Alna’s appeals board July 26 put off hearing resident Jeff Spinney’s appeal of selectmen’s handling of an ethics matter. The appeals board will focus next on getting a lawyer and deciding if it has jurisdiction to hear the appeal.

It does not, according to Drummond Woodsum attorney David Kallin on selectmen’s behalf. It does, Spinney maintained.

In a letter earlier July 26, Kallin argued the selectboard’s censure of First Selectman Ed Pentaleri stemmed from court cases the town and Spinney have going over shoreland issues and, under the shoreland zoning ordinance, enforcement is not appealable to the appeals board. “The Board of Appeals has no supervisory authority over the Board of Selectmen regarding decisions or determinations made in Spinney v. Alna and Alna v. Spinney,” Kallin wrote.

Spinney’s lawyer Kristin Collins countered in a letter, Pentaleri was censured under the ethics policy, not the shoreland zoning ordinance. She added, “The Board of Appeals needs to get a separate legal opinion on this matter by an attorney it selects (because) Kallin represents the Board of Selectmen, which has a vested interest in the outcome of this matter.  He is not representing the Board of Appeals.”

In the meeting at the town office and carried over Zoom, Kallin told the appeals board because he submitted his letter on the selectboard’s behalf, “I would suggest you use a different firm.”

“Well we could always call Joe,” Appeals Board Chair David Abbott said, drawing laughter in the room.

According to Wiscasset Newspaper files, Pentaleri, when not a selectman, was part of a 2021 appeal to the town appeals board over Spinney’s boat ramp project. In June, Second Selectman Steve Graham and Third Selectman Coreysha Stone found Pentaleri in violation of the ethics code on one of five points resident Ralph Hilton raised. Their censure decision read in part, “Although these actions used in evidence relate to (Pentaleri’s efforts) as a private citizen and not while acting as an elected (official), these interests and (efforts) could impact (his)  decisions-making as it relates to a course of action connected to the litigation ... and therefore could be perceived as a (conflict) of interest/ bias.”

Spinney’s July 7 appeal to the appeals board raises protocol and other issues with Stone’s and Graham’s handling of Hilton’s complaint and the hearing on it. In the July 26 meeting and a phone interview afterward, Spinney said whatever the appeals board decides is not going to resolve the boat ramp issue or get Pentaleri removed from office; rather, he said, his goal is for protocol to be followed on the ethics policy in the future. 

The next meeting was tentatively set for 6 p.m. Monday, Aug.14. If the board decides it has jurisdiction, members said they would also determine what information they need to review, and then set another meeting for the review. Abbott called the matter very complicated and said if they tried to do everything in one night, they would see the sun come up.