Maine Republican Chairman Charles M. Webster and Vice Chair Ruth Summers issued statements on Saturday announcing Mitt Romney as the winner of this year’s Republican caucus process. They declared that Romney won Maine caucuses with 39.2 percent of the vote.

“We would like to congratulate Governor Romney on his win in the Maine caucuses, and thank Ron Paul and Mitt Romney for making stops in Maine over the past several weeks,” said Maine GOP Chairman Charlie Webster. “Maine People were excited to cast their first vote against the Obama agenda and we look forward to working with our Republican presidential nominee to defeat Barack Obama in Maine

“We owe many thanks and congratulations to our volunteers across the state who worked so diligently organizing these caucuses,’ said Maine GOP Vice Chair Ruth Summers. “These caucuses would not have been possible without our State Committee, who promoted this concept. It was wonderful to see so many Maine people turn out to vote in the presidential straw poll and participate in the caucus business. We are truly a grassroots party and the work they started is critical to moving our party forward and winning in November.”

Maine is considered a “beauty contest” state when it comes to caucuses: there are no national delegates “won” or “bound” to any Presidential candidate in the caucus process. At the caucuses, Maine Republicans elect state delegates, election clerks, and in some cases town officers. They ask those participating in the caucus to take a poll on which Presidential candidate they prefer.

This is an unofficial, non-binding poll that simply shows a snapshot or takes the current pulse of which Presidential candidate has the most support at the participating caucuses throughout the state. Some caucuses decided to not participate in the Presidential poll, and will caucus after the announcement of Romney’s win. Their results will not be factored into the results.

Republicans will elect their actual national delegation from the floor of the state convention on May 5 and 6.

As of Saturday, Feb. 11. Mitt Romney has 39.2 percent of the vote with 2,190 votes; Ron Paul has 35.7 percent with 1,996 votes; Rick Santorum has 17.7 percent with 989 votes; and Newt Gingrich has 6.25 percent with 349 votes.

A huge turnout filled the gymnasium at Geiger School in Lewiston to standing-room-only capacity for the Androscoggin County Republican caucuses. See Page 1 of Digital Edition for vote totals for Androscoggin County.

http://www.themainewire.com/

Documents obtained by The Maine Wire show the Maine State Housing Authority has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars per year on extraneous expenses – including gift cards, catering, travel, education, and consultants.

Data show MSHA made several high-dollar expenditures to Hannaford between 2008 and 2010, totaling $59,000. According to a source at Maine Housing, these payments were for gift cards that were handed out to employees, and many of the gift cards remain unaccounted for.

While an estimated 6,500 Maine families sit on a waiting list for affordable housing, and while federal cutbacks in low-income heating assistance mean needy families face a cold winter, Maine Housing, the agency in charge of mitigating both of these issues, has diverted a considerable amount of public money elsewhere.

Expenditure data released Tuesday gives a more detailed view of the massive amount of money spent by the quasi-state agency. It also raises serious questions about the financial management of the organization.

Perhaps the biggest question that emerges from the data is one of judgment. In 2011, Maine Housing Director Dale McCormick was featured in a video interview and claimed that the proposed federal reduction in low-income heating assistance would literally result in Maine people freezing to death. The average Maine LIHEAP recipient receives approximately $800 per year in assistance. While McCormick contends that families that do not receive this $800 payment may actually die, her organization has spent hundreds of thousands on items ranging from travel and entertainment to massage and ‘carbon consultants’.

McCormick’s agency spends a startling amount of money on meals. In 2010, Maine Housing spent more than $26,000 on catering services. While dining out with clients is an acceptable practice in private business, passing the cost of casual lunches off to Maine taxpayers is not. MSHA has spent thousands of dollars dining out, including nearly $2,000 in 2010 with the Vickerey Café, a small lunch restaurant around the corner from Maine Housing headquarters in Augusta.

To put this into perspective, Maine Housing’s catering budget alone could have provided heating assistance to more than 30 families in Maine in 2010.

Along with catered meals, Maine Housing uses public money to house meetings off-campus, despite paying more than $50,000 a month to lease a large waterfront building in Augusta. Since McCormick took over in 2005, MSHA has spent more than $35,000 hosting events at the Maple Hill Farm Bed and Breakfast, an inn located just miles away from MSHA headquarters. Maple Hill Farm is owned by former Democrat state senator Scott Cowger.

That’s another 44 families that could have received heating assistance.

Travel expense is another large-ticket item for Maine Housing. In 2010, MSHA spent more than $33,000 on travel. This does not include thousands more spent on education and training. Director Dale McCormick initially claimed in an interview with WCSH’s Don Carrigan that the travel expenditures were “required because of grants”. However, in a press release issued Wednesday, McCormick scaled back her claim, now stating that attendance was required only “in some cases.”

In addition to the MSHA-purchased travel, McCormick has been reimbursed for thousands of her own travel expenses. In fact, since she took over as Director, Dale McCormick has received more than $50,000 in travel and education reimbursements from the state agency.

The list of questionable expenditures is long. In 2010, MSHA spent $58,000 on marketing efforts with Burgess Advertising, the Portland agency owned by Maine Republican Representative Meredith Strang- Burgess. Burgess is one of the top marketing firms in the state, but the expenditure is questionable for one specific reason: there are already 6,500 Maine families on a waiting list for affordable housing units. In a market where MSHA can’t meet existing demand, spending the equivalent of more than 70 families’ worth of heating assistance in an effort to create more demand is puzzling.

In 2010, MSHA spent over $7,000 with Headlight Audio Video, a company that provides large-scale event setups for lighting and sound production. They also spent more than $14,000 with Catama Film & Video, a video production company. And in November of 2010, Maine Housing spent over $16,000 at the Holiday Inn by the Bay in Portland.

On top of these expenses, Maine Housing spent tens of thousands in 2010 on consultant fees, including over $46,000 with Lucy Van Hook, a ‘carbon consultant’, and over $80,000 with Marjorie Love, a management services consultant who specializes in ‘Executive transitions.’

Altogether, initial analysis of the Maine Housing data shows several hundred thousand dollars per year spent on extraneous expenses. The elimination of travel, catering, gift cards, marketing, and audio/visual services could have provided nearly 300 families with heating assistance this winter.

This is not a comprehensive overview of the data released Tuesday. Many hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional questionable expenses are being reviewed, and The Maine Wire will continue to report on the data as we dig further into it.

The Maine State Housing Authority did not respond to The Maine Wire’s request for information for this article.

Mayor of Lewiston

A bottle of gin, a pair of dice and a straight razor, issued along with one’s monthly welfare check, was a popular solution designed to reduce welfare in the working-class neighborhood that I grew up in.

Wisdom, born of the street, it reflected the attitude of the average working man and woman towards those who expected to live by the fruits of their labors.

After reading the Sunday edition of Lewiston’s daily paper, it is clear that welfare reform is long overdue. (Stories included “The ins and outs of EBTs,” “Benefits can buy booze, cigarettes, anything legal” and “Welfare cheats: Maine ramps up battle against fraud.”)

Our career politicians in Augusta must immediately be replaced by people with a practical understanding of our problems and a clear, simple, common-sense vision of how to solve them.

We need representatives who put the financial stability of the taxpayers before the financial stability of numerous nonprofit agencies. Taxpayers vs. taxtakers.

We can no longer afford legislators devoid of ideas relating to our current problems; legislators who have created a myth among their constituents that without them life as they know it would come to an end. These legislators have created an illusion called The Term Limit Law. This allows them, after four consecutive terms, to swap from the Senate to the House or vice versa.

They are like welfare recipients who, once disqualified from one program, find another. Should a legislator fail to get re-elected, not to worry! The Good Old Boys will find them a cushy job somewhere in state government—whether they are qualified or not.

Sadly, Governor Paul LePage and his Administration are now uncovering the corruption and its ineptness that has run rampant throughout our state government: corruption at the Maine Turnpike resulting in its director about to be sentenced to prison; investigations into questionable practices at the Department of Health and Human Services and Maine State Housing.

While this is happening our two senior career state legislators, Senator Margaret Craven and Representative Peggy Rotundo, repeatedly deny the magnitude of the existing problem. Additionally, over the years they have failed to focus and seek solutions to Lewiston’s welfare plight.

In our last City Council meeting, by a vote of 5-1, the council passed a resolution calling on the Governor and the Legislature to resolve the Department of Health and Human Services issue in a way that would cause the least amount of impact on Lewiston taxpayers and two of our major employers, Central Maine Medical Center and St. Mary’s Regional Hospital.

After a short debate, Councilor Richard Desjardins of Ward Seven cast the lone negative vote. He requested a second page be added containing solutions to remedy the problem. In that spirit, I now offer a short list to remedy our problems. They include:

A picture on the EBT card of the person issued the card;

A page on state and local government websites dedicated to listing names, addresses and services people are obtaining at the public trough;

A monetary reward for information leading to the recovery of misappropriated funds. This amount to be added to any restitution the subject is ordered to pay;

If the state/federal government discontinues a program, local governments will not be required to place people using up their benefits on its General Assistance; and

Require recipients to explain how they support and feed their pets, especially if the pet is a pit bull or a Rotweiler.

My campaign for mayor was based on finding solutions to Lewiston’s burdensome welfare problem. In the six weeks that I have been in office, the only member of Lewiston’s State Delegation to contact me about our plight was Rep. Michel Lajoie. So far, he is the only local legislator to show his concern.

Lewiston can no longer bear the crushing welfare burden that has been thrust upon us. If our local representatives don’t start assisting us in solving this problem, then we’ll be forced to implement a new welfare policy. Along with their issued benefits, we’ll be forced to include a pair of dice, a straight razor and a bottle of Allen’s Coffee Brandy.

Popular local bands of various genres will be stationed along a running course designed to offer spectacular views and varying terrain.

A military-style Kids’ Obstacle Course, immensely popular at last year’s L-A DU, will spur youngsters to test their fitness. The event will also showcase Museum L-A’s future location at 1 Beech Street, adjacent to Simard-Payne Park, where a festival-like atmosphere will prevail with live music, food and a variety of vendors. Competition gets under way with the Half Marathon starting at 8:30 a.m., followed by the 5K at 9 a.m. and the Kids’ Obstacle Course at 10 a.m.

“This is going to be a fun event for participants of all ages,” said Regina Catterson Museum L-A’s marketing/fundraising coordinator. “We have a great Planning Committee of experienced runners who are working to create the perfect event. Best of all, proceeds benefit Museum L-A’s educational programs, preservation initiatives, and community events.”

Co-directing this event are experienced race planner Mike Lecompte and Erik Boucher of GiddyUp Productions. Ed Desgrosseilliers is serving as director of the Kids’ Obstacle Course.

“As the event name suggests, runners in the 5K and half-marathon races will be entertained and motivated by various bands along the course, from the start line all the way to the finish area in Simard Payne Park,” Boucher said.

In describing the half-marathon course, Lecompe noted participants “will have wonderful views of Great Falls from West Pitch, experience the farmlands of North Auburn and run through the residential and urban streets of Lewiston-Auburn. They will also encounter a variety of terrain, including city streets, country roads, park paths and unpaved trails, with some flat sections mixed with an occasional rolling hill.”

“I’m very excited for our 5K runners since they will get to experience a unique inner-city race course with closed streets, cross over three bridges and pass by five different parks,” Boucher said.  Both courses start and finish at Simard-Payne Park, with award presentations to top finishers in age-group categories.

Plans for the morning’s activities are evolving with announcements of participating bands and additional features in the coming weeks. For more information, visit the event’s Facebook page or website at www.bandsontherunhalf.com or contact Boucher at ebouche1@maine.rr.com.

Members of the “Bands on the Run” planning committee recently gathered at Museum L-A: Jane Clavet, George Gendron, Alina Burke, Disa Fedorowicz-Drews, Rachel Desgrosseilliers, Regina Catterson,  Amy Hedigar, Erik Boucher, David Hedigar and Mike Lecompte. Additional committee members include Emile Clavet, Penny Gimpel and Ed Desgroseilliers.

It is an absolute outrage that the Maine State GOP thinks that with only 83% of Maine’s votes for the 2012 Presidential Preference Poll, that they can discredit the potential votes of 8,000 members of their party, especially with only 194 votes between first and second place.

It is even more of an outrage that the Maine State GOP can ‘call’ a winner based on only that 83% reported. At a time when the GOP needs to come together more than ever to clear out the current Obama administration, and at a time when the GOP needs to gain strength and the trust of it’s members, it has made a blatant and irreversible mistake.

Though the Maine State GOP still could make attempts to save face and do the right thing, there is no guarantee that Washington County GOP Members will soon forget how their party has so willingly disregarded their votes. Ultimately whether one member of the Washington County GOP, or all 8,000 members would have made it out to vote, it is not Charlie Webster’s race to call.

This is the people’s preference poll, not the chairman’s.

Lindsay Carter

Lewiston

L/A Arts will host the fundraiser reception and performance at the Franco American Heritage Center, 46 Cedar St., Lewiston. Following the 6 p.m. reception will be a fantastic performance of the best songs of the 1970s by musical legends Billy Joel and Elton John in a performance of Piano Men featuring Joe Boucher, Chris Eastburn and the Southern Maine Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Robert Lehmann.

Elton John and Billy Joel have combined to sell over 350 million records worldwide. For four decades they have been a large part of the musical landscape, topping the album charts and playing to sold out audiences while continuing to receive heavy airplay on classic rock radio.

Since 1994 these two legendary performers have regularly been joining forces selling out their worldwide Face-to-Face tours.

“Piano Men” is a tribute to the amazing songs of Billy Joel and Elton John. This concert combines a four-piece rock band featuring Joe Boucher on piano and vocals, arrangements and back-up vocals with bass by Christopher Eastburn, Gary Backstrom on guitar and Steve Hodgkin on drums.

The performance includes the Southern Maine Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Robert Lehmann and with arrangements by Christopher Eastburn. Rarely have these songs ever been heard performed live in this way—Elton and Billy themselves have only on a few occasions performed with orchestras.

The music of “Piano Men” concentrates heavily on the recordings by Elton and Billy during their 1970s heyday, when their many hit albums featured lush orchestrations.

Songs in the first set include Prelude/Angry Young Man, Your Song, My Life, Tiny Dancer, Allentown, Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word, Moving Out “Anthony’s Song” and Scenes From an Italian Restaurant.

Act Two continues with The Ballad of Billy The Kid, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Pressure, Rocket Man, New York State of Mind, Levon and ending with the rousing Crocodile Rock and Only The Good Die Young. The Encore is Elton John’s poignant Candle In The Wind, followed by the anthem of the evening, Billy Joel’s Piano Man, which the audience sings along—and sings on their way home.

The reception is at 6 p.m., and the performance is at 7:30 p.m. Tickets for the performance are $25; tickets for both the performance and reception are $35. The Franco American Heritage Center is at 46 Cedar St, Lewiston.

For more information and tickets, call 782-7228 or see www.laarts.org.

MaineOpenGov.org, a MHPC website that shows the pay of state employees, has been updated and expanded to show five years of salary and benefits data for employees of the Maine State Housing Authority.

The data from Maine Housing was provided in response to a Freedom of Access Act request made by The Maine Heritage Policy Center. The data shows that in the past five calendar years (2005 to 2010), total payroll and benefits costs of Maine State Housing Authority employees grew by 30%, from $7.1 million in 2005 to $9.4 million in 2010.

The executive director of Maine State Housing Authority, Dale McCormick, took over as head of MSHA in 2005.

“We’re excited to add another, brand new set of payroll data to MaineOpenGov.org,” said Sam Adolphsen, director of Open Government at MHPC. “The Maine State Housing Authority handles a great deal of public money, and it is responsible for providing critical services for our most vulnerable citizens. It’s vital that their operations are transparent, and that they are accountable to taxpayers for how they spend those public funds. This is particularly important at a time when 6,500 of our fellow Mainers find themselves on the waiting list for affordable housing.”

Other key findings from the MSHA payroll data include:

Over the same time period (2005 to 2010), Maine State Housing Authority Payrolls have more than doubled the total payroll increases at the Maine Turnpike Authority, Maine state government and the University of Maine System total payrolls.

The number of employees earning more than $100,000 in total compensation more than doubled, from seven employees in 2005 to 17 in 2010.

“Administration” payroll costs increased by 61% from 2005 to 2010.

Payroll for “Asset Management” has jumped from $1.3 million in 2005 to $2 million in 2010, up 60% in five years.

This updated data release comes at a time when Maine State Housing Authority is being questioned for the cost of public housing projects around the state. The original Freedom of Access Act request that MHPC made asked for much more data than is currently presented on MaineOpenGov.org.

Maine State Housing Authority has said that they cannot provide individual salary data before 2005, and they have yet to release to MHPC their vendor payments spending information.

“This data is key to helping shed a light on the operations of the Maine State Housing Authority,” said Adolphsen. “While there are still many questions to be answered about the high cost of ‘affordable’ housing projects at MSHA, this data shows very clearly that cost containment hasn’t been a strength for MSHA, at least in the past half-decade. While the payrolls have been growing at MSHA, so has the waiting list of Maine folks trying to get into affordable housing—that just isn’t right.”

Mayor of Lewiston

There are two new sheriffs in Lewiston-Auburn. We have heard your anger and concerns. We are now in the process of addressing them.

Auburn Mayor Jonathan LaBonté and myself have agreed to work together, like conjoined twins, to start the process of transforming Lewiston-Auburn into a prosperous, vibrant community that will transform from mere exits on the Maine Turnpike and dots on a map into a desirous destination for Mainers and out-of-staters to live, work and establish a business.

This was underscored at a recent meeting with the director and staff of the New England area U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Department. After the HUD director and staff introduced themselves, we were advised that they had come to Lewiston-Auburn with funds to help us in developing our communities.

They were then bluntly advised that if the money they intended to give us was earmarked for additional Section 8 housing—or whatever it is now called—they had wasted a trip.

We pointed out to them that these types of funds, although meant to improve targeted areas of our communities, have done nothing but destroy them, leaving these areas in disrepair.

We told them that if they really wanted to help our communities, we could use funding to demolish our many abandoned and uninhabitable buildings. At last count, Lewiston has about 50 such buildings.

We asked for funding to create a bus service between Portland, Lewiston and Augusta so that our unemployed and underemployed would have a chance at higher-paying jobs in order to better themselves. We pointed out that many of these people are without personal vehicles. For others, gas and tolls present a financial hardship.

We inquired if Federal money was available to help young entrepreneurs create market-rate housing in our downtowns, money that would rehabilitate our buildings in disrepair back to the vibrancy they once exhibited. Success in this type of venture will hopefully make it easier to attract private developers when Phase Two, The Riverfront, kicks in.

The ultimate goal is to transform Lewiston-Auburn into a community that will retain our sons and daughters by offering an attractive venue by which to start a successful business, guarantee good-paying jobs, provide outdoor and indoor recreation facilities and other amenities that will make our cities a destination.

We will add to the many activities already available to our youth, making our cities family friendly. Lastly, our seniors will have activities that will make retired life something to look forward to and not dread.

Further, we need help from both the federal and state governments in order to contain General Assistance (welfare) costs. Legislation is needed to insure that when either entity drops an established program, we at the local level can also drop any similar local programs, freeing us from using our welfare budget to make up any shortfalls.

Lastly, we have spoken with representatives of our federal Congressional staffs, Governor LePage, President of the Maine Senate Kevin Raye and several local state legislators in an attempt to put forward legislation to provide much-needed relief to our already overburdened local taxpayers.

In the near future, Senator Lois Snowe-Mello has invited us to the State House to meet with elected state officials to discuss our concerns. Shortly, we will also be meeting with mayors from Biddeford, Portland, Bangor and Augusta to discuss our common concerns.

That concludes an update of this month’s political adventures. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to catch up with a Public Works crew in order to perform a duty which a mayor is expected to do—fill potholes.

Why film what’s happening on Lisbon Street? LYAC members have heard about Lisbon Street bustling with activity years ago. They wanted to remind residents and visitors alike that today’s Lisbon Street is being rejuvenated one storefront at a time and wanted to capture that activity as an image booster for Lewiston. The video was both filmed and edited by youth council members in partnership with Great Falls TV.

Filming was done over a period of two days. Some of the businesses featured in the video include: Kaplan University, Paul’s Clothing & Shoe Store, LA Arts, Baraka Store, Lewiston Public Library, Captive Elements Art, Forage, The Vault, Niky’s Greek Restaurant, Chill Yoga, Mother India, Gallery 5, Fuel, Dube’s Florist, pharmacist Dr. Abdifatah Ahmed, Global Halal Store, The Public Theatre (in Lisbon Street corridor) along with New York actor Dan Matisa, and local theatre supporter “Mona.”

LYAC was pleased to hear first-hand about the energy being experienced on Lisbon Street as evidenced by comments from folks such as The Vault owner Susan Hall: “A real renaissance is happening here, not only with different businesses but with growing businesses,” she said. “We’ve got an abundance of new local talent taking hold here. I have like-minded neighbors who see this as the renaissance and the happening area in Lower Lisbon Street.”

The Vault, a specialty fine wine and craft beer shop, is at 84 Lisbon Street.

At the February 11 event, pictures of Lisbon Street “then and now” will be displayed, and LYAC members will share their personal impressions from filming in the downtown. LYAC also hopes to have some hors d’oeuvres from Lisbon Street restaurants on hand for attendees to sample.

Inquiries about the event may be directed to LYAC, 513-3000, ext. 3205.