Lawmakers created a Blue Ribbon Commission to look at funding for Maine’s educational system, from kindergarten through college. But at Gov. Paul LePage’s insistence, the first meeting was held in private at the Blaine House.
The attorney general’s office says that’s a violation of the state’s open meetings law.
Members of the Legislature’s Education Committee, the Maine Education Association, the Maine School Management Association and reporters were turned away from the first meeting of the commission held at the Blaine House Monday morning. They were told they were not invited by LePage.
But the commission was created by the Legislature, and the state’s open meetings law is clear: Any meetings of any group created by the Legislature must be open to the public.
In an email to MPBN, Attorney General Janet Mills backed that up.
“I know of no exemption,” she wrote.
House Republican Leader Ken Fredette of Newport sponsored the bill that created the commission. He says the open meetings law is important and it was it was not his intention that the first meeting be private.
“To the extent that that wasn’t followed today, obviously I had no control over that,” he says. “But to the extent, that going forward, there have been assurances that these meetings will be open.”
Fredette says there was confusion leading up to the meeting about whether it was a formal meeting of the commission or an informal discussion over breakfast with the governor highlighting education issues the group will explore. But the agenda sent to members of the group by the chairman, Deputy Education Commissioner Bill Beardsley, clearly labeled the session as “the first meeting of the group.”
“It should have been an open meeting,” says Rob Walker, executive director of the Maine Education Association, who was one of those turned away at the Blaine House gate. “We think it fits in the FOIA law and it should have been a public meeting over there for anybody that wanted to attend and I think it violated our access, public access.”
Walker says Tayla Edlund, the 2016 Maine Teacher of the Year, serves on the commission and members of MEA wanted to attend the meeting to assist her with any research she might need as part of the commission’s work.
Fredette says what is important is the commission’s work and going forward that it be done in public.
“Going forward the most important piece is we make sure those meetings are open and that we have those in a transparent way,” he says.
Two Democratic members of the commission — Sen. Justin Alfond of Portland, the Senate Democratic Leader and Rep. Sara Gideon of Freeport, the assistant House Majority Leader — say they protested the closed meeting but were rebuffed by the governor.
“This entire commission is about public education,” Gideon says. “Every member of the public should be able to weigh in should they want to.”
Both Gideon and Alfond say they will not participate in any future meetings that are closed, although they attended the Blaine House meeting to hear what was said. They and Fredette say they have been assured future meetings will be held in public.
But when that question was put to the governor’s office, Press Secretary Adrienne Bennett issued a statement criticizing the MEA and the media. She says the Blaine House meeting was “an informal, get-to-know-you gathering in a relaxed setting” before the commission gets down to work.
At the request of reporters the Department of Education released several different reports provided to members of the commission. They totaled more than 60 pages.
