Attorney General Janet Mills has confirmed that she plans to take the unusual step of filing a complaint in state court over a closed meeting held by a special commission on education funding.
Lawmakers created the Blue Ribbon Commission to look at a number of issues affecting Maine’s educational system. But at Gov. Paul LePage’s insistence, the first meeting was held in private at the Blaine House. He characterized it as a chance for members to get to know each other. Members of the Legislature’s Education Committee, the Maine Education Association, the Maine School Management Association and the news media were barred. But as a public body created by the legislature, meetings of the Commission have to be open, and Legislative leaders on both sides of the aisle objected to the closed meeting. Senate Minority Leader Justin Alfond, a Portland democrat and a member of the Commission vowed not to attend another meeting unless it was open. At his recent town meeting in Boothbay Harbor, Governor LePage announced Attorney General Janet Mills’ plan to file a legal challenge to that closed meeting. LePage says it appears to him that mills is bowing to pressure from House Speaker Mark Eves, a political rival of the Governor.
“When it first happened she said oh there is nothing here, I am not going to sue them,” LePage says. “But the Speaker of the House, I am told, and I am repeating this as I am told, the Speaker of the House has been lobbying hard to sue the administration. It’s a $500 fine. Give me a break.”
LePage says the taxpayers will be on the losing end..as they have to pay both the legal fees for the AG’s office and the Commission as well as whatever fine might actually be assessed by the court. Eves says he simply sent a letter to Mills asking that the law be enforced.
“We’ve asked the Attorney General to enforce the laws that are on the books currently so that the public does have access to these meetings,” Eves says.
Mills has confirmed that she plans to file a complaint against the Commission for holding the closed meeting, but declined to be interviewed on why she is taking action in this case. Portland Attorney Sig Schutz with Preti-Flaherty, often represents news media organizations in open meetings and public records cases. Schutz says he cannot recall a single case in the past brought by any Attorney General to enforce the open meetings law. He says most public bodies follow the law.
“I think the overall incidence is rare but it is also exceptionally rare for the AG’s office to get involved in this,” Schutz says. “I am not aware of any other prior instance where the Attorney General’s office has pursued any kind of legal claim for violation of the open meetings law.”
Schutz says he is pleased that the AG is taking the action. He says the closed Commission meeting clearly violated the law. Mills, through her spokesman, says the complaint will detail the facts of the matter and will be self-explanatory. She did not say when it would be filed.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misspelled Sig Schutz's name.
