McClatchy reports today that the ethics complaints against Sarah Palin have cost the state personnel board $296,000. Essentially two-thirds of the expense are related to the Troopergate case.
Palin has repeatedly stated that Alaska is wasting money trying to resolve "frivolous" complaints against her and the top members of her administration. Yet, Palin advanced a number of ethics cases (read: racked up the expenditures herself) as a way to forestall legislative investigation into the complaints against her--especially on the Troopergate case.
According to the report, the personnel board refers to the expenses as:
"independent counsel expenditures." The board hires private lawyers to investigate the complaints. The expenditures were released after the personnel board expressed frustration at the costs of the complaints.[...]
The newly released expense list doesn't specify the nature of each case listed. It only provides internal case numbers followed by the total expenses incurred for each one of the cases. The board won't say which case numbers correspond with which complaint, or provide a detailed breakdown of the expenses. Under state law, ethics complaints are secret unless the subject of the complaint waives privacy.
Read the full report here.
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