HELENA – Staff members for the Montana commissioner of political practices accuse the state’s campaign ethics chief of improperly conducting private business from his state office, an ethical violation, while Dave Gallik counters the arrangement was always a part of his appointment and he plans to stay in the job.
All four permanent staff members in the office told the Great Falls Tribune that Gallik, a former Democratic state legislator, spends much of his time doing work for his private law practice.
“Dave Gallik has been committing ethics violations since he got here,” said Mary Baker, program supervisor for the commissioner’s office. “He has been doing private-practice attorney work in the commissioner’s office since the day he walked in.”
Gallik told The Associated Press on Tuesday that he plans to continue in the post for at least another year, despite the dispute, so he and the staffers will have to keep working together.
Gallik said he will still make the office function, although he acknowledged it may be a “chilly” work environment with more specific job reporting by all staffers who he believes are trying to drive him from the post for personal reasons.
“It’s not going to be easy, certainly, from a personal perspective. But from a professional perspective, we don’t have to be friends. We just have to do our jobs,” Gallik said. “Can I work with them going forward? Yes. Is there going to be accountability from everybody? Absolutely.”
Gallik was appointed last May by Gov. Brian Schweitzer after a Republican-led Senate scuttled Schweitzer’s previous appointment to the post.
Gallik said it was never a secret that he would be continuing his private law practice in Helena. He said there is nothing illegal with it and argues the employees are unhappy with him because he has a different management style than past commissioners.
He said Republicans made it clear last year they would not confirm Schweitzer’s past appointment, so he entered the job with the understanding he would not get an appointment himself when the 2013 Legislature convenes.
“I can’t do legal work from the political office. I know that. But I can do political work from the legal office, and I do,” Gallik told The Associated Press on Tuesday. “Necessarily, I have to work remotely from my law office, and I do quite a bit.”
But the staff said there are inconsistencies on Gallik’s time sheets in which he is writing down hours working for the state at times it is clear he has not been. Gallik counters it is not an hourly job, which pays a salary of $57,689 per year, and he often works late from his office getting both jobs done.
Baker — along with fellow staff members Julie Steab, Kym Trujillo and Karen Musgrave — said Gallik isn’t spending enough time doing the job he was appointed to do and has been ineffective. There have been emails from his state account regarding private practice work, and they said they have seen private practice case accounts on Gallik’s desk at the commissioner’s office.
The women referred questions Tuesday to a lawyer, who said he was hired just in case there is a reprisal for speaking out — although there has been none yet.
“At this moment in time, we don’t have any reason to believe there will be any retaliation,” said Helena lawyer Thomas Budewitz.
The employees said they took their complaints to the governor’s office, since he made the appointment. The governor can remove a commissioner “only for incompetence, malfeasance, or neglect of duty” according to state law — a decision that would be subject to judicial review.
Both Steab and Baker said they received a sympathetic audience with the governor’s staff.
Gallik said Schweitzer’s chief of staff, Vivian Hammill, advised him to keep legal work to his law office — and asked him to try to get along with his staff.
The governor’s office issued a statement supportive of the work done by Gallik.
“The governor is aware that, just like many Montanans, Gallik works two jobs,” Schweitzer spokeswoman Sarah Elliott said. “The governor’s chief of staff did speak to him about how to properly account for his state time. Commissioner Gallik’s work product speaks for itself.”