A high-ranking official at the cabinet-level state agency admitted Wednesday that she intentionally withheld a report from lawmakers last year to protect the Office of Cannabis Policy’s legislative agenda.
Anya Trundy, the deputy director for legislative affairs for Maine’s Department of Administrative and Financial Services (DAFS), made the shocking confession during the Office of Cannabis Policy’s first appearance before the legislature’s Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee.
According to Maine law (Sec. B-19. 28-B MRSA §113, sub-§1), Trundy was required to submit a report to the committee on Feb. 15, 2024, as lawmakers were returning to Augusta for the second half of the 131st Legislature.
The report would have shared information with lawmakers concerning Maine’s cannabis industry, including public health information and Office of Cannabis Policy (OCP) spending data from the prior year.
However, DAFS and OCP never shared that report, and the government agencies never explained why that report was withheld from lawmakers—until yesterday.
“Is there a reason why we’re late on that?” asked Rep. David Boyer (R-Poland).
Prefacing her admission as a “very human response,” Trundy explained that she received the report from OCP but then sat on it so as not to complicate the effort cannabis lobbyists, the Mills Administration, and OCP’s legislative staff were putting into LD 40, a major cannabis reform package.
“We had a really difficult legislative session last year in this committee that was filled with a lot of acrimony, and that report is due in the middle of it,” said Trundy. “And when the draft came to me from OCP, I put it on my desk and I realized that it needed some editing, and that likely releasing that report would throw another log on the fire. And I didn’t want to throw another log on the fire.”
“What I really wanted to do was have a tone change, and at the end of the session, we ended on a great note,” she said.
Nothing in Maine’s cannabis statutes allows government employees to withhold documents from lawmakers in order to police the tone of legislative debate.
The “log” that Trundy decided to keep out of the “fire” would likely have been two 20- to 30-page reports—one for both the adult-use cannabis industry and the medicinal cannabis program—in line with reports from previous years, which are available on the DAFS website.
The reports Trundy unilaterally withheld from lawmakers were due, as she seemed to admit, in the middle of the legislative session last year. That means the reports covering 2023 would have been due on Feb. 15, 2024, just as prior years’ reports have been due every Feb. 15 since 2020.
Now, nearly a year later, the report still has not been released.
That may be because within the very piece of legislation Trundy was aiming to protect, LD 40, was language that would move the deadline just enough to permit the withholding of those records until Feb. 15, 2025, but only after the fact.
In other words, after flouting the law and denying information to lawmakers, DAFS and OCP were able to get lawmakers to approve a statutory change essentially approving of the extra-legal maneuver.
The reports have historically provided information on the prior year activity within the adult-use recreational program and the medicinal program that could be helpful to lawmakers writing policy for the industry.
That includes data on total capacity of cannabis production, volume produced, licensure stats, OCP’s staffing, revenue, and spending, the number of compliance issues in the year, and public health information.
Trundy didn’t say whether she intended to comply with the statutory deadline this year. Depending on how it’s read, the statute may now allow DAFS and OCP to skip the 2023 report altogether.
The annual cannabis reports aren’t the only document requests that the deputy director deals with in her government job.
According to the DAFS website, she’s the point person for “legislative requests,” but she’s also been involved with a number of the Maine Wire’s FOAA requests related to the OCP and other matters.
Trundy’s admission and her key position as liaison between DAFS and lawmakers raises questions about what other information she may be withholding from the legislature in order to advance a bureaucratic agenda. It also raises questions about her role as a public records manager for the agency.
Over the last two years, DAFS has been the worst offender of all Maine state agencies when it comes to responding to the Maine Wire’s FOAA’s in good faith, with the agency delaying or failing to respond to some simple requests for more than 600 days.
A number of cannabis related requests submitted to OCP last April remain outstanding.
According to state payroll records, Trundy’s taxpayer-funded compensation was valued at more than $152,000 in 2024.
In the same year, OCP Director John Hudak earned $171,389.16.
Trundy did not respond to an email Wednesday evening seeking comment regarding her remarks to the VLA committee. If she does, this story will be updated.
Wow!! Things need to change. Situations like this should have zero tolerance.
It’s amazing how unelected officials have no accountability to the government… it also amazes me that they are making more than the governor. Why have legislators if the head of a department has more authority than the people we elect . We have the same issues in DC. How embarrassing for the Governor, her minions are keeping secrets.
What needs to change is Augusta . More republicans .Fewer democrats .
These democrat minions are working endlessly to destroy our state . They need to be defeated .
Disgraceful . Liars . Cheats . Thieves . Enemies of the State .
Maine needs to wake up to the solution .
Hang her. In public. In the middle of the capital rotary. No trial she admitted it. Let the body hang until it rots away. Sounds harsh but do that a half dozen times and the rest of the pond scum unelected would-be tyrant officials would be Johnny on the spot about doing their job. Then have the hangman start visiting the head of DHHS. Anyone want to bet that dumpster fire get put on the straight and narrow?
If this woman intentionally withheld critical information from lawmakers , she needs to be dismissed .
The people DEMAND IT .
. Don’t just “ transfer” her to infect some other department . Fire her .
THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE.
She does not belong in Augusta or anywhere else that honestly and fair play are expected .
Let her go !
Good report but is that the end? Is there no accountability? Why have elected officials if people can just do what they want. Why does she still have job?
Really, who the fuck is running this state? Certainly not the people in Augusta. Mills cartel perhaps.
nothing like back dating criminal behaviour typical democrat mills move
Fire her and take her to court. This is unacceptable on many levels.
Why does this not surprise me? Shenanigans prevail in our democrat controlled state government. It fits in with the prevalent reporting of Maine’s primary media which reports news by omission of anything that reflects badly on those in power.
I say send this lady and her accomplices down the road kicking rocks. Let her struggle to make ends meet with the rest of Mainers who make much less than the generous 152,000 the state so easily allows.
Down the road kicking rocks would be a strong message to others who think they have the power to decide what’s shared and not shared. It’s her job.
If not for the Maine Wire none of us would know stuff like this goes on in our special interest focused state government.
Another disturbing DEI reflection of the Mills dynasty and their minions attitude towards liberty and justice for all of the
taxpaying legal American citizens of Maine.
DRAIN THE MAINE SWAMP!! PLEASE!!!
What, was she on her period or something?
Hi!
Lobbying,which is self-interest, is unlawful in a constitutional government which we don’t have and haven’t had for over a century.
I wrote a book on this and more in 2014 under my maiden name because a close relative worked at the Pentagon in order to avoid any potential problems for either of us.
Truth tellers can get into major trouble.
Name of the book is “Where Did The Original Constitutional State Go” by Lise Dupont.
Thank you!
Lise from Maine (former licensed clinician).
And she still has a job? Looks like she may be in for a promotion.
Fire her ass.
There must be a lot of people getting their pockets lined by the pot business to allow this corruption to occur and for so long.
Not to mention Mills not allowing State Police to go after the illegal pot farms and the state knowingly handing out licenses for those illegal pot farms.
Also, I’d like to know exactly what and how Trundy edited the reports she says she edited.
Maine’s version of the Deep State? She should be fired.
Huh, say it ain’t so! A scum lying beaucrat!
The swamp in Augusta. Our Governor is just another lying DC Democrat.
I have read on these pages that Governess Mills’s own Brother is working as a lawyer for one or more of these illegal pot grows. Perhaps Miss Trundy’s hold on the pot information was dictated by one or both of the Mills.
…..And we know how the Sirois weed shenanigans in Franklin County (Janets’ home town) shut down access to credit cards and banking for all the cannabis industry…….leaving boatloads of dirty filthy money piled up around the poverty stricken state……hmmm
I’m not buying Anya Trundy’s bullshit excuse that she made the decision to withhold information from the legislature because she felt the legislature last year was very acrimonius and she didn’t want to “throw another log on the fire!”. She is not the director of DAFS, she’s the deputy director! Did she get the director’s permission to make that decision? Her salary last year was $152,000. She needs to be fired!
#1 Today the State of Maine should stop and outlaw all Cannabis use, growth, sales, and consumption in private public places Statewide
#2 The use of cannabis for medical use can continue with Doctors orders,under the sale and control of the State. much like alcohol was in the past.
The new cannis is to strong, it is a danger to population health and mental wellbeing, and is a source of corruption.
Move to another State if need it!
The law makers should do this today.
These should be starting salaries for teachers and cops, not drug dealers!!!
This state is so far to the left that democrats think there ends justify ANY means. This is unbelievable, and shows the tyranny of majority one party rule. Why do the people keep voting this party in? Is it something in the water? Radon gas?
Anya, we want to ban ya
didnt DFAS, sign a sweetheart deal last year… got them all raises and stuff angered other maine government unions, who ended up getting stiffed…. quid pro quo much…
THIS PERSON NEEDS TO BE REMOVED FROM THEIR POSITION RIGHT AWAY!
If she was a republican the left would be screaming for her removal, criminal prosecution it would be non stop TV and newspaper coverage until she was destroyed. Since she is a democrat it is business as usual.
You people need to learn how to STRIKE!!!!!
Oh good. You caught one incident of corruption. Now the accountability wheel begins to turn. Will anyone hold her accountable? Maybe the AG? Nope – its an employee issue. Has to come from the Director. Didn’t the Director position change recently? With no way for the legislature to enforce its own laws, what sense is there in writing deadlines into the statutes. How useless are our statutes? Frick!
is she the sheriff’s wife waldo county