Former Alna treasurer Aaron Miller would do well to remember the first rule of holes, Third Selectman Doug Baston said Nov. 4.

“If you’re in one, stop digging,” First Selectman David Abbott said.

They and Second Selectman Melissa Spinney strongly defended their actions, and their prior public talks over the accounting issues they said Miller left the town with when he resigned in April. 

Selectmen took up Miller’s Oct. 26 letter to them. It offers Miller’s free help; comments on the board’s choice to hire a lawyer; and asks the board to avoid discussing his job performance in open session.

The board can discuss Miller’s service as treasurer publicly because he wasn’t a hired employee, he was an elected official, Baston said. The various surprises the town has had, on payroll tax issues with the Internal Revenue Service and other accounting items, stem from his service to the town, board members said.

“It happened because he neglected some of his functions as treasurer. The public can’t have a context for what’s going on without mentioning both the issue and the source of the issue ...,” Baston said. “I’m sure it’s not pleasant for him, but the guy made his own bed.”

Abbott agreed, saying the board can’t just tell residents the town is in trouble with the IRS, and not say why. Miller has added to the public discussion by making his new statements, board members said.

By choosing to write the Oct. 26 letter, Miller was bringing himself into the public eye, Baston said. “How can you not discuss correspondence that comes to the selectmen?”

The letter contains misinformation, Spinney said. The town has tried to recover money the IRS charged in connection with the payroll tax issues, but found that the abatement Miller got for some of the fees was the only one the IRS was going to give unless the town got outside help, selectmen said.

“I don’t think we’re wasting taxpayer money,” Spinney said about the board’s actions. As officers of the town, the selectmen have an obligation to try to recover the money, she said. The total losses were still being determined, but appeared to be at least a few thousand dollars, Baston said recently.

Causes that the IRS looks at when considering abatements include serious illness, death, an unavoidable trip, and an interruption due to fire, accidental loss of records or a natural disaster, Baston said.

“I don’t think refusing to learn QuickBooks is any of those,” he said.

Before Miller resigned April 22, he told the board he didn’t have a strong handle on QuickBooks; when Abbott suggested Miller take a course online, Miller said, “It’s not going to help me by next week, David.”

Miller had begun addressing the payroll tax issues with the IRS, and asked the board to hire former treasurer Honora Perkins part-time for guidance on the software. At the time, Abbott said Miller had had a year to learn it. Residents elected Miller in March 2014 and re-elected him last March.

During the Nov. 4 discussion of Miller’s letter, Baston brought up a part where Miller states he made mistakes but that, legally, he did nothing wrong. Commenting on the statement, Baston said: “Was he criminally wrong? No. But incompetence is wrong.”

Miller on Nov. 5 said he was reserving any general comments.

Before the board’s public discussion Nov. 4 about Miller’s letter, selectmen met with attorney Paul Gibbons and explored the town’s legal options for recovering losses over the tax and accounting issues, Baton said later. Selectmen on Oct. 21 scheduled the Nov. 4 closed-door session with Gibbons. The board took no action after coming out of the executive session.

“We have some options that we hadn’t considered before,” Baston said in response to a question from the Wiscasset Newspaper. “He gave us some useful information that may be productive for recovering the money, which is really what we wanted.”

Board members would not specify the options that were discussed, but said they and Gibbons came up with a “Plan A” for him to explore.

“We don’t have a Plan B yet,” Abbott said. “We’re going to discuss our plan B if plan A doesn’t work.”