LEGISLATIVE ETHICS PANEL TAKES INITIAL STEPS TOWARD INVESTIGATING LEPAGE HEARING OFFICER MEETING

AUGUSTA — On Friday morning, the Legislature’s Government Oversight Committee voted unanimously to ask the Office of Program Evaluation and Government Accountability (OPEGA) to gather information from federal investigators and the governor’s Blue Ribbon Commission before launching an investigation.

The Committee asked OPEGA to determine if federal investigators and the governor’s Blue Ribbon Commission are investigating whether hearing officers have been unduly or improperly influenced, and if so, the time frame for the inquiry, and whether the results can be shared with the committee.

Pending the responses to these questions, the committee will then decided whether to request a formal investigation by OPEGA.

“This is an opportunity for us to take politics out of this situation,” said Senator Emily Ann Cain (D-Orono), the Senate Chair of the committee. “Right now, all the information we have is from the media, which makes many lawmakers uncomfortable. OPEGA will lend integrity and confidence to this complex situation, which is larger than one person. This isn’t about the governor; it’s about integrity and confidence in government.”

According to media reports and email correspondence. LePage pressured unemployment hearing officers at the Department of Labor to decide more unemployment-benefit cases in favor of business owners. Media reports have included email quotes obtained through Maine’s Freedom of Access Act (FOAA) revealing concerns from multiple attendees of “political pressure/bias” being injected into the “quasi-judicial process within the Maine Department of Labor.”

In a formal letter to the committee, House Chair Rep. Chuck Kruger (D-Thomaston) requested the review to “sort rumor from fact.”

“The public deserves to know what took place at that March 21 meeting,” said Rep. Kruger during the committee hearing. “The public deserves a quick answer to a simple question: were the hearing officers unduly influenced? OPEGA can take the partisanship out of this.”

Administrative hearing officers, like judges, are required by federal law to be impartial adjudicators and follow federal due process procedures. If true, LePage’s actions undermine the National Department of Labor’s requirement for unemployment hearings to be an impartial tribunal.

According to the Maine Criminal Code Title 17A, Section 758,  obstruction of governmental administration, including intimidation, is a Class D crime.

OPEGA will report back to the Government Oversight Committee on May 10.

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