A taxpayer-funded commission originally proposed and currently co-chaired by Maine House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross (D-Portland) is celebrating Black History Month by giving a $12,000 contract to the nonprofit founded by the Speaker’s sister, Portland City Councilor Regina Phillips.
The “Permanent Commission on the Status of Racial, Indigenous & Tribal Populations” (PCRITP), which is co-chaired by Speaker Talbot Ross, awarded the chunk of change to Phillips’ group as payment for a Black History Month event in which another of Ross’s sisters is listed as a speaker.
Neither Talbot Ross nor any PCRITP representative disclosed the familial ties between the grant recipient and a PCRITP commissioner prior to awarding the contract.
According to the PCRITP contract, the $12,000 payment went to the Portland-based nonprofit organization Cross Cultural Community Services (CCCS) on Feb. 7, 2024.
Phillips is listed as the “vendor contact” for CCCS on the Commission’s contract.
The CCCS website lists Phillips, who is currently serving as a Portland City Councilor, as one of the organization’s three co-founders.
Per the CCCS website:
Cross Cultural Community Services is an organization owned and operated by three women of color, with three lifetimes of personal and professional experience in the field of cultural equity and community building. We are dedicated to advocating for people of color, immigrant and refugee communities and combating white supremacy through education and advocacy.
The PCRITP Finance and Operations Committee, of which Rachel Talbot Ross is also a member, published a memo on their contracts detailing which events they are sponsoring.
The memo states that the Commission “was approached by Cross Cultural Community Services, interested in engaging us in their Black History Month Wellness Fair.”
“The Permanent Commission will support execution of this fair by providing $12,000 for speakers, event promotional materials, and space fees,” the memo reads.
There is no mention in the finance memo that the Permanent Commission’s co-chair is an immediate family member of one of the co-founders of CCCS.
It’s unclear whether there was a bidding or application process that allowed other groups to seek funding.
[RELATED: Maine Racial Equity Commission Banned White People from Talking at Lewiston Public Meeting…]
The “Black History Month Community Wellness Fair” consists of two 9 a.m.-3:15 p.m. events slated for Feb. 29 at Gateway Community Services in Portland, and March 1 at the Royal Oak Room in Lewiston.
The events will feature panel discussions centered around themes of “Trauma, Grief, Hope and Joy: Exploring the social determinants of mental healthcare.”
One of the speakers during the Feb. 29 event’s “Hope and Joy” discussion will be Robin Talbot, another sister of Rachel Talbot Ross who is the associate director of the University of Southern Maine’s Stonecoast MFA creative writing program.
CCCS states that the Wellness Fair was first held in 2020, in order to “educate black indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) about COVID and how we, as a community can support each other during the pandemic.”
[RELATED: Taxpayer-Funded “Place Justice Project” Bemoans “Problematic” Place Names in Maine…]
The PCRIPT Finance and Operations Committee discussed the CCCS contract during their Tuesday, Feb. 13 meeting.
Talbot Ross was absent from the meeting.
Hunter Cropsey, the Commission’s Acting Operations Director, said the CCCS Black History Month event falls under PCRITP’s category of “event and program sponsorship,” which relates to the Commission’s statutory power to “Promote and coordinate activities on state and local levels designed to meet the problems faced by historically disadvantaged racial, indigenous and tribal populations.”
“The Cross Cultural Community Services contract is supporting — we’re providing some critical gap financing supporting their Black History Month Community Wellness Fair in Portland,” Cropsey said.
The Maine Wire submitted a question to the Committee asking whether PCRITP was required to disclose that the Commission was granting $12,000 to an organization co-founded by the sister of the Commission’s co-chair, and to disclose that another immediate family of Talbot Ross would be speaking at the sponsored event.
PCRITP Finance and Operations Committee Chair Keith Bisson relayed the question to the entire Committee, but did not mention Talbot Ross by name.
“Are there disclosure requirements related to entities who might receiving these grants who have some other connection to the Commission? Like a family relationship, or things of that nature,” Bisson said.
“I’m not sure myself, if that’s something that [the Maine Department of Administrative and Financial Services (DAFS)] might give us guidance on, or if we have the answer to that,” Bisson added.
PCRITP Commissioner Kenneth Lewis responded by saying “I would ask that we instruct staff to seek guidance from DAFS, and be able to respond to that question in the most appropriate way.”
Under Maine State Law, a lawmaker may commit an ethics violation if he or she votes on a matter in which they or a family member have a “direct substantial personal financial interest, distinct from that of the general public, in an enterprise that would be financially benefited by proposed legislation…”
For state entities more generally, executive employees “may not have any direct or indirect pecuniary interest in or receive or be eligible to receive, directly or indirectly, any benefit that may arise from any contract made on behalf of the State when the state entity that employs the executive employee is a party to the contract.”
However, it’s unclear how the ethics rules would apply to the relatively new position as commissioner of the recently created PCRITP.
The Maine Wire has reached out to DAFS for a request for comment on whether or not the Permanent Commission was obligated to disclose that Talbot Ross’ immediate family members are benefitting from the grant.
The grift that keeps on grifting.
Corrupt as can be.
The GOP needs to smarten up. Too many Mainers have no idea what is happening
Articulate fighters needed.
A smoother Battalion of Lapages. How I miss the grouchy old boy.
WHO CARES? Is anything going to be done about it? NO! Even if the reDUMBlicans took control of both houses and the Blain mansion, they don’t have the guts to do anything. A pox on all their houses.
Must be nice to be so brazen as to flaunt one’s nepotism. Yet again, tax paying Mainers get screwed by the lying, cheating democrats in Augusta. That 12,000 dollar gift to one’s sister will do absolutely nothing to improve the lives of hard working Mainers. Wake up people! The dems are robbing us in plain sight.
Just another example of corrupt Democrats in action. The state gets what it votes for. No wonder we are one of the highest taxed states in the US.
She certainly has failed upwards since she got booted out of Portland City Hall. Don’t ever forget how far back her BS goes.
https://www.pressherald.com/2015/10/21/city-of-portland-spent-6098-on-an-outside-investigation-of-longtime-employee/
We have an outstanding Governor, out standing in her own mind
Since whites are part of the “racial population”, wheres our pie?
The democrats play by different standards. Their sense of ethics is of their own thinking which changes on whether it advances whatever cause they support. Why should any of us be surprised by this blatant conflict of interest. The ones making decisions will undoubtedly see nothing close to inappropriate in the spending of our tax dollars.
All these years and still thinking like a third world person!
The Portland to Augusta graft pipeline is alive and well apparently. No ethics or moral compass to see here!
No surprise! There never was any intent to improve the lives of the hard working or the elderly of the state. Their intent was to turn Maine into a plantation and the working citizens would be the slaves and the elderly would be forced out or so poor that they couldn’t fight back. As they fill the state with illegals and call them “new Mainers” that they are paying $2,000 a month out of our tax money.And this racist Talbot-Ross is a reprehensible excuse for a human and the quintessential racsist!