LEVANT – Resident and developer Bob Bemis thinks that much of the “public” in public boards is missing in his hometown, and said so Monday night.

A former selectman, Bemis made an unsuccessful bid at the special town meeting to curb town legal fees and pressed for a moratorium on changes to the town’s ordinances, all in response to what he said were town officials who are out of touch with the town’s needs.

“I want more private citizens involved,” Bemis said after the two-hour meeting that drew nearly 50 residents and was held primarily to approve the town’s budget for the fiscal year, which starts today. The budget was approved largely unchanged, with the exception of adding $3,000 to the recreation department director’s $2,500 compensation, which won’t adversely affect the town’s expected tax rate of 16.3 mills, the same as last year.

But there were other items in the annual warrant that prompted heated debate, including six articles dealing with minor changes to subdivision ordinances, the first of which Bemis protested. He argued that the proposed changes were more instances of the town tweaking its ordinances, moves that he said have resulted in confusing and contradictory rules and the legal “pickle” the town has found itself in.

Bemis was referring to two lawsuits concerning the construction of a gravel pit on the Tay Road in which court rulings have come down recently.

One ordered the town’s board of appeals to investigate anew the validity of two stop-work orders issued against the gravel pit by the code enforcement officer last year. In the other, the gravel-pit owner was ordered to pay court costs to the town after a District Court judge in Newport found the owner violated the town’s land use ordinances.

Angered that the town had spent $17,039 in legal fees this year when it was only authorized to spend $6,000, and because he felt the town shouldn’t have become embroiled in the suits in the first place, Bemis sought to cut the $6,000 proposed legal fees budget. He also pressed to have the townspeople reject the first ordinance change proposal, which defined parameters for major subdivisions.

He lost on both fronts by at least 2-to-1. The subsequent five minor ordinance changes passed, with Bemis and a half-dozen others voting in opposition.

Countering Bemis, town officials said that people who serve on the boards and committees are elected or appointed, and are obligated and sworn to uphold the rules and ordinances of the town. And they noted that a position on the planning board had been open from six months to a year.

It was too much for Debra CoWallis, a longtime school board member and wife of a town selectman. Standing in the back of the Levant Elementary School gymnasium, CoWallis confronted Bemis, verbally prodding him several times on whether he considered himself part of the public and whether he would provide the public service he said is so wanting in town.

“You bet your booties, sweetheart,” Bemis replied after a while.