Money & Politics | Daily Report

The quest to uncover the secret of Sarah Palin’s speaking fee in Turlock has become a case for California’s top cop.

A state lawmaker claimed Wednesday that he has “smoking gun” proof that educators at CSU Stanislaus are deliberately hiding public documents that reveal how much they agreed to pay Palin for a speech at an upcoming gala fundraiser.

Photo by Bruce TutenSarah Palin stumps for Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., in December 2008.

Their alleged stonewalling is so egregious, said state Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, that he has asked Attorney General Jerry Brown “to investigate this violation of the public trust.”

Jim Finefrock, the attorney general's communications director, said the AG's office was looking into the matter.

At issue is a speech that Palin, former GOP vice presidential candidate and darling of the tea party movement, was booked to deliver at an event June 25, 50th anniversary of the founding of the school.

Yee suspects Palin is being paid more than $100,000. But Palin, who has become notoriously skittish about her personal privacy since she became a national celebrity, doesn't want anybody to know. According to Palin’s speech contract, the university foundation, which set up the event, is required to keep her fee a secret.

University President Hamid Shirvani has said the school itself has nothing to do with Palin’s speech.

But Shirvani is also president of the foundation. And Yee says the university can't use the foundation as a dodge to avoid following state law.

Yee says it's illegal for state agencies to enter into confidentiality agreements about the spending of public funds. He also contends that the state’s open records law applies not just to CSU Stanislaus, but to the foundation as well.

Last week, the lawmaker and two good-government groups, the California First Amendment Coalition and Californians Aware, filed records requests with the university and the foundation, seeking every single document they had about the Palin event.

In response, campus compliance officer Gina Leguria told Californians Aware, “The University has no documents that are responsive to your request.”

That’s preposterous, Yee said.

The lawmaker said he had independently obtained a copy of one university document on the subject – an email sent to everybody on campus to “clear up any confusion and extinguish rumors” about Palin’s speech, as its author, University Vice President Susana Gajic-Bruyea, put it.

Gajic-Bruyea, who is also executive officer of the foundation, wrote that “no tax dollars” would be used to pay Palin.

Yee is deeply suspicious about that claim. But in the event, he says that e-mails should obviously have been disclosed in response to the records request.

“The university’s claim of no documentation was inconceivable, and now there is a smoking gun,” he said in a statement. “What other documents and correspondence are they hiding?”

Officials who deliberately violate the records law can be prosecuted and fined. Their agencies also can be required to pay legal fees for people who are wrongly denied access to public records.

CSU Stanislaus officials couldn’t be reached for comment. The school’s public affairs office is furloughed all week.

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