Maine Lawmakers Vote To Investigate Possible Conflict Of Interest By Top Marijuana Official

“Members had been notably desirous about a possible battle of curiosity Boyer raised with John Hudak, the director of the Maine Workplace of Hashish Coverage.”

By AnnMarie Hilton, Maine Morning Star

Maine’s legislative watchdog determined Friday on the following areas of coverage and authorities it wish to examine.

The Legislature’s Authorities Oversight Committee heard a handful of proposals from lawmakers looking for to have the group look into hashish coverage, election integrity, a house power help program and the state-owned landfill.

Senate chair Craig Hickman (D-Kennebec) took time through the assembly to learn the portion of Maine statute that outlines the purview of the committee and its adjoining company that completes the investigations, the Workplace of Program Analysis and Authorities Accountability (OPEGA).

It reads that the entities are tasked with offering program evaluations of businesses and state authorities, and when decided mandatory by the committee native and municipal governments, in addition to different quasi- and smaller government-like businesses. They’ll additionally assessment spending and contracts.

For a lot of the final yr, the oversight committee has spent its power trying into the state’s embattled youngster welfare system. That work resulted in additional than two dozen advised reforms for the Workplace of Youngster and Household Companies.

After a number of hours of dialogue, the committee determined to discover a few of the questions raised about hashish coverage and the state-owned landfill. As a consequence of some members being absent, it isn’t but determined what motion it would tackle election integrity, because it divided the committee that has equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans.

The committee additionally heard a report on staffing and security considerations at two psychiatric facilities within the state: Dorothea Dix in Bangor and Riverview in Augusta. The committee determined it wants extra time to assessment the preliminary info gathered by OPEGA workers earlier than figuring out its subsequent steps, however Sen. Mike Tipping (D-Penobscot) advised the committee maintain a public listening to to offer hospital workers the possibility to talk earlier than the committee.

Hashish coverage 

Rep. David Boyer (R-Poland) offered a three-pronged proposal for the committee to look into varied features of hashish coverage.

The primary a part of his request centered across the Maine Division of Administrative and Monetary Companies failing to current a statutorily required report back to the Veterans and Authorized Affairs Committee earlier this yr. Whereas members of the oversight committee agreed this was an issue, a number of of them stated the problem could possibly be dealt with by the coverage committee.

Nonetheless, the watchdog members had been notably desirous about a possible battle of curiosity Boyer raised with John Hudak, the director of the Maine Workplace of Hashish Coverage.

The ultimate piece of Boyer’s request centered on illicit hashish operations within the state, however there was a sentiment amongst members that such cases can be extra acceptable for legislation enforcement than the committee.

The oversight committee determined to ask OPEGA to look into the attainable battle of curiosity, with the understanding that the Veterans and Authorized Affairs Committee would proceed engaged on the opposite areas of concern Boyer offered.

This story was first published by Maine Morning Star.

Picture courtesy of Mike Latimer.