A bill sponsored by House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross (D-Portland) would establish racial quotas for membership on the board in charge of administrating veterans’ homes throughout the state.
Maine Veterans’ Homes (MVH), created by the State Legislature in 1977, provides long-term care services to veterans and eligible family members across six locations in Caribou, Scarborough, South Paris, Bangor and Machias.
The administration of MVH is vested in their Board of Trustees, which under current state law consists of 13 members, appointed by the governor.
Speaker Talbot Ross’ bill, LD 2211, would amend the criteria and appointment process for the MVH Board of Trustees to include a total of 14 members, appointed by the governor, President of the Senate, and Speaker of the House.
Notably, under Talbot Ross’ bill, the House Speaker would be required to appoint to the MVH Board of Trustees two members — one a veteran, one a non-veteran — “of a racial group that is overrepresented in military service relative to that racial group’s percentage of the national population.”
The original version of LD 2211 contained language more blatantly requiring a racial quota for the board, specifically requiring the House Speaker to appoint two members who identify as Black or African American or Native American.
Additionally, the bill would require more generally that the “membership of the board must reflect the diversity of the State, including, but not limited to, diversity in geographic location, cultural and ethnic background, race, sexual orientation, gender identity and professional experience.”
A majority of members of the board, under LD 2211, would be required to be honorably discharged veterans.
The bill as amended added “physical or mental disability” to the list of diverse identities the MVH Board of Trustees would be required to reflect.
In her testimony introducing the amended language to LD 2211, Speaker Talbot Ross said the changes would “ensure that the [MVH] Board of Trustees is better able to meet the needs of all veterans.”
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Other measures in the bill include expanding the information the MVH Board of Trustees required in their annual report to the Legislature, to include, among other information, the homes’ audited financial statements, statistics on residents, staffing levels, quality assurance plans, and staff turnover and retention rates.
According to MVH’s most recent publicly available Form 990, the 501(c)3 nonprofit took in more than $94 million in 2021, including $5.8 million in government grants and $76.2 million in program service revenue.
The bill was reported “ought to pass as amended” out of the Veteran’s and Legal Affairs Committee with the support of all but three Committee members, Reps. John Andrews (R-Paris), Benjamin Hymes (R-Waldo), and Shelley Rudnicki (R-Fairfield).
Two Republican members of the Committee, Sen. Jeff Timberlake (R-Androscoggin) and Rep. David Boyer (R-Poland), voted with the Democratic majority to move forward the “ought to pass as amended” report.
On Monday, April 1, the Maine House of Representatives vote to pass LD 2211 as amended without objection.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="27067 https://www.themainewire.com/?p=27067">8 Comments
Republicans who are all for this racist anti-whiteism are cowards
This is blatant racism.
What about qualifications?
No?
RTR is going to introduce quotas on medical staff like nurses and surgeons next.
She’s a race monger con woman.
Next Miss Ross will decide to pack the board more by adding a couple of homesexuals of each sex, and then, maybe some of some new sexes.
Has this ever been brought to light re Miss Ross?
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Ross previously served as the Director of Equal Opportunity and Multicultural Affairs for the city of Portland until city officials were made aware of an Aug. 26, 2015 incident involving a parking attendant.
The city paid an outside law firm $6,098 to investigate the incident after receiving a complaint regarding Ross’s conduct. That probe uncovered video of Ross interacting with an employee of Unified Parking Partners, one of the companies that manages private lots in Portland, and a city employee
After seeing the video, Portland officials placed Ross on paid administrative leave. Portland officials refused to release the video of the altercation, but Ross resigned shortly after the incident.
According to newspaper reports at the time, the parking lot employees in the video were identified as Andy Martin and Shannon Farrell. Farrell worked for the city, but Martin was a Unified Parking employee.
Everyone involved in the imbroglio declined to comment at the time.
City officials declined to release video of the incident in 2015, citing personnel issues. In cases where disciplinary action is taken, such records can be released pursuant to Freedom of Access Act requests. However, because Ross resigned rather than face discipline, the records remain undisclosed to the public or press.
Rachel Talbot Ross is a complete race baiting moron with less than zero integrity who believes that skin color is the sole determinate factor for everything. This individual has already shown that she can be bought and lingers in the gray area of fiduciary responsibility to the people she allegedly represents. She is devoid of redemptive qualities and relies exclusively on her skin color to bully others into compliance with her moronic ideals.
Is there one damned thing that Ross doesn’t see through the eyes of race? She is a racist to the core and not shy about it. Talk about trying to fix something that ain’t broken!! As a vet, I’ll bet there isn’t one vet out there that gives a hoot about racial quotas on this board. Good medical care is what they want and this won’t do a friggin thing to provide for that. Ross can shove it where the sun don’t shine and shame on those two Rs that went along with this bs.
The only colors that the military sees are Red, White & Blue! And its Board should reflect those colors.
Just curious: How many of the qualified will represent the “mentally disability” demographic?
Maine as far percentages are concerned is one of the whitest states in the union, I find this bill odd. The unintended consequences enormous