AUGUSTA (NEWS CENTER Maine) - Maine's Government Oversight Committee voted unanimously Thursday morning to subpoena the head of Maine's Department of Health and Human Services when he didn't show up to a scheduled meeting.
Senator Roger Katz, the chair of the committee, said he expected Commissioner Ricker Hamilton to show up to discuss problems in the child welfare system in the wake of two alleged child murders. As the leader of DHHS, the system involved in both girls' lives, Hamilton has unique knowledge of the cases and the system of child protective services.
The deaths of Marissa Kennedy and Kendall Chick sparked an investigation into DHHS by Maine's watchdog agency. A preliminary report was released in May, and the agency is working on a deeper analysis of DHHS.
Governor LePage issued a statement late Thursday afternoon, stating Hamilton's attendance could jeopardize the confidentiality of the ongoing investigation and murder trials.
"I determined that placing the Commissioner in a situation where Legislators could ask any question would jeopardize the deliberate care taken to date by my office, DHHS, the AG’s office and OPEGA to follow the proper protocols to protect confidentiality. My office communicated with OPEGA that the Commissioner could answer questions in writing but would not participate in open-ended deliberations or discussions," the statement read.
It is unclear if the Governor specifically instructed Hamilton to not attend.
The Government Oversight Committee expected Commissioner Hamilton to show up at Thursday's meeting because of promises by Governor LePage, according to Senator Katz. He said the Governor "looked me and the rest of the committee in the eye" and told them the Commissioner would be there.
"It's just so frustrating," Katz said. "We're supposed to be on the same team here. It's not the Red Sox and the Yankees. We're supposed to be working together."
Since the deaths of the two girls, DHHS has been working on an internal investigation. "I'm giving the people of Maine my word," Commissioner Ricker Hamilton told NEWS CENTER Maine in March. "We're committed to this. We're going to get to the bottom of this.”
Since then, the Commissioner has not been present at any public meetings or hearings regarding an investigation into his department by the Office of Program Evaluation and Government Accountability.
Senator Katz said when the committee requests the presence of another government official, it goes through a formal request process through Governor LePage's office - one that he said the committee completed to request Hamilton show up. When members of the committee called DHHS Thursday morning to confirm, they said their calls went unanswered.
Letter to Governor LePage From Beth Ashcroft by NEWSCENTER26 on Scribd
"I didn't promise them anything," the Governor said. "I said that we would work with them, we would answer questions, but [the Commissioner] would not participate in the debate. They sent me a letter asking if he would participate in the debate. I said no."
Sen. Katz said the GOC did make some progress: they plan to engage the frontline child protective services workers with a survey of some type to gauge their input for the training and support they have in their roles, as well as asking OPEGA to follow up and get more details on what DHHS says it has already done to date and what it plans to do in the future.
"We were able to move the ball down the field I think a little bit, but we could have done so much more with an active give-and-take dialogue with the Commissioner," said Sen. Katz.
The next committee meeting is expected to take place in the second week of July.