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Trooper union asks for Palin e-mails

by Rebecca Palsha
Monday, August 18, 2008

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- There was more friction Monday between the Alaska State Troopers and the governor's office.

Gov. Sarah Palin is already embattled over her decision to fire Walt Monegan, her former public safety commissioner. Now the troopers union has new questions about contract negotiations.

The union says if it doesn't get answers they may file suit.

Palin's office says it will take several months to put together all the information the union is asking for. Her administration also says lawsuit threats will not affect the Department of Law's decision.

The Department of Law has a lot on its plate these days.

"This is a decision that's going to be made on basis on the law," Palin spokesman Bill McAllister said. "We're simply going to look at this material and see what legally can be released and should be released and what cannot be -- and it's really that simple."

In an open records request from the Public Safety Employees Association, the union asks for copies of every e-mail from the Palin administration with subjects or titles like "bargain," "PSEA negotiations" and more.

"Hopefully the body of that e-mail will be forthcoming," said union leader John Cyr. "If it's not, you know, we are prepared to go to court."

The e-mails go back to 2007 when the administration was in contract negotiations with the union.

It was just last week when Frank Bailey, the governor's director of boards and commissions, was caught on tape pressing a state trooper about those negotiations.

"We'll see which way this develops," Cyr said. "Clearly if the administration was mining our membership for details around bargaining outside of the table -- if they were in direct contact with any of our members, that's problematic."

McAllister says there shouldn't be any assumption that the administration is withholding material.

Palin's office says it's working to release some of those e-mails but says not every one of them will be made public citing executive privilege.

Executive privilege exists so that employees can feel free to have open discussions with each other without fear that their comments could come back and embarrass them later, according to the administration.

Courts have backed up this interpretation at the local and national level, McAllister said, adding that the administration believes the public safety union hasn't been forthcoming, either.

"PSEA is not offering to provide the public or the administration with all of its internal documents during the period the negotiations were going on," McAllister said. "Maybe that would be a step in the right direction, too."

The next step will be releasing dozens of e-mails. But don't expect them anytime soon.

The governor's office says the new contract that was negotiated this past July and it's the single largest pay increase in 17 years.

Contact Rebecca Palsha at rpalsha@ktuu.com