There was no fraud at the Maine State Housing Authority, but it was too late for the former director. Dale McCormick had already been forced out.
Operations at the quasi-state agency certainly could be improved. But what are the repercussions for the people involved with the authority who coordinated a sustained effort to find fault with McCormick’s management in order to undermine her?
The deliberate planning by State Treasurer Bruce Poliquin, other government officials and the Maine Housing board chairman to find problems for the purpose of generating negative publicity is regrettable politics.
McCormick, who said she stepped down in order to stop the fighting and allow the agency’s business to continue, deserves an apology.
The Office of Program Evaluation and Government Accountability has completed its study of the agency from 2007 to 2011. The review shows that “substantially all” of the expenses sampled at the authority were “generally consistent with its mission and primary activities,” and “we found no indications of fraud.”
The review did question the following: whether the agency’s donations to organizations was necessary; the benefit of the frequency with which staff attended conferences; and the necessity of providing food to employees at gatherings, giving Hannaford gift cards as bonuses and purchasing business meals for staff not traveling.
It also questioned the necessity of art purchased with the renovation of Maine Housing’s office building and the need for the former director to incur lodging expenses of between $300 and $400 per night when she traveled to large cities.
All of these problems can easily be prevented from happening again, and a law signed by Gov. Paul LePage in April will require the agency to establish written policies to address travel, meal and contribution expenses; another law will also give more oversight power to the agency’s board. But the results of the review certainly do not provide overwhelming reasons for someone to lose her job.
The review itself — ordered by the Legislature’s Government Oversight Committee in October — was warranted. All agencies, whether they are state or quasi-state, could benefit from an independent source telling them how they can improve.
Even McCormick wasn’t afraid of a review. “Bring it on,” she said.
Granted, Poliquin and others had objections that weren’t raised in the OPEGA review. For instance, Poliquin decried the per-unit development costs of public housing projects, such as those in Portland and Waterville. Could there be greater efficiencies found? Sure. But the costs were not as outrageous as they were purported to be, and they certainly weren’t a reason for McCormick to be pushed out the way she was.
The liberal group Maine’s Majority obtained emails through a request under the Freedom of Information Act that show the back dealings of Poliquin, authority chairman Peter Anastos, staff at the conservative Maine Heritage Policy Center and others.
Instead of waiting for the OPEGA review to be completed, they searched for potential agency defects and sought to publicize them for the purpose of booting out McCormick. (She was the last appointee of Gov. John Baldacci who served as the head of a state agency).
In January, Poliquin, a Republican, replied in an email to Maine Heritage Policy Center Chief Executive Officer Lance Dutson about a leaked report concerning failed housing inspections.
“Can yu give us exec summary or even bullet points after reading. Most important is pinning msha down on knowing about mess for 2 years and not fixing. And other ways to demonstrate incompetence. Thx,” Poliquin wrote.
In an email to Anastos in December, Poliquin discussed a draft opinion piece about the “preponderance of taxpayer dollars flowing through MSHA” and suggested having Dutson read it before submitting it to newspapers.
“Suggest you change it any way that works for you. Then run it by Lance (Dutson). Then shop it to the PPH, BDN, and Sun Journal. More I think about it, the more I think should make the calls to the papers. You’re a new face with growing power central to a very big issue … That then leaves me with another bite at the Op-Ed apple later,” he wrote.
There’s no doubt the Maine State Housing Authority can improve its operations. But now that more efficiencies have been found, let’s not forget about the slippery process it took to get there. We’re not talking about a mistake in a speech; it was a coordinated attack.
Dealings like this discourage more people from taking part in the democratic process, gives a bad image to the Republican party and makes the work of the LePage administration that much more difficult.
Actually, Not!
From The Maine Wire:
http://www.themainewire.com/2012/06/editorial/
“OPEGA found that at least $458,410 was spent between 2007 and 2011 on “contributions specifically for sponsorships, donations, and membership.”
The report found that former director McCormick incurred at least $50,000 in reimbursements for travel and meals in just five years. That total included at least 40 out-of-state trips and two international trips.
In all, 62 MaineHousing staff members attended 89 conferences in just five years between 2007 and 2011. The total cost exceeded $115,000.
The report also stated that receipts for travel, meals and lodging were not always provided, leaving the door open for fraud.
McCormick spent, or was reimbursed for $9,625 in meals that took place when she was not travelling and when no business purpose was documented.
MaineHousing spent $309,400 on “teambuilding, recognition and appreciation, and wellness incentives,”according to the report. This total includes more than $70,000 in gift cards, awards, gift, flowers and coffee. Another $106,000 was for staff training including “leadership” and “diversity training.”
Staff “celebrations” costs taxpayers a total of more than $44,000 in just the five years OPEGA looked at. OPEGA questioned the practice, noting that, “the frequency with which these expenses were incurred cause us to question whether they were all truly necessary.”
The OPEGA report also highlights a purchase of $17,412 for artwork for the MaineHousing offices. The art was purchased from Greenhut Galleries, in Portland. Greenhut Galleries is owned by Peggy Greenhut Golden, who previously worked as the head of the Maine Art Commission under former Governor Angus King.
Also of concern to OPEGA was $3,500 in bonuses given to vendors. Also, former director Dale McCormick used MaineHousing funds to pay for consultants to accompany her to conferences associated with MaineHousing’s “carbon project.” The OPEGA report does not give details, but does highlight a 2008 conference when McCormick was reimbursed $3,245, some of which covered the cost of a consultant attending the New York carbon conference.”
I pay taxes in this state, and I do not support this kind of wasteful spending!
Read the OPEGA report here (warning, you may scratch your head bald trying to square the actual report with the BDN’s highly leftist bias interpretation of it):
http://www.themainewire.com/2012/05/opega-rapid-response-report-mainehousing-confirms-excessive-spending-meals-travel-sponsorships-gift-cards/
Don’t forget to tell everyone that the Maine Wire is run by the Maine Heritage Policy Center, Mr Poliquin’s helper in this witch hunt.
Oh Danny boy the emails are calling! Read em and weep.
http://www.scribd.com/collections/3634006/Poliquin-and-Anastos-FOAA
I recently came across Maine Wire, what a great newspaper! It’s good to know there is a paper h that is actually doing investigative journalism. I know you don’t like their conclusions UnclePaul12, but you need to be willing to hear all points of views.
It’s not a newspaper.
If you’re really looking for investigative journalism you’d get better information from Clark Kent at The Daily Planet.
Superman to the Rescue!
More like Boring-Man. Sad, but O So True.
And you Naran are bringing truth, justice and the American way to Maine and the world!
AMEN!
Noran the Parrot, or was it a carrot, same color of cow dust:)
Oh constant commenter…your ways are many and sublime
Be nice UnclePaul. I am sure that Quartz does consider “Mainewire” to be a great newspaper. In fact I bet in his mind it is second only to the “Weekly Reader”.
He’d have to be interested in the truth, and that’s not going to happen.
You want truth Naran?
Have you read the emails between Bruce and your heroes at the Maine Heritage Policy Center?
What a piece of crap! If it was in paper form, I wouldn’t insult a pet parrot by lining the bottom of its cage with it.
Would actually be better if you read the report yourself and came to your own conclusions rather than believing the spin inherent in media with its own agenda.
I agree , I also think that the money spoken of in this article would have been better spent to keep some old folks warm !
True. Did that program not have enough money this year to do that? Were any qualified elderly denied LIHEAP funds? Once a budget is approved by a board of directors does the director have the freedom to move money from one line to another without board approval?
You are telling the world that you are easily duped by propaganda with that comment.
….
Don’t forget that the lamestream media, such as the BDN is run by the far left.
McCormick is enjoying her paid year off, courtesy of Maine and US taxpayers. The sad part is that now, she’ll have to buy her own flowers and organic, free-range sushi luncheons. What a shame.
[/sarcasm]
McCormick for Governor 2014!!!
LOL…now that’s funny. Let’s just pick candidates to guarantee another LePage term…
You have no shame after she was exonerated. You are a part of what stinks in Augusta.
She was not exonerated! Read the report. And the investigation is still ongoing. What she has done was reprehensible. She epitomizes everything that is wrong with government.
No, the Koch brothers epitomize everything that is wrong with government.
You are so right Rexican. It is these paid shills and out of state interests like the mighty Koch machine that continue to try and distort the truth and spin the facts in their efforts to forward their self serving adgenda. It is truly disgusting.
They have managed to trick a few weak minded Mainers, but luckily the majority stands firm against their lunatic fringe and insantity.
People like Naran who continually try and distort the truth and deflect the conversation with her “OH loook there is a squirrel !” tactics. We need to keep on them at every step then when the time comes apply a collective swift kick in the butt.
This current administrations is the worst in Maine’s history and will be sent packing come the fall elections.
Give it up!
Nobody listens to the Maine Heritage Policy Center that has an IQ Above 80.!
The rest are busy watching Donald Trumps –Apprentice!
How’d that Air America work out for you?
Actually you can read it here: http://www.maine.gov/legis/opega/GOC/GOC_meetings/Current_handouts/5-25-12/MSHA%20Report%20RR.pdf and while what you quote is true this is the overriding result of the investigation: OPEGA judged substantially all of the $4.3 million sampled MaineHousing expenses to be generally consistent with its mission and primary activities. All the expenses appeared business-related and we found no indications of fraud AND We also found nearly all the dollar amounts associated with individual expenditures to be reasonable when broken down in detail, regardless of whether one was using a private entity or a State agency as a benchmark. The report notes that it applied standards that were not in place during the years reviewed. They used standards that were put in place with LD 1843 passed in March of this year. So they evaluated past behavior on standards not in place although they did acknowledge the language [of LD 1843] is reflective of a general expectation held by legislators and the public prior to 2012. But is it fair to evaluate someone on standards that were not in place, on general expectation? Who is really at fault is here? This legislature made the corrections and should be commended for that. But only from this point on should any employees be held to those standards as part of a review. I agree with the recommendations of the report AND the opinion expressed in this editorial. I expect the same standards to be applied to other agencies. I wonder what OPEGA would find if they examined, say, Mr. Poliquin’s agency. Do you think they might find some recommendations for improvements there too? Sure they would.
Poliquin was questioning expenditures that should have been scruntinized and eliminated years ago. He should be congratulated, not demonized.
Thank you. Agreed, and then some.
I wouldn’t trust Brucie to do an ethical thing in his life. After all, he has violated the Maine Constitution by engaging in commerce while state treasurer, avoided by property taxes by getting a tree growth exemption on a piece property that he knew he was not allowed to cut down trees, and he has used his office electronic newsletter as a political pulpit.
And imagine what we do not know about Brucie.
Well there was that very fortuitous arson fire about 5 years back that burned down Poliquin’s white elephant property just weeks after he was denied permitting to rezone it so he could make back some of the money he had sunk into it.
That stroke of “luck” saved him a bundle.
The guy they convicted had called 911 to report the fire and that was apparently the sum of all of the “evidence” against him. They said he couldn’t possibly see the flames from the pay phone he called from so therefore he must have set the fire. He pleaded no contest and had most of his sentence suspended. I was under the impression you had to admit guilt to get that kind of deal.
That would be true if he were not using the whole affair opportunistically. I see too much grandstanding to believe he worries overmuch about Maine’s taxpayers. I wonder what a similar investigation of his agency would reveal? There are improvements that can be made everywhere. I wish he had cleaned his own house first. Then I could believe he has the interests of the taxpayer front and foremost in his mind.
Poliquin should have been scrutinized years ago as well but that did not happen. He should have been congratulated as well when he showed up in prison by his peers for being such a slime bag like the rest of his party. GOP makes me want to puke imagine what your Jesus must think. Or is Grover Norquist your Jesus and MHPC your heaven.
Your just making a Jokie:)
What really should have been called into question was not McCormick’s honesty but rather her judgement based on previously published reports by the Maine Center for Public Interest reports published in the BDN based on the wasteful failures caused by McCormick’s poor judgement in decisions regarding expenditures of public funds, and the lack of any followup or checking on contractors’ performance. But poor job performance based on poor judgement doesn’t raise the public’s ire nearly as much as allegations of waste and corruption. I don’t think that McCormick deserves an apology for her exhibited poor performance/judgement. I think that she deserves one for the railroad job that the board and Republican politicians gave her.
What “apology”? Why? For recklessly spending public money as if it were a bottomless sluice-way? Please – review the squandered list of McCormick’s millions at the Maine Wire, for the failed $6M carbon credit scheme; the $7,500 solar water heaters; the wind turbines installed incorrectly, and the $300K housing units. Then you can move on to the staff bonuses, the parties, the gift cards, and the chair massages. (we’ll leave the clowns for later).
In my opinion, McCormick is lucky she’s not occupying a cell next to Paul Violette, at a Maine prison. She’s the one who owes Maine residents an “apology” –> for her prolifigate spending of public money, on her personal social/gender/green agendas.
The Maine Wire wouldn’t know the truth if it hit them in the butt!!! It’s just MHPC lies in print!
Guess you can’t read. It was investigated with her blessing with no misdeeds found. There. Deal with reality for a change instead of your delusions born out of the likes of FAKE-News and the flabby oxycontin-riddled jowls of your hero Rush Limpmind. These sickening emails show how corrupt and how bought-and-paid-for your disgusting right wing heroes are. And as to money, the corrupt corporate toadie GOP spends billions in YOUR tax dollars on everything from corporateSOCIALIST no-bid military industrial complex companies to endless corporateSOCIALIST tax subsidies for already-filthy-rich oil companies. And you just llllllllllllllllllllllllove that don’t you. You don’t bat an eye. But then you sickening right wingers bash the poor and bash workers and plot to destroy the middle class so your corporate millionaires can have more mansions. Jesus Christ would vomit in the lap of each and every GOPer in this state and country. LeBUFFOON, Poliquin, and all the rest of these toadies are bought-and-paid-for by the corporate Heritage Center and ALEC. It is THEY who run THEM and your little corporate toadies do whatever their corporate puppet masters tell them. And you celebrate it. Just disgusting.
Classic manipulation Naran…
1) repeat a lie often enough and people will believe it
2) try to create an association where none exists and then assign guilt through it, e.g., continually bringing up the completely unrelated Paul Violette (unrelated because Violette is guilty and McCormick is not.. its not a matter of opinion, its a fact. If you have EVIDENCE to the contrary you wouldn’t have to say “opinion” would you?
Are you being paid for commenting here?
Given the amount of time she posts the same tired twaddle…I’d vote yes.
The Paul Violette case actually makes Dale McCormick’s exoneration more powerful.
The exact same group that caught Violete found no fraud at MSHA.
Suddenly OPEGA’s conclusions are not good enough?
Oh, that is perfect. You got that sooooo right.
If there was ever a question about who really runs Maine’s Tea Party Parrot Government the culmination of this investigation by
The Office of Program Evaluation and Government Accountability leaves no doubt. Maine isn’t run by elected officials like The Governor, Legislators or Senators, or even by appointed Constitutional Officers like Secretary of State Charlie Summers, Attorney General
Schneider or State Treasurer Bruce Poliquin. Nope. The State of Maine is run by unelected and unaccountable to the voters Lance Dutson aka The Grand Wizard and his clan of highly paid political operatives at the Maine Heritage Policy Center. Early on in the LePage Administration it was decided that the sitting Executive Officer of The Maine State Housing Authority had to go. Dutson, Poliquin, LePage and the rest of the Tea Party Parrots trumped up all kinds of bogus charges. MHPC’s “Mainewire” ran article after article telling about all the waste and fraud that supposedly was going on at Maine State Housing. The Tea Party Parrots took it as gospel and plastered the lies on every message board they could find. Using the “Maineline” falsehoods as what they called credible sources to continue the witch hunt against Dale McCormick we were treated to a series of op-eds in newspapers across the State. When the investigation by OPEGA was completed the results were far different then what our friends on the radical right led us to believe they would be. OPEGA, the very same agency who investigated and found fraud at the Maine Turnpike Authority which resulted in the head of that quasi-government agency doing prison time, after completing their investigation of Maine Housing found NO wrongdoing. Now the Tea Party Parrots are attempting to cast doubt on OPEGA’s investigation using words like limited. If fraud and abuse existed at Maine State Housing OPEGA would have found it no matter how limited its investigation was. There is fraud being perpetrated against the Citizens of The State of Maine. Not by Dale McCormick, but by people like Paul Richard LePage, Bruce Poliquin and Lance Dutson who engineer and orchestrate witch hunts like the one just completed at Maine State Housing . On November 6th Maine voters will get to chose if they want to continue the Tea Party Parrot Government of special interest or return our government to the people.
Speaking of “parrots…”
Yeah.
Come on Naran you can do better then that.
Why should she lower her standards to that of Liberals in Maine who have no class period. Naran is a nice lady who is honest and speaks the truth , too bad Liberals in Augusta couldn’t follow her lead.
Disgusting and baseless generalizations.
too bad conservatives don’t know how to speak the truth
And Democratic Liberals do? Yes, I am sure Bill Clinton Can give you a few pointers.
What standards are you talking about?
Oh I must disagree Constant Commenter is anything but a “nice lady who is honest adn speaks the truth” . Constant Commenter is gullible fool and mouthpiece for all things Maine Heritage. It would eat its own offspring if it sensed any diversion from conservative rightwinged propaganda believing brain dead hate mind.
Sadly, she can’t.
Actually, no, she can’t.
Maybe you missed this article, your hero Bruce needs some cheerleading in the comments section. Can you help him out?
http://bangor-launch.newspackstaging.com/2012/06/01/opinion/saving-money-while-helping-mainers/
Brucie will finish sixth in the primary on June 13.
Naran I always thought you look like a parrot, or is that a carrot:)
LeBUFFOON and his GOP crooks and liars are bought-and-paid-for pawns and toadies of the corrupt corporate right wing. It is sickening and disgusting and the most unpatriotic, unchristian rottenness imaginable.
LePage and the GOP may be unpatriotic, but they very definition of christian. Believe what I tell you, accept it as truth, and there is no need to prove that it is true.
where do you get all that cow dust:)
This is a BDN opinion piece and as such, has a liberal slant to it. Why, in your opinion, is this more believable than that of the Maine Heritage Policy Center, a right leaning organization?
When you conserva-fascists are done there will be but one media voice…..and it will be oppression.
Spoken like a tried and true liberal puppet. What do you think or do you even bother?
Come on November. Voters can choose between Maine Heritage Policy or governmrnt by the people. I gots a funny feelin that Penguin will be reduced to lame duck and Constant Commenter will be shedding a few tears in her beer down there in Kennebunk.
Politics does not have the citizens’ best interests in mind anymore (if it ever did). Politics is always about individual politicians and the power they can amass, the influence they can weld and the money they can raise. In other words, it’s all about them. All the time. From the president down to dog-catcher. And it will be our downfall.
A year ago, there were people claiming that Paul Violette could never have done anything wrong, and they were busy beating up on conservatives who claimed that he was improperly spending the public’s money. Violette is now in prison, which he richly deserves.
Maybe at her next job, McCormick will A) bring her own lunch, and B) exercise a little better discretion when she’s spending Other People’s Money. She spent the public’s money like there was no end to it at MSHA, whether for deluxe staff parties, excessive housing costs, resort gatherings, suspect organization dues and donations, staff bonuses, or Hannaford gift cards.
Meanwhile, the second portion of the OPEGA report will be forthcoming this fall, so it ain’t over yet.
You replied to a comment I made 3 days ago with this: ”
I would always prefer to have a civilized dialogue focusing on facts and principles.”
Why don’t we have civilized dialogue about Bruce Poliquin and the Maine Heritage Policy Center?
Because you can’t have a dialog about a vapid and feckless organization designed from the ground up with blinders.
Naran, do you always buy your own lunch?
She is always out to lunch thats for sure>
This was the conclusion of the report: OPEGA judged substantially all of the $4.3 million sampled MaineHousing expenses to be generally consistent with its mission and primary activities. All the expenses appeared business-related and we found no indications of fraud AND We also found nearly all the dollar amounts
associated with individual expenditures to be reasonable when broken
down in detail, regardless of whether one was using a private entity or a
State agency as a benchmark. So apparently money was not spent like there was no end to it. Wonder what the actual percentage of questionable spending was?
“substantially” all and “generally consistent” aren’t terms that inspire a lot of confidence that the agency was well run. Fraud? Probably not. Generally poor and wasteful management? Clearly.
In this era of tight budgets, QUALITY leaders find ways to improve delivery of services while reducing costs. Unless she can tell us why all those conferences have led to actual changes in that direction, I’m not going to cry over her departure…
“Meanwhile, the second portion of the OPEGA report will be forthcoming this fall, so it ain’t over yet.”
Exactly. OPEGA pointed out in its own report the very limited nature of their investigation.
McCormick allegedly stepped down to stop the fighting. How very noble of her.
IMHO, covered in flop-sweat, she got out of Dodge because she knew she was going to lose the game of musical chairs. After all, stepping down looks a lot better on a resume than “fired for incompetence and wasting taxpayer dollars.”
Poliquin is paying for attacks even on Saturday. Your day will come Polly:)
Naran you are out working your lies even on Saturday, must be getting overtime pay from the Maine Heritage group of lies.
Typical Republican dirty tricks and unethical, immoral games and attacks. They are the dirtiest of the dirty, the filthiest of the filthy, and it would make Jesus Christ want to vomit. The Republicans are bought-and-paid-for pawns and toadies of the organizations like the Heritage Center (along with ALEC) and the rest of these corrupt corporate liars and thieves with a grand scheme to destroy the American middle class while enriching the already-rich. LeBUFFOON, Poliquin, Dutson, and the rest of the Maine corporate GOP stooges are crooks, liars, and rotten horrid ultra-corrupt slime and their disgusting party will be pounded very, very hard come November.
Well, this one seems to be telling it straight. Looks like an engineered execution to me.
Obviously, the media moguls have conspired to make the governor and his appointees the evil ones. Mc Cormick should not have been held over by this governor–one can not be sure that the other party will be part of the team, and it showed here. Mess from over 40 years can not be repaired in 11/2, for certain.
enjoy lepage the liar oneterm
Wait and see how fast the mess from the present administration is fixed.
Then why not go after her for that instead of lies about corruption? That’s the point and you don’t address it.
You mean that he wants all yes people an that’s it
She needed to go. Her direction was to bring Maine into the one world order by having the UN decide how Maine homes were going to be built. I think Mainers can decide how we build homes. She was very Dangerous and a deciple of the Algorian society.
Usual Green People counter attacks – why they are even working on Saturday – i did not know that LePage pays for Saturday work:)
That is about the weirdest conspiracy theory I’ve seen posted on this site … and there have been some doozies!
It is well known that Dale was despised by many that worked at MSHA. I think it was time for her to go!
I disagree. From all the people that i know that works at MSHA enjoyed working with her and all the good MSHA has done for Maine. This was nothing more than more attacks for power for the “Worst” Governor in the history of Maine.
How many made up “reasons” will be get?
Every time one is proven to be a lie a new one pops up!
What happened to Dale McCormick is what happens when fascists take control. This is done to send a message to others: we have the power to ruin your life so comply or shut up. If you want to see political thuggery its not coming from unions, its conservative fascists. Poliquin should pay for this with his own career.
Fascists? Please. Dale McCormick ran a fat, inefficient group that was more than willing to be fast and loose with spending taxpayer dollars. I’m no fan of Poliquin, but she’s sleeping in the bed she made.
Lafraud is in the Blaine House.
Much as you would like to believe it, the MSHA has not be vindicated of any wrongdoing by OPEGA. This report was only an initial one and it certainly flagged some very questionable antics. Not the least of which was the housing authority taking my money and giving it out to exclusively liberal organizations that had virtually nothing to do with the mission of the authority. Even if the final report finds that no fraud was committed, McCormick needed to go for running a bloated, ineffective organization with no concern for fiscal responsibility.
Usual Republican attacks even after Poliquin and Anastos were found to be wrong, these two don’t care about right or wrong, its their way of attack highway. That is what you get from a Republican. Remember – Republicans and Cancer are the same disease that only works to destroy the Spirit of the people of Maine, Florida and Wisconsin. Hid you wallets or they will raise the toll on your pocket for in proper storage etc. :)
You don’t get apologies from dictators.
Lance Dutson is not running the state.
Wait. Did you run that comment by Lance first?
Naran could help you with that you know.
But she was a witch
And persecuted by the High Holy Witch Hunters of the MHPC.
Cotton Mather lives!
yessah
If anyone incurred “at least” $50,000 in reimbursements for travel and meals in five years, holds true…then I would consider closing the book on them. The averages $10, 000 per year= $833 per month, $192 per week or $27 per day +/-. On top of free trips out of state, I am sure it was all business but what kind of business trips would she be required to go on? 42 trips out of a 52 week year. That means there was only 8 weeks that she didn’t go out of state assuming she had 4 weeks of vacation. Maybe she had to check on the timeshares in Martha Vineyard for the low income folks!
If any of us common people looked at any of the big wigs of either party, of any government, and saw how they lived compared to us we would be revulsed, and we are. When you are not common, common sense has no meaning.
What was legal and what was fair seem to be two different things. If this came directly from their pocket I’m sure there would have been fewer gift cards and celebrations. If you work at a business everybody chips in for celebrations most of the time. Art generally consists of your grandkids art work or something somewhat less expensive. Yes, Mr. Poliquin may use this to further his political career, he is paid to ask these questions AND fix these problems. Feel free to keep on bickering with each other and ignore the non-problem elephant in the room. Liberal or conservative it was still taxpayer money wasted for the most part.
In an attempt to understand the BDN defense strategy for former MSHA Director Dale McCormick — who resigned of her own accord because she couldn’t endure the heat in the kitchen — I resorted to the latest copy of Fox’s Book of Martyrs. Regrettably McCormick’s name was not to be found among the pages of saintly accounts. There may be no less than a few who mourn the loss of this mildewed political hack who occupied a unelected sinecure for far too long and contributed marginally to the health and welfare of the State of Maine; however, most of us are glad that the MSHA is is being guided under new management.
I don’t like entrenched politicos of any party remaining in office for decades.