LIVERMORE — Selectpersons on Tuesday night agreed to hold a special town meeting Jan. 17 for voters to act on joining the Maine Public Employee Retirement System and changing the town clerk position from elected to appointed, contingent on more information from a system representative.
Town Clerk Renda Guild and Deputy Clerk Jean Tardif submitted their resignations September 2022 and there have been no qualified candidates to fill Guild’s position. Guild was reelected last April to another two-year term.
Selectpersons last week approved a pay increase and part-time schedule for Guild and Tardif until a town clerk is hired.
“What’s holding us up is the town clerk position is an elected position, so if anybody is hired now, they only have a job for a little over a year,” Selectperson Scott Richmond said Tuesday. “Anybody that has got any experience in their field isn’t going to take a job for a little over a year, and the other thing is the Maine PERS.”
Richmond suggested holding a special town meeting the same night as the next scheduled selectpersons meeting Jan. 17 for voters to act on those two issues. “I wanted to wait until the regular election (in April) but I don’t think we can,” he said. Some people he has spoken with about the clerk position asked him why would they leave a guaranteed job for one that isn’t.
“We need to fill the jobs,” Selectperson Randy Ouellette said.
Efforts to reach the Maine Public Employee Retirement System representative in the past couple of weeks have been unsuccessful, Chairman Mark Chretien said. He said he wants that person talk with employees who have benefits.
Chretien said Aaron Miller, former administrative assistant, had worked with the town’s attorney and the warrant article for the Maine Public Employee Retirement System question has been written. Maine Municipal Association will be contacted regarding the language needed for changing the town clerk position to appointed, but it shouldn’t be too different from when the treasurer’s position was changed to appointed in 2021, Chretien said.
Richmond said the special town meeting should be held at Spruce Mountain Primary School on the Gibbs Mill Road, even if the larger gymnasium isn’t available that night, with the selectpersons meeting afterward. “With the town clerk (position vacant) they will turn up,” he noted.
Chretien said there would be a better chance of hiring a town clerk if the two articles are adopted.
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