TURNER — An air of unity was evident at Monday night’s information session on the Androscoggin County charter amendment on next week’s ballot.
The Board of Selectmen hosted the meeting, with Town Manager Kurt Schaub, Chairman Kurt Youland and Selectmen Dennis Richardson, Angelo Terreri and Ralph Caldwell, who is a county Budget Committee member, attending.
Participants from several communities included Greene Selectman Ron Grant, county Budget Committee member Guy Desjardins of Sabattus, County Commissioner Sally Christner and the guest speaker, Lewiston City Manager Ed Barrett, who fielded questions.
Voters in Androscoggin County approved the county charter on Nov. 6, 2012, by a vote of 27,838 to 19,354. According to an earlier motion to dismiss filed by the commissioners, the county discovered soon after the vote “that the document approved by the voters contained numerous errors, inconsistencies and omissions.”
The commissioners sought a legislative fix with a resolve approved by both the Legislature and Gov. Paul LePage on June 21, 2013. Among the changes were having the Budget Committee’s power to approve the final budget shifted back to the commissioners, who would adopt the final version.
The municipalities oppose that change, which led to a salary dispute.
Because the new charter increased the number of commissioners from three to seven members and added the new position of county administrator, commissioners proposed reducing their yearly salaries from $7,200 to $5,000 — and from $8,292 to $5,500 for the chairman.
That wasn’t enough for the Budget Committee, which cut the salaries to $3,000 and $3,500, respectively, and eliminated all health benefits.
The three commissioners at the time were Beth Bell, Elaine Makas and Randall Greenwood. The vote was 2-0-1, with Greenwood abstaining, to reject the Budget Committee’s ruling and approve a yearly salary of $5,000, with an extra $500 for the chairman and individual health benefits of about $8,400 per commissioner.
Bell, Makas and Greenwood are still county commissioners. The four new members are Ronald Chicoine, Sally Christner, Alfreda Fournier and Matthew Roy. All seven are named in the suit.
At one point Monday night, Barrett said the members of the county Budget Committee felt they were victims of a “bait-and-switch scam,” in which they were “promised a Cadillac and got a Yugo.”
Attendees also discussed the lawsuit being pursued by 12 of the 14 Androscoggin County municipalities against the County Commission.
The lawsuit was filed in Androscoggin County Superior Court in July and contends that commissioners overstepped their powers in approving the county budget by voting in higher salaries and benefits for themselves than what was approved by the Budget Committee in 2014. It asks for the return of all salaries and benefits not approved by the Budget Committee.
The amended suit also seeks to deny the commissioners from having the county pay for their legal bills.
A recurring question Monday night was why representatives from each town and the members of the Budget Committee were not sitting down with commissioners to discuss the issues.
Grant lamented that no one seems to want to sit down and talk about the issues, but said he was encouraged that virtually all the municipalities were coming together in an unusual eye-to-eye agreement on this issue.
Christner said, to her knowledge, none of the county commissioners received an invitation to mediate.
Caldwell pointed out that the County Commission, which has already spent approximately “$50,000 to fight with the towns, requested another $150,000 in the 2016 budget.”
One thing everyone seemed to agree on was the need for all parties to meet without attorneys present.
“If I was about to make an additional $150,000 in legal fees, why would I encourage anyone to sit down and work things out?” Richardson asked.
Staff Editor Steve Sherlock contributed to this report.
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