PenBayPilot.com has circulated questions to the two candidates, Elise S. Brown, D-Liberty, and Timothy Allen Parker, Jr., R-Unity, who are competing for one open seat on the Waldo County Commission representing District 3. That seat that is being vacated by Amy Fowler. District 3 comprises Brooks, Burnham, Freedom, Knox, Liberty, Montville, Morrill, Palermo, Searsmont, Troy, Thorndike and Unity.    

The three-member Commission has one other open seat representing District 2, which includes Frankfort , Jackson, Monroe, Prospect, Searsport, Swanville, Stockton Springs and Winterport. Alan M Cohen, D-Winterport, and Kevin J Kelley, R-Winterport, are competing for that seat, which is being vacated by William Shorey.

As candidates return their responses, we are posting them on the Pilot's front page, and then they will reside on the Elections 2024 Voter Resource Page, which also includes letters, opinions, stories about state and local referendum questions, and more.

Please provide a short biography of yourself, your reasons for wanting to serve as a county commissioner, and what you will bring to the table to help govern Waldo County.

Starting in 1994, Elise served as a volunteer Liberty firefighter, fire chief, and as an emergency medical technician. She has been Liberty’s Emergency Management Director for 17 years and currently drives the ambulance for Liberty Fire & Rescue. She also worked as a professional firefighter and EMT for the City of Portland for seven years.

Elise was a member of Liberty’s Budget Committee for seven years and its chair for four budget cycles. She has experience in grant-writing and helped to prevent the loss of local emergency medical services by working with others to create a new service to serve Liberty, Montville, and Palermo.

At the Waldo County level, Elise has worked with the Emergency Management Agency, the Regional Communications Center, the Sheriff’s Office, and she volunteers at the Corrections department’s reentry center.

Elise Brown co-owns a 40-employee residential weatherization contracting company, where she heads up the leadership team and is experienced in business budgets, leadership development & decision-making, information technology, human resources, and marketing.

In an old farmhouse in Liberty, she and her partner raised two children, who both attended the local schools. Elise enjoys cooking for a crowd, spending the evening around a campfire, and sitting outside in the early morning.

Elise holds a B.A. in biology from Williams College and is a certified Firefighter I & II, Fire Trainer, and Fire Officer, HazMat Operations, former EMT-B, with various ICS (incident command) certifications.

What are the strengths and weaknesses of county government, and Waldo County, in particular?

Strengths
From what I know about Waldo County government, I see a dedicated staff of public servants and professionals who care deeply about our county and its residents. Many of them carry deep knowledge and expertise in their respective fields and bring a passion for and commitment to service.

In many areas of the county’s financial management, departments have been creatively thrifty to meet county needs as affordably as possible. They have successfully forged community partnerships to meet the needs of residents and create a sense of community. The county has worked to position its facilities infrastructure for the future and has moved operations from older buildings to up-to-date facilities.

Challenges
Waldo County, like most rural counties, is challenged by high levels of need and proportionately low levels of funding. For example, our Sheriff's Office typically has fewer than a dozen deputies on patrol at any one time, covering 853 square miles. 

Our constrained budgets make it difficult to attract and retain qualified personnel. And our resident disaster preparedness needs vary from protecting seaboard residents from coastal hazards to inland folks in hilly areas with poorly maintained and windy roads.

Like all communities, we need to always prepare for the future. Our Emergency Management Agency is one of the best in the state and is always educating and nudging the public to become prepared for the unexpected, whether it's a severe storm or a long-term power outage. 

Given the trend toward more intense and frequent weather events, this task is more important than ever. Although the county does not itself own or maintain any roads, its emergency services depend on them to respond to residents in need. Thus, the county has an interest in supporting towns to prepare their roads for more flooding events to increase the likelihood that roads can stay open during storms.

The county also needs to continue its own work to build each department’s resiliency so that continuity of services is maximized during these events.With so much of our society completely dependent on electricity to operate, the county has an interest in working with other entities to continually strengthen our electrical grid resiliency as well as our communities’ agency, business, and resident energy resiliency.

Another challenge for our county is the complex, poorly funded, and relatively uncoordinated approach to corrections in our state. Because our county’s jail was closed in the 1990’s, we need to board our inmates at other facilities and negotiating those terms in a manner that is favorable to Waldo County and its taxpayers is an on-going issue. Our Jail Administrator, Ray Porter, has worked to build stable relationships with the other correctional facilities and as Commissioner, I would support this effort, as well as advocate at the state level for improved coordination and funding.

(I discuss another challenge in the emergency services question below (substance abuse, mental health, etc.)

What will you do to encourage continuity and transparency for Waldo County?

The current Board of Commissioners has worked together for 16 years. With two of the three Commissioners retiring this year, next year will be a year of change for Waldo County.

To ensure continuity, I have been talking with the Commissioners as much as possible to learn from them about their vast experience and knowledge of county government. I also attend as many scheduled meetings as possible.

Being transparent helps build trust. To encourage transparency, I would like to explore ways to make meetings more accessible to the general public. I would also seek to more proactively share information with town governments and the public. I would like to see the Board of Commissioners regularly engage with Town Select Boards to build pathways of communication and collaboration.

How do you plan to collaborate with local municipalities to ensure efficient governance across the county?

In my view, county government primarily exists to meet the needs of towns by providing services that towns cannot reasonably provide on their own.

In my interviews with district select boards, few of them report any regular interactions with the county commissioners. I think this is a missed opportunity and, if elected, will seek to meet regularly with the towns. This would be a great way to share information on county operations, receive feedback about them, learn about important town issues, and explore ways to collaborate to address them.

Should the county board of commissioners be expanded to include five, or even seven, commissioners instead of three?

I am open to exploring this concept to determine the model that would best serve Waldo County.

Some Maine counties are governed by five or seven commissioners, rather than our model of three commissioners. I need to better research this issue, but my estimation is that there are pros and cons for all the models. One benefit of expanding the board would be more focused representation regionally across the county.

Currently, Waldo County has no administrator or manager; the Commissioners do the work themselves and divide up the tasks according to their skills and interest. With more commissioners, an additional benefit could be there would be more people to do this work. It could also make it possible for small groups of commissioners to work together on a project without triggering the requirement to legally post a public meeting. (Currently, with only 3 commissioners, if two commissioners seek to work together on a project, they technically would need to post this as a public meeting since they would constitute a quorum.)

What could Waldo County do to support municipalities in the county in the midst of a housing crisis?

Historically, Waldo County government has not been very involved in economic development or planning activities, including support for any housing initiatives. In my conversations with select boards across my district, I have heard loud and clear a desire for help in finding ways to make it more affordable for families to live here, especially regarding the low availability of housing.

Waldo County could play a vital role in helping towns collaborate and coordinate economic/housing development in our county and possibly help provide planning support. I would be eager to help make that happen.

How do you envision the county supporting emergency services, law enforcement, and other essential services for towns?

Community Public Safety services are delivered through an interdependent web of organizations, from the county-run 911 call center to the local fire and EMS responder, the Waldo County Sheriff’s Office, State Police, and other agencies.

I envision the county taking a more proactive role in getting the agencies together regularly to share resources and discuss important topics to help strengthen the connections and close gaps in the delivery of quality emergency services.

Given the challenges facing the local first responders services (dwindling volunteer participation, ballooning cost, and increased training and compliance regulations), the county needs to be prepared to assist towns in voluntarily pooling their resources to ensure continuity of services. With my 30+ years of service in this sector, I hope to play a role in making this happen while preserving towns’ precious home rule.

On a response level, often the single biggest problem with a major disaster is difficulty with inter-agency communication. The county does, and should, continue to help break down those barriers and increase inter-agency relationship-building and communication capability.

In addition, many of our residents face severe economic distress, mental health and/or substance abuse challenges that lead to 911 calls. Our county has been working to increase its response capabilities to better address these needs through its community liaison program and other community agency partnerships. I will support the strengthening of these efforts to better meet community needs and lessen the burden on law enforcement and EMS agencies who often are the ones tasked to handle these calls for service.

How do you plan to diversify county revenue streams, and what is your approach to reducing reliance on any one source, especially property taxes?

How counties may generate revenue is dictated by state statute. Permitted streams besides the property tax levy include fees collected by the Sheriff’s Office, Registry of Deeds and Probate Court, funding from the state for law enforcement & corrections, and various grant-funded monies.

The county has a strong track record of pursuing available grant funding to lower the property tax burden and I will continue those efforts. And I would work with our state delegation to provide better state support for our corrections division.

If another ARPA (substantial federal funding) were to arrive at the county level again, how would you wish to see that process evolve? What lessons can be learned from the previous attempt?

I was not involved in the ARPA dispersal conversation and have no comment on the previous effort.

Ideally, the county should engage in on-going strategic planning and always have on hand 5, 10, and 15 year plans to review for guidance in all their planning activities.

If the county were to receive a lump sum again in the future while I was a commissioner, I would propose convening focus groups to evaluate the needs and opportunities. These groups might include county department heads, town select boards, emergency services agencies, community groups, and the public at large.

After these groups did their work and submitted proposals, the board of commissioners could use an advisory group to help sort through all the proposals to come up with a short list of recommendations to choose from. With the strategic plan to refer to, the board of commissioners would then be equipped to make choices that would best meet the strategic objectives of the county and its residents.

How do envision ensuring more public engagement with county operations, and reaching more citizens about county business?

I would like to see the county do more outreach into the community to help inform the citizenry of the county services being provided and ways to access county government. This could include a larger social media presence, periodic press releases about county operations, and quarterly public listening sessions or presentations on county departments.

I would also like to explore if the current regularly scheduled bimonthly court sessions (when the board of commissioners formally meets to act on county business) works well for the public. There may be opportunities to shift their timing or format to make it easier for the public to meaningfully engage.

Free space! Please address any issue or additional thoughts you may have.

Interest in the Role

Passion for a strong public safety system
My experience providing first responder services at the ground level for 30 years has taught me so much, both about the needs of residents and how our various responding agencies work. Our residents call 911 for reasons ranging from seeking information on lost cats to life-threatening situations. Our response system ranges from the 911 call center to the county Sheriff’s Office, various state agencies (State Police, Game Wardens, etc.) to the local fire & EMS providers.

To work well, these agencies must be well-supported and well-coordinated. Our local services are especially challenged by low volunteerism, increased training requirements, and high costs. And county law enforcement, communications, and corrections agencies struggle to attract and retain talented staff. I am keen to have Waldo County be the best rural county in Maine in its public safety network. I will work to strengthen our public safety system in every way possible.

Love of community
I believe our local communities play a vital role in the quality of life for Maine people. People are more able to flourish when they feel like they are a part of their community and give back. Waldo County government plays a role in our community life. From our probate court where important decisions are made about child custody, elder protections, or estate matters to our emergency management agency which supports towns in avoiding disasters or mitigating them when they happen, the county can help the local communities offer a sense of security and stability.

I want to offer my time, experience, and care to helping Waldo County be a place where we can live and thrive.

Commitment to Good Governance
I value accessible and reliable government institutions and processes. I want residents to be able to meaningfully participate in local affairs. It is important to me that policies & procedures are documented, fair, and followed. I value excellence and always strive to improve. I take the long view and seek to build strong relationships and build coalitions so we can successfully meet our challenges together. I would seek to build on all the efforts of those public servants who came before me to put Waldo County on a path to strength and resilience.

What Elise Brings to the Table
I bring 30 years of public service and spirit of volunteerism, 17 years of business executive and management experience, strong leadership, communication, financial, and data management skills, and a passion for excellence to the table.

Recent letters to the editor in support of my campaign speak to my track record of leadership that brings divergent perspectives to the table with positive outcomes. I am regarded as having an even keel, open heart & mind, and collaborative spirit.