Palin's $1.3 Million Blunder

Right-wing Republicans would have us believe that Sarah Palin has real "executive" experience. To back this up, they point to her being the mayor of a city with 19,000 citizens and less than two years as the governor of one of our least populous states. Even if she had run both brilliantly, that doesn't seem like much "executive" experience. But her record is far from brilliant.

We already know that in her first year and a half as a governor, she has serious ethical problems with the "troopergate" scandal. Now it looks like her term as mayor wasn't much better. Her incompetent blunder as mayor cost the tiny town of Wasilla $1.3 million. That's a lot of money for a small city!

Wasilla wanted to build a new indoor hockey rink (which could also be used for basketball and would have a running track). It finally got built and is pictured above, but only after spending a lot of extra money and going through a court fight (part of which is still pending and could cost the city even more).

Mayor Palin made a verbal agreement with the Nature Conservancy to buy the land for the hockey rink at a price of $126,000. The Nature Conservancy wanted to sell the land so they could put the money into another area needing environmental protection. Then Mayor Palin let several months pass without getting the deal down on paper and signed.

Finally, the Nature Conservancy gave up on the deal and sold the land to someone else (along with a larger adjoining tract). The city got upset. They claimed they had a deal, even though nothing had been put on paper and signed.

After two court fights and $250,000 spent on lawyers and legal fees, the city finally got the land. But they had to pay the new owner $836,378 plus $336,000 in interest. The seller is not happy with the interest amount and has returned to court to have it raised. That case has not yet been decided.

So just because Mayor Palin was too incompetent to get a contract typed up and signed (after several months), the city wound up paying $1,422,378 for land they could have had for $126,000 (and may still have to pay more).

I don't think I'd be bragging about this kind of "executive" experience.