AUGUSTA, Maine — Gov. Paul LePage continues to withhold a financial order that would allow the Maine Human Rights Commission to move $4,000 of its own revenues from one account to another.
LePage refused to authorize the commission’s request in an effort to compel the five-member panel to reopen a case in which commissioners ruled a co-owner of Moody’s Diner in Waldoboro discriminated against an employee based on religious grounds.
Amy Sneirson, executive director of the commission, said the commission meets Monday to, among other matters, consider whether to reopen a religious discrimination case against Dan Beck, co-owner and manager of Moody’s Diner in Waldoboro. Beck, who has denied the allegations, is accused of discriminating against a long-time employee because of her religious beliefs.
Agreeing with an investigator’s recommendation and after a two-hour hearing in November 2014, the commission ruled there were reasonable grounds to believe religious discrimination occurred. Commissioners also said there are reasonable grounds to believe Moody’s Diner retaliated against the employee, Allina Diaz, for asserting her rights under the Maine Human Rights Act, and that the company altered the terms and conditions of her employment because of its discrimination.
The parties were trying to settle the issue out of court when LePage intervened in February and told Sneirson he intended to have his chief legal counsel look into the case.
LePage’s complaint centered on an audio recording that the commission considered during its deliberations, which LePage said had been edited and should be heard in its entirety.
“The governor believes that if the commissioners had received the entire audio tape, rather than portions of it, that the outcome would have been different,” Sneirson said.
Sneirson said the $4,000 in question accumulated from copying fees paid to the commission in Freedom of Access Act requests. The commission wanted to use the money to hire a temporary secretary while a permanent employee was on leave. The employee’s absence was covered within the commission’s other resources.
“The financial impact wasn’t big,” Sneirson said. “We got most of the support we needed, despite the governor refusing to sign the financial order.”
The commission’s meeting begins at 8:30 a.m. Monday at its headquarters in Augusta.
