OPINION: Labrador’s ethical ground floor is in the basement

Once may not be a habit. But twice? You have to wonder.

Case in point: Idaho Attorney General Raul Labrador’s sweetheart deals with politically wired subordinates.

As reported by Kyle Pfannenstiel of the Idaho Capital Sun, Deputy Attorney General Steven Olsen walked away with a cool $26,416 in unused vacation hours — even though he never left Labrador’s employ.

Olsen is the brother of Maria Nate, Idaho state director for the State Freedom Caucus Network, and brother-in-law to Ron Nate, president of the Idaho Freedom Foundation. Their extreme right-wing politics align with Labrador’s.

Here’s guessing Olsen got into hot water with his boss after supporting Labrador’s 2022 GOP primary rival, then-Attorney General Lawrence Wasden, with a $1,750 campaign contribution. In any event, when Labrador took office, Olsen — a veteran of more than 18 years — was out as civil litigation division chief as of March 3, 2023, a Friday.

But the following Tuesday, March 7, 2023, Olsen was back at work — earning about 22% less — serving as the attorney general’s counsel at the Idaho Transportation Department.

Labrador’s explanation — that Olsen was entitled to the payout because he left the office and then later decided to return — is belied by a Feb. 3 news release announcing the seamless transfer and Olsen’s decision “to stay with the office.”

Nor did Labrador approach the Board of Examiners — the panel he serves on with Gov. Brad Little, Secretary of State Phil McGrane and State Controller Brandon Woolf — to authorize the payout.

The move is questionable enough that the head of the Division of Human Resources — Administrator Janelle White — told Pfannenstiel it would not have happened but for the fact that Labrador is a constitutional officer.

“We never see a state employee choose a break in service of just one day and stay with the same agency or office in a different role, in order to receive a vacation payout,” she said. “This would not be approved under any circumstances within the agencies (the Division of Human Resources) serves.”

Olsen’s payout stands out in other ways.

It exceeds the $5,000 cap on recruitment and retention bonuses as well as the $2,000 cap on performance bonuses.

It’s the maximum he could receive under the state accrual limit of 336 hours or 42 eight-hour work days.

It amounts to the sixth largest vacation payout in recent memory. Among the big checks are those issued to people who actually left state employment, such as former Idaho State University President Kevin Satterlee, who got $50,994; former attorney general consumer affairs watchdog Brett DeLange, who received $23,672; or Nicole McKay, the attorney general office’s former chief of staff, who collected $23,518.

Out of 900 employees who took a vacation payout, only 20 later returned to state employment — often on a temporary basis — and always “after an extended period of time,” White said.

“Separating an employee for one day for the purpose of receiving a vacation payout and immediately hiring them back to the same office or agency is not consistent with state of Idaho employment practices,” White said. “This never happens in the agencies under the (Division of Human Resource’s) purview and would not have been approved under any circumstances.”

But in Labrador’s office, it does happen.

The Olsen saga comes on the heels of the revelation in the Idaho Statesman in late 2023 about a former state senator collecting not only a generous paycheck in Labrador’s shop but another nearly $16,000 in overtime pay he had no right to.

Former Sen. Mitch Toryanski, R-Boise — who had the good sense to contribute $250 to Labrador’s winning campaign — collected $78.62 an hour for four months of temporary work. Annualized, that amounted to a $163,000 salary — more than the governor made.

As a professional attorney, Toryanski should not have been eligible for 119 hours of overtime pay. For that to happen required a series of lapses with Labrabor’s office up to and including failure to seek the Board of Examiners’ approval. Controller Woolf’s office said it “appeared to be a mistake” but accepted it was “not the result of any fraud, waste or abuse.”

In any event, it appears Toryanski got to keep the cash.

The irony here is that Labrador’s own Idaho Ethics In Government Manual talks about setting “a ground floor for conduct by public officials. Proper analysis of ethical statutes should not be for ‘loopholes’ or ‘technicalities’ by which one can take advantage of government, the public, or other interested parties. If your analysis requires that you find a ‘loophole’ within Idaho’s ethical statutes, then your conduct is likely unethical. Ethics for public officials is also tricky for another reason. Within public service, there are often two courts: the traditional legal system, and the court of public opinion. A win in one does not guarantee a win in the other.”

Ground floor? That’s a joke when your attorney general operates at a subterranean level. — M.T.