Good Will-Hinckley leader confirms LePage’s funding threat forced Eves out
Source: Bangor Daily News
AUGUSTA, Maine — The chairman of the Good Will-Hinckley board of directors told lawmakers on a government watchdog panel Thursday that Gov. Paul LePage’s threat to withhold state funding because of the school’s hiring of Democratic House Speaker Mark Eves placed the school’s existence in jeopardy.
Good Will-Hinckley Chairman Jack Moore, in lengthy questioning by the Legislature’s Government Oversight Committee on Thursday morning, said LePage’s threat to withhold $530,000 in state funding under the governor’s discretion likely would have caused Good Will-Hinckley to lose millions in grant funding from the Harold Alfond Foundation.
“We didn’t need the letter from the Alfond Foundation to know we were in trouble with the funding there. … Throughout this process we were focused on fulfilling our fiduciary duties,” Moore said. “We could not have been doing that by going down the road to a series of defaults that could put Good Will-Hinckley in question. It would have been imprudent for us to just wait for the chips to fall.”
Moore’s testimony confirmed much of what has been uncovered by the media and the Office of Program Evaluation and Government Accountability: That by threatening the funding, LePage, his staff and acting Education Commissioner Tom Desjardin were directly responsible for Good Will-Hinckley’s board canceling a $120,000 per year employment contract with Eves. Eves has since filed a federal civil lawsuit against LePage, who has not denied that he leveraged the state funding to force Eves out.
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Read more: http://bangordailynews.com/2015/10/15/politics/good-will-hinckley-leader-confirms-lepages-funding-threat-forced-eves-out/
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