FARMINGTON — Franklin County commissioners voted Tuesday to send several modified budget items back to the Budget Committee to be reconsidered.

It took more than two hours of discussion and deliberation before decisions were finalized.

Commissioners voted 2-1, with Fred Hardy of New Sharon opposed, to ask the Budget Committee to restore commissioners’ flex benefits to the commissioners’ recommendation. Since the vote was not unanimous, the benefits will not go back before the Budget Committee for reconsideration.

It takes a unanimous vote of the commissioners to send a change back to the committee and it would take a two-thirds majority of the budget panel to change its own recommendation.

Budget Committee members voted unanimously June 7 to cut part-time, elected officials’ flex benefits in half to make it $14,562. Commissioners get 70 percent of a full-time employee’s benefits that can be used for health, retirement or life insurances. They also get a yearly salary of between $8,100 and $8,500.

On Tuesday, commissioners voiced their opinions on the committee’s actions. Hardy said he would not go against the committee’s decision on benefits.

Commissioner Clyde Barker of Strong said he didn’t agree with Hardy and didn’t think the committee’s action was fair.

Barker said he gets $180 every two weeks for the commissioner’s job. He works many hours each week and now will have to take money out of his Social Security check to pay for benefits.

“I feel the commissioner’s job is an investment in the county,” he said. “I feel that county commissioners and selectmen are different.”

He added that it is the commissioners’ job to protect the towns.

A selectman’s job is to watch over one town, try to keep the budget down and try to keep everybody happy, Barker said.

The reduction in benefits was a “slap in the face,” Barker said.

Commission Chairman Gary McGrane of Jay said he was disappointed, disillusioned, if not dismayed, to hear the discussion at the Budget Committee’s meeting on June 7.

Their charge is to look at the budget that commissioners recommend as a whole and not go line by line, he said. When they start determining who gets benefits and who doesn’t, McGrane said, it is setting policy for the county and micromanaging.

Each commissioner serves roughly 10,000 constituents, which is far more than a selectman represents, he said.

“Our compensation and benefits are far less than other counties,” McGrane said.

Some of the comments made during the Budget Committee meeting were opinion and not based on any legal reasoning, McGrane said.

Discussion led to whether the commission should send back the budget as is in a unanimous decision and hope that Budget Committee members would make changes or to make changes on line items by a unanimous vote and send them back to the panel.

“We would far rather you come back with specific recommendations,” Budget Committee Chairman John Calloway of Avon said.

After listening to McGrane’s comments, Calloway said, he would hate for commissioners to yield their authority.

Calloway also said he understood more at this meeting than previous meetings, and he now considered the Budget Committee’s action micromanaging.

“I really don’t want to see our committee micromanage your departments,” Calloway said. “I find myself in agreement. It has nothing to do with money, it has to do with principle.”

None of the commissioners asked for a reconsideration vote.

Commissioners did vote to raise $92,000 for the Sheriff Department’s vehicle budget. The Budget Committee had reduced a proposed $98,500 amount to $75,000.

Commissioners also voted to support $20,000 for Western Maine Transportation, which the Budget Committee reduced by $5,000. They also agreed to raise $24,000 for paving the county parking lot that has four holes in it before someone gets hurt. They also voted to restore Sexual Abuse Victims Emergency services to its original request of $11,138.

dperry@sunjournal.com

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