After weeks in which Gov. Palin's confidentiality waiver in the Personnel Board investigation into Troopergate seemed to go down the memory hole, a proud citizen has finally stood up to demand the openness the law requires.
AP(10/7/2008):
A legal fight is ... brewing over the secrecy of the personnel board investigation. Anchorage white collar attorney Margaret Simonian wants the board's independent counsel, Tim Petumenos, to conduct his probe in public and says she's planning a lawsuit to force him to do so.
continued...
As I've highlighted in several diaries across the last month, Gov. Palin expressly waived confidentiality in the Personnel Board investigation right from the beginning with her 9/1/2008 ethics disclosure filing (see footnote 1, page 1).
Now Palin has never tried to rescind that waiver. Her lawyer has reaffirmed it several times, including just a few days ago when he was quoted as saying, "The governor waived her confidentiality and wanted this matter decided openly." However, he goes on to say that (and this is exactly the spin the McCain campaign first rolled out two weeks ago):
Petumenos is in charge of his investigation and until and unless he says otherwise, we will respect his decision [to keep the probe confidential].
I should point out here that up until now the only reports we've had of Petumenos' alleged desire for secrecy - and in fact the only reports we've had about Petumenos at all - have come directly from either Palin's lawyer or McCain campaign spokespeople (!). So one immediate benefit of Simonian's action is that we finally now have independent confirmation of Petumenos' preference:
Petumenos did not respond to a message seeking comment Monday but told Simonian in a letter that he said he was required by law to keep the matter confidential because those under scrutiny have not waived their privacy rights.
I can only assume that he's referring to people under scrutiny in the probe other than Gov. Palin herself, who is the target. But even if that's the case, there is no justification for complete secrecy. In another recent report about the Petumenos investigation - once again, released entirely at the discretion of the McCain campaign - we learn that he will talk with Gov. Palin and Todd Palin next week.
In conclusion we ask:
Is there any reason why the redacted transcripts of those conversations should not be made public as the law requires?
(end of diary)