A wire story posted today by Matt Volz carries the maddening headline, "Palin's preferred inquiry requires utmost secrecy." The article is referring to the often dismissed Personnel Board investigation.
Of the two Alaska investigations into abuse-of-power allegations against Sarah Palin, the governor has chosen to cooperate with just one: the one that guarantees secrecy.
There's just one problem: Gov. Palin has already expressly waived confidentiality (see footnote 1, page 1) in the Personnel Board investigation!
A timeline of the confidentiality waiver's trip down the memory hole, including the McCain campaign's recent efforts, is found in the body.
continued...
First, here's more from the AP article:
... that investigation, unlike the more public legislative one, would require the investigation to be conducted in complete confidentiality. Under Alaska law, those who are part of such an investigation are unable to acknowledge even its existence until the Personnel Board decides there's enough evidence to hold a hearing.
If the complaint is dismissed, the probe and all the information related to it remains confidential.
Palin can waive confidentiality. The McCain campaign ... said the governor originally did so but that the investigator, Anchorage attorney Timothy Petumenos, requested she not speak publicly.
McCain spokesman Ed O'Callaghan later acknowledged that the state's confidentiality laws still apply.
Now that turns out to be a pretty accurate summary of AS 39.52.340., the confidentiality section of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act (one note: it's not the Personnel Board itself but rather its independent counsel that decides if there's probable cause for a hearing). It's also the first time - as far as I can tell - that a traditional media outlet has explicitly cited the confidentiality waiver at all. And Volz does better still. After the McCain people try to bamboozle him about how the investigator wants secrecy, Volz gets Ed O'Callaghan to admit (if I'm reading correctly) that the waiver still applies.
I've been trying to draw attention to the confidentiality waiver for several weeks now, since first noting it in a diary of 9/3/2008. In a later diary I examined Palin's possible motivations for requesting the Personnel Board probe to begin with and concluded that the biggest advantage in going that route was not distraction, delay, or deference but confidentiality (as Volz highlights). I went on to suggest that Palin made a major tactical blunder in waiving her right to secrecy right out of the gate.
However, as I noted in that diary and will elaborate upon here, Palin has yet to pay any price for that mistake because everyone is proceeding as though the confidentiality waiver didn't exist!
- 9/3/2008, Nicki Neal, Palin's Director of the Division of Personnel and Labor Relations, tells a reporter that the Personnel Board will soon consider Palin's 9/1/2008 ethics disclosure in "executive" or closed session. When the reporter reminds her of Palin's stated desire for openness she says she'll "check" whether that would apply to Board meetings (hint: it does).
- 9/4/2008, Debra English, Personnel Board Chair, posts public notice of a 9/11/2008 Board meeting (almost certainly in response to Palin's ethics disclosure) which erroneously states the meeting must be in closed session under AS 39.52.340.
- 9/4/2008, Thomas Van Flein, Palin's lawyer, tells a reporter that he "couldn't discuss or even acknowledge a new ethics complaint," as though he were bound by confidentiality requirements his client had already waived.
- 9/6/2008, New York Times misleadingly reports that "The proceedings of the [personnel] board are conducted in secret, in contrast with the public deliberations of the Legislature."
- 9/11/2008, Personnel Board meets to discuss Palin's ethics complaint and appoint an independent counsel. The closed session goes unchallenged.
- 9/18/2008, Ed O' Callaghan, McCain campaign lawyer, tells a reporter the previously undisclosed identity of the independent counsel retained by the Personnel Board, veteran Anchorage lawyer Tim Petumenos.
- 9/23/2008, Taylor Griffin, McCain spokesman, tells a reporter that the Personnel Board's independent counsel "wants to keep the progress of the investigation confidential" so the campaign won't have any further comment.
- 9/24/2008, McCain campaign tells a reporter that despite the confidentiality waiver the independent counsel "requested [Palin] not speak publicly" about the probe.
- 9/24/2008, Meg Stapleton, McCain spokeswoman, tells a reporter that the independent counsel has "asked to keep things confidential, so we will respect those wishes."
Action: Demand all records related to the Personnel Board investigation
Under Alaska public records law anyone who requests it is entitled to a certified copy of any "public records" (very broadly defined) that have been "developed or received by" a state agency (like the Personnel Board) or a private contractor which they employ (like an independent counsel) (AS 40.25.120, AS 40.25.220).
(end of diary)