The LePage administration announced some major changes in top level staff today. But the announcement that is eclipsing all of them is the resignation of Philip Congdon as the commissioner of the Department of Economic and Community Development because of some remarks he made at a Chamber of Commerce meeting in Caribou.

Although Adrienne Bennett, spokeswoman for the governor's office, said the administration was treating Congdon's resignation as a personnel matter, Martin said the governor's office had taken the right steps. "I think that having found out what I had found out, I think he took the appropriate action and I congratulate him for it," Martin says.

What Martin found out was that during an awards banquet in Caribou, members of the Aroostook County business community were initially excited to learn that a prominent member of LePage's cabinet had agreed to speak at their event.

But instead of offering an overview of economic development in the state or what programs the administration is developing that could assist northern Maine, DECD Commissioner Philip Congdon told those attending the conference that the nation's higher education system had been in decline ever since the civil rights movement resulted in more black Americans being admitted to colleges and universities under affirmative action programs.

Then he told those in the audience that they could forget about waiting for economic development opportunities to come to Aroostook County, and that if they wanted economic development they needed to "get off the reservation and make it happen."

Martin, an Eagle Lake Democrat, confirmed that he and other Aroostook County lawmakers received calls from constituents on the nature of those remarks from Congdon--and others. "That's correct, and other comments as well, which were derrogatory to Aroostook County and comments about economic development that I thought were inappropriate," Martin says.

State Sen. Troy Jackson, an Allagash Democrat, said that although he wasn't at the Caribou awards event, he knew people who were and believed what they told him about what Congdon said. "That the reason our colleges were in decline was because of affirmative action had kind of degraded the people who were going to our public universities," Jackson says.

Jackson says he could understand why it took nearly three weeks for the administration to respond to the affirmative action remark, as well as another that referenced getting off the reservation. "Three weeks, a month later, whatever, from 'get off the reservation,'" Jackson says. "It seems like quite a jump from 'no comments' to 'get off the reservation.'"

"It was more or less silently swept under the rug to move on with what the evening was about, and that was celebrating our community," says Jenny Coon, the executive director of the Caribou Chamber of Commerce.  She says that many of those in attendance at the banquet were too astonished to react immediately as Jackson had pointed out.

She confirmed that Jackson and Martin's understandings of Congdon's remarks were consistent with what she heard on April 1st. And she said Congdon had other 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," Coon says.

"It's troubling to hear the vestiges of our racial discriminatory past still present," says Rachel Talbot Ross of the NAACP, an organization whose clash with LePage over Martin Luther King Day produced the infamous "Tell them to kiss my butt" remark. Talbot Ross reacted to yet another racial incident by the administration, this time by a former cabinet member with a negative take on affirmative action.

"I think that the governor took the appropriate action and I'm extraordinarly pleased to hear of the actions of Rep. Martin and the other legislators in that area," Talbot Ross says.  "It's very, very troubling as a ninth generation Mainer to hear the same kind of bigoted and racial prejuducial ideology in the public square."

Gov. LePage did not make himself available today to discuss his reaction to Congdon's remarks.  And although an administration representative would only say that Congdon's resignation was effective immediately and that they could say nothing more because it was being treated as personnel matter, sources close to the governor said LePage's decision to accept the resignation immediately spoke volumes.

Coon says LePage was right to accept Congdon's immediate departure. "I cannot speak for the entire community, but after listening to him speak and the take that he had on economic development, then I no, I cannot believe that that position was appropriate for him," Coon says.

Although he declined to go on tape for this interview, Caribou City Manager Stephen Buck also confirmed that there were racially-charged aspects to Congdon's remarks. He said that he and others notified their legislative representatives after the event.