Alna Treasurer Aaron Miller resigned and turned in his keys to selectmen on April 22 after the board turned down his request for help learning how to carry out payroll tax payments. The board appointed prior treasurer Honora Jordan, now a Newcastle resident, as interim treasurer for 30 to 60 days while town officials look for a resident to take over the position.

Minutes before Miller resigned, he and the board had been talking about payroll taxes and possible penalties owed. Miller told the board that the Internal Revenue Service maintains the town owes $9,978 for 2014. He wasn’t sure how the IRS arrived at that figure, he said.

“It’s frustrating, guys,” he told the board.

First Selectman David Abbott and Third Selectman Douglas Baston decided to pay the money that night to avoid racking up more fees. If the figure turns out to be wrong, the town would get a credit, the selectmen said. They also planned to make a payment on March taxes the following week.

Abbott told Miller that the town had notified its insurer Maine Municipal Association of the debt.

“We had to make MMA aware of this, because we can’t just cover it up,” Abbott said. Because the debt was due to an oversight rather than illegal activity,  insurance was probably not going to cover the cost, he said. “If you’d took the money and run, they’d pay for it.”

Miller agreed to work with selectmen to make the payments the board was calling for. Then he asked them to pay Jordan to help him on a very part-time basis for guidance on using the town’s software.

“I don’t have a strong handle on QuickBooks,” he said.

Abbott said Miller could take a course online. “It’s not going to help me by next week, David,” Miller said.

“Yeah, but you’ve had a year to do it,” Abbott said. Voters elected Miller in 2013 to his first term. He was reelected in March to another one-year term,

Abbott said Second Selectman Melissa Spinney, who was not at the meeting, learned QuickBooks in two hours.

“I’m asking you for guidance. I’m asking you for the tools, and all I’m seeing is resistance,” Miller said. Then Baston suggested Miller could pay Jordan out of the treasurer’s $4,000 stipend.

Miller got up from his seat in the meeting room and went to the board’s table with a letter. He then turned in a set of keys and left. The typed, signed letter states, “Dear Selectmen, I have decided to resign as the town’s treasurer effective immediately due to personal reasons. Sincerely, Aaron C. Miller.”

Jordan told the board she felt partly responsible for the challenges Miller faced with the town’s software because she didn’t train him adequately, as she had been trained to do the treasurer’s duties. She said she would help Miller for free, as her way of giving back to the town and because she didn’t want Miller to resign.

“I think that’s water over the dam,” Baston said as he looked toward Miller’s letter. The board accepted Miller’s resignation 2-0.

Selectmen told Jordan they would pay her hourly on a rate based on the annual stipend. It’s about $15 an hour, she said. They also told her she was not responsible for the tax issues or Miller’s resignation.

“If I were running for a job, I would investigate what it entailed,” Abbott said. “There’s an adjustment period, but it’s been a year.” Abbott said town officials have tried to help Miller on his duties including having Jordan come in previously to help him.

Spinney expected to be out of town the night of the meeting. In recent emails updating the Wiscasset Newspaper on the town’s tax situation, she states that she found QuickBooks to be a very easy program to learn and work with.

“I can’t see how we could justify the town paying for Honora to come in and help him,” Spinney writes on April 17. Miller raises the idea in an email to board members earlier April 17.