The Casino Issue

Kevin, you're a pretty knowledgeable person. I find it hard to believe that you "have not looked into the laws regarding their meeting". But in the event to help please see ..http://janus.state.me.us/legis/statutes/1/title1sec405.html

the compromised position of the resort should not be an issue. They were not negotiating (or were they?), therefor the selectman I believe held an illegal meeting and the contents of the discussion should be public under the RTKL. In order to enter into a private meeting (executive session) they would have to make a motion to do so stating the purpose of the meeting.
But I do not find this surprising. The selectman should have known better; the town manager should have known better and certainly an attorney should know better.

How do you think TRR crew and the Rumford Selectmen that associate with TRR group would have reacted if either of the last two town managers had allowed this meeting?

k wrote:Kevin, you're a pretty knowledgeable person. I find it hard to believe that you "have not looked into the laws regarding their meeting". But in the event to help please see ..http://janus.state.me.us/legis/statutes/1/title1sec405.html

the compromised position of the resort should not be an issue. They were not negotiating (or were they?), therefor the selectman I believe held an illegal meeting and the contents of the discussion should be public under the RTKL. In order to enter into a private meeting (executive session) they would have to make a motion to do so stating the purpose of the meeting.
But I do not find this surprising. The selectman should have known better; the town manager should have known better and certainly an attorney should know better.

You may be right. They addressed the issue at the meeting tonight and indicated that they may have made a mistake. I was speaking on general terms based upion what I know of the situation. I did not attend the meeting, nor did I speak with anyone about the process.

Any issue or confusion may revolve around the wording of this section:

"Discussion or consideration of the condition, acquisition or the use of real or personal property permanently attached to real property or interests therein or disposition of publicly held property or economic development only if premature disclosures of the information would prejudice the competitive or bargaining position of the body or agency"


I believe I recall times when previous boards have met with businesses planning to come to our town under this section.

KevinNSaisi wrote:
economic development only if premature disclosures of the information would prejudice the competitive or bargaining position of the body or agency"

I don't believe Mr. Carey divulged any more information to them than he has to anyone else. I'm sure if the select board publicly denounced the casino proposal Mr. Carey would have managed to find a reason that they legally couldn't do that. I can't believe that if it isn't okay for the FD to support a public servant up for election that it would be okay for the select board to support a private interest political action referendum...

Rumford Officials back away from casino proposal

Note the comments by Hugh Chisholm Fan. Mr. Greaney evidently isn't following their agenda and is on their black list today.

again i ask,what kind of per cent will the non profits in the area get?
non profits give many thousands of dollars each year to benifit the area.
with a casino they will make way less money,just ask the non profit groups in bangor.they have lost up to 30 grand a year and the community suffers from this.

From the Lewiston SunJournaL

Cheers for Rumford selectmen and Town Manager Len Greaney. They erred
greatly by holding an executive session with alleged casino developer
Seth Carey, yet remedied their error during their meeting Thursday.

Without voter authorization, the casino doesn't exist. (We're not so sure it
exists anyway.) The town shouldn't have granted secrecy to Carey, when
a casino is an important issue with an impact far beyond its borders.
Kudos to selectmen and Greaney for recognizing their mistake. Now, they
should tell us what was talked about.

Link

PORTLAND – CasinosNO!, the grassroots organization opposed to the expansion of casino gambling in Maine, has asked casino promoter Seth Carey to publicly disclose what he told the Rumford Board of Selectmen during a recent closed-door meeting, and challenged Carey to a public debate on the referendum proposal.

In a letter to Carey, CasinosNO! chair Philip Harriman said that according to Rumford officials, Carey discussed the possible location of the casino and other investors in his plan for a Las Vegas-style casino in Oxford County.

“As far as we know, the location of the casino and the investors in the casino have not been revealed publicly to the voters who will decide this issue in November,” wrote Harriman. “It is our view that this closed-door meeting with the selectmen was a violation of Maine’s Right to Know Law. We believe the voters deserve to know all of the facts surrounding your proposal, including the details of what you told the Rumford Selectmen in last week’s private meeting.”

As a way to put an end to the secrecy and confusion surrounding the casino proposal, Harriman suggested a televised debate between the two sides. “We believe that Maine voters, not just the Rumford Selectmen, deserve to know the possible location of the casino and who is financing it before voting on Nov. 4th,” Harriman wrote.

The Rumford Board of Selectmen held an hour-long, closed-door meeting on Aug. 28th with Carey to discuss his casino proposal. Following the meeting, according to a report by the Lewiston Sun Journal, at least one of the selectmen who was undecided about the casino stated his support based on what he was told by Carey during the meeting.

CONTACT: Dennis Bailey, 207-347-6077, 207-749-4963

I don't believe the BOS remedied their mistake. That will not be accomplished without full disclosure

We all make mistakes sometimes. When we do, we all should own up to it and try our best to fix it. That's the least we should expect from our town officials. The town should fully disclose the details of the meeting.

I think Len Greaney is a good role model for Mark Belanger. He admitted his mistake and didn't blame anyone else in town for it. I have respect for that.

Woman stole $43,700 from residents of assisted living facility in Bangor

http://www.bangordailynews.com/detail/51489.html

By Judy Harrison
BDN Staff

BANGOR, Maine - The prosecutor called it elder abuse. The defense attorney said it was the result of an illness. Members of Gamblers Anonymous warned the judge to expect more cases just like it.

Lucia Faria, 41, of Bangor was sentenced Wednesday in Penobscot County Superior Court to three years in prison for stealing more than $40,000 from elderly patients at the Bangor facility where she worked and gambling it away at Hollywood Slots.

Greg Campbell, assistant district attorney for Penobscot County, said it was the most serious case related to gambling at Hollywood Slots since the facility opened on Main Street three years ago.

Faria, a Portuguese citizen in the United States legally, admitted stealing $43,700 from three victims — two of whom are over the age of 80 — and her employer over a 15-month period in 2006 and 2007. She pleaded guilty on Sept. 2 to forgery and theft charges after being indicted by the Penobscot County grand jury in April. She also pleaded guilty for failing to appear in court in May.

Faria had no criminal record.

She faced up to 10 years in prison, a fine of up to $20,000 and could have been ordered to pay restitution.

Faria took checks from three patients at The Country Villa, an assisted living facility on Kenduskeag Avenue, where she worked as a housekeeper. She forged them to get money for the slot machines. She also borrowed money from patients and her employer on the pretext that she needed it to return to Portugal to care for a sick brother.

“This is a classic case of elder abuse,” Campbell told the court. “These are reprehensible crimes against our most vulnerable citizens. This was a tremendous breach of trust in which she bilked senior citizens out of a substantial amount of their life savings.”

Defense attorney Kirk Bloomer of Bangor said that Faria’s crimes were a result of her addiction to gambling. He said that she had banned herself from Hollywood Slots before she was indicted, had sought treatment for the disease and regularly attended Gamblers Anonymous meetings.

“She didn’t appear in court as she should have,” Bloomer said, “but she returned from Portugal to deal with this, knowing she probably would be arrested in Boston. The easy thing to do would have been to stay in Portugal. It was the guilt, quite frankly, that made her come back. She couldn’t live with it.”

A man who identified himself only as Fred said he was a member of Faria’s Gamblers Anonymous group. He urged the judge to allow her to repay her victims as part of her recovery.

“I’ve never seen any one person help as many people [in recovery] as Lucy did,” he said, before making a prediction.
“On account of that big, wonderful building down by the river, you’re going to have a lot of people show up here,” he said. “Lucy is not going to be the only one.”

Even though she is married to a 95-year-old man who lives out of state, Faria is expected to be deported after completing her sentence, Campbell said.

The prosecutor said after the sentencing that Faria banned herself from Hollywood Slots and sought out Gamblers Anonymous the day after police interviewed her about the thefts.

In imposing the sentence, Superior Court Justice William Anderson did not require that she pay restitution, and he didn’t impose probation. He said that because of her impending deportation, it was highly unlikely she would be able to repay her victims and that the state has no ability to collect restitution from her once she leaves the country.

“Usually I hear that drugs or alcohol made me do it,” Anderson said. “I don’t really think that gambling is a huge excuse. I’m sentencing [Faria] to three years with none of it suspended. I’m also taking into consideration the fact that this was not a crime of violence, there’s limited space in our prisons and this was a property crime, although a very serious property crime.”

Violent crimes are dealt with more severely than thefts of property under Maine law.

Campbell recommended that Faria be sentenced to six years in prison due to the amount of money involved and the age of her victims. Bloomer urged that she be sentenced to two or three years in prison with all but the three months she’s been at the Penobscot County Jail suspended and two years of probation.

Faria has been held without bail since she returned from Portugal in July.
Hollywood Slots maintains a self-exclusion list for patrons who believe they have a gambling problem, and the state maintains a toll-free problem gambling hot line.

Is it despicable that this woman stole from people she was supposed to be caring for? Absolutely! That being said, this is not the death knell for the casino issue. Had Ms. Faria been a drug addict and was stealing money to support her chemical habit, would you advocate the abolition of pharmacies? After all, they are legally involved in the drug trade. Anything can be taken out of context and used as an argument for or against a relevant issue.