Tony Hopfinger at Alaska Dispatch talked with fired Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan about Todd Palin’s deposition in the legislative Troopergate investigation.
Walt Monegan, the former public safety commissioner that Sarah Palin fired, says Todd Palin’s statement in the Troopergate investigation backs up what he’s said all along: The First Dude was obsessed with seeing his trooper ex-brother-in-law canned.
“Todd says (in his statement) that he’s been campaigning on that for years,” Monegan said in a phone interview Thursday with AlaskaDispatch.com. “I think he had a kind of obsession with it.”
Which certainly seems to be what others have observed about Todd Palin. Frankly, I’d be more scared of Todd Palin having his sights on me than of Trooper Wooten.
Monegan says he and others in the Public Safety Department had numerous conversations with the Palins and the governor’s aides over the couple’s concerns with Wooten. Wooten had been disciplined for misconduct reported by the Palin family before Sarah was elected governor. Monegan concluded the matter had been resolved.
Exactly. The misconduct & the Department of Public Safety’s discipline for the misconduct had already taken place prior to Sarah Palin becoming governor. The Palins issue is that they don’t believe the discipline Trooper Wooten was given was enough. Maybe that’s so: but as DPS Commissioner, Monegan’s hands were tied because (1) discipline had already taken place; & (2) the law & a union contract between the state & the Trooper’s union both forbade going back to increase the discipline for the same offenses long after the fact. The Palins don’t seem to get this; nor do a number of Palinistas who keep on harping on Wooten’s offenses in reader comments about Anchorage Daily News stories about the case.
The question on Monegan’s mind now is who was the thrust behind the effort to have Wooten fired?
“When I was contacted by the attorney general, or Annette Kreitzer, or (Mike) Tibbles, who was the instigator of that?” Monegan wonders. “Somebody actually had to set that up. Who leaned to make them call me? Was it Sarah? Was it staff? Was it Todd?”
It was magic.
Todd Palin argues in his statement that his family’s concerns with Wooten went unaddressed and that he believes the Public Safety Department was looking out for one of its own.
Monegan disagrees and said he actually working on a new effort to bring better oversight to investigate allegations of trooper misconduct in his agency. He said he proposed in spring to create an internal affairs unit, something that hasn’t existed. The unit would review allegations of misconduct by officers, instead of relying on troopers investigating their fellow officers. The Alaska Legislature this year funded one of two positions Monegan proposed, he said.
Which is exactly what should be done.
