Planning commission responds to complaint

MACHIAS — A Cherryfield resident’s complaint against the Washington County Regional Planning Commission’s executive committee has led the committee to schedule an open discussion on the “Timeliness of Public Input” next month.

The discussion will be held in response to Capt. Steven Pagels’ charge that his hand-delivered letter to the executive committee on Sept. 18, was purposely withheld from the committee by chairman Mary Follis.

Pagels said the two-page letter was written because “I was advocating an open public process.” He complained that the committee had not properly advertised several vacant seats on the committee.

Follis, who has been a member of the committee for more than four years, told seven other members of the committee on Oct. 17 that she decided not to let the board members see the Pagels letter at their September meeting because she concluded that it was irrelevant to the committee’s system of appointing members.

The committee met at the Washington County Regional Planning Commission office in Machias.

Glenn Avery, executive director of the commission, said Pagels was incorrect in concluding that there were vacant positions on the committee.

“Members of the committee hold their positions until they resign or die,” Avery said. Those whose terms expire are automatically re-elected to the committee if they are willing to continue serving the WCRPC, he said.

Avery said members Richard Burgess and Louise Rier were asked at the September meeting if they were willing to continue as members of the committee. They said they were willing. Burgess represents the banking and business sector, while Rier represents the economic development sector.

Doug Jones and Milan Jamieson were appointed this summer at a meeting held in western Washington County. Dana Nelson, executive director of the Down East Resource Conservation & Development Committee, and Chuck Mitchell, soil scientist for the Soil Conservation Service at Machias, were appointed again on Sept. 18.

Jones, who also serves as chairman of the Woodland Town Council, said the way the committee’s bylaws are written, it is too late to follow up on Pagels’ letter.

Jones told the committee, however, that “The chair has no right to hold back letters addressed to me, as a member of the executive committee. Letters should be distributed.”

The letter, if it had been presented to the committee, “could have affected the decisions of the committee,” said Normand LaBerge, a member of the committee from Lubec.

Burgess, who advised the committee that the bylaws were being rewritten, said the letter “should have been taken care of.”

Pagels contended that the appointment of Burgess and Rier were not in accordance with the committee’s bylaws. “These one-year terms are appointed by your board annually and there is no record in the minutes of your meetings for well over the past year regarding any new appointments.

“You do have the option of selecting one of these at-large members from an additional category of Transportation and Medicine,” he wrote.

Avery said the committee, according to bylaws, was not allowed to fill the additional category mentioned by Pagels.

Pagels, in his letter, urged the committee to “send out press releases announcing vacancies on your board for these positions, and ask for any interested parties who may wish to serve on your board to submit a letter of interest stating why they would like to serve with your organization.

“Then at your next business meeting in October you, as a board, could review the responses that you have had and make an informed selection,” he said.

The committee’s agenda failed to include Pagels’ request in both the September and October meetings.