Bangor City Council exploring ways to block psychiatric facility
The Bangor City Council is expected to review at its meeting tonight legal options for slowing or blocking construction of a new 8,300-square-foot 21-bed secure forensic rehabilitation facility, proposed by the LePage administration.
“My issue is that this is going to be a privately run prison on Hogan Road that has had zero input from the community where it will be located,” Council Chairman Joe Baldacci told the Bangor Daily News.
Whether the city chooses to block the facility would depend on a majority of councilors agreeing that there were legitimate reasons to do so.
Baldacci's comment came just days after the state selected Cianbro Corp., of Pittsfield, to build the facility, which is intended to alleviate overcrowding at Augusta's Riverview Psychiatric Center.
Baldacci told the BDN he is concerned about security, public safety, city resources and the impact on the city.
In a July 11 letter, LePage said, “The state will ensure that the selected entity will provide quality care for the patients, ensuring that participation from the City of Bangor and its services will not be necessary.”
Statement from Democratic lawmaker
The House Democratic Office stepped into the debate Monday afternoon, issuing a statement characterizing LePage's plans in Bangor as an "unauthorized facility," citing a Jan. 24, 2017 letter from Attorney General Janet Mills to Sen. Roger Katz, R-Augusta, and Rep. Aaron Frey, D-Bangor, that a new step-down facility would require legislative authorization, regardless of location.
The House Democratic Office also stated that the forensic patients treated at Riverview Psychiatric Center are under a consent decree that outlines specific standards of care that would need to be met by any provider, state-run or private.
“Gov. LePage and former-Commissioner [of Health and Human Services Mary] Mayhew have spent four years refusing to take all the necessary actions to rectify mismanagement of the Riverview facility," Rep. Patricia Hymanson, D-York, said in a statement forwarded by the House Democratic Office. "Given the history of sub-par care, along with several legal opinions, this project demands legislative oversight. Ignoring the Legislature now will only set the stage for more problems and more suffering in the future.”
Hymanson, a physician who serves as House chairwoman of the Health and Human Services Committee, accused LePage of skirting legislative oversight of the project.
"It’s his way or the highway," she stated. "That is no way to achieve adequate care and construct a quality and efficient facility for these patients. I continue to have concerns, as do many of my colleagues, about a private company running this new facility. Asking hard questions about new programs is precisely why we have oversight by the legislature, informed by institutional knowledge and advocates who know and work with Riverview, these patients and mental health systems in Maine.”
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