Under prospective new rules a Wiscasset panel supported Monday night, the airport and waterfront committees could each have a non-resident serving, and voting, on them.

Selectmen decided March 2 to have the Ordinance Review Committee draft amendments to town rules on the two panels. Current rules allow only residents on the airport panel and the rules are moot on residency for the waterfront committee, ORC members said.

That silence on residency means any number of the waterfront committee’s members can be non-residents, according to ORC Chairman Karl Olson.

The rules were not on Monday’s agenda. Earlier Monday, the Wiscasset Newspaper asked Olson when the ORC would be discussing them.

That was the first he’d heard of it, Olson said. No one had told him the ORC was supposed to take it up.

Then the newspaper contacted Selectmen’s Chairman Ben Rines Jr. The expectation at the time of the vote was that the town manager would send the matter on to the ORC, he said.

That should have happened immediately, he said. A proposal will be needed by the end of April if the town is going to vote on it this year, Rines said.

Town Manager Marian Anderson did not immediately return a phone message left Monday afternoon.

Selectman Judy Flanagan said from the audience Monday, “I did just take for granted it would come to you.”

Flanagan spoke after Olson brought up the committee-residency rules. Olson told Town Planner Ben Averill he’d heard that the ORC might be directed to work on them.

Averill responded, “I am not aware of anything, but I will double check that.”

At the suggestion of ORC member Jackie Lowell, the panel decided to start mulling the rules that night.

Talks centered on the merits of having non-residents serve, including both their stake in the town and their experience that relates to the committee’s topics.

“Logistically speaking, you’d want the best person on the board,” such as someone familiar with aeronautics, Averill said.

Olson cited one group of potential committee volunteers: business owners. “They have a lot at stake in this town. Why can’t they at least have a little say?”

Anyone can have a say, whether they are on a committee or not, by attending meetings, member Larry Lomison said.

Not necessarily, according to Flanagan. Committees have traditionally let attendees comment, but sometimes comments get cut off, she said.

“That doesn’t guarantee they’ll have a say ... It’s different from boardsmanship, where you all are sitting and can try to convince the other one that they’re wrong and you’re right, so I see a difference in that,” Flanagan said.

Members favored letting one non-resident onto each of the two panels — the same plan selectmen favored. Plans call for Averill to draft the language for the committee to review April 11 before sending the proposal on to selectmen.

Lomison leaving

Lomison announced Monday that he will be stepping down this spring, after more than a decade on the panel; he has sold his house and will be moving to Colorado, he said.

Olson congratulated Lomison on the sale but added that he was sorry to see him go. “Very much.” He told Lomison he had always found him to be a wealth of information.