GOP panel to discuss Penquis CAP fraud case

Five years after the Penquis Community Action Program weatherization fraud first came to light, the Penobscot County Republican Party Committee has decided to comment on the scandal.

Members of the committee are expected to hold a news conference Friday morning at Bangor City Hall to point out that the Penquis CAP fraud, revealed in October 1985, occurred during the administration of Rep. Joseph E. Brennan, Democratic gubernatorial candidate and former governor.

Saying that the news conference would be “absolutely partisan,” N. Laurence Willey, committee chairman and Republican candidate for a state Senate seat in Bangor, said Thursday the session was “a way to set the record straight.”

“It’s a partisan statement that Joe Brennan has been pointing fingers at (Gov. John R.) McKernan” about alleged mismanagement, said Willey. “Maybe (Brennan) ought to be more careful.”

The Penquis CAP weatherization fraud involved a conspiracy among two Penquis employees and two local contractors to defraud the federal government of funds to weatherize the homes of low-income people in Penobscot and Piscataquis counties. The weatherization funds are administered by the state Division of Community Services, which monitors CAP agencies around the state.

All four people, including former Bangor Mayor Thomas F. Davis Jr., were convicted and sentenced earlier this year in connection with the scandal, which could cost the state as much as $3 million.

Brennan’s campaign manager, Barbara Reinertsen, said Thursday that it was the Brennan administration that brought the scandal to the attention of the Maine attorney general and to federal investigators.

Reinertsen said that attempts to link the actions of private contractors to Brennan was “an absolutely clear example of negative campaigning and trying to give false impressions.”

Willey will be joined Friday by Bangor City Councilor William England, state Rep. Eugene Paradis, R-Old Town, and state Rep. John Richards, R-Hampden.