Sondra Tompkins answered her phone yesterday to hear Sean Cockerham from the Anchorage Daily News on the other end. He wanted to know what she thought of the dismissal of the ethics complaint she filed against Gov. Sarah Palin.
She knew nothing about it until that minute.
-- It seems that Governor Palin's lawyer, Mr. Van Flein, plastered the media with the dismissal when the Personnel Board notified him/the Governor. However, Ms. Tompkins was not yet sent anything by the Board.
Hmmmmm...
According to the Alaska Executive Ethics Act:
Sec. 39.52.335. Summary of disposition of complaints and review by personnel board.
(c) If a complaint is dismissed under AS 39.52.320 or resolved under AS 39.52.330, the
attorney general shall promptly prepare a summary of the matter and provide a copy of the
summary to the personnel board and the complainant.
The complainant...that would be Sondra, no?
When Sondra checked her email, she did find something from the attorney who was the investigator of the complaint. He mentioned something about findings, but there was no attached letter.
Ooops...technology faux pas...and not a good time for THAT to happen.
What have we learned? While the Governor doesn't want anyone to know that there are complaints against her and is even willing to mischaracterize the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act to maintain the confidentiality she herself railed against in the past, she'll surely blast the news of a dismissal from the highest mountaintop.
-- When it came to the complaint's assertion that Governor Palin was "using her official position for personal gain," the investigator acknowledged that while SarahPAC easily fit the category of "personal gain," Palin was actually using her new national standing as a former VP candidate to form that PAC, not her position as Governor.
What have we learned? That if this standard is applied to the other ethics complaints which use the same part of the Ethics Act, the Governor might be in trouble. The Governor openly states that she is using her office as THE reason for money/gift collection through legal expense trust fund, which makes the fact that she's accrued these expenses as Governor (and the other folks who qualify are effected by her position as Governor) central to using the money.
-- According to Governor Palin's press release on this dismissal:
The governor's attorney, Thomas Van Flein, noted that of 14 ethics complaints filed against the governor or her staff, nine have now been resolved without any finding that the law was broken. Another five complaints are still pending.
Why, if that's true, why have we not heard the dismissal of these complaints crowed from the highest treetop? Why have ballads not been written to the purity of our Governor? Why have we not seen press release upon press release with solid evidence that these complaints were handily thrown out?
Well, perhaps because reality may more closely resemble the case of Frank Gwartney's complaint, where she ended up paying back thousands of dollars, but did not have to admit wrongdoing PER THE SETTLEMENT:
"Nothing in this agreement constitutes an admission of wrongdoing, and none has been found," the document said.
Palin's lawyer, Thomas Van Flein, took it a step further.
"The governor has been exonerated of all wrongdoing in this ethics act complaint. There is no finding of wrongdoing and there is no ethics violation," Van Flein said in a news conference.
So was she exonerated?
"To be exonerated suggests a hearing on the merits and a conclusion. That was not what happened here," Petumenos said.
As Petumenos described it, the governor agreed not to contest certain charges. He agreed not to file a formal accusation or take the case to a hearing.
What have we learned? For some of us, this was just reinforced...that the Palin Administration has a passing relationship with the truth.
Regarding why we've not heard anything of these other complaints because, obviously, Mr. Gwartney was able to speak on his...perhaps the Governor learned something as well? Perhaps it's like a hypothetical event...say...a towing company through a string of incompetent errors accidentally crushes your car and tries to hide it from you for weeks. They finally settle with you financially (and you desperately need the money for a new vehicle), but the papers not only REFUSE to admit wrongdoing but also require that you to sign a non-disclosure clause to get the money!
That would be an interesting turn of events if they found a way to do something similar...hypothetically.
Of course, another reason they COULD be claiming all of these complaints were "dismissed" goes right along with that passing relationship with the truth."
Van Flein represented Palin on the Troopergate controversy, which grew from her dismissal of the state's public safety commissioner, as well as other complaints alleging ethics violations, some of which have not been publicized. One was filed under the name of a soap opera character, Palin said.
Unless the Department of Law is completely incompetent, that is a lie. You see, to actually OFFICIALLY FILE an ethics complaint, one has to sign it under oath. That involves going to a notary, proving your identity and signing while they witness and THEN sign their own name. NO ONE is going to risk their notary status (employment) by allowing someone to use a bogus signature. No one in the Department of Law or Personnel Board is going to even consider it a legitimate filing without a signature-under-oath. And if it hasn't even gotten to that stage, it's not an officially filed ethics complaint.
So here's a question...are they counting that in with the "14 complaints?" What about other ethics complaints filed against Bill McAllister and Kris Perry? Are they counting those in with the Governor's?
The only person who can access information about ALL of the ethics complaints and share it is the person who the complaints have been filed against so there is no way to verify.
How convenient...for them!
What I've learned from this whole process is to ignore Palin's minions when they "crow" about any perceived victory in light of so many other problems (i.e. Palin's crashing poll numbers). I've also learned to be patient...that fat lady hasn't sung yet. If she does start singin', you KNOW it won't be good for the Governor!
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