Docs detailing Palin's CSU speaking fee were shredded

Here is Sarah Palin's speaking contract with the Washington Speaker's Bureau for a speech she contracted to give at a California University.

(Courtesy of California Watch.)

By Lance Williams

When it began, the ruckus over Sarah Palin's speaking fee at the state university in Turlock - and the school's attempts to keep it secret -had a comic undertone.

But matters are quickly becoming deadly serious for the educators at CSU Stanislaus who have been resisting pressure from state Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, to make public Palin's contract for a speech at a June fundraiser.

Now, Yee says he has proof that employees of the university have been shredding public documents about Palin's speech. The lawmaker and the CSU students who found the evidence will take it to the attorney general's office in Sacramento today.

"This is in fact a dark day for the CSU, particularly for the Stanislaus campus," Yee said at a press conference this morning. "To some extent, this is our little Watergate here in California."

In letters to Yee and to two First Amendment groups, CSU Stanislaus had claimed it has no relevant documents about the speech, which was booked by the university's Stanislaus Foundation.
California Watch learned that Yee's office was contacted last week by students who said they had seen university personnel taking bags of shredded documents from the offices occupied by the university foundation to the dumpster.


What's in the contract?:

It begins by saying the extra provisions are necessary because of her "high profile" and "professional endeavors." It requires first class airfare for two, non-restricted coach for two more people (or a private jet), SUV's on the ground a Luxury hotels.