Lawmaker faults closed racino meeting

A legislative committee considering a controversial slots bill likely violated the state’s public access laws by holding a closed-door meeting on the issue, according to a South Portland lawmaker.

Rep. Kevin Glynn, a third-term Republican, lodged the formal complaint Friday, asking legislative leaders to investigate a private gathering Wednesday of the Legal and Veterans Affairs Committee during which members discussed a plan to regulate slot machines in Maine.

“I think the vote is tainted, and the discussions are tainted,” said Glynn, a committee member. His comment was in reference to his panel’s subsequent 8-3 public approval of a draft bill authored by the committee’s two chairmen, Sen. Ken Gagnon, D-Waterville, and Rep. Joseph Clark, D-Millinocket.

“What we did that day was strategize and see where people were at on this, and that was it,” Clark said Friday, defending the meeting, which he characterized as a “briefing.”

“The only thing we were doing is seeing how the afternoon was going to go,” he said. “We didn’t take a vote or anything.”

Maine’s Freedom of Access Law requires all legislative committee meetings to be open to the public, with limited exceptions for personnel or legal matters.

Violations of the law can result in a $500 fine.

Clark later suggested Glynn’s complaint had more to do with failing to amend the bill than outrage over the committee’s private meeting.

“I guess I might expect that from a freshman, but [Glynn’s] been around,” Clark said. “He just got four of his amendments shot down that day.”

Sour grapes or not, Jonathan Piper, a Portland lawyer and expert on Maine’s public access laws, said there’s no question that the committee’s actions, as described by Glynn, ran afoul of the law.

“It’s an egregious, obvious and unquestionable violation of the right to know law,” Piper said, scoffing at the chairman’s defense that no votes were taken. “Talking about process and a specific proposal is as much doing the public’s business as voting.”

House Speaker Pat Colwell, D-Gardiner, who received the letter Friday morning, said, “It’s a serious complaint and I’m going to investigate it, talk with all the committee members and the [Senate] president [Beverly Daggett, D-Augusta.]

“It’s obviously very important we have every public meeting accessible to the public,” he said.

In his letter, Glynn requested the investigation and that an expert on Maine’s right to know law oversee the remaining work sessions on the racino bill.

One of the members at the private meeting, Rep. Roger Landry, D-Sanford, confirmed Glynn’s account, but was quick to defend the chairmen’s actions as necessary for efficient deliberations.

“What they hope to do is have a situation conducive to good, basic communication versus a room that’s jam-packed with lobbyists, investors and not to mention reporters,” said Landry, who added that the meeting was designed simply to lay out the rules for the day.

“It was totally aboveboard,” he said.

In his letter, Glynn did not place all the blame for the closed-door session on the committee’s chairmen. Instead, he faulted in part the intense focus on the bill, which would pave the way for a potentially lucrative slots industry at the state’s harness racing tracks.

“I can understand the need for that meeting considering the amount of lobbying and pressure,” Glynn said. “You’re getting it double-barrel if you’re sitting on the LVA committee. It’s the most I’ve ever seen.”