Palin details ethics complaint costs

JUNEAU, Alaska, July 9 (UPI) -- Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's administration says ethics complaints, lawsuits and records requests have cost the state $1.9 million.

The Anchorage (Alaska) Daily News reported Thursday the government had given it a breakdown of the alleged expense, most of it time spent by state employees.

"Is it a check that we wrote, no, but is it staff hours, yes," Sharon Leighow, a Palin spokeswoman, said.

When Palin last week announced plans to resign she said dealing with ethics complaints against her had been costly to the state.

"That huge waste that we have seen with the countless, countless hours that state staff is spending on these frivolous ethics violations and the millions of dollars that Alaskans are spending," Palin said this week.

Public records requests and ethics complaints jumped after Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., selected Palin as his running mate last year on the Republican presidential ticket. Linda Perez, Palin's administrative director and a state government veteran, said there have been 238 public records requests since Palin became governor, 189 of them since she became the vice presidential candidate, while her predecessor, Frank Murkowski, had only 109 in four years.

The most extensive ethics investigation was "Troopergate," involving allegations Palin had tried to get her former brother-in-law fired from his job as a state trooper for personal reasons and then fired the head of the agency when he would not comply with her order.