AUGUSTA, Maine — The chairman of the Maine State Housing Authority board said Friday he didn’t take part in a “witch hunt” aimed at removing former director Dale McCormick.
Peter Anastos told lawmakers on the Legislature’s Government Oversight Committee he was trying to obtain more information about MaineHousing programs and refocus a quasi-state agency that had lost sight of its core mission.
Anastos, a Yarmouth developer, said that the MaineHousing board’s relationship with agency management has improved markedly since McCormick’s March resignation. It’s easier for board members to get information, he said, and the authority is focusing on the quality of the housing units it oversees.
Anastos’ testimony came two weeks after the Legislature’s investigative arm, the Office of Program Evaluation and Government Accountability, released its review of $4.3 million in MaineHousing spending from 2007 to 2011, which found the bulk of the spending examined was consistent with the housing authority’s mission.
The Government Oversight Committee had requested OPEGA’s review in January amid a firestorm of criticism directed at MaineHousing by Anastos, State Treasurer and MaineHousing board member Bruce Poliquin, and the conservative Maine Heritage Policy Center alleging inappropriate and wasteful spending.
The authority’s expenditures came into question after the release of documents obtained by the Maine Heritage Policy Center showing authority expenditures at high-end hotels for conferences and contributions to outside advocacy organizations. The criticism focused squarely on McCormick, the last appointee of Democratic Gov. John Baldacci serving as the head of a state agency.
While she denied accusations of wrongdoing, McCormick resigned in March. McCormick couldn’t be reached for comment Friday afternoon.
The day before OPEGA released its review last month, the left-leaning Maine’s Majority, a Portland-based nonprofit organization, published several emails among Anastos, Poliquin, Maine Heritage Policy Center staff and others that Maine’s Majority said showed collusion among government officials and the conservative center to force out McCormick for political reasons.
“We weren’t on a witch hunt,” Anastos said Friday. “I have about 90 emails to Dale where I was trying desperately to get information.
While OPEGA’s review largely cleared MaineHousing managers of fraud and wrongdoing, the examination raised red flags about spending on travel and contributions to outside organizations. The review also recommended that MaineHousing require more detail from employees seeking expense reimbursements, cut back on employees’ use of personal credit cards for business expenses, and better document all expenses and make sure they directly related to the agency’s mission.
On Friday, the housing authority’s interim director, Peter Merrill, told lawmakers that the agency is cutting back on employees’ use of personal credit cards, implementing stricter accounting standards and taking steps to rein in travel expenses.
“We have implemented corrective measures, and we will further refine them,” Merrill said.
MaineHousing already had been taking many of those steps, Merrill said, to comply with recently passed legislation that sets rules for the governance, spending and transparency of quasi-state agencies such as MaineHousing and the Maine Turnpike Authority.
The OPEGA review also had questioned whether MaineHousing staff members needed to attend as many conferences as they did, pointing out that 62 authority staffers attended one or more conferences during the five-year review period.
Anastos told lawmakers that frequent travel led McCormick and authority staff members to neglect their core jobs, resulting in substandard conditions at some MaineHousing units.
“This agency was off doing carbon trading, gender issues, and social issues while safe and decent housing was being neglected,” said Anastos, who was appointed to the MaineHousing board by Gov. Paul LePage in October 2011.
The OPEGA analysis also raised questions about some of MaineHousing’s contributions to outside organizations. OPEGA flagged about $25,000 in housing authority contributions to 10 outside organizations, including $7,600 to Maine Inside Out, a performing arts group that works with incarcerated populations, and $200 to EqualityMaine, an advocacy group for Maine’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender populations.
“Contributions to political organizations are fine for individuals, but should never be made with the taxpayers’ money,” Anastos said.
MaineHousing’s annual operating budget is about $14 million, which is funded through investment revenue, interest fees on mortgages and fees the authority collects for administering federal programs. The authority received $374,000 from the state budget in fiscal year 2011, all of which was directed to homeless shelters, according to MaineHousing.
Legislators on the Government Oversight Committee largely withheld conclusions about MaineHousing activity Friday as OPEGA is planning a more comprehensive examination of the agency.
Some committee members, however, lamented the political controversy that erupted.
Sen. Bill Diamond, D-Windham, cautioned Anastos against using “sensational language” to describe the situation. Sen. Nancy Sullivan, D-Biddeford, said such political fights can detract from Maine’s efforts to attract businesses to the state.
“Big companies coming in and little companies coming in want to know that their state officials get along,” she said.
But Rep. David Burns, R-Whiting, praised Anastos for being honest. “There was a lot of shoddy things that certainly weren’t being done right,” he said.
He is a liar and had an agenda to get rid of the director
And do you have proof of that or are you just saying that?
How big a leap is it to read the history of this whole mess when the guy who replaced the Director actually lead the effort to replace her, and, is himself a property developer that MHA has dealing’s with ? Gee, can we all spell b-r-a-i-n-d-e-a-d or is that too much to expect from Mainer’s ? The voter’s, and there are more than a few, are sick and tired of these partisan attempt’s to hijack the State’s checkbook, and authority, all in some attempt to hijack more funding to build housing that is barely one step short of a Somali roadstand. November, and a seriously needed change of State House direction, is coming. This group goatrope festival is going to be seen as a badly, and obviously needed, reason for that to happen. And the longer this goes on, the worse it’s gonna get. If OPEGA does their job correctly, does a field audit of these ‘new’ Anastos-sponsored building’s and find’s anything wrong, well, OPEGA is gonna be the least of his worries, now won’t it ?
It seems it was the previous director who was allowing roadstands stands to be built via inadequate inspections, should have spent more time in the field and less time on the massage table
And what did Anastos do ? If he is so supposedly such a big guru in the housing market and conctruction filed, then by extension of that he should have been the one to tell Dale ‘Hey, this stuff is crap and we need to fix it before it gets any worse’. But instead he goes out and starts sneaking around and stabbing his boss in the back while doing NOTHING to get the Agency back on track. And you call that a qualifying factor for the Director’s position ? No wonder why the MHA is so screwed up. This is almost as drama loaded as the afternoon soap’s my wife watch’s. And just about as useful and effective.
His own words
These are the emails that tell the story.
http://www.scribd.com/collections/3634006/Poliquin-and-Anastos-FOAA
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http://mainesmajority.org/press-release-2012-may-24
“Laura Santini-Smith, a LePage appointee, advised Treasurer Poliquin to take his campaign to national conservative media in order to “help boot Dale out.”
She commends Poliquin on his work, saying “you got five or six other agencies to go after ; – ). ” She then offers to put Poliquin in touch with former State Senator Phil Harriman and MHPC CEO Lance Dunston.”
Thanks its good to see the watchful eye in action.
These show that his obvious Intent was not for the sake of Maine citizens but for a politcal witch hunt !
The Man should be impeached!
“Thanks its good to see the watchful eye in action”. Give me a break these folks are nothing more than socialists who want a return to the democrat agenda that has messed up our state for years. These “61%ers” website and facebook page is nothing more than an attack LePage website and that is an extension of the Maine Democrat Party. The letters are nothing more than Ultra-Liberal propaganda in support of
Dale Mccormick’s pathetic leadership and her out of control behavior, and spending practices which they support. They did the same with Paul Violette supporting his criminal behavior. These folks shouldn’t be taken seriously. They support this corruption that is coming from Ultra-Liberal Democrats. They also support having no Welfare Reforms . They would rather have LePage keep the unsustainable Welfare State going and expanding it. So these guys are nothing more than a Liberal Group who supports the Maine Democrat Party’s destructive Anti-Business, Pro-Welfare, Pro-Corruption agenda.
The link is real as well as the e mails.
Are you trying to deny the e mails existence because they are there in black and white for all to read. Can’t deny they exist or what they say.
I don’t care what the link is. Maine’s Majority is nothing more than a Ultra-Liberal Attack LePage Group. Their website and facebook claims they the “61%ers” represent us. Well they don’t represent me, they don’t represent other Mainers who are fed up with Liberal Democrats and their radical agenda here in Maine. All they represent is wanting more of the same failed policies of the past 40 years that put Maine into the poor house , that destroyed Maine jobs, Maine Businesses, and Maine Prosperity. That let activists like Dale Mccormick , Paul Violette, with Govs. King , Baldacci, Brennan and Legislators like Libby Mitchell, Both Pingrees, John Martin, Beth Edmonds and other Democrats have free reign to do what they heck they wanted with no checks and balances. I could care less what the emails say Liberals here in Maine are so out of touch with reality they are pathetic. Liberals in Augusta and in Maine still don’t understand why we don’t like them, why we hate their agenda. Why Liberals in Augusta get worse ratings than Gov. LePage and Republicans. It is because their policies are garbage. They aren’t for the working man they are for the lazy person and whoever else they can buy votes from to keep them in office.
You don’t care what the e mails say because they are the truth and the truth such as it is here scares you.
Apparently you can’t handle the truth when you see it in black and white with the names attached that prove their validity.
This group does not represent the truth. They are angry Liberals mad because that their heros the Maine Democrats are no longer in power screwing up our state. They are mad that their Welfare Haven is being torn down causing the bums in our state to find some other place to go get their benefits or forcing them to get jobs like the rest of us. They are angry that their two candidates couldn’t beat LePage which it really tells us is how bad Eliot Cutler and Libby Mitchell are as Politicians. That those 2 are more of the failed Liberal Establishment that Mainers want out. The fact that LePage is finally exposing the fraud and corruption is music to the ears of the Maine citizen. Who have had Democrats always raid their pockets to see their money redistributed to those who don’t work or those Liberal Groups always putting their hand out for more freebies. Well no more its time to kick these bums who have lived off of us out they have had their royal style of living long enough.
I hope you don’t think the Maine Heritage Policy Center is a legitimate and truthful organization.
Anastos is a liar. I have known him for years and he is the lowest of the low.
That’s probably one of his best qualifications for the position, in the view of the current administration.
Get to know Poliquin and Lepage and you will find a new low to set the bar!
In Other words he is a Republican and worships Grover Norquist.
I heard that they intend to put Grover Norquist’s Picture on the new $100,000 Bill that replaces the Old $1.00.
They don’t intend to circulate that among the serfdom populace however as the pledge forbids it!
LOL
The whole lot shoudl be fired and the whole big waste of money closed. I do not know anybody who needed the Maine housing authority for anything. Then again the folks I know work and pay there bills….
Wow I bet you drink Dos Equis and mosquitos refuse to bite you.
The director was fiscally irresponsible. She was solely responsible for this, absolutely no one else. Ms. McCormick, I’ll stop short of calling you a thief, but how do you explain all of the questionable expenditures? Thank you for resigning – I respect that.
Poliquin is an Opportunist, using the Office of Secretary of State to defame his opponents in his political quest of power.
Fiscal Responsibility has nothing to do with it!
This man has a political agenda that far exceeds his capabilites and the witch hunt continues for that fruitless endeavor.
RIGHT!!. He is exposing the corrupt behavior of Democrats which they got away with for 40 years. Democrats are too blind to see what Baldacci, King, Brennan, Democrat Legislators and their cronies were getting away with. These folks are the reason why Mainers hate Augusta so much. They did everything to destroy our state with their radical policies, their corrupt tactics (Mccormick, Violette , DEP leadership doing corrupt deals to help Enviros), Legislators and Dept. Commissioners using their offices and taxpayer time and money for unethical and possible illegal tactics (Libby Mitchell, Hannah Pingree, Anne Jordan etc.) to raise money and sway referendums that would have benefitted Mainers (TABOR 1 & 2, , Car Tax Reduction, Tax Cap , Casinos/Horsetracks with Casinos etc.) . To have these referendums lose so they could continue their awful agenda on Business. But to think that Democrats are saints that they are good folks. They are not they are part of the behavior that is not longer missed by us. Most Mainers are happy with the direction that LePage is taking Maine putting in much needed reforms to get rid of the Welfare State, Lowering Taxes, More Freedoms and better policies for Business.
Common Darkcat!
Only weeds grow in the Dark!
Casinos dont benefit Maine!
They are a money suctiontube transport system, like you see in a Bank Drive thru,
The Money goes ONE way right out of the fools pocket right to Las Vegas !
Leaving the State GDP Picketed clean!
Really tell that to the City of Bangor who has seen major growth since Hollywood Casino come into to the city. Tell that to the folks who run Waterfront Concerts, Bass Park and the new arena.
Explain that to the Town of Oxford and the rest of Oxford County which is starting to experience growth for the first time in many decades. The fact is not one single Democrat Policy of the past 40 years has worked. Maine is dead last in job growth thanks to the party you support. Maine is in the top 3 states in terms of Welfare and Welfare Benefits. The Bums are sure doing well while the rest of us working folks struggle. Maine is 27th and falling fast in education with more than 70% of Maine Schools Failing. With more than half the districts refusing to consolidate (including here in Madison). A law that Dems said would save us millions and would improve education. Dems sure aren’t good in Education as they claim they are. Are roads and bridges are pathetic with no East-West Highways. So I don’t need to hear from Liberals telling us how great things are because they have shown they can’t even run this state. Never mind dictating what we can and can’t have. They don’t even deserve to win 1 seat this next election if anything they should continue to be cleaned out of Augusta. We need another Democrat House Cleaning get rid of what Liberals are left. They are a disaster to our state and to the pockets of Maine Citizens.
You continually refer to human beings as bums and mooches.
People on welfare are not living the high life you fabricate them to be doing. You believe they are living a lifestyle far and above yours but they don’t. If you envy them as much as you appear to do, quit your job and apply for the services and live that lifestyle if you think it’s so grand.
I know many folks who receive some sort of social service. They are needy and qualify to receive the benefits. You despise a person who can’t function on their own because you have to get up everyday and head off to work. So do I, so do a lot of people. It’s called life. I don’t begrudge anyone who is in need yet you lump them all together as one and denounce them all as bums. Over and over you rail on about the bums the mooches etc….
Welfare is the trumpeting alarmist cry it’s something to moan and groan about.
The poor are not the reason behind the slow economy. They are not the reason Maine is having financial difficulties. You and those like you continue to pound down those you see not fit to be alive. It’s getting quite disgusting.
People who think like you are the true disaster.
He wasn’t hired as a “House Detective” silly!
The Job is Treasurer and the qualifications include not being engaged in commerce while in office.
He failed that qualification miserably and with intent!
Old Sherlock should have read his job description before he took the oath and swore on the bible!
Yeah let’s go back to having that clueless trial lawyer David Lemoine who has no experience in finance back as State Treasurer. So he can invest more money in more fake Wall Street companies and cost Maine Taxpayers Tens of Millions. Liberals always love to blow money on scams and fraud. Just as long as Mainers have what little left in their pockets the Liberals will continue to come looking for any money they can spend. What a joke. That is why we are moving “Foward” as Democrats put it into the cellar because the Democrats have no clue how to create jobs because none of them have business experience . The only experience Democrats have is working as Liberal Activist or in the Social Program Sector as a Provider (WELFARE).
C’mon man–where are the questionable expenditures? OPEGA did not find them. Anastos is a liar
It’s what and how you interpret as questionable? The few are not the whole.
MSHA used to offer low down payment options for first time home buyers, now they’re subsidizing 300K plus rental units and requiring solar power,it seems they have lost their focus. I am glad they have come under scrutiny I listend to the board meetings MSHA members responses to boards questions were ridiculous.
Recent news items (not the mainstream media…) also revealed the widespread use of personal credit cards by the former Director and an IT person; for organizational expenses and purchases. This allowed them to gain substantial rebate points, which is what the articles identified
Witch Hunt?
We ain’t on No stinkin wtch hunt!
Ah, Huh which witch hunt?
We dont need no stinki’n Witch Hunt?
http://bangor-launch.newspackstaging.com/2012/01/31/politics/bill-would-drop-term-add-accountability-for-head-of-mainehousing/?ref=relatedBox
( They even tryed to pass a law to get rid of the witch)
As the State now looks for a new director for the agency, the smear campaign of the last director is well documented in the media fed by the R’s and there cronies.
The only fraud that was found was named Poliquin and Anastos….
tinyurl.com/73huk6r
Still the BDN doesn’t mention Dale’s trips to Denmark and Japan on the taxpayer’s dime. Kinda glossed right over that one, eh?
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