comment.
FOR EVERYONE'S INFORMATION:
You can tell a Palin operative by how they immediately deflect attention from the real issues at hand and blame somebody else. Mark my words on this folks.
My mother had a response to that kind of tactic. "If your friend jumped off a cliff, would you jump,too?"
You also left out the part about how Tony Knowles was very involved and concerned about rural issues (and traveling to the Bush is expensive), while Sarah Palin 1)opposes a rural subsistence preference, 2) does not even RECOGNIZE tribes (!), much less work on government-to-government relations.
You also left out the part about Tony's international-trade accomplishments and Pacific Salmon treaty work. Hell, even Frank Murkowski, who was a terrible governor, did something for international trade and development.
I would encourage you to come to Alaska and go to any chamber of commerce meeting around the state and listen to what the business community has to say about the Queen, er, current occupant. Even the staunch Republicans will tell you Knowles was a hard worker, a great manager and someone who made things happen for economic development, especially considering the difficult fiscal situation Alaska was in during his terms.
There are good reasons why Tony Knowles commands much more respect in the business community and Native villages than Sarah Palin ever will.
I don't mind, and most Alaskans don't mind, if governors rack up expenses, as long as those expenses are legitimate and they are incurred because the governor is actually doing something for the public good.
Am I the only one who's tired of candidates having to parade their offspring around? Being able to produce children is not an indicator of anything other than functioning reproductive organs, and that's really more than I want to know about politicians.
She does seem to regard the "First Family" as some sort of Alaskan royalty, and I don't recall any Alaska governor matching her in that regard.
As for the McMansion on Lake Lucille, I would like to see an accounting of how Palin was compensated for the TV ads she shot on behalf of Spenard Builders Supply. Did she get a check? Was she paid in-kind? What went on there?
As for Outside Team Sarah devotees appointing themselves Alaska experts and telling us Alaskans how great Sarah is, well, that's rich. Again, I don't know whether to laugh or fume.
The Reaganite deregulation BY REPUBLICANS is what opened the door for these derivatives.
Get educated.
Just more evidence that deregulation of the finance industry is foolhardy. Same result when millionaires receive tax cuts socialise the losses privatise the profits.
50 miles? You'd have to hate the planet to drive 50 miles one way to work.