Editorial spurs town to review its process

MILLINOCKET – Town officials are considering changes to the council’s review process of town warrants, after a local newspaper editorial last week questioned the informal “gathering” of town councilors prior to scheduled meetings.

Published on Sept. 23, the Katahdin Times editorial claimed the town failed to notify the public of councilors coming together before the bi-weekly 4:30 p.m. Thursday council meetings.

The editorial claimed that because three or more of the elected officials “meet in the town manager’s office to review and sign warrants authorizing the payment of bills,” the gathering qualifies as a “public proceeding” under the state’s Right to Know law, which would require notification of the public.

Town Manager Gene Conlogue confirmed that councilors often show up in his office between 4 and 4:30 p.m. on meeting days to review the warrants, but added that all “official business” concerning approval votes occurred during the meetings.

With an average of two warrants per meeting, the review by councilors often took place before the meeting in order to cut down on the meeting’s length, Conlogue said, adding that there was never any intent to hide things from the public.

“It takes some of our people the better part of an hour to go through these warrants,” Conlogue said Wednesday.

While anyone from the public was welcome to sit in on the pre-meeting gatherings, the Maine Municipal Association recently suggested that the process be formalized, Conlogue said.

The town is considering changing the process by reviewing warrants during the meeting or establishing a finance committee with scheduled meetings to do the reviews, he said.

“We certainly don’t want to do anything that would run afoul of Maine’s Right to Know law,” Conlogue said.

Times editor Aaron Miller did not immediately return phone calls Wednesday afternoon.

During the past two years, Councilor Avern Danforth said he’s seen a number of regular attendees of the council meetings stop by the town manager’s office when councilors reviewed warrants. The door was always open and those residents involved with local politics frequently stopped in to talk with councilors, he said.

“There was never any time that I felt the public didn’t know what was going on,” Danforth said Wednesday. “This was never a practice that disturbed me.”