Sarah Palin and creative excuses

Here are some snippets from an ADN editorial:

An investigator made short work last week of two ethics complaints against Gov. Sarah Palin. His conclusions made sense, given how the cases were framed.

But investigator Michael Geraghty and one of the complainants, Anthony Martin, never addressed one question about the governor's November trip to Georgia to campaign for Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss.

Why did the state of Alaska pay per diem expenses to Kris Perry, director of the governor's Anchorage office, for her time in Georgia?

Spokeswoman Sharon Leighow said the state paid per diem to Perry in Georgia because the trip qualified as state business.

The administration argues that Chambliss was a vote for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and his opponent wasn't.

The Georgia trip was partisan politics. None of that should happen on the state dime, including Perry's per diem.

It seems ADN have changed their tune a little bit. Their comments section appears to have improved as well. ADN may have escaped the grip of the Sarah Palin fan site. Hurrah! But they still do very little investigative stuff and are not very cutting edge in their reporting...

The definition of state business as given by Sarah Palin's office is the usual vague, clutching at straws drivel: Sarah Palin's children are state officials and the governor is entitled to claim travel expenses for them, if anybody mentions ANWR while the governor and her staff are away from Alaska on partisan business, it automatically qualifies as state business, and so on and so forth.

The amount of Kris Perry's per diems is not very high, only $105. But the simple fact that it was claimed as state business at all proves that the system is open to abuse. The explanations given by Sarah Palin's office are creative at best. In my opinion, they are pathetic.

There's a major scandal involving politicians' expenses going on in the UK at the moment. Sarah Palin comes across as a rank amateur compared to them. The amounts are not that important, the real problem is accountability. When politicians and their staff are seen as dishonest, with their large or small snouts in the trough, it erodes their credibility.

The electorate deserves better, anywhere in the world.

ADN editorial
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Sarah Palin is not a state employee

Sec. 39.20.060. Exclusion of governor and lieutenant governor from personnel laws.

Notwithstanding the provisions of any other law, the governor and lieutenant governor are not considered employees of the state for the purpose of state personnel laws relating to hours of employment, annual leave, sick leave, overtime, compensatory time, and travel allowances. This section does not deprive the governor and lieutenant governor of the right to participate in the state retirement system or in state group insurance plans.

There is a very big contradiction regarding this statute.

The governor is not considered an employee of the state. In which case the entitlement to collection of per diem and travel allowances as detailed in the Alaska Administrative Manual - Accounting Travel does not apply to her. The whole manual refers to the entitlement and rules for state employees or approved travellers on state business.

Is there a separate manual for the governor? If she is not a state employee for the purpose of travel allowances, she falls outside the scope for collecting the said allowances. In other words, she should not be entitled to collect per diems or charge the state for travel expenses. By the same token, her family should not be entitled to reimbursements because they are not state employees or approved travellers either.

Sarah Palin can't have it both ways. The statute excludes her from the provisions detailed in the manual, but she claims expenses according to the manual?

Obviously there is a possible get-out clause.

The statute may be interpreted as exempting the governor from complying with the rules in the manual, but retaining entitlement. So there should be a separate set of rules that applies to her regarding travel and other expenses.

If there are not clearly stated rules covering these expenses, does the statute mean that the governor is simply not accountable?

Why did the Personnel Board go through the pretense of investigating the ethics complaint filed by Frank Gwartney against the governor when they could have quoted the statute and end the matter there and then?

None of this makes any sense!

To read article by Lisa Demer and access links to statute, manual and other bits, click here.
The image is my little joke, any rule book is better than none...
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Sarah Palin spins

Palin Communications Director Bill McAllister compared Sarah Palin's expenses to those of former Gov. Frank Murkowski during a press conference held in Anchorage.

"She has been unfairly attacked for a comparatively minor amount of per diem." McAllister said.

He presented charts showing that Palin had spent less money on travel than did the former governor, but repeatedly said that what was not an attack on Murkowski.

Did Murkowski take the whole family, right down to the family parrot, on trips to events they were not invited to, then later amended official forms stating that the First Family were invited to draw raffle tickets?

Sarah Palin swept to an easy victory over Murkowski, in part because of the Murkowski administration's controversial purchase of a jet. Sarah campaigned against the jet, and then sold it after she became governor.

Sarah herself was heard telling Franklin Graham that she sold the Murkowski jet because it couldn't land on gravel.

Spin, baby, spin!

Full report on Juneau Empire
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Sarah Palin, per diem and inconvenient taxes

Gov. Sarah Palin must pay income taxes on thousands of dollars in expense money she received while living at her Wasilla home, under a new determination by state officials.

The governor's office wouldn't say this week how much she owes in back taxes for meal money, or whether she intends to continue to receive the per diem allowance. As of December, she was still charging the state for meals and incidentals.

"The amount of taxes owed is a private matter," Sharon Leighow, Palin's spokeswoman, said in an e-mail. "If the governor collects future per diem, those documents would be a matter of public record."


Well, well... if it's public money, it's not a private matter.

How about charging the state for taking her children everywhere they're not invited, then changing documents to say "First Family invited...to cut ribbons... draw separate raffles...etc etc"? Since when is drawing a raffle state business?

Full report: ADN
Picture: bigadiga
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