As expected, Maine Attorney General Janet Mills has filed a complaint in district court charging the Blue Ribbon Commission on Education Reform with violating the state’s open meetings law.
The complaint lays out the facts about the creation of the Commission to Reform Public Education Funding and Improve Student Performance in Maine, the formal name of the group. The complaint states that Dr. Bill Beardsley, the current deputy commissioner of Education and chair of the Commission, willfully and deliberately violated the state’s open meetings law. Attorney General Mills says the Department of Education asked her office whether the first meeting of the commission could be closed as Governor Paul LePage wished and her answer was clear that it could not
“We allege that there was a willful violation in good part because they were informed directly, specifically that of course the meeting was a public meeting,” says Mills.
And she says Beardsley himself was personally informed by her office that there was no legal way for the commission to meet privately. She says a public body can only close its meetings for very specific reasons that are spelled out in state law, and having a “getting to know you session” is not one of them.
“We’re talking about educational policy,” says Mills. “This blue ribbon commission is specifically is designed to talk about major public policy issues affecting every family in the state of Maine and to that extent is clearly a public meeting.”“
Mills says the law allows for a fine of $500 for willful violations of the open meetings law and her office is requesting that be assessed against the Commission. She hopes her action sends the clear message that all further meetings of the Commission must be open. A spokeswoman for the Department of Education says Beardsley was unavailable and she had no further comment. If Beardsley contests the complaint at a hearing later this month, a judge will set a trial date or he could just pay the fine.
