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Attorney General Dan Sullivan is carrying on with former Gov. Sarah Palin's campaign against Alaska's government ethics laws, criticizing what he called abuse of the system and issuing a report Wednesday identifying changes he said could "enhance the integrity of the process."

At press conference held in Anchorage on Wednesday that was accessible by teleconference to media elsewhere, Sullivan criticized information releases in ethics cases and suggested tighter confidentiality rules, and reimbursement for public officials who are cleared.

He also said the state should consider giving the Personnel Board, which hears ethics complaints, authority to order reimbursement of fees and costs from people who file complaints they know to be false.

"I would not call that a penalty, I would call that shifting the balance," Sullivan said.

Legislators watching the process said they were reluctant to make changes to ethics laws, especially so soon after the end of the controversial Palin administration.

"The Palin administration was one of the most secretive administrations ever, and that alone causes problems," said Sen. Bert Stedman, R-Sitka.

Palin resigned July 26, saying one of the reasons was the cost to both the state and her personally of multiple ethics complaints made against her.

She repeatedly called those complaints "frivolous," but the most expensive investigation centered around an investigation into allegations she, her husband and her staff had sought to fire her former brother-in-law, a state trooper, who had gone through a bitter divorce with Palin's sister.

A legislative investigation found Palin had abused her power in the matter, while a separate executive branch investigation she sought found no wrongdoing.

Among the conclusions reached in Sullivan's opinion was that public officials who are exonerated in ethics proceedings can be reimbursed for their legal expenses.

Palin said she personally spent more than a half million dollars defending herself against ethics complaints.

Sullivan's report said that reimbursement is allowed under current law when certain conditions are met.

To be reimbursed for defense expenses, a public official would have to be exonerated, they would have had to be acting within the scope of their employment, the expenses would have to be reasonable, and there would have to be a money source.

It's not clear whether the administration of Gov. Sean Parnell would seek to reimburse Palin, or whether Sullivan believed some or all of Palin's ethics cases met the criteria he'd outlined. Sullivan took only limited questions before ending the teleconference.

Sullivan also suggested that complainants who abuse the act by knowingly bringing false complaints be charged for the cost.

Rep. Beth Kerttula, D-Juneau, said she feared such a provision might be used against people bringing valid complaints, or ones they thought were valid even if they were eventually dismissed.

"You don't want to deter people," she said. "You do not want to have a chilling effect on people's right to question their elected officials."

Rep. Jay Ramras, R-Fairbanks, said he'd be reluctant to change Alaska ethics laws again, after adopting a tough new law at Palin's request two years ago, but, added, "I hold the attorney general in very high regard."

Ramras chairs the House Judiciary Committee, and said he intends to vote to confirm Sullivan as attorney general later.

"That being said, he lacks a little bit of institutional history in this subject. It was the previous governor that wanted to make many changes to ethics laws, and we followed that direction pretty explicitly," he said.

Stedman agreed it was too soon to take action.

"It's nice to let things settle down before you start drawing conclusions," he said.

Sullivan also suggested that people bringing complaints should be barred from speaking publicly about them, but said he was not proposing amending the ethics act to include civil or criminal penalties, as some have suggested.

"We think amendments along these lines would raise First Amendment concerns," he said, and said other ways to require confidentiality should be found.

Under the separate Legislative Ethics Act, complaints against legislators are automatically dismissed if the complainant speaks publicly about them.

Sullivan also said ways should be found to prevent leaks of preliminary reports, such as one which was recently provided to The Associated Press.

He said that resulted in "news reports that completely got it wrong." The report was preliminary, and its release "significantly prejudiced" the investigation.

• Contact reporter Pat Forgey at 523-2250 or by e-mail at patrick.forgey@juneauempire.com.