OPEGA: Paul LePage, DOE threatened Good Will-Hinckley funding

AUGUSTA — A long-awaited report on how Gov. Paul LePage and the Maine Department of Education interfered in an employment contract between Democratic House Speaker Mark Eves and Good Will-Hinckley has found strong evidence that LePage took steps to withdraw state funding for a charter school for at-risk students.

The Legislature’s Government Oversight Committee received the 27-page reportTuesday morning in Augusta from Beth Ashcroft, director of the nonpartisan Office of Program Evaluation and Government Accountability.

The purpose of the probe was to investigate whether LePage improperly threatened to withhold $530,000 in state funding for Good Will-Hinckley, an organization that among other things runs the Maine Academy of Natural Sciences in Fairfield, to force the firing of Eves.

Eves’ contract was rescinded by Good Will-Hinckley in June. LePage, who objected to Eves’ hiring because he said Eves was not qualified for the position, has publicly admitted he threatened Hinckley’s board of directors. Eves has filed a civil lawsuit against LePage, in which he accuses the governor of blackmail. The suit is pending.

In question is whether LePage improperly used the funds, which OPEGA is not tasked with answering. Its only role is to present the results of a fact-finding mission about the funding, whether it was threatened by LePage and whether any steps were taken to pull it back.

Among those watching from the wings is a group of lawmakers from the House of Representatives who have said they are considering launching impeachment proceedings against the governor for improperly leveraging taxpayer funding for political retribution.

Ashcroft said that several people said in the course of her investigation that LePage and the Department of Education made it clear that $530,000 per year in funding — distributed at the discretion of the governor — would be withheld from the school unless Eves were fired.

“Those at the receiving end of those communications knew that [hiring Eves] meant the $530,000 in support from the Center of Excellence [state funding would be withdrawn],” Ashcroft said. “Good Will-Hinckley immediately began assessing how they would manage without the funding.”

The loss of state funding prompted the Harold Alfond Foundation to notify the organization that was reconsidering providing millions of dollars in grant funding that was contingent on Good Will-Hinckley meeting performance benchmarks, including funding and expansion of the school’s residential program. In response to the controversy, the foundation hired a financial auditor to revisit Good Will-Hinckley’s budget and financial forecasts.

Ashcroft said the funding for this year and next has been restored by the state government, and Good Will-Hinckley has signed an agreement in which the organization, which runs several youth programs, will develop and implement a business plan to wean itself off special state funding.