AUGUSTA, Maine - Gov. Paul LePage continues to vow that he will not appoint anyone to fill empty seats on the state Board of Corrections, unless the county jail system operates within its budget.
Maine lawmakers on several committees have been working over the past few days on a way to end the stand-off.
Some county commissioners say they have found people willing to serve on the Board of Corrections, which can't meet until it has a quorum. Democratic Rep. Lori Fowle, the Augusta House chair of the Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee, says if LePage won't appoint them, it may be time for legislators to step in.
"I think we have to keep that in mind, and do have to have that conversation, as to what we want to do as a committee so that the counties aren't struggling at the level that they are," Fowle said.
And the county jails are struggling, says Ryan Thornell, the outgoing executive director of the board, who told lawmakers that a full-blown crisis could be only a couple of months away, as the 15 jails need $2.5 million in additional funding to maintain operations through June.
Rep. John Martin, of Eagle Lake, is among those weighing the possibility of crafting an emergency bill that would grant the Legislature the power to appoint members to the Board of Corrections. Martin says that a prolonged standoff will leave the cash-strapped jails with few options.
"I've indicated to the county commissioners in Aroostook to start planning on throwing people out of jail and put them on the streets," Martin said. "In Aroostook County we're running out of money in about two months, and there is no money to make it up."
"The governor has been very clear, and it's been very apparent, that this is a broken system," says Adrienne Bennett, the governor's press secretary. Bennett says LePage is discouraged by the county jail system run by the Board of Corrections, and would prefer to see either the state assume control of the facilities or full authority for jail operations transferred back to the individual counties.
That's the system that existed prior to 2008, when the board was created by Democratic Gov. John Baldacci. Bennett says LePage is convinced that the board's repeated requests for supplemental budget allocations are evidence that the current system isn't working.
"There are millions of dollars that are going into a system and there's no accountability," Bennett says, "so we need to find a better way to manage it and that needs to happen through one entity - not two - counties are running it, the state is offering as well to bail them out and it simply isn't effective. It's not effective and it's not the way that the system should be run."
One of the only two existing members of the state Board of Corrections, Sagadahoc County Sheriff Joel Merry, acknowledges that the road to a unified system has not been smooth. But he also told members of the Appropriations Committee that many of the problems facing the panel have been resolved through legislation approved last spring. Unfortunately, the board can't implement the changes because it doesn't have enough members to function.
"The work that's been done over the last six months, bringing county managers together, sitting at the table with sheriffs and jail administrators, working on those rules," Merry said. "I have a document here of the proposed rules - it's a half-an-inch thick."
If lawmakers and the governor can't reach agreement on how to fill the current board vacancies, the state may have to take over operation of the county jails, says Democratic state Sen. Stan Gerzofsky, of Brunswick.
"Taking control and treating them like the courts, where the counties get to keep the asset and we pay rent and they would have the responsibility of taking care of the maintenance and stuff - that might be a solution," Gerzofsky said.
In the meantime, lawmakers will continue to huddle to find a legislative option that would withstand a possible veto from the governor.