The state’s ethics committee last week fined the Eagle Lake Democratic Committee $500 for filing a late campaign finance report.

Eagle Lake has one particularly famous resident: state Sen. John Martin, who was recently elected by his peers as the assistant majority leader in the state Senate. Martin is a longtime public servant. He served as speaker of the House for almost 20 years.

Martin defended the Eagle Lake committee via telephone during Tuesday’s meeting. Needless to say, he didn’t seem pleased with the fine.

Toward the end of deliberations and while still on speaker phone with the commission, he could be heard answering another phone – and stopped responding to commissioners and staff.

It was awkward for commission Executive Director Jonathan Wayne, who first moved and then hesitated to hang up the phone. Finally, he pushed the button after receiving the high sign from commission Chairman Andrew Ketterer.

Ketterer served in the House under Martin’s leadership and joked afterward that it might be the first time anyone had ever been able to block out the former speaker’s voice.

It’s a fine thing

Former state Rep. Joan Bryant-Deschenes, a Republican from Turner, also went before the Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices on Tuesday.

She was fined $100 for co-mingling campaign money with personal money.

During a routine audit of publicly funded candidates, the ethics commission staff discovered that Bryant-Deschenes did not open a separate campaign account for her race, instead depositing the money in an existing account.

“Because I only write three or four checks, I didn’t choose to open a second account this term or last,” Bryant-Deschenes said. “In my use and in my accounting, I did not co-mingle them.”

She also said she thought it was wasteful to open a second account for only a few transactions.

And, she said, it’s the Sun Journal’s fault for not printing letters she said she’s sent in.

The Sun Journal received two pieces of mail from Rep. Bryant-Deschenes in 2006. The first, an opinion column, was published in May. The second was an election letter received after the deadline for election letters.

The rules are the rules, commissioners decided.

Rep. Donald Marean, a Hollis Republican, was fined $100 for the same offense.

Party like it’s 2003

Maine Public Broadcasting will cover live the swearing in of Gov. John Baldacci on Jan. 3.

The ceremony begins at 7 p.m. and will be held at the Augusta Civic Center. The event is open to the public and free, but tickets are required.

There will also be an inaugural gala on Jan. 4. Tickets for the gala, which will include food from around Maine and several bands, are $15. The party, however, is invitation only. The invites should go out this week.

No state money is being used for the swearing in ceremony or for the gala, said Jan Messerschmidt, a spokesman for the Maine Gubernatorial Inaugural Committee.

The committee is organized as 501(c)4 nonprofit organization and has set a fundraising goal of between $250,000 and $300,000. According to Messerschmidt, the committee will release a complete list of donors and the amounts given.

Tickets for the inaugural ceremony are now available and can be obtained by calling the Maine Gubernatorial Inaugural Committee at 624-7310.

Baldacci was re-elected in November to his second term. He was first sworn in in 2003.

Garbage time

Lewiston City Administrator Jim Bennett spent much of Dec. 13 stuck in a committee room in the State House listening to angry people talk about trash.

Bennett was waiting to make his case that parts of draft rules being considered by the state’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Solid Waste Management could undermine a successful partnership between Lewiston and Mid-Maine Waste Action Corp.

Lewiston gives MMWAC its garbage, which gets burned in MMWAC’s incinerator. The city then takes back the ash that’s left over. The arrangement saves both sides money.

But the proposed rule change, which is aimed at shutting down the flow of out-of-state garbage into the state, would bust the deal.

“Come July, the only thing we could do is dump trash in a hole,” Bennett told the commission.

That was news to the commission, which didn’t realize the impact the rule would have on Lewiston and MMWAC until Bennett’s testimony.

The waste commission is scheduled to meet again this week and is expected to reconsider the rule change in light of Bennett’s testimony.

If the rule stands, Bennett said, it could cost the city more than $330,000 for a new trash compactor and shorten the life of the landfill.

“Clearly, they’re trying to fix a problem, which is the out-of-state waste issue, and this is something that they hadn’t taken into consideration,” Bennett said.

During the hearing, David Littell, the commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection, said that they would find a way to change the rule to protect the working agreement.

Political parachute

Former state Rep. Stephen Bowen has a new part-time job. He will join the Maine Heritage Policy Center, a conservative think tank, as an adjunct fellow.

He’ll focus on education reform and financing.

Bowen served four years in the Legislature representing Rockport and was considered a rising star in the Republican Party. He was defeated in November by Democrat David Miramant in District 46, which also includes Camden.