PORTLAND — Members of the Maine Turnpike Authority’s board of directors say they are considering overhauling the authority’s management structure in response to unexplained spending that precipitated the resignation of Executive Director Paul Violette on Monday.
At the same time, directors say the kind of detailed oversight that would be needed to monitor gift card purchases is largely outside the scope and ability of the board, which typically meets infrequently.
At the top of the authority’s organizational structure is the executive director, the only staff member who reports to the board. Six other executives, including Deputy Executive Director and Chief Financial Officer Neil Libby, report to the executive director.
Board member James Cloutier said Tuesday that he and his colleagues are considering having top executives, including legal and financial staffers, report directly to the board.
“I think it is certain that we are going to change that,” he said.
Cloutier, a Portland lawyer and former mayor, said such a structure is common in other organizations and would help the board keep closer watch over the authority.
The turnpike authority has been under fire since the Legislature’s Office of Program Evaluation and Government Accountability released a report on its operations in January.
The report called attention to $157,000 worth of gift card purchases in 2005 and 2006. The authority, which collected more than $99 million in toll revenue in 2010, said the gift cards were donated to various organizations but it could not provide many specifics, citing a lack of records.
Violette has said he recalls giving gift cards to groups including the Maine Better Transportation Association, Maine Preservation, the Friends of Scarborough Marsh and the Family Crisis Shelter.
But at least one of the organizations cast doubt on Violette’s recollection. Lois Reckitt, executive director of the Family Crisis Shelter, said Tuesday that Violette is a former member of the shelter’s board but she has no record or recollection of receiving any gift cards.
“There’s no reason to have done it,” she said. “I’m the person who would have seen it. I know Paul.”
The turnpike authority, a quasi-state agency that operates and maintains the 106-mile toll road, is overseen by a board of seven members. They are appointed by the governor to seven-year terms and confirmed by the Legislature’s Transportation Committee. The board’s role includes providing policy direction, approving contracts and capital projects, and reviewing the budget.
Chairman Gerard Conley Sr. said the board’s ability to closely monitor the authority’s staff and finances is limited. He said the board meets monthly and primarily discusses contracts and road improvements.
“The board is there one day a month (from) maybe 20 minutes to two hours, and generally we are acting on an agenda,” said Conley. “(Authority staff members) have all kinds of stuff they are working on — daily stuff. We don’t know what is being spent on a daily basis.”
Conley said the board never approved gift cards during his tenure, and he only recently learned of the practice. He said he doubts that such a program would be established without board approval, so he suspects that a previous board gave the green light.
“The question you should be asking is, ‘When did it start?’ ” he said.
Four of the seven current directors were appointed after the gift cards were purchased. Conley joined the board in 2004, and Vice Chairman Lucien Gosselin was appointed in 1998.
Gosselin did not return calls seeking comment Tuesday.
Cloutier, who was appointed in 2010, said nothing that he saw in the last year alarmed him.
“If I had seen something that I thought was a problem,” he said, “I would have looked into it.”
Cloutier said he was not surprised that the gift card money was only recently uncovered. The authority’s annual audits, he said, are based on random selections of a few hundred financial transactions, not a line-by-line review of expenses.
“Your chances of detecting it, even in a good audit, are not that great,” he said.
In response to the program evaluation report, Cloutier said, the board ordered a “forensic audit” of the agency, to turn up hard-to-trace money and to review policies.
He said the board plans to hire finance and government relations staffers to handle work in those areas that has previously been outsourced.
“When it comes … to the budget stuff, I think we will be looking for that to be done by personnel on the payroll,” he said.
Despite the review’s critical findings, Cloutier said he doesn’t think the board’s “responsibilities were ignored or given short shrift.”
“The people on the board are serious about making (the authority) a transparent organization,” he said.
Conley said the gift card problem stems from the fact that the authority is run like a business, not a government agency.
“Somebody adopted a policy that (the authority was) a quasi-state agency and should be run like a business. That’s when they got into spending on these gift certificates,” he said.
Staff Writer Jonathan Hemmerdinger can be reached at 791-6316 or at: jhemmerdinger@mainetoday.com
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