A commission dedicated to advancing far left ideology within Maine’s state government is having trouble coming up with an anti-corruption policy.
The chief reason?
The commission is comprised almost of exclusively of employees of nonprofit organizations that seek taxpayer-funded grants from the commission for themselves and their allies.
Maine’s so-called “Permanent Commission on the Status of Racial, Indigenous & Tribal Populations (PCRITP)” — the brainchild of House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross (D-Portland) — was originally intended to rename rivers, creeks, and mountains in Maine that still had offensive names.
Rather than quickly accomplish that simple task, the organization has morphed into a make-work program for left wing activists and a conduit through which taxpayer dollars can flow into organizations aligned with progressive advocacy groups.
The PCRITP has come under scrutiny in recent weeks following Maine Wire reporting on a substantial grant the commission made to an organization controlled by PCRITP co-chair Talbot Ross’s sister.
Earlier this month, the Maine Wire reported on a PCRITP contract for $12,000 granted to the Portland-based nonprofit Cross Cultural Community Services (CCCS), an organization co-founded by Regina Phillips, the sister of Talbot Ross.
[RELATED: Documents Offer Insight Into Left-Wing Dark Money Juggernaut Active in Maine Politics: Free Beacon…]
The $12,000 grant was to sponsor a Black History Month event slated to take place this Thursday, Feb. 29, in which another one of Talbot Ross’ sisters is a featured panelist.
This isn’t the first time the equity commission has drawn controversy either.
Last year, the Executive Director of the Commission, Ariel Ricci, attempted to ban white people from speaking at a public event — a racist policy and a clear violation of Maine’s Freedom of Access Act, which governs open participation in public meetings.
When asked about her racist directive, Ricci denied having attempt to prohibit meeting attendees from speaking based on the color of their skin.
[RELATED: Maine Racial Equity Commission Banned White People from Talking at Lewiston Public Meeting…]
When confronted with an audio recording of Ricci prohibiting people from speaking during the meeting based solely on the color of their skin, Ricci stopped responding to Maine Wire inquiries.
Although Ricci is no longer implementing explicitly racist policies concerning who is allowed to speak at the commission’s public meetings, it appears the commission is still struggling to operate ethically.
At a meeting on Wednesday, the commission discussed adopting a potential anti-corruption policy to prevent members of the commission from handing out money to their family members — or, at the very least, to require some form of disclosure when such activities are occurring.
As the Maine Wire reported, the $12,000 taxpayer grant was handed out to the House Speaker’s sister with little oversight and no disclosure of the apparent conflict of interest thanks, in part, to the equity commission’s lack of anti-corruption policies.
The commission’s members — almost all of whom are far left employees of nonprofits aligned with the Democrat Party — discussed the drafting of a new conflict of interest policy at the meeting Wednesday.
One of the chief issues that members of the equity panel are reckoning with as they consider adopting an anti-corruption policy is that most of the PCRITP commissioners are part of groups or tied to groups that seek taxpayer grants through PCRITP.
The entire affray is but a glimpse into the nepotistic world of Maine-based, left-wing nonprofits that are fueled through sly and seldom scrutinized flows of taxpayer cash into left-wing advocacy groups.
No other media outlet in Maine has reported on the Commission’s activities or the appearance of a corrupt allocation of taxpayer resources to the family member of a top-ranking elected official.
The lack of interest from other Maine media outlets could be explained, in part, because many of the commission’s partners, members, and benefactors are funded by the same billionaire-backed groups that bankroll the various newspapers recently purchased by the “National Trust for Local News“.
[RELATED: Five Months Later, “National Trust” Won’t Say Who Funded Takeover of Maine Newspapers…]
While the Portland Press Herald and its sister newspapers have not disclosed who exactly bankrolled their acquisition last year, as they had previously promised they would do, media reports indicate that donors aligned with Arabella Advisors contributed to the takeover of Maine’s largest media group.
Outlining the Commission’s plans to develop a new conflict of interest policy Wednesday, Director Ricci said that the Commission consulted with state law, the Maine Department of Administration and Financial Services, the Maine Attorney General’s Office, and the current PCRITP bylaws.
Ricci said the Commission was “looking for a ways to create a robust conflict of interest policy, that acknowledges that the structure of this Commission is that it is made up of community members from the very communities and entities that we are likely to want to work with.”
It would therefore be difficult to avoid a conflict of interest under the Commission’s current bylaws, due to the grant-making Commission being made up of members of favored grant-receiving organizations.
According to Commission’s current bylaws, a conflict of interest arises “when a Commission member, a Commission member’s immediate family, or an organization which employs or is about to employ any of the above, has a financial or other interest in a firm or organization selected for an award, grant, or contract by the Permanent Commission.”
A Commission member is required to make an immediate and full disclosure to the entire Commission, and is prohibited from the decision-making process on the grant in question.
If a member is found to be in violation of the conflict of interest policy, that member will be barred from Commission meetings for a period of six months.
Due to the appearance of a familial conflict of interest in the case of House Speaker Talbot Ross and the $12,000 grant, the Maine Wire asked the Commission Wednesday whether Talbot Ross made a full and immediate disclosure.
No document publicly released related to the $12,000 grant contract, or the Commission’s Finance and Operations Committee memo describing the contract, give a disclosure regarding the immediate familial ties between Talbot Ross and Regina Phillips.
Following a long silence, Executive Director Ricci deferred the Maine Wire’s question to a discussion regarding the new policy that is set to take place in the Commission’s next Finance and Operations Committee meeting on March 12.
PCRITP Commissioner Kenneth Lewis, Reverend at Portland’s Green Memorial A.M.E. Zion Church, chided Ricci for responding to the question, saying “It’s not a Q and A.”
The PCRITP smug commission members strongly resemble the BOLIM jackals who suspended Dr. Meryl Nass’s medical license. Could these self-anointed high priests all be cut from the same leftist cloth? Nahhhh, that would be judgmental and hurtful. Marxist revolutionaries have feelings too ya’ know!
Non profits are out of control here in Maine.
They are getting rich off taxpayer money while not paying in.
They wield a lot of power too.
Have you ever seen a non profit denied a new building, except when they want to build in Cape Elizabeth or near Meeting House Hill types of areas?
Gov. LePage tried to put limits on non profits but the liberals who run Augusta and then AG Millstone stopped his efforts.
The only “robust” anti corruption rules they’re looking for are rules with loopholes to allow themselves and associates to continue to profit from non profits.
Wow – look at all those sour faces. You can bet the texts were flying, telling each other how to skirt the rules and shut down the discussion. More entitled members of the GIMME-CRAT population funneling the cash to themselves and their pals. They hate being exposed and busted.
Chris Rufo just posted on “X” today that University of Florida just fired all DEI employees. As to this….yeah NPO’s have always been shady in Maine. They have always been very profitable to those who run them under the guise of human charity.
Corruption reigns wherever the Ds have control. It is part and parcel of their political system.