4. Notification of insufficient or no payment. Producers may notify the Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Resources of insufficient or no payment for potatoes or rotation crops delivered to after acceptance by any processor in the State in violation of subsection 1, paragraph B.

A. The Commissioner of Agriculture, Food and Rural Resources or the commissioner's agent, upon notification by producers of insufficient or no payment, shall immediately investigate the complaint and shall, in a manner consistent with the provisions of the Maine Administrative Procedure Act as to adjudicatory proceedings, hold a hearing, unless such hearing is waived by the processor against whom the charge has been made. The processor accused of nonpayment shall provide the commissioner with a copy of the contract, if any, and all other materials and information to enable the commissioner to carry out the provisions of this section. Upon finding after investigation that the processor has violated the contract, express or implied, the commissioner may recover the proceeds of the bond required by section 1015 and apply those proceeds against the amounts owed producers.__In the event the bond proceeds are inadequate to cover the debts owed producers, the commissioner shall require the processor to post a an additional bond sufficient to cover the remaining debt owed to the producer or producers.

(1) The commissioner may require the licensee, who has been accused or found guilty after a hearing of insufficient payment or nonpayment of debts owed a producer, to formulate a schedule of payments to the producer that is satisfactory to the commissioner. The schedule of payments may not exceed a 30-day period.

(2) The licensee accused of or found by a hearing to be in default of payment to a producer shall submit a payment schedule to the commissioner within one week from the commissioner's request for a payment schedule. In the event that the schedule of payment is not satisfactory to the commissioner, the commissioner shall establish the schedule of payment not to exceed a 30-day period.

(3) The commissioner shall file a complaint with the District Court seeking to suspend the license of any licensee who fails to conform to the payment schedule established in this section until the producer is paid the total claim to which the producer is entitled.