Maine’s taxpayer-funded racial equity commission has revised their public comment policy to disallow input from the public during meetings of their Finance and Operations Committee.
The move to revise the policy came directly after the Maine Wire asked the Permanent Commission on the Status of Racial, Indigenous & Tribal Populations (PCRITP) about a potential conflict of interest related to a $12,000 grant it awarded to a nonprofit run by the sister of House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross (D-Portland), who co-chairs PCRITP.
[RELATED: Maine Speaker’s Racial Equity Board Gave Her Sister’s Nonprofit $12,000 for Black History Month…]
Neither Speaker Talbot Ross nor any PCRITP representative disclosed the familial tie between the grant recipient and the PCRITP co-chair prior to awarding the contract, which was sponsoring a Black History Month event where another sister of Talbot Ross was a featured panelist.
The PCRIPT Finance and Operations Committee discussed the CCCS contract during their Tuesday, Feb. 13 meeting, and received a question from the Maine Wire asking if they were supposed to disclose the apparent conflict of interest in the $12,000 grant.
Recorded in the minutes of the committee’s Feb. 13 meeting, after the question from the Maine Wire, is a request from PCRITP Commissioner Kenneth Lewis to revise the committee’s public comment policy:
Commissioner Lewis – Staff are requested to develop a procedure at the F&O committee level for receiving and responding to public comment. Please prepare materials for this need for commissioner review at the next committee meeting.
Then, in the agenda for the PCRITP Finance and Operations Committee’s next meeting on March 12, the following – which was absent from the committee’s previous agendas — regarding public comment was added:
Public Comment – Committee meetings of the Permanent Commission are working meetings and do not receive public comment. Members of the public wishing to make public comment may do so at meetings of the full Permanent Commission.
Designating the meetings of the Finance and Operations Committee as “working meetings” exempts them from having to accept public comment during the meetings, where they discuss the allocation of their $2.3 million taxpayer-funded budget.
[RELATED: Maine DEI Board Says No Conflict of Interest with $12,000 Grant to Co-Chair’s Sister…]
In PCRITP’s fiscal year 2023-2024 budget, they received a one-time grant of $1 million dollars from Gov. Janet Mill’s “Maine Jobs and Recovery Plan” — federal funds meant to help small businesses, industries, and Maine families recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.
[RELATED: Gov Mills “Jobs and Recovery Plan” Diverted $1,000,000 to Maine DEI Commission…]
This is not the first time the Permanent Commission has struggled with operating within Maine’s public access laws — last August, PCRITP’s Executive Director Ariel Ricci attempted to ban white people from talking at a public meeting of PCRITP in Lewiston.
PCRITP also chose to adopt a new overhauled conflict of interest policy last month after the Maine Wire’s report, rather than enforce the policy that they originally had in their bylaws, which required commissioners to make a full and immediate disclosure of any potential conflicts of interest related to grants that would benefit a Commission member’s “immediate family.”
The Permanent Commission determined that no conflict of interest occurred when making the $12,000 grant because, they claimed, Talbot Ross was not involved in any discussions or decision making regarding the grant, and because the term “Immediate family” was not defined by their bylaws to include siblings.
Maine’s government is run by a cult.
RTR is as sleazy as they come and she doesn’t care who knows it
Welcome to the Maine Matriarchy. Things are going to get a lot worse before they ever get any better.
They are following the socialist playbook, blame your opposition, Trump, for doing what you are actually doing, dictator.
DEI is right out of the marxist playbook. Equal outcomes is part of the communist manifesto.
I have been a long time fan of the great orators. One of my favorites is Martin Luther King. Every time I listen to his “I have a Dream” speech I find it very moving. He wanted colored people (and all people) to be judged by the contents of their heart……and not the color of their skin. He wanted to end racism. So now along comes DEI that wants workers to be represented by exactly the same number of colors and ethnic backgrounds that exist in the general population…..with NO REGARD to their ability to do the job. I have been in business for a long time and have no problem hiring blacks, Hispanics or whatever ethnic backgrounds there are out there. My first, and only, concern is that they can do the job I need done.
DEI is going to have the same awful result that Affirmative Action has had. It is going to put people in positions and jobs that they are not capable of doing. And, as the democrats hope, is going to serve the cause of destroying America and getting revenge on white people……for simply the crime of being white. I Don’t think MLK intended there to be discrimination against white people any more than it should be directed against black people. This total garbage has promoted more racism in America than has existed for 50 yrs and is just going to make things much worse. Throw it in the garbage can along with the filthy leftists who are promoting it……PLEASE!
It’s so impressive to here how these DEI educated people think and speak it’s unbelievable.
I can’t seem to remember. What does DEI stand for?
Dumb
Education
Included
Or
Dumb
Educated
Individuals
Where lying, cheating, stealing and let’s not forget those rules/laws are no good there racist! This is the normal for these people as long as it’s in there favor and against the Normal American People!!
Unbelievable!!!
This is nothing but totally racist bull s$$t from our betters in Augusta. It is all about “equal outcomes”. The communist manifesto desires everyone to have the same things. So in the end nobody works and everyone starves.
Martin Luther will be crying if he can see this crap as it goes against everything he ever wanted to see. He wanted all people to be judged by the content of their hearts and not the color of their skin. The marxists prompting this agenda simply want to put people of ethnic backgrounds (other that the hated whites of course) into jobs and positions that they do not have the ability to do and just dumbing down America even further. And Saint George Floyd, the criminal who destroyed himself with illegal drugs is one of their heroes. God help save us from the communists in Augusta and other places.
Why do I feel that the real purpose of this DIE Commission is not to help minorities but to divide us. This 12,000 has a rank odor. It is after all our tax dollar. One rightfully develops a lack of trust as to the judgement of those in charge of these parties. Who or what are they really serving?
Ross is a crooked, racist, scumbag. DEI-what a bunch of bs. Welcome toe the new Maine, on its way to becoming a third world shit hole.
Just as corrupt as the Biden Administration! #FJB #FJM #FRTR
The graft and corruption shall continue until morale improves!!