MAT-SU — Gov. Sarah Palin admits some members of her staff made contact with the Department of Public Safety about Palmer-based Alaska State Trooper Mike Wooten.

In a press conference Wednesday, Palin said that some members of her staff made about “two dozen” contacts to DPS about Wooten, who is involved in a child custody battle with Palin’s sister. The Wooten situation is also at the center of an investigation by state lawmakers about whether the governor used her position improperly to urge the Department of Public Safety to fire the trooper.

Wooten became a central figure recently after Palin ousted former DPS Commissioner Walt Monegan. Monegan said after his firing that he felt pressured by the Palin family and some in her administration to fire Wooten. “I now have to tell Alaskans that such pressure could have been perceived to exist, although I have only now become aware of it,” Palin said Wednesday.

In an e-mail to the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sent Thursday afternoon, Palin reiterated that she did not direct anyone on her staff to contact the Department of Public Safety.

“It is my assumption that some of the calls placed to the department may have been made because of personal concern for the well-being of my family,” Palin said.

She added that when she was elected the DPS was made aware of threats Palin said Wooten made against the First Family, which is standard procedure. Several of Palin’s senior staffers were aware of her family’s personal concerns about Wooten, she said.

“It is my understanding that the bulk of the calls came from my chief of staff [Mike Tibbles], whose job it is to follow up on policy, procedures and issues facing the governor,” Palin said. Attorney General Talis Colberg also called Monegan to discuss the process followed should a state trooper make death threats against the First Family.

“Many of these inquires were completely appropriate,” Palin said.

The announcement that some staffers contacted DPS contradicts previous claims by Palin that her administration did not put pressure on anyone in the department to fire Wooten.

Palin said she was unaware of calls to public safety officials at the time they were made and only learned about them after Colberg began an investigation at her request into details about her firing of Monegan.

That may be true in at least one case. Palin’s director of boards and commissions, Frank Bailey, admitted he put pressure on to have Wooten fired, but said he did not act on behalf of Palin or her husband, Todd, when he called AST Lt. Rodney Dial to press the Wooten matter.

“There was never any direction by the governor, never any direction by Todd, to make the call or to make any call to DPS on this stuff,” Bailey said.

Todd Palin became a figure in the Monegan controversy after Monegan said publicly that he met with the First Gentleman multiple times about the Wooten issue, saying it added to the pressure he claims the Palins were putting on him.

Todd Palin refuted Monegan’s claim during the Governor’s Picnic in Wasilla on July 18, saying he only met with Monegan once to give him information about Wooten.

Bailey added that he’d been concerned about Wooten “flying off the handle” since Palin mentioned the matter shortly after her November 2006 election to office. That was the only time he has heard Palin talk about Wooten.

Colberg’s investigation was reportedly ordered by Palin after state Sen. Hollis French talked to The Wall Street Journal about possible impeachment. Colberg said he would turn over all the documents from his own investigation to Steve Branchflower, the former prosecutor hired to investigate Palin’s firing of Monegan.

But to outgoing state Sen. Lyda Green, R-Wasilla, who said she’s not running for re-election because of differences with the governor, Palin’s admission that her staff put pressure on the DPS regarding Wooten, but that she had no knowledge of it, is a little too convenient.

“I think you will continue to find people who will sacrifice themselves for the governor,” Green said, adding that the number of phone calls from administration staff seems a little high for governor not to have known about them.

“I think there are far too many calls to be a coincidence,” Green said.

Palin has maintained she did not pressure Monegan to fire Wooten, nor did anyone on her staff. During an interview on Anchorage radio station KWHL Thursday, Palin said Monegan never expressed to her a feeling of being bombarded by pressure to take action against Wooten. Palin hired Monegan shortly after she won office in 2006.

Green said she heard about the Palin family’s differences with Wooten years ago before Palin became governor, and has continued hearing about them since. She said putting people under oath to find out what they know about the situation is the best way to end the rumors and speculation.

“If they’re required to tell the truth, you’ll get a better picture,” Green said.

Rep. Carl Gatto, R-Palmer, said he agrees an official proceeding is necessary to get the facts about the controversy out and put an end to rampant speculation.

“It’s really sketchy to me,” Gatto said of the situation’s details. “I’m sure there are claims and counterclaims.”

Gatto added that while he knows Branchflower, the man hired to investigate Palin’s firing of Monegan, he wishes the Legislature would have hired someone from out-of-state. Whether or not Palin staffers may be taking the fall for the governor’s alleged actions, as Green asserts, is unclear to Gatto.

“I think if you’re crazy about your boss you would do something like that,” Gatto said.

Gatto also said the media coverage of the Palin-Monegan ordeal has stoked detractors of the governor and given them reason to use the issue as a talking point.

“I think anybody who would have voted against her would be vindicated by saying, ‘I told you so, time for an impeachment,’” Gatto said.

As for talk of impeachment, Gatto said he thinks the situation is far from that.

“There has never been the word ‘impeach’ that has been mentioned that I’ve heard,” Gatto said. “My God, we haven’t even seen anything impeachable.”

Contact Michael Rovito at michael.rovito@frontiersman.com or 352-2252.