Former Alna treasurer Aaron Miller tells selectmen in a new letter, he has made mistakes, but no legal errors. Miller’s Oct. 26 letter also comments on recent statements at selectmen’s meetings; and offers to help the town for free with selectmen’s questions about checks on the town’s software.

The letter, Miller’s second to the board in two months, states in part: “I have met with counsel who has advised me that it is clear that although I made mistakes, legally I didn’t do anything wrong ... My offer, however, still stands on volunteering to assist the town ... I mean no ill will toward my community and I’m hoping for a successful and expedient resolution.”

Throughout selectmen’s talks on payroll tax and other issues dating to Miller’s time as treasurer, they have said there is nothing suspicious about any transactions. They have repeatedly discussed how to resolve the  tax and other issues, and said they want to find out how they might recover the town’s losses that run in the thousands of dollars.

The board set a closed-door talk for Nov. 4 with attorney Paul Gibbons to explore ways to recover the losses.

It’s town officials’ open-session comments that Miller takes issue with. Last week’s letter cites coverage in the Wiscasset Newspaper and elsewhere, reporting on the comments. One that Town Clerk Amy Warner made on Oct. 21, describing the issues as “the gift that keeps on giving, ” was sarcastic and totally unprofessional, Miller writes.

Miller asks selectmen to refrain from discussing his job performance in open session.

The Oct. 21 statement was not directed at Miller, but at the situation as a whole, Warner said in a phone interview Monday. In accounting, one mistake creates other ones down the line, like a spiderweb radiating outward, she said.

“It was a moment of misplaced levity,” Warner added about the “gift” comment.

Some comments may have been made lately that should not have been made publicly, First Selectman David Abbott said Oct. 28. The Nov. 4 discussion, which would be the board’s first meeting with the lawyer on the matter, will be in an executive session, he noted. However, neither Miller, nor anyone else, should assume that Miller is the focus of the board’s plans to explore ways to restore the money lost to penalties, he said.

The board is meeting with Gibbons to find out its options, so that the board can make decisions once the total amount of the losses is known, Abbott said.

Miller’s letters cite his efforts while treasurer to get the Internal Revenue Service to grant the town an abatement.

“Working with the IRS to wipe out further penalties would appear to be a much better solution than obligating the taxpayers to pay for the legal services of an attorney,” Miller writes Oct. 26.

His shorter, Sept. 22 letter to Abbott also refers to the board’s questions over checks that town officials said appear on QuickBooks software; it appears that the checks, all to parties the town routinely pays bills to, don’t appear to have been issued, but were never voided, selectmen have said.

Miller’ letter offers to assist the board with its questions about the checks, at no charge. “This could save unnecessary costs charged by (accountant) Bill Brewer to the town.”

Abbott said that he would tell Brewer about Miller’s offer. The board agreed Oct. 21 to hire Brewer for an estimated $1,000 to $1,500 to amend payroll filings and address record-keeping errors.

In a Nov. 3 email to the Wiscasset Newspaper, Miller states that the IRS will likely abate its fees, resulting in no losses to the town.