Dismissed Palin complaints rack up costs

JUNEAU, Alaska, May 28 (UPI) -- The ethics complaints filed against Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin are running a tab of nearly "a third of a million dollars," the state's personnel board said.

"We've spent pretty close to about a third of a million dollars, and it's getting to be really expensive," Alaska Personnel Board member Al Tamagni told the Anchorage Daily News.

The board, during its meeting Wednesday, was trying to see whether they publicize the cost of addressing the complaints without violating confidentiality rules, the newspaper reported Thursday.

The panel also dismissed a complaint against Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee in 2008, and her political action committee.

The governor's office said it was the 13th ethics complaint against Palin or her staff that was resolved without finding an executive ethics act violation. Palin has agreed to reimburse the state for 10 state-paid trips taken by her children.

Andree McLeod, an Anchorage activist who filed several ethics complaints against Palin and her staff, told the newspaper the board was trying to mute accountability by citing high costs.

"The whole way to mitigate all this is for Palin to behave ethically," said McLeod, who filed the complaint dismissed by the board Wednesday.