MHPC back on Ethics Commission’s agenda

The Ethics Commission will again determine if it wants to investigate the Maine Heritage Policy Center for its 2006 efforts to promote the Taxpayer Bill of Rights.

The matter will be taken up at the commission’s monthly board meeting Monday.

Carl Lindemann, who calls himself a citizen advocate, claims a finance report submitted by the MHPC to the commission is incomplete, noting that the center spent far more promoting the issue than contributions received.

In a letter to the commission, however, Dan Billings, attorney for the center, wrote that it is not unusual for an organization to submit more expenditures than contributions – listing nine other organizations that did so for the TABOR initiative including the AARP.

Lindemann first brought the issue before the Ethics Commission in October 2006, wanting the MHPC to be treated as a Political Action Committee, rather than a neutral thinktank – thus having to disclose all financial activity.

MHPC attorney Dan Billings argued that the center was simply providing information and not advocating for TABOR.

In December 2006 the commission determined that the center did not qualify as a PAC, but was a 1056-B group thus it needed to file a financial report of activity relating to its promotion of TABOR.

Lindemann appealed the commission’s decision to Superior Court, and the center filed the financial report on Jan. 22, 2007. That March, Lindemann started asking questions about the report.

“His request contents that the MHPC under-reported the contributions it received related to TABOR and under-reported its expenditures on staff time to promote TABOR,” states a summary of the case from the Ethics Commission.

In May, the commission voted to defer discussion until after the pending appeal was resolved. This February the court dismissed the appeal. Lindemann then appealed the Maine Law Court.

Lindemann has requested that the commission board members take a formal vote on whether the commission is the appropriate venue to discuss the financial report, noting a conflict of interest because former commissioner Jean Marvin was treasurer for the MHPC.

“The Commission’s counsel and I believe that the Commission is the only department of Maine state government that has jurisdiction to conduct the investigation requested by Mr. Lindemann on March 5, 2007,” writes Jonathan Wayne, executive director of the commission in a recent memo.

According to the memo, commission staff recognizes two options to the board: Defer to further action from the Maine courts, or decide whether to grant the investigation requested by Lindemann.

The agenda item for Monday’s meeting contains more than 100 pages in supplemental materials from Lindemann, the Maine Heritage Policy Center, commission staff and the courts.

Dan Billings, attorney for the Maine Heritage Policy Center, said he is recommending the commission leave the matter tabled until after it is sorted through the courts. He also said all concerns over a conflict of interest should not be an issue now that Marvin has left the commission.

Billings said Lindemann has no solid evidence that the center’s reporting was inaccurate.

“If the commission does take up the matter now, they’re likely to use procedures they typically use, and we’ll be right back in court,” Billings said. “It makes sense to see what the courts do with the complaint,. In the end he’s likely to be unsatisfied.”

Reached Wednesday, Lindemann said the numbers on the report “simply didn’t add up.”

“The MHPC was deeply involved in TABOR,” Lindemann said. “They say they only devoted 45 minutes a day (to the issue), that’s a joke.”