AUGUSTA, Maine — A bill that aims to ensure all state employees follow the same set of ethical standards was approved with little debate and broad bipartisan support in the Maine House of Representatives on a 134-13 vote Thursday.
The bill, LD 6, is the result of a document-shredding scandal at the Maine Centers for Disease Control following a public records request by th e Sun Journal in 2013.
The incident also led to a whistleblower lawsuit against the state by a CDC employee who said her supervisors ordered her to destroy the public records and then retaliated against her when she refused. The suit was recently settled out of court.
“This legislation is designed to strengthen and more evenly apply ethics standards in the executive branch, which we found to be inconsistent and in some places virtually nonexistent,” said Rep. Chuck Kruger, D-Thomaston, the bill’s sponsor and the House chairman of the Legislature’s Government Oversight Committee. “Ultimately, the goal is to make it easier for state employees to find answers when questions of ethics arise in the course of their work.”
Republican Gov. Paul LePage’s administration opposed the measure, saying it would cost $1 million per year to ensure all state employees were following a unified code of ethics.
The measure, as amended by Kruger on Wednesday, calls for only one additional staff member in the Department of Administration and Financial Affairs with a two-year cost of about $136,000.
Lawmakers voting against the measure said they didn’t believe the price tag was accurate and it would cost more to fund than what the bill provides for.
The bill’s next stop will be in the Republican-controlled Senate.