MILLINOCKET, Maine — Town leaders will meet in a week to decide whether to sue Gov. Paul LePage and state government for $216,000 in disputed state funds, Town Manager Eugene Conlogue said Thursday.
The Town Council will meet on April 26 to discuss the matter. With Councilor John Raymond absent and Chairman John Davis and Councilor Bryant Davis — no relation — opposed, councilors voted 4-2 on April 12 to approve filing a legal complaint against the state. They will review the matter again on April 26 “to be sure that everyone is still on board,” Conlogue said.
“We are just trying to be as cautious as we can,” Conlogue said Thursday. “We really don’t want to be going to court. We just want what the town is owed legally.”
Conlogue said he believes that LePage is discriminating against Millinocket with his actions.
“We won’t do anything until the next council meeting on Thursday. We need to work on the issue,” Conlogue said.
LePage spokeswoman Adrienne Bennett did not immediately return requests for comment on Thursday.
The dispute between LePage and town leaders centers on LePage’s issuing $504,000 in Sudden and Severe Impact funds to Millinocket on March 7 instead of the $720,000 the town is owed. LePage claimed that Millinocket officials would have received more but they broke their pledge to pay $50,000 annually toward the operation of the East Millinocket-based Dolby landfill.
Town officials angrily denied LePage’s claim and produced a string of correspondence that showed they never agreed to more than one $50,000 payment. East Millinocket received its first monthly Sudden and Severe Impact payment late last month. More recently, Rep. Herb Clark, D-Millinocket, accused LePage of blackmailing the town and hurting town schools to get more money from town coffers to run the landfill. Almost all of the $720,000 would be for school funding.
Originally state officials said they sought to allocate $150,000 to landfill operations annually, with East Millinocket and Millinocket contributing $50,000 each in cash or in-kind services annually. The state’s taking ownership of Dolby was crucial to Cate Street Capital’s purchase last fall of the East Millinocket and Millinocket paper mills, which restored about 216 jobs to the region.
On March 22, the council twice voted 6-1 to table until April 12 orders to sue the state for the full $720,000 and to rescind a $50,000 one-time payment at the center of its dispute with the governor. Councilors again tabled the order to rescind the $50,000 payment when they met on April 12.
The $504,000 check LePage had cut for the town early last month remains locked in the town’s safe, Conlogue said.
State bills to allow Millinocket permission to sue the state and to allocate about $250,000 annually to run the landfill are pending. One of the landfill bill’s co-sponsors, Rep. Herb Clark, D-Millinocket, did not return telephone messages left Thursday.
Another co-sponsor, Sen. Doug Thomas, R-Ripley, said he didn’t see much hope of Millinocket and LePage settling their differences without going to court.
“I have tried everything I can think of,” he said Thursday.
Bennett has said that the governor’s top goal has been to save taxpayers as much money as possible and toward that end, state officials are examining several options for Dolby. State officials led prospective landfill buyers through the East Millinocket-based landfill on March 28.
Follow BDN writer Nick Sambides Jr. on Twitter at @NickSam2BDN.
LePage has given Republicans a very bad name, including those in the Legislature, who recently kowtowed and accepted his line-item veto of their massively approved budget. Fellow Republicans in government even wrote an Op-Ed criticizing his mannerisms and rudeness.
Of course, his family has benefited greatly, gaining two high-paying government jobs, and you can bet no one else was seriously considered for either position.
Sorry folks it seems we aren’t acknowledging constitutional law, morals, or ethics here in Maine anymore. This might end up being the cost you must bare for telling all of Maine that Mr. LePage lied to and about you involving the dirty business deal he tried to dump on you. Until November we all must face the fact that undesirables are in charge of State government.
I didn’t think the Democrats were in charge hmmm. Oh that is right they are in charge of the mess in Washington, or is that in Columbia.
The purse strings in Washington happen to be in the hands of the Republican/Tea Party Congress.
I have to take exception to the remarks you and SpruceDweller have made, not because what either of you have said is untrue, but because I feel that both of you have missed the entire point about what Paul Richard LePage is attempting to do with the help of his tea party republican friends in the Maine Legislature. What you and Spruce see as just another of LePage’s underhanded tricks I see it for what it actually is. LePage came to office by promising Mainers JOBS, JOBS, JOBS. This potential law suit and the one filed in US District Court today against the State of Maine are just part of his plan to increase JOBS, JOBS, JOBS in Maine. Think of all of those soon to graduate from The Maine School of Law. There will be more then ample job openings in The Maine Attorney General’s office to provide work for at least 1/4 of the graduates. You know that Bangor and Portland will not be far behind in bringing suit against the State for the General Assistance fiasco. It will not just be lawyers working for the State of Maine. It will also mean that law firms will need to hire not only more lawyers, but paralegals, secretaries and other support staff as well. This is just part of LePage’s Job Creation Program. The only problem will be when the State starts losing these law suits and we are all forced to pay, but like most things the tea party republicans do they tend not to look that far down the road.
Yeah, I missed that (chuckle). Maybe disaster capitalism is LePage’s primary tool.
sue lepage
and follow it up by a recall–it’s our version of a line item veto
lepage is bad
Just remember everyone. There could be another Democrat in the office and still increwing tons of red ink. He may be crass but he is slowly trying to fix a cart with no wheels just blocks.
not a ringing endorsement of LePage….
LOL….like you could provide….useless as usual
What do you mean “may”?
What money he is trying to save is costing him in litigation….
they should name the Maine Heritage bunch in the suit also where as they are running the Blaine house.
Honestly guys, it would cost less for you to pitch in your share then to fight with the Penguin administration about this issue in court. We bought the toxic dump so that you could have your charcoal factory jobs. It’s really not unreasonable for us to ask you to put in a little of your own money and invest in yourselves.
You did not buy the mill, you (we) bought the landfill.
And in the same respect we wouldn’t be in this mess if LePage hadn’t created the mess. He bought the landfill for the taxpayers of the state. The towns will pay what is in a documented contract……oh wait, there isn’t one. The money that is being withheld has nothing to do with the landfill deal. LePage wants to be a bully and we were raised to stand up for ourselves and that’s exactly what is happening. Going by the law and following it as its written. Shouldn’t be blaming the Katahdin Region, all the blame goes to LePage for not properly doing the right things first and following the law!
He bought the toxic dump for the people in Millinocket. And, the people in Millinocket do have some blame in this – as they have continued to cling on to the notion that factory work will return to their community, despite every indication that it will not. Once this toxic dump issue is resolved and the permitting for the charcoal factory is complete, the process will become highly automated and the people in Millinocket will again be broke and unemployed. What then? Time to go back to school, learn a new trade, open a National Park or move.
“open a National Park or move’. You will never see a NP in the Katahdin area. Please continue with the BUFFOONERY…
This, I believe is just a prelim for cuts to all towns and cities in Maine.
Please sue, we all want to see liars try to lie under oath. It will never happen, just more political pandering.
The saga continues…Millinocket’s entitlement mentality will plague this state until this generation dies off!
Conlogue playing hardball with state government? What a fool.
Herb Clark does not return phone calls and after the smoke clears perhaps Millinocket will discover what a ding dong represents them. This is fun to watch as it plays out.
Well good for you! I hope your having lot’s of fun.
I think Lapage is doing one hell of h a good gob keep it up