AUGUSTA – A legislative committee decided Thursday to review financial records from a defunct energy education program in an effort to determine whether taxpayers’ money was spent improperly on hiring and other practices.

At issue are actions by the Maine Green Energy Alliance, which won a $1.1 million federal grant last year to encourage residents to insulate their homes. The program fell short of set goals, and its board, facing criticism for the slow progress, voted last month to phase out operations.

The program’s remaining balance of about $500,000 is being directed to Efficiency Maine Trust, a quasi-state agency that oversees Maine’s weatherization efforts.

Questions raised in media reports about the origins of the alliance, its spending and hiring practices and its apparent links to the Democratic Party prompted the Legislature’s Energy, Utilities and Technology Committee to seek answers from top officials of the alliance and the weatherization trust.

Interest in Thursday’s presentation was heightened this week after claims by the Maine Republican Party that the alliance offered preferential treatment to key Democratic lawmakers. Those charges were rebutted Thursday by two legislators and Seth Murray, the alliance’s executive director.

One conclusion from Thursday’s two-hour session is that the alliance’s practices created, at least, an appearance of wrongdoing and poor judgment, said the committee’s House chair, Rep. Stacey Fitts, R-Pittsfield.

But he and Senate Chair Michael Thibodeau, R-Waldo, said that until they have time to review payroll, expense and phone records, they can’t determine whether anything improper or illegal has happened.

“It obviously looks suspicious,” Thibodeau said.

The alliance was founded by Tom Federle, former legal counsel for Gov. John Baldacci. Federle spent time Thursday outlining how the alliance came to be and its relationship with Efficiency Maine Trust.

He and Murray were grilled by Thibodeau about how participants were selected for the weatherization program.

Behind some of the questioning were allegations made Tuesday by the Maine Republican Party that the House Democratic leader, Rep. Emily Cain of Orono, had an energy audit done on her house by the alliance. The GOP called the alliance “a slush fund for Democrats” and claimed Cain was one of only 50 people who benefited from the alliance’s weatherization program.

Cain said the alliance recommended an independent energy auditor, and she paid for the audit. She said she never had the recommended weatherization work done. She called the charges “a pathetic attempt to create a scandal out of thin air.”

On Wednesday, the Republican Party charged that Rep. Seth Berry, D-Bowdoinham, had weatherization done by Healthy Maine Homes, a company owned by Murray.

When asked by the legislative committee about the apparent conflict of interest, Murray said he formed the company a month before being hired to head the alliance. He began shutting it down once he got the job, he said, but finished work in progress.

Berry released his own statement Thursday, saying he paid for all work and didn’t know about Murray’s new job or the closing of his business until after he booked an energy audit.

Committee members also asked Murray to respond to published reports that seven of the alliance’s 13 staff members had strong ties to the Democratic Party, including a legislator and three candidates who lost in November’s election. They tried to determine whether those workers may have engaged in political action while on the job.

Murray said they did not, and he defended his hiring decisions, saying the people hired were the best candidates.

The committee asked for documentation to back up those claims. It is expected to be supplied in the coming days and will be reviewed by the committee in the weeks ahead.

One of the lawmakers who worked for the alliance, Rep. Melissa Walsh Innes, D-Yarmouth, sent out her own statement Thursday, defending her hiring.

Innes said she has expertise in community organizing and interest in energy conservation and the environment. She said she was never asked about her political affiliation during the hiring process.

“I also never conducted legislative or political work during the same time I was carrying out work for the energy alliance,” she said.

Staff Writer Tux Turkel can be contacted at 791-6462 or at:

tturkel@pressherald.com

 

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