OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE TO AWAIT RESULTS OF FEDERAL INVESTIGATION

AUGUSTA— The Government Oversight Committee on Friday morning agreed to await a report back from the Federal Government on its investigation of allegations that Governor Paul LePage and officials from the Maine Department of Labor exerted political pressure on unemployment hearing officers during a meeting at the Blaine House in March.

At this morning’s committee meeting, OPEGA (Office of Program Evaluation and Government Accountability) Director Beth Ashcroft reported that the scope of the federal investigation includes the March 21, 2013 meeting Gov. LePage called with the hearing officers, that the investigation will be completed in the coming weeks, and that a formal letter with the results will be issued to the State and a copy sent to Director Ashcroft.

The Government Oversight Committee Chairs Senator Emily Ann Cain (D-Orono) and Rep. Chuck Kruger (D-Thomaston) issued the following statement after this morning’s committee meeting:

“We are glad to know the federal Department of Labor is investigating the March meeting, including interviews of the hearing officers. At this point, we believe they are conducting the kind of investigation we would ask OPEGA to do, and that they are giving this investigation priority and full-time attention. We will continue to closely monitor the situation in the coming months, and anxiously await the report from the federal investigators. At this time, we reserve our ability to investigate until we see the results of the federal investigation.”

According to media reports and email correspondence, Gov. LePage pressured unemployment hearing officers at the Department of Labor to decide more unemployment-benefit cases in favor of business owners at a March meeting at the Blaine House. 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 sent to the Government Oversight Committee last month, Rep. Kruger requested an investigation to “sort rumor from fact.”

At the April 26 meeting, the committee voted to ask 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.

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