A longtime member of the Maine Workers’ Compensation Board has resigned, three weeks after pleading guilty to his second assault case in 13 years.
In a letter to Governor John Baldacci sent Thursday morning, Anthony Monfiletto, 54, of Portland, said that he was stepping down for “personal reasons,” effective immediately. David Farmer, a spokesman for Baldacci, said that the governor had accepted the letter and would be nominating a replacement.
In mid-April, Monfiletto was charged in Farmington district court with punching another man in a late-night bar fight at Sugarloaf Resort last October. He was attending a conference at the resort on workers’ compensation in his role as a board member. And in 1998, Monfiletto was convicted of an identical charge in West Bath and fined $500.
Both cases were reported on April 4 by the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting.
After Monfiletto’s court appearance this month, Baldacci asked his counsel to review the incident and determine whether there was cause for Monfiletto to be removed from the board.
But in an e-mail to the Center, Farmer said that Monfiletto’s resignation was his decision.
“I cannot say for certain whether it had anything to do with the review,” Farmer said. “He was not asked to resign by the governor’s office.”
The Workers’ Compensation Board consists of seven members: three representing management, three representing labor, and the executive director, Paul Dionne.
A former Bath Iron Works employee, Monfiletto had represented labor, and his resignation leaves the board in a temporary imbalance. In an interview, Dionne said that the board will most likely postpone any contentious business until Monfiletto is replaced.
“I think the board can deal with most of the issues it’s going to deal with for the next meeting or two,” he said. “If there’s an issue that’s controversial…maybe that can be put off until we’ve got an equal complement of board members.”
According to board procedure, Baldacci must now select a new representative from a list of four names provided to him by the AFL-CIO. The nominee must first be approved by the legislature’s Joint Standing Committee on Labor, before being confirmed by the state senate.
Farmer said that the next confirmation session would likely occur this summer.
Monfiletto could not be reached for comment. His home phone number was not in service, and he did not return an inquiry made through the office of the Workers’ Compensation Board.
