Posted on 09/16/2008 6:23:26 AM PDT by pissant
Sarah Palin issued a response to the Troopergate investigation yesterday by releasing internal memoranda that show Walt Monegan got fired for insubordination on budget matters and not because of his refusal to fire Palin’s former brother-in-law. Monegan went behind Palin’s back to attempt to revive a project Palin had vetoed, which “stunned” the Office of Management and Budget Director. On another occasion, Monegan held a press conference with Hollis French to dissent from Palin’s budget priorities — the same Hollis French pushing the ethics complaint against Palin:
Walt Monegan lost his job as public safety director because he resisted Gov. Sarah Palin’s budget policies and showed “outright insubordination,” say papers the governor’s lawyer filed Monday with the state Personnel Board.
It was Palin’s strongest effort yet to snuff allegations she sacked Monegan because he refused to fire a state trooper involved in an ugly divorce with the governor’s sister.
Along with the papers filed Monday were a slew of e-mails from the governor’s office purporting to show Monegan’s “rogue mentality” as a member of Palin’s Cabinet.
In one message, the governor’s budget director, Karen Rehfeld, wrote that she was “stunned and amazed” that Monegan appeared to be working with a powerful state legislator, Anchorage Republican Rep. Kevin Meyer, to seek funding for a project Palin previously had vetoed.
According to the papers filed by Palin’s legal team, that was not the only instance of insubordination from Monegan:
* 12/9/07: Monegan holds a press conference with Hollis French to push his own budget plan.
* 1/29/08: Palin’s staffers have to rework their procedures to keep Monegan from bypassing normal channels for budget requests.
* February 2008: Monegan publicly releases a letter he wrote to Palin supporting a project she vetoed.
* June 26, 2008: Monegan bypassed the governor’s office entirely and contacted Alaska’s Congressional delegation to gain funding for a project.
From this presentation, it looks like Monegan had decided from the start to be a loose cannon in the Palin administration. The wonder of this isn’t that he got fired — it’s how he managed to hang onto his job as long as he did. The response calls Monegan’s trip to Washington the “final straw”, and it’s not difficult to see why. Monegan even admitted it in his valedictory e-mail to his colleagues, saying that he “had waited too long outside her door for her to believe that I supported her.” Nor did Monegan file an ethics complaint, as the law would have required him to do, if he felt his termination violated state ethics laws. (Palin filed the complaint herself to argue the case.)
As the filing states, Monegan served as a political appointee, at the pleasure of the Governor. Obviously, Monegan didn’t act to support Palin’s budget initiatives, often acting in opposition to them. In anyone’s administration, that will result in dismissal. Monegan kicked himself out of the job through his own acts.
bump!
BTTT
He went on Rachel Madow’s show last night on PMSNBC and dissed Palin. He also lied about Palin firing him. She didn’t. He resigned when she offered him another job.
Here’s the video: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/26728409#26728409
Thanks for the link! Media is going to end up with egg on their face again.
He’s an idiot. When trying to keep clean and honest and do good work it is easy to defend one’s position as she just did. He and that weasel Kevin Meyer are toast.
So you "authoritatively" state that it is slander, without providing any evidense, and then you have the gall to lecture me on needing to back up my statement with evidence...
Today, evidence was revealed that clearly demonstrates Governor Palin’s decision to replace the Department of Public Safety (DPS) Commissioner Walter Monegan was based entirely on his repeated refusal to execute her administration’s policy on fiscal and budget matters.
After months of swirling rumors and partisan politics, this evidence confirms what the Palin Administration has stated from Day One: the decision to replace Walt Monegan had nothing to do with concerns about the continued employment of state trooper Mike Wooten.
Government emails made public today show a pattern, from late 2007 through the middle of 2008, of Mr. Monegan’s refusal to comply with Administration policy. Despite repeated calls for budget discipline in the major state agencies, Mr. Monegan continued to press his own agenda without regard for either the formal budgeting process or the Governor’s clear policy priorities. Government staffers responsible for budget issues, and who had nothing to do with Mike Wooten, prevailed upon the governor to have Monegan replaced with someone who would not undermine the Palin administration’s budget goals.
As detailed below, insubordination and disputes over budget priorities – not Michael Wooten’s continued employment – led to Walt Monegan’s dismissal.
Mr. Monegan’s refusal to pursue Governor Palin’s policy objectives in the Department of Public Safety surfaced as early as October 2007, when DPS was involved in formulating a 10-year strategic plan. That planning process was intended to be closely integrated with other statewide planning and budgeting processes coordinated by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). From the beginning, however, Mr. Monegan made clear that “[r]ather than plan to a budget, we want to budget to a plan.”
Mr. Monegan seemed to acknowledge that his approach was at odds with the Governor’s budget priorities and protocol, but he continued to move forward with his efforts. In response, OMB Director Karen Rehfeld made very clear that the Governor “does not want to increase the budget/position count — this is going to be a real balancing act.” Governor Palin viewed filling the existing vacancies in the Alaska State Troopers a higher priority than increasing the position count to create more vacancies. But Mr. Monegan refused to follow through.
And, with that, the stage was set for an internal disagreement over budget priorities that would escalate throughout the next eight months.
By early January 2008, Mr. Monegan’s vision for expanding the DPS and its operating budget came into more direct conflict with that of the Administration.
Increasingly dissatisfied with the Administration’s budget priorities and the formal interdepartmental budgeting process, Mr. Monegan struck out on his own. On January 29, 2008, Randy Ruaro, then-special assistant to the Governor, reported to Ms. Rehfeld that Mr. Monegan was circumventing the normal interdepartmental channels for making budget requests. Ms. Rehfeld instructed Mr. Monegan to submit formal estimates to OMB.
Sensing that his actions were at odds with Administration objectives, Mr. Monegan asked Ms. Rehfeld if he or DPS was causing “concern” to members of the Governor’s office.
Rehfeld responded, “yes,” and pointedly asked: “What can we reasonably do to tackle some of these very difficult issues and still maintain the budget discipline the governor is committed to?”
Mr. Monegan instead struck out on his own. Despite the Administration’s repeated calls for budget discipline in the major state agencies, Mr. Monegan continued to press his own expansive agenda without regard for either the formal budgeting process or the Governor’s clear policy priorities. In February 2008, for example, Mr. Monegan publicly released a letter to the Governor supporting a $1.8 million increase in the state budget for the Anchorage Community Land Trust, a line item the Governor previously had vetoed – an act of public rebuke that is almost unbelievable coming from a political appointee.
Ms. Rehfeld subsequently admonished Monegan for sending the letter, explaining that this type of public statement by a sitting cabinet member would likely frustrate the Administration’s efforts to achieve its budget objectives with the Legislature. As Ms. Rehfeld explained: “I expect we will see your letter appear as justification for funding to be included in the capital budget as the legislature makes changes to our budget, which is a bit awkward. Bottom line is, let’s talk about this rather than writing letters to the governor.”
Nevertheless problems continued; in March 2008, Mr. Ruaro complained to Ms. Rehfeld that the Department of Public Safety refused to work out disputes internally before going public: “I have spoken to Walt, [DPS Deputy Commissioner] John Glass, and Audie [Holloway] about working through issues internally first several times. Mike Nizich has spoken with them, and COS [Tibbles] has spoken directly with . . . Commissioner [Monegan]. … They seem to just not want to accept that concept.” In other emails, Mr. Ruaro complains that Monegan acting unilaterally had been “the problem for the last 6 months” and that “I have told them 4-5 times to work with OMB first. Mike [Nizich] talked to them as well.”
In June 2008, Mr. Ruaro reported that Mr. Monegan wanted to make a trip to Washington, D.C. to lobby the Alaska Congressional Delegation for funding for a new statewide sexual assault initiative run by his Department of Public Safety at an estimated cost of $10 million to $20 million dollars per year—even though it would only handle about thirty cases. Governor Palin, while supportive of the policy objectives, had previously made clear that she did not wish this proposal to move forward until DPS provided a detailed plan for the program’s costs and funding streams.
Problems with Mr. Monegan’s planned trip to DC continued to arise. First, Mr. Monegan had still not received OMB’s approval to pursue his plan. Second, Governor Palin’s office in Washington, D.C. was concerned about the lack of “internal agreement” over Mr. Monegan’s proposal. By July 2008, these twin problems had become synonymous with Mr. Monegan’s work at the Department. Yet Mr. Monegan persisted in planning to make the unauthorized lobbying trip to D.C. as late as July 7, 2008, and it was this which proved to be the last straw.
On July 11, 2008, following eight months of insubordination on the budget issue and hard on the heels of his planned unauthorized trip to Washington, Mr. Monegan was terminated.
At the end of the day, even Mr. Monegan himself recognized that his rogue mentality ultimately prevented him from fully integrating into the Governor’s cabinet. In a farewell email following his dismissal, Monegan encouraged his colleagues to pursue more productive behaviors in their continued service of Alaska and the Governor: “All relationships are based upon communications; I have known and said this for years, yet I stood back because I hadn’t wanted to add to her concerns. For anyone to lead effectively they must have the support of their team, and I had waited too long outside her door for her to believe that I supported her. Please, choose a different path.”
As a political appointee, Mr. Monegan served at the pleasure of the Governor and was duty-bound to execute the Governor’s policy objectives. After eight months of repeatedly ignoring the Governor’s budget priorities, making public statements that directly challenged the Governor’s policy agenda and taking numerous unilateral actions in conflict with the Governor in support of his own policy agenda, his replacement in July 2008 should have come as no surprise and cannot now seriously be questioned.
link
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2082898/posts?page=45#2
“This guy has got some dirt on him too. His ex says he threatened her life with a gun, and he dislocated her shoulder. He admits to it, but said it was while “playing”, just like the trooper Whooten was just “playing” when he taser his 10 year old.”
Snarky, can you provide a link for your post above. I’m sure you didn’t just make it up but others are getting gas over it.
Sarah is a reformer who is telling everybody that she vetoed unnecessary spending. It appears that this guy was one of the obstacles that was trying to keep the status quo. She had him resign. At the end of the day this story will be a positive for Sarah as it will show just how much opposition she had to deal with to keep the budget small. Another media effort blows up in their face. Sarah showed her character by not releasing these memos to try to protect this guy from the embarassment of having the whole nation see what he did. He can thank the Democrats for the truth coming out.
To make a bold statement that someone is a wife-beater is slander, unless you note that your statement is your own judgment informed by such-and-such, and the level of that such-and-such should be more than a rumor, more than a bad word during a contested legal proceeding. Thanks for asking snarytart to give some supporting evidence.
It’s slander. Yep.
End of story. The Governor can dismiss such an appointee simply for a “loss of confidence”. It would appear that he went well beyond that and was overtly testing his
“employer's” authority (As a political appointee he served at her “pleasure”).
The MSM has been giving the impression that he was a career civil service-type employee and entitled to due process over his dismissal. This whole thing is therefore total BS. End of story.
If this is the case, then I don't understand why this is a story. She could fire him if she didn't like his tie. Whether she fired him because he was insubordinate on the budget or because he wouldn't fire someone seems irrelevant.
You can take whatever advice you want. Slander is “the malicious utterance of defamatory reports; the dissemination of malicious tales or suggestions to the injury of another” according to one dictionary.
Exactly. Excerpt from the Anchorage Daily News, 7/12/08:
This is not the first time Monegan has lost his job. In 2006, Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich asked him to leave his post as Anchorage police chief early, although Monegan was willing to stay on another year. At the time, Begich had just won re-election and was restructuring department leadership.
Monegan joked that he’s “getting a complex,” but said the kinds of jobs he’s had lately are ones where you serve at the pleasure of your boss.
“They can call me in and say, you know, ‘I don’t like your hair; you’re fired,’ “ Monegan said.
For now, deputy public safety commissioner John Glass is filling Monegan’s old job. The governor plans to announce a new commissioner — selected from a short list of candidates — later this week, Leighow said.
The governor offered Monegan a different job, as executive director of the state Alcoholic Beverage Control Board. He turned it down.
http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/463204.html
Go get ‘em, Governor Palin! Make the media have to eat every vile thing they’ve said about you and your family! Give the SOBs hell, Sarahcudda!
Interesting - from ADN. Sounds to me like Monegan believed something else was the reason for his firing at the time:
Among the e-mails released was a farewell note by Monegan. In it, he suggested the governor had reason to believe she had lost his support, and he urged his former colleagues to communicate better with her.
“For anyone to lead effectively they must have the support of their team, and I had waited too long outside her door for her to believe that I supported her,” he wrote. “Please, choose a different path.”
Palin PWNED the media. Bush could learn a thing or two about how to smack down the liberal media.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.