She Was a Paid Island Institute Fellow. She Later Spoke for the Institute. Then She Scored Its Grant.

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AUGUSTA, Maine -- Republican gubernatorial candidate Bobby Charles on Friday released the state scoring file on the Island Institute grant and said the official who checked the award was not independent of the organization that received it.

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Sarah Curran is now director of the Governor’s Office of Policy Innovation and the Future. In February 2022 she was deputy director, and she was a named evaluator on the Community Resilience Partnership service-provider grant to the Island Institute. The state’s individual evaluation notes, dated February 18, 2022, list her as evaluator. The team consensus, dated February 22, 2022, names Brian Ambrette, Sarah Curran, and Ross Anthony. They scored the Island Institute 97 out of 100: a pass on eligibility, 40 out of 40 on capacity, 37 out of 40 on scope, and 20 out of 20 on budget. The request on her notes is $37,458. Hannah Pingree, then director, signed the award notice on March 15, 2022.

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Curran also signed the state’s evaluator agreement. That certification says neither she nor her immediate family had a personal or financial interest in the bidders.

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“That is the document,” Charles said. “She signed the paper that said she had no conflict with the Island Institute. Then she scored the Island Institute. The Island Institute will tell you she was one of theirs.”

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The Island Institute lists Curran as a speaker at its August 8, 2024 Fellows anniversary and identifies her as a Peaks Island Fellow from 2005 to 2007. The fellowship is a paid position. A 2008 Working Waterfront account describes her fellowship work for the Peaks Island Land Preserve and the Island Indicators Report. She gave that 2024 speech while she was deputy director of the office that had awarded the Institute the grant.

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“Hannah Pingree’s office sent taxpayer money to an organization that was doing film work with her husband,” Charles said. “The check on that award was her own deputy. The deputy had been a paid Fellow of the bidder, and she went back and spoke for them. She signed a form saying there was no conflict. Mainers can read the form and the Institute’s own page and decide if that certification was true.”

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Charles said a press statement is not a substitute for the file. The Island Institute told reporters this week that no state or federal dollars paid for the film series and that the grant was restricted to Chebeague, Long Island, and Monhegan. Those are the same three islands on Curran’s evaluation notes. The notes do not mention her fellowship. They do not mention Jason Mann.

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He called for four things.

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1.      Curran should recuse herself from any further Island Institute decision, and Governor Mills should ask for her resignation as GOPIF director until an outside review of this award is finished. Pingree has already left the office. The scoring official has not.

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2.      The $37,458 award should be frozen and reviewed, and repaid if the review finds the conflict tainted the award.

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3.      GOPIF should expedite release of every email, disclosure, and recusal behind RFA 202111181, including Curran’s signed no-conflict certification and any later Island Institute award.

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4.      The Rockland demand still stands. Release what the Institute paid Mann and Beechwood Film, what account paid it, and the same records for North Haven Sustainable Housing and the MaineHousing money.

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“When I am Governor, an outside audit opens this kind of file on day one,” Charles said. “Release the records. Open the communications. If the conflicted money has to come back, it comes back.”