AUGUSTA, Maine - Gov. Paul LePage says he's looking for alternative sites for a new $3 million psychiatric unit after a committee of lawmakers stalled his proposal to build the facility on Capitol grounds in Augusta last week.
The governor told Bangor radio station WVOM that the move to halt the $3.5 million facility was also a "shot across the bow" by presumptive Democratic House Speaker Sara Gideon.
"Already I'm looking at Freeport right now. We're looking in the Bangor area. We're looking down south," LePage said. "Yeah, I'm going to get it (the facility), but it's just not going to be next to Riverview (Psychiatric Center) and we're not going to be able to use the same staff."
The proposal for the 21-bed facility hit a snag when Democrats on the Legislative Council voted against it last week. The council is made up of legislative leaders and is evenly divided between the parties. A new council, representing the new Legislature, meets Thursday and is expected to revisit the psychiatric center proposal.
The new building is designed to improve conditions at the beleaguered 92-bed Riverview Psychiatric Center, which has struggled to regain its federal certification since 2013. The LePage administration has made a number of proposals, but none have cleared the Legislature.
Lawmakers and patient advocates have expressed concerns about the details of previous proposals. The $20 million in annual federal funding the state receives to run the facility remains in jeopardy.
The latest proposal would create a secure facility to treat so-called forensic patients. Forensic patients have been deemed by the courts to be either incompetent to stand trial or not criminally responsible for their actions. Their presence at Riverview has complicated the state's effort to regain certification.
The administration had hoped to build the facility without legislative approval. However, that effort was stymied by a little-known law that requires the Legislative Council to approve all new construction on state grounds considered in the designated Capitol area. That area includes the Riverview campus and the area where the LePage administration had hoped to build the new forensic facility.
LePage accused Democrats on of playing politics with the proposal and vowed to build it elsewhere. The extent of this effort is unclear, given that the administration has another chance at getting approval by the Legislative Council on Thursday.
It's also unclear if the governor's mention of citing the facility in Freeport and southern Maine is designed to poke Democrats. Gideon, the presumptive House Speaker, represents Freeport, which LePage specifically referenced as a potential site on Tuesday.
LePage also told WVOM that he's planning to avoid tussling with the Legislature, as he has done on several high-profile occasions since taking office in 2011. He has clashed with Democrats and Republicans.
"I'm just going to be very quiet the next two years," he said. "I'm going to do everything possible that I can from the executive branch. And I'm going to try to stay away from fighting with these people."
