Clean Up This Mess: Jennifer Duddy Should Resign

Jennifer Duddy should resign (pic)There are few principles more basic to our legal system than the right to a fair hearing in front of an impartial judge.  That’s why we say “justice is blind.” Indeed, the very symbol of our American system of justice is a blindfolded woman holding a set of scales. 

Which is why the allegations last spring that Governor LePage had held a private meeting on March 21 with Maine unemployment appeals hearing officers at the Blaine House created such a stir.  According to news accounts, some of the hearing officers who attended the mandatory meeting with the Governor called by Jennifer Duddy, the Chairperson of the Unemployment Insurance Commission, felt that the Governor had not so subtly told them that they were making too many decisions in favor of employees.  The Department of Labor launched an investigation and the Governor himself felt compelled to appoint an independent commission to review case-handling at the unemployment office.

It’s old news now that last week the DOL concluded that Governor LePage had in fact improperly tried to put his thumb on the scales of justice.  The DOL Report concluded that “the Governor’s direct intervention” in decision-making “could be interpreted as an attempt to intimidate or direct hearing officers to view employers more sympathetically.”  The Report finds that “hearing officers could have interpreted the expectations communicated by the Governor on March 21 as pressure to be more sympathetic to employers.”

While news accounts mostly focused on the Blaine House meeting, the Report also noted that even before then, “LePage administration officials” had intervened in hearing officers’ decision-making “with what could be perceived as a bias toward employers, endangering the fair hearings process.”  That routine intervention “could be perceived as an attempt to influence the appeals decision making process in favor of employers.”  So we now know that it wasn’t just a single meeting, but a concerted campaign by LePage officials to undermine the integrity of the unemployment hearing process.

Unemployment insurance was enacted during the New Deal to assist workers in their time of need.  Workers who unexpectedly lose their jobs still need to eat, pay the rent, keep the lights and heat on, put gas in their cars to look for work.  Unemployment benefits, meager though they are, are designed to make sure that workers and their families can survive periods like the recent prolonged recession. 

Although one would like to think that our Governor should not need to be told that “justice is blind,” perhaps he can be excused for not understanding that it was wrong for him to attempt to pressure unemployment hearing officers to render decisions favoring what he and his  Republican friends like to call the “job creators.”  But what is inexcusable is that Jennifer Duddy, the political appointee and lawyer who heads the Unemployment Commission, apparently lacked any such basic understanding.  Her appointment apparently not only blinded her to the inappropriateness of the meeting, but she herself took the occasion to complain that the hearing officers were misinterpreting the law

Almost equally disturbing is the defense of the Governor mounted by Rep. Ken Fredette, also a lawyer and the Republican House Minority Leader.  Fredette accused Democrats as “quick to politicize a report from the Obama administration criticizing the Governor for his hands-on approach.”  No one appears to have noticed that before he was elected to the House, Rep. Fredette sat as a commissioner of the Maine Human Rights Commission.    

Like the Unemployment Commission, the MHRC employs investigators.  In over 80% of those cases, the investigators recommend that employers be cleared of complaints of discrimination.  As a lawyer and former Commissioner, Rep. Fredette certainly would know that it would have been equally improper if Gov. Baldacci (who appointed him to the Commission) had met with the investigators and complained that they were making too many decisions in favor of employers.

What happened in Augusta last spring is a scandal.  It is time to hold someone accountable for this mess.  That person is Jennifer Duddy.  Ultimately, the buck at the Commission stops with her.  She should have the decency to resign. 

If you believe your rights have been violated, contact us.

CORRECTION:  The prior version of this post incorrectly described Jennifer Duddy as the head of Division of Administrative Hearing Officers.