An Act To Create a Permanent Wabanaki Law Enforcement Seat on the Board of Trustees of the Maine Criminal Justice Academy

Sec. 1. 25 MRSA §2802,  as amended by PL 2013, c. 147, §7, is further amended to read:

§ 2802. Board of trustees

There is created a board of trustees for the academy consisting of 17 18 members as follows: the Commissioner of Public Safety, ex officio, the Attorney General, ex officio, the Game Warden Colonel in the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, ex officio, the Commissioner of Corrections, ex officio, and the Chief of the State Police, ex officio, and a law enforcement official representing the Wabanaki tribal governments of the Aroostook Band of Micmacs, the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians, the Passamaquoddy Tribe at Motahmikuk, the Passamaquoddy Tribe at Sipayik and the Penobscot Nation and the following to be appointed by the Governor: a county sheriff, a chief of a municipal police department, 2 officers of municipal police departments who are not police chiefs, an educator who is not and has never been a sworn member of a law enforcement agency, a criminal prosecutor from one of the offices of the District Attorney, a representative of a federal law enforcement agency, 3 citizens each of whom is not and has never been a sworn member of a law enforcement agency, a municipal official who is not and has never been a sworn member of a law enforcement agency and one nonsupervisory corrections officer representing a state or county correctional facility. The law enforcement official representing the 5 Wabanaki tribal governments must be appointed by the tribal governments by a process determined by those governments that provides for the board membership to rotate among the tribal governments.

A designee of an ex officio member is a member of the board only during the term of office of the ex officio member who designated the designee. All of the other members of the board serve for a term of 3 years , except that the Wabanaki law enforcement member serves for a term of 2 years. A trustee holds office for the term for which the trustee is appointed or until the trustee's successor had has been appointed and qualified. Members of the board are entitled to compensation in accordance with Title 5, chapter 379. Any vacancy on the board of trustees must be filled in the same manner as the original appointment, but for the unexpired term.

summary

This bill provides a permanent seat on the Board of Trustees of the Maine Criminal Justice Academy for a representative of the 5 Wabanaki tribal governments. The tribal representative must be a law enforcement official and must be chosen for a 2-year term by a process determined by the tribal governments. The process must require that the position rotate among the 5 tribal governments.