Alaskans for Truth

CALL TO ACTION! Walt Monegan's Hearing with the Personnel Board.

2008-11-01T15:10:00.000-07:00

On October 14, 2008 former Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan filed papers with the Personnel Board requesting a hearing. He wants the public to know his side of the story, and to be able to address allegations by Governor Palin that he has a “rogue mentality” and committed acts of “outright insubordination.”

Walt Monegan has been a devoted public servant to the State of Alaska, who has earned the respect and admiration of Alaskans. The outcome of the Legislative investigation into Palin’s firing of him, exposed that in doing so she violated the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act.

It has never been Mr. Monegan’s contention that the Governor had no right to fire him. However, he wants the true reason for the firing stated in an official capacity, so that he is able to get on with his professional and personal life.

Monegan’s attorney, Jeff Feldman issued the following statement:

“Governor Palin’s public statements accusing Mr. Monegan of serious misconduct were untrue and they have stigmatized his good name, severely damaged – and continue to damage – his reputation and impaired his ability to pursue future professional employment.”

Walt Monegan has been through a horrendous ordeal over the past few months, and Alaskans for Truth is asking all Alaskans to support his request for a fair hearing in front of the Personnel Board. We ask that Alaskans who have had enough of seeing Walt Monegan and his reputation sullied in the media by Governor Palin, and members of the McCain-Palin “Truth Squad” speak up and support him. Here’s what you can do:

Please contact the following list, and tell them that you want the Personnel Board to give Walt Monegan the opportunity to defend his good name, and tell his side of the story:

Nikki Neal,
Secretary to the Personnel Board ----- nicki.neal@alaska.gov

Alaskans for Truth ------------------ alaskansfortruth@gmail.com

Email your Legislator:

Senate

House

CALL TO ACTION! Demand an Apology.

2008-10-31T16:38:00.000-07:00

Former AK Speaker of House and Former AK Pres of the Senate ask McCain for apology!

Alaskans for Truth Supporters:

Two prominent Alaskan politicians have demanded an apology from the McCain Campaign for their libelous/slanderous smears of former Marine and long-time Alaska Public Safety leader, Walt Monegan.

Gail Phillips, Former Speaker of the Alaska House of Representatives and Chancy Croft, Former President of the Alaska State Senate make a clear and respectful request to John McCain and his Campaign to undo the damage the misnamed "Truth Squad" did to Walt Monegan's reputation, his employability, and his emotional well-being as well as the well-being of his family and friends.

We are asking all of you to help in this endeavor.

Please email this to your lists and send respectful letters (Gail Phillips has given us all permission to copy any part of their letter we may wish) to the address below, asking for an apology for Walt Monegan:

Honorable Senator John McCain
John McCain 2008
P.O. Box 16118
Arlington, VA 22215

(CC is discussing this on her show "Cutting Edge" today (3:00 - 6:00 pm Alaska time) http://www.kudo.com/.)

The letter is below:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

October 28, 2008

Dear Senator McCain:

We are writing because we believe an apology is owed from your campaign to Alaskans and our former Commissioner of Public Safety, Walt Monegan. As former legislative leaders of both major political parties in Alaska, we haven’t always agreed upon political issues. However, we adamantly agree that Mr. Monegan, who is well respected in Alaska by people of all party affiliations, is owed an apology. The attacks against Commissioner Monegan for his role in administering a personnel issue, now known statewide as “Troopergate”, were unwarranted and wrong. Mr. Monegan is a former U.S. Marine, a front-line police officer, was Chief of Police in Anchorage, Alaska’s largest city, served as our State’s Commissioner of Public Safety and served both Republicans and Democrats with professionalism and honor.

This summer Governor Palin fired Mr. Monegan as Commissioner, which was within her purview. However, in July, the Legislature, through unanimous action by the bi-partisan Legislative Council, voted to investigate Commissioner Monegan’s termination and whether his refusal to fire Trooper Wooten played a role in his termination. The investigation had nothing to do with your campaign.

After Governor Palin was named as your running mate, your campaign stepped into the fray. In an effort to discredit and stop the bi-partisan legislative investigation into whether or not Governor Palin acted improperly in seeking the termination of her former brother-in-law, Trooper Wooten, your campaign engaged in a near-daily course of personal attacks against Mr. Monegan and members of the legislature. It’s obvious to many of us that you probably were not aware of these attacks by your campaign committee; however, since the final responsibility is yours, we feel Mr. Monegan is owed an apology from you.

In an effort to halt the bi-partisan investigation, your campaign staff tried to vilify Commissioner Monegan. Before Governor Palin was selected to your presidential ticket, she had agreed to the investigation; she publicly said it was justified and that she and her staff would cooperate with the investigation. She stated to the press that the public had a right to be concerned whether or not her administration may have placed improper pressure on the State Department of Public Safety to fire her former brother-in-law.

Following Governor Palin’s selection as your running mate, your campaign sent staff to Alaska to try to stop the investigation that Governor Palin had previously agreed to. Your campaign staff accused the legislative action as partisan in spite of the fact that the unanimous vote of the Legislative Council was bi-partisan.

Your campaign accused Mr. Monegan of being a “rogue”, of being insubordinate and other defamatory statements. To justify your involvement in this Alaskan issue and the Governor’s termination of Commissioner Monegan, your campaign continually changed the excuses for his termination. The various and changing excuses given by your campaign speaks clearly to the lack of credibility in its involvement.

Despite your campaign’s efforts to stop the investigation in court, and by public pressure, the investigation was recently completed. On October 10th the investigative report was released and the independent investigator, Steve Branchflower, concluded that the Governor had violated the State’s Executive Ethics statute by pressuring for the termination of Mr. Wooten from his position as an Alaskan State Trooper. The investigation also found that one of the probable reasons Commissioner Monegan was terminated was his refusal to fire the Governor’s former brother-in-law.

We acknowledge the authority the Governor has for terminating Commissioners; however, your campaign’s interference into this State matter and attempts to discredit Commissioner Monegan for campaign purposes is very troubling. Both the vilification of Mr. Monegan and the attempts by your campaign to stop the investigation were wrong.

We respectfully request an apology from your campaign to Mr. Monegan. He is a good man who has put his life on the line for Alaskans many times and he deserves better treatment from you and your campaign. Not only have the personal attacks from your campaign deeply affected and hurt the Monegan family, but also the people of Alaska who care and respect Mr. Monegan.

Sincerely,

Gail Phillips
Former Speaker of the Alaska House of Representatives

Chancy Croft
Former President of the Alaska State Senate

2008-10-10T23:02:00.000-07:00

Troopergate report: Palin abused power

A legislative investigation has concluded that Gov. Sarah Palin abused her power in pushing for the firing of an Alaska state trooper who was once married to her sister, or by failing to prevent her husband Todd from doing so.

The report by investigator Steve Branchflower was made public late this afternoon by a bipartisan 12-0 vote of the Legislative Council, which authorized the investigation.

Report HERE

2008-10-09T18:18:00.000-07:00

AlaskansforTruth@gmail.com

________________________________________________

To: Sarah Palin, Governor of the State of Alaska

Today, the Supreme Court has supported Judge Peter A. Michalski’s Superior Court decision. This makes it very clear that 1) The Alaska Legislative Council has the constitutional authority to conduct this investigation; 2) The Alaska Legislative Council has constitutional authority to issue subpoenas; 3) There is no evidence that this investigation has been anything but “fair and just,” especially considering its bipartisan beginnings. As a result, Investigator Stephen Branchflower will release his report to the Legislative Council on-time tomorrow.

Alaskans for Truth has made it our personal goal to help “hold you accountable” in this process as you requested. We worked tirelessly on our “Countdown to Truth” campaign, which has motivated hundreds of Alaskans to call and email the Council Members and encourage them to vote “yes” for release of the report. I feel confident that a majority of the Legislative Council understands the importance of governmental accountability to Alaskans and to people across the country.

However, we are still waiting for a response from you, Governor, regarding the 2000-signature petition we delivered to your Communication Director, Bill McAllister, asking for the removal of Talis Colberg from the office of Attorney General due to unethical and illegal conduct. We also await your response to our previous letter, sent October 3, 2008, asking you to fulfill your promise of transparency and accountability to the people of Alaska. The people of Alaska have the right to expect their government to act lawfully and the recent court activity has highlighted that you and members of your administration have not. Governor Palin, YOU are the only one who can rectify this:

1) You should immediately and freely provide a thorough explanation of your involvement in “Troopergate,” as you originally promised Alaskans.

2) You should immediately ask for AG Talis Colberg’s resignation for his unethical and unlawful response to this investigation.

3) You should immediately tell McCain Campaign’s East Coast attorney, Ed O’Callaghan “thanks, but no thanks” and send him back to New York. The Supreme Court decision has made him irrelevant.

We look forward to your response.

Alaskans for Truth

CC:

Talis Colberg, Attorney General for the State of Alaska
Bill McAllister, Communications Director for the Office of the Governor

(The organization Alaskans for Truth is not affiliated with any political party or campaign. Any appearance of affiliation is purely unintentional and was neither initiated nor supported by Alaskans for Truth)

2008-10-07T01:03:00.000-07:00

TROOPERGATE UPDATE:

Countdown to Truth: 4 more days!

The Branchflower Report on the independent “Troopergate” investigation is still due to the Legislative Council on October 10, and members of the Legislative Council are still under incredible pressure by the McCain Campaign to VOTE AGAINST releasing the report to the public.

However, you have let your voiced be heard! Thank you! You did a wonderful job of getting the message to the Council that they must accept this report for the good of all Alaskans as well as the ENTIRE voting populace in the U.S. You did such a good job that Representative David Guttenberg and Kim Elton were sending messages back letting folks know they would vote to release the report!

We need your help more than ever!

As many of you know, we’ve had additional McCain Campaign-influenced legal wrangling:

- They have tried using two lawsuits as attempt to delay or quash this all-important report. However, they were unsuccessful!!! Thursday, the court under Judge Peter Michalski dismissed both suits as un-Constitutional! This establishes that the Investigation has always been legal and the Legislative Council has the authority to issue lawful subpoenas. The out-of-state law group leading the charge (affiliated with extreme-religious-right leader Rev. James Dobson) decided, in another delaying tactic, to ask for an emergency appeal to the Alaska Supreme Court, which was granted.

- Attorney General Talis Colberg announced Sunday that, due to the court ruling, the seven state employees who previously and illegally ignored their subpoenas (at his suggestion) would now be willing to testify!

- Also, Todd Palin is now willing to respond, in writing, to written questions from Investigator Branchflower (which he’s already sent to Palin).

Can you imagine a gang of thieves robbing a grocery store, then calling the owners and law enforcement to schedule a time to return the items? Additionally, these criminals expect no consequences and even a pat on the back for finally deciding to follow the law!!!!

THESE ARE DELAYING/DISTRACTING TACTICS!!! We have no reason to believe that the Supreme Court will do what would be the equivalent of throwing the Alaska Constitution into the dumpster by reversing the decision of the lower court! Nor should seven people who pretend to develop a conscience keep Steven Branchflower from releasing his report on time!!!!

Help us keep the focus where it belongs! TAKE ACTION!

- Continue to call and/or email all 14 members of the State Legislative Council each day! (contact information listed below)

- Respectfully urge the legislators to stand up for truth and vote YES to accept Branchflower’s report and make it available to the people!

- Alaskans, call and email the legislators from your districts. Send the message that you expect them to support the Legislative Council’s investigation and reject the McCain campaign’s attempt to stonewall the democratic process!

Members of the Legislative Council (Alaska’s area code is 907)

Senators:

Kim Elton (D) Senator_Kim_Elton@legis.state.ak.us
465-4947

Bettye Davis (D) Senator_Bettye_Davis@legis.state.ak.us
269-0144

Lyda Green (R) Senator_Lyda_Green@legis.state.ak.us
376-3370

Lyman Hoffman (D) Senator_Lyman_Hoffman@legis.state.ak.us
269-0269

Gary Stevens (R) Senator_Gary_Stevens@legis.state.ak.us
486-4925

Gary Wilken (R) Senator_Gary_Wilken@legis.state.ak.us
451-5501

John Cowdery (R) Senator_John_Cowdery@legis.state.ak.us
269-0222

Representatives:

John Coghill (R) Rep_John_Coghill@legis.state.ak.us
488-5725

Nancy Dahlstrom (R) Rep_Nancy_Dahlstrom@legis.state.ak.us
622-3783

David Guttenberg (D) Rep_David_Guttenberg@legis.state.ak.us
456-8172

John Harris (R) Rep_John_Harris@legis.state.ak.us
269-0129

Ralph Samuels (R) Rep_Ralph_Samuels@legis.state.ak.us
269-0240

Bill Stoltze (R) Rep_Bill_Stoltze@legis.state.ak.us
376-4958

Peggy Wilson (R) Rep_Peggy_Wilson@legis.state.ak.us
747-4665