Selectmen face conflicts of interest on budget

SOUTHWEST HARBOR – Selectmen this week wrestled with the sticky issue of conflicts of interest in voting on the proposed $2.9 million budget for the elementary school, with one official stepping aside from the vote and another being assured it was safe to participate.

Selectman Mark Campbell inspired the discussion when he told the five-member board on Wednesday he would abstain from both the discussion and vote on the Pemetic Elementary School budget because his wife gets $20 a month to record the minutes of the Pemetic School Board meetings.

Other selectmen argued that Campbell should still be able to participate because the board was only making a recommendation on the budget for town meeting voters to consider in May.

But Campbell, who acknowledged that he was frustrated at not being able to express his many thoughts about the budget, still thought he should not act because his family benefited financially from Pemetic – if only insignificantly.

Campbell feared that someone who wanted to derail the budget process could argue that the board’s vote would be illegal if he voted, or even participated in the deliberations.

Selectman Pam Norwood then asked her peers whether they thought she had a conflict of interest since she works for Mount Desert Regional High School. Both the high school and Pemetic are part of School Union 98.

Norwood had joined Campbell in researching Maine law, which states that officials have a conflict when they benefit financially from the organization or issue they are voting on.

Although Norwood works for the same school union that includes the Pemetic school, she has no financial interest and gets no monetary benefit from the elementary school, board members agreed.

Norwood went on to make the motion to approve the proposed Pemetic budget, while Campbell abstained and Selectman Trudy Bickford opposed. Chairman Skip Wilson and Selectman Lyle Dever also voted to support the school budget.