LIVERMORE — Selectpersons Tuesday night, Jan. 3, agreed to hold a special town meeting Jan. 17 for voters to act on joining Maine Public Employee Retirement System and changing the Town Clerk position from elected to appointed, contingent on additional information from a Maine PERS representative.
Town Clerk Renda Guild and deputy clerk Jean Tardif submitted their resignations in September 2022 and no qualified candidates have applied for Guild’s position. That position is currently elected and Guild was reelected in April 2022 to another two-year term. She has held the position for 25 years.
Selectpersons on Dec. 26 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 on 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 PERS representative in the last couple of weeks have been unsuccessful, Chairman Mark Chretien said. He noted he wants to reach her so she can 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 PERS 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 a few years ago, 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 held afterwards. “With the town clerk [position vacant] [voters] will turn up,” he noted.
Chretien said there would be a better chance of hiring a town clerk if the two articles are adopted.
On Monday morning, Jan. 9, Chretien said the meeting should be all set to be held, although he was waiting to hear back from the town’s attorney on the language for the second warrant article.
By state law, notice of a special town meeting must be posted seven days before the meeting.
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