Wiscasset selectmen
Non-resident committee service revisited
Fri, 03/22/2024 - 8:45am
A resident mentioned the condition of this tree on Wiscasset Common to the selectboard March 19. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Selectmen March 19 eyed asking voters for a change in voting privileges on the airport advisory committee. Steve Williams is chair and a longtime member of the committee, but according to the discussion, a letter from the committee, and Wiscasset Newspaper files, he cannot vote with the committee because he is not a Wiscasset resident. The letter to Town Manager Dennis Simmons stated, as a result, the committee sometimes lacks a quorum to approve minutes or make recommendations to the selectboard.
“Being an advisory committee in name, we feel sufficient checks and balances are in place to allow a review by the selectboard of any policies that the airport committee may generate,” the committee wrote. The letter asked to let a non-resident vote on the committee.
“I don’t think you should amend an ordinance just (for) one person ...,” Simmons told the selectboard.
“I don’t think you do, either,” Selectman Pamela Dunning said. She and others said Zoom is an option for helping getting a quorum and, if there isn’t a quorum, then the committee put off a vote. Dunning suggested proposing voters change the ordinance to let a non-resident taxpayer vote on the committee. Being a taxpayer financially invests someone in the town, she said.
A resident spoke against a change, whether a non-resident is a taxpayer or not. Selectmen decided to hold a public hearing. If so, a change would not make the June ballot, Simmons said. Selectmen were OK with that.
Wiscasset voters in June 2016 agreed to let one non-resident each serve as non-voting members on the airport and waterfront committees, according to Wiscasset Newspaper files.
In other talks March 19, Selectman Terry Heller said she would rather warrant items show if the budget committee opposed or approved them, and not show the committee’s vote tallies.
Simmons said that would seem disingenuous, “like we’re trying to hide something.”
“I’m not talking about hiding anything,” Heller said. “I’m talking literally the amount of influence that vote has.”
“However ultimately it’s up to the voters ... We recommend numbers ...,” Selectboard Chair Sarah Whitfield said.
Heller raised the issue as the board looked at asking voters to change the budget committee from elected to appointed. Members already end up being appointed because people do not tend to run for budget committee, Whitfield explained. “They haven’t been a true elected body in years.”
Asked his opinion March 22 about Heller’s idea, outgoing Budget Committee Chair Tom Joyce, who recently decided to resign from the committee after four years on it, two as chair – favored keeping the committee’s tallies on the warrants. “We don’t really have a lot of ways to influence the budget process ... That's the only wheel we have to turn it.”
Joyce said the warrants contain little information; the committee puts in a lot of hours and study, and there is really no point in having one if its vote counts are not on the warrants, he added.
Asked why he is leaving the committee, Joyce said, in his four years, “It’s been challenging trying to make changes” in town budgets.
And in other talks March 19, based on selectmen’s interest, Lincoln County Regional Planning Commission Executive Director Emily Rabbe will check back with Sue Baker of the state’s Floodplain Management Program with more questions from the board about possible ordinance changes involving recreational vehicles.
The board approved letters of support for Community Action and Coastal Communities grants Simmons and Whitfield said the climate action team would use to assess impacts along the waterfront and report back to the board with options to mitigate those impacts.
Simmons read aloud a letter from Maine Criminal Justice Academy, announcing Cadet Logan Hilton’s election as treasurer of the 45th basic law enforcement training program. The letter said this shows special leadership ability and reflects on Hilton and on Wiscasset Police Department.
Resident Karen Sullivan told the board a tree on the common is in bad shape, with the bark off, and holes. “It could be a real liability,” Sullivan said. Officials asked her which tree, and thanked her.
Simmons said the planning and appeals boards and the waterfront committee have openings. Apply at wiscasset.org or the town office.
