Governor LePage, How Much More Must We Citizens Endure?

A DEMOCRATIC FORM OF GOVERNMENT

When our forefathers established the United States of America, they elected a democratic form of government.  They chose this option because of the checks and balances built into the system to ensure a strong government built on integrity and designed to ensure no one or a single group could take complete charge.  It is a system controlled by the people through these checks and balances.  These checks and balances are the cornerstone of a democratic form of government.
 
In 1970 the Maine Legislature passed the Home Rule Enabling Act.  This Act states Maine’s cities and towns can not only exercise these powers expressly granted or necessarily implied but also “any power or function, which the Legislature has power to confer upon it, which is not expressly denied or denied by clear implication."  In other words, this Act eliminated the cornerstone of a democratic form of government by eliminating the checks and balances by the state on municipalities.  This destruction provided municipalities to do as they please without any oversight by the state.

As a result of this elimination of the checks and balances in the democratic form of government, there is a growing increase in corruption, fraud, misappropriations of funds and total mismanagement by municipal officials.  Every day there are reports of municipal officials being investigated, charged or found guilty of corruption, fraud, misappropriations of funds and mismanagement.  This is a direct result of the elimination of the cornerstone in a democratic form of government; the checks and balances established to prevent these events from occurring. 

I believe Lisbon is experiencing the same issues as occurred in Chelsea, Frenchboro, Newburgh, Pleasant Point, and numerous other municipalities in Maine.  Mrs. Fitzgerald, myself and others have requested a forensic audit be performed in Lisbon.  The town council has always refused every time the people have requested a forensic audit.  I wonder why this is and what they are trying to conceal from the people?  

Wouldn’t it be nice to know the truth about how $32,500 dollars that was misappropriated from the town’s Economic Community Development Department and no one was ever convicted and the money never found?

Several individuals in the community have questioned why The Lisbon Reporter and LisbonMaine.net continue to expose negative situations uncovered in Lisbon.   These individuals believe exposing these officials is bad for the community.  My response to them was best said by Edmund Burke “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing”.  This is exactly what has happened in our community and many more in Maine.  So many good citizens have been sitting around doing nothing and now the corruption, fraud, misappropriations of funds and mismanagement by municipal officials is running rampant though Lisbon and the state of Maine. 

I believe Governor LePage needs to take a close look into how to resolve this situation.  The state has to reestablish the checks and balances in our government.  The Governor also needs to call for forensic audits when situations like the misappropriations of $32,500 dollars, misappropriation of funds and mismanagement of municipal officials is exposed by the people.  It is not the people’s responsibility to hire an attorney out of their own pocket to resolve these issues.  It is the Governor’s responsibility to protect the citizens of Maine from this abuse.

Larry Fillmore