AG: LePage broke law by holding education task force meeting in private

Source: Portland Press Herald

The LePage administration violated Maine’s open meeting law on Monday by holding the first meeting of a “blue ribbon” commission on education funding behind closed doors, the Attorney General’s Office said.

“I know of no exemption that would permit the meeting that occurred this morning to be convened privately,” Assistant Attorney General Brenda Kielty said in an email Monday afternoon.

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Sen. Rebecca Millett, D-South Portland, and several other people were refused entry to the Blaine House Monday morning when they tried to attend the first meeting of the Commission To Reform Public Education Funding and Improve Student Performance. Millett, who was told she wasn’t “on the list of attendees,” argued that the meeting was a violation of Maine’s public meetings law.

Standing in the driveway of Blaine House Monday morning, LePage policy adviser Aaron Chadbourne repeatedly told Millett and others gathered there that it was an invitation-only “breakfast” even though an agenda had been distributed describing it as the commission’s first meeting.

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Read more: http://www.pressherald.com/2016/04/25/lepage-administration-closes-education-commission-meeting-to-public/