By Natalie Bazinet
Staff Writer
CARIBOU — Waves that reverberated in Aroostook County for almost a month — fueled in part by a Caribou-given speech — broke in Augusta last Wednesday leaving the removal of a leading state official in their wake.
Aroostook Republican photo/Natalie Bazinet
Maine’s Economic and Community Development Commissioner Philip Congdon, at podium, gave the keynote speech at the Caribou Area Chamber of Commerce’s Annual Recognition Dinner on April 1. He resigned April 27 after controversy over remarks he allegedly made in northern Maine made their way to the Governor’s office.
Economic and Community Development Commissioner Philip Congdon resigned from office on April 27 following allegations of offensive speech at two Aroostook gatherings on April 1 — a private meeting of five held in the President’s Office of the Northern Maine Community College and later that evening at a Caribou Area Chamber of Commerce event designed to honor the city’s top businesses and volunteers.
Congdon addressed a crowd of approximately 60 with his keynote speech during the Caribou Chamber’s Annual Recognition Dinner. He made his address, conversed with others in attendance at the dinner and, in Congdon’s perspective, the evening had gone quite well.
But just days following the event, some guests of the chamber dinner adamantly vocalized their concerns regarding Condgon’s presentation to their local legislators regarding their aversion to statements he’d allegedly made during his keynote address. (An audio/video file of what specifically transpired that evening does not exist).
Up the legislative chain these concerns went until Rep. John Martin (D-Eagle Lake) sent a letter on April 25 to Governor Paul LePage addressing the concerns of his constituents. Two days later, Congdon resigned. The letter was unavailable at presstime, though the letter has been requested through a Freedom of Information Act.
Congdon said Thursday he had no idea that anyone had taken exception to what he’d said in northern Maine or at the Caribou dinner and stated that while giving his keynote speech that snowy April 1st evening, he looked out into the crowd and thought he’d found a fairly enthusiastic audience.
“Afterwards I had a number of people come up and talk to me with issues that they wanted to continue discussing, and it wasn’t acrimonious,” Congdon recalled almost a month after the meeting.
However, Caribou Mayor Ken Murchison is quoted in the Kennebec Journal on April 29 as saying “[Congdon] growled at us for 45 minutes and said things like ‘get off the reservation.’”
This was echoed in the Portland Press Herald on the same day, which printed “At one meeting, [Congdon] said that people in northern Maine need to ‘get off the reservation and get to work.’”
According to the Maine Public Broadcasting Network, Congdon said that “Aroostook County residents could forget about waiting for economic development opportunities to come to The County, and that if they wanted economic development, they needed to ‘get off the reservation and make it happen.’”
According to Congdon, he’s part Penobscot Indian and would never intentionally offend Native Americans.
Aside from the varying accounts of what specifically was said pertaining to the alleged “reservation” comment — some in attendance couldn’t even recall the statement being made and didn’t imagine they would have missed such a comment — individuals have also vocalized their offense to remarks made by the former commissioner on the topics of parenting and the best use for the region’s potato crop.
Various media accounts have quoted Caribou residents in saying that Congdon attacked parenting skills in Aroostook County.
While discussing his concerns regarding the labor pool in Maine and the need for more skilled workers, Congdon segued into educational concerns during his keynote address to Chamber members.
Having been to NMCC earlier that day and spoken with individuals vested in educating and improving Maine’s youth, he presented his audience with one pretty staggering statistic in particular.
“At the Northern Maine Community College, 25 percent of all students going through the gates require remediation,” he said.
“Why are we graduating students from high school when they don’t have the skills to go to college?” Congdon asked, calling on parents and educators to better equip Maine’s youth for secondary education.
After comparing the education success rates of American youth with the rates of students in other countries, Congdon commented that from a national security standpoint he was afraid and, again, referenced that 25 percent remediation rate.
Congdon explained his statements regarding parenting and education during a phone interview on April 29.
“The discussion there was me observing, or stating, that the problem we have [with education] at the high school level and below is, in my view, about 50 percent teachers and 50 percent parents and I do think parents could do a better job of emphasizing education [in the home], but I didn’t single out Aroostook County,” Congdon said. “That’s nationwide.”
Caribou Chamber of Commerce Interim Director Jenny Coon told the MPBN that Congdon had many controversial theories about why Maine’s economy was in a slump.
“And also we’re poor parents, that was another reason why things are the way they are today is because we’re poor parents,” she’s quoted as saying.
The introduction of potatoes and their usage didn’t enter the former commissioner’s keynote speech until after an exchange of energy ideas between Congdon and Caribou City Manager Steve Buck.
After hearing Congdon speak on increasing efforts to convert and retrofit homes to utilize biomass as a source of heating, stressing a need to replace roughly 50 percent of the fuel Maine currently imports and impressed his opinion upon the audience that wood, rather than wind or solar, should be emphasized when it comes to alternative energy in Maine, Buck shared with Congdon the frustration faced by potential producers of alternative energy in northern Maine.
“We could be New England’s greatest exporter of alternative energy but the state has not been our biggest ally,” Buck said, mentioning that the area’s greatest supporter in that respect has, rather, been New Brunswick.
Congdon told Buck that he was optimistic about the governor’s nomination of a new member of the Public Utilities Commission [Thomas Welch] and his confidence in the Director of the Governor’s Office of Energy Security and Independence Ken Fletcher to address the issue.
“We’re well aware of this problem in Augusta,” Congdon told Buck.
As the keynote speech wound down and the audience engaged the former commissioner with questions and comments, the idea was raised of increasing farmed acreage in the county (which has been on a steady decline) by possibly growing corn as a source of ethanol.
Congdon said that he did not support using corn to make ethanol.
The question was then posed by an individual as to whether or not Congdon thought that area potato growers could utilize their extensive proficiency in agriculture for production of bio fuel.
Congdon again affirmed his opposition to ethanol and while discussing alternative uses of potatoes, stated that in his opinion farmers would be better off using their potatoes to make vodka; he then referenced the success he’s seen from three producers of potato vodka.
Both named and unnamed sources have been very upfront in vocalizing that Congdon’s statement on potatoes rubbed them the wrong way.
“He made a remark along the lines that potato farmers were wasting their potatoes by making french fries; they should be using them instead to make vodka,” Coon said. “It was really off the wall and it didn’t amuse many people, especially in an agricultural community so proud of its heritage.”
While Congdon was not presented with any concerns or statements of offense to his speech that evening, some in attendance had a lot to say to area representatives in the days that followed including allegations concerning statements made at the NMCC meeting.
Receiving calls regarding Congdon were Rep. Martin, Sen. Troy Jackson (D-Allagash) and Rep. Peter Edgecomb (R-Caribou).
Martin — who drafted the letter to Gov. LePage — said he received one phone call pertaining to Congdon’s visit to Aroostook County and estimated that he was approached by roughly 10 to 15 individuals face-to-face saying “have you heard” or “did you hear” while attending various events throughout central Aroostook County two weeks ago.
“Wherever I was going, we’d run into people who’d been at two or three locations where [Congdon had] been, and people were raising these issues with me,” Martin said during a phone interview on April 29.
Sen. Troy Jackson received a call as well from an individual “that I believe has high credibility,” he said.
The individual told Jackson that Congdon had made remarks that Affirmative Action had hurt the public university education system “and that people need to get off the reservation in Aroostook County and get to work – paraphrasing, but along those lines,” the senator said.
Caribou Rep. Peter Edgecomb received two calls regarding Congdon’s speech.
According to the representative, the constituents he spoke with were really upset about what they’d heard firsthand.
“They are people that I have a lot of respect for and I felt they wouldn’t exaggerate the situation to me,” Edgecomb said, and mentioned that it’s out of line for someone at Congdon’s level to be speaking that way.
Edgecomb also added his opinion that those who gathered to celebrate the Caribou Chamber’s annual dinner were expecting to hear some positive things about Aroostook County and economic development, but they didn’t.
“The overall message was not encouraging for the people of Aroostook County,” Edgecomb said.
According to Congdon, he’d never received any guidelines or topic suggestions from Chamber officials regarding his speech which is why his address touched on topics he’s passionate about — such as alternative energy and education.
Rep. Edgecomb had attempted to meet face-to-face with the former commissioner several times in order to discuss the matter, but scheduling conflicts hindered their meeting. Congdon resigned before the two men had an opportunity to speak on the topic.
