It is unclear this evening whether Maine Turnpike Authority head Paul Violette is stepping down.
At roughly 6:30 p.m., MTA’s board of directors completed a 2 1/2-hour closed door meeting to discuss personnel matters.
Earlier Friday, the Maine Republican Party issued a news release stating that Violette will step down next week. The release did not name the source of its information.
Leaving MTA’s Portland headquarters after the meeting, three board members declined to comment on Violette. They did say, however, that the meeting would reconvene at 8 Monday morning.
MTA Public Relations Manager Scott Tompkins said Violette, “has not tendered his resignation.”
Tompkins added that the board “has not indicated” that Violette has stepped down.
Violette, who has headed the agency for 23 years, has come under fire from Republicans for lavish spending practices.
Today is the deadline for the turnpike authority to produce documents that explain who received gift cards and gift certificates to expensive hotels from the authority.
Republican Sen. Roger Katz of Augusta, the committee’s Senate chairman, criticized the authority for the $157,000 in gift certificate expenses disclosed last month in a report on turnpike activities by the Office of Program Evaluation and Government Accountability.
“Maine Republicans have been trying to get to the bottom of this kind of nonsense for years,” said Maine GOP Chair Charlie Webster in the news release. “Now that we’re in control of state government, we’re finally seeing some results.”
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