![]() Whether you decide to attend the meeting is up to you. As the department understands the letter, it is only an invitation to attend and does not compel you to attend the meeting. It reads: “If you choose to attend this meeting then please be advised that you are NOT authorized to speak for or otherwise represent the Department of Health and Human Services or Center for Disease Control and Prevention in any capacity and that your attendance would ONLY be in your personal capacity. Kevin Wells, chief legal counsel for the DHHS, which oversees the CDC, provided the Portland Press Herald with a copy of his email message to the officials who were invited to the meeting. It’s concerning to me because the department’s email, in my opinion, implies attending the meeting would somehow be in conflict with their work.” “These people have been specifically requested because of their roles inside the department. “I’m concerned about that because this is not a public hearing where they would be choosing to come to weigh in on a bill,” Cain said. “The consistent word we’ve received is that the (Department of Health and Human Services) attorney advised the people who received invitations that they could not appear on behalf of the department,” said Cain, a member of the committee. Emily Cain, D-Orono, Leahy-Lind has agreed to attend but her former colleagues have not. Leahy-Lind has been asked to attend Friday’s committee meeting. She eventually left her job, citing harassment for making the issue public. Leahy-Lind claims she was harassed and discriminated against for not complying with the directive by Zukas. Leahy-Lind says Zukas told her to do so after the Sun Journal newspaper in Lewiston requested the documents through the Freedom of Access Act. The court case was initiated by Sharon Leahy-Lind, former director of the CDC’s Division of Local Public Health, who alleges that her supervisor, Deputy Director Christine Zukas, told her to shred documents related to $4.7 million in Healthy Maine Partnerships grant awards. The committee now must consider whether to subpoena the officials, in a case that has drawn scrutiny from the state Attorney General’s Office and triggered a whistleblower lawsuit. Subpoenas may be next.ĪUGUSTA - Officials in the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention have refused lawmakers’ request to appear at a committee meeting on the shredding of public documents related to the agency’s awards of public health grants last year.Īll five officials who were asked to testify before the Government Oversight Committee, including CDC Director Sheila Pinette, have notified the committee that they will not attend Friday’s meeting. By Steve Mistler All five decline to answer questions from an oversight committee about controversial health grant awards. ![]()
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