AUGUSTA, Maine — Gov. Paul LePage’s chief legal counsel, Cynthia Montgomery, has written the Legislature's Government Oversight Committee saying two members the governor's staff must "respectfully decline" an invitation to appear before the panel next week because of a pending lawsuit.
A recent fact-finding report concluded that the LePage administration withheld money from Good Will-Hinckley after learning that the private school hired Democratic House Speaker Mark Eves. The board of the school later rescinded Eves' job offer.
Now, members of the Government Oversight panel want to know more about the events leading up to Eves' dismissal and about the decision to withhold money. They also want to question LePage administration staff about any related internal communications.
"We are in uncharted waters here where one branch of government has decided it doesn't want to have its people coming before a legislative committee," says Augusta Sen. Roger Katz, a Republican, co-chairs the panel.
In her letter, Montgomery says because the committee wants to get information about issues also raised in a federal lawsuit brought by Eves against the governor, staff will not participate in the hearing.
That disturbs the panel's co-chairman, Democratic Rep. Chuck Kruger of Thomaston.
"We understand that the governor faces a lawsuit as a private citizen, but what's at stake here is much bigger than that: the integrity of our political system," he says in a written statement.
The panel could subpoena the governor's staff members to testify, an option that worries members of both parties.
"I don't know whether the Committee will even consider subpoenas, it will take a majority vote of the committee to even do that," Katz says. "And then of course, any witness who is issued a subpoena can go to court in an attempt to quash that subpoena."
And that could lead to prolonged legal arguments that would likely end up before the state Supreme Court given the nature of the subpoenas, that is, one branch of government seeking to compel members from another branch of government to testify before them.
Windham Sen. Bill Diamond, a Democrat and longtime member of the Legislature, says he has never seen a situation like this one and he hopes it does not come to the Government Oversight Committee having to issue subpoenas to members of the governor's staff.
"I for one would hope that we didn't have to, have to use that, have to exercise that piece," he says. "I think it is important that the governor's office and his legal counsel in particular understand that this is very serious, we take it very serious, it's a bipartisan effort."
In her letter, Montgomery offers to try to answer any specific questions, but Diamond says that is not a substitute for the give and take of a committee hearing.
"Oftentimes if not most times when you are a committee member and you ask a question, you hear someone else ask one and it leads to further inquiries and further questions arise as a result of it so to make it complete, it really does need to be a face to face," Diamond says.
The committee is meeting next week and will likely discuss the governor's response to request and options for proceeding.
