Dover-Foxcroft selectman scolded for published letter

DOVER-FOXCROFT – A suggestion by the newest member of the Board of Selectmen that there may have been some improprieties among board members in the past drew a strong rebuke Monday.

In a letter to a local newspaper, Selectman Joyce Perry, who was elected in November, wrote that board members must avoid inappropriate actions or appearances that can jeopardize the board’s integrity.

“One of the most disgraceful actions by a member of a town board would be to inappropriately and regularly profit from their position of trust,” Perry wrote. Selectmen are expected to act on behalf of their community and not their personal, private business, her letter stated.

That letter was followed Monday by Perry’s motion to adopt a resolution that would require the town to publish in the annual town report all conflicts of interest among board members. Her motion failed to garner a second but it brought former Selectman Tom Lizotte to his feet.

Lizotte said Perry’s letter strongly implied that board members may be prone to “disgraceful actions” and are using their positions of trust to line their pockets and further their own, private businesses. The fact that she offered no substance and no names troubled him, he said. “By tarring an entire elected board with such a broad brush of unsubstantiated innuendo, it impugns the integrity of every member and the intelligence of all of us who voted for them.”

In the five years he served on the board, Lizotte said, he observed no improprieties. Board members abstained from any vote affecting themselves or their businesses and the abstention was recorded in the minutes. He added that the two businesspeople who do serve on the board give of their time and talents above and beyond the call of duty “expecting nothing more in payment than any other selectman – an $800 a year stipend and all the aggravation they can stomach.”

“Don’t be fooled by this resolution presented in the name of honesty,” Lizotte said, before advising selectmen to crumple the resolution and toss it into the waste can.

Perry said she had heard a lot of public controversy about the appearance of conflicts of interest on the board. Her move, she said, would give residents a clear picture of the board’s actions in the event of a conflict. It would be a nice thing for the public to know and view, she said.

In other business Monday, the board scheduled a special town meeting at 6:30 p.m. Jan. 26, at the Thompson Free Library, to appropriate $2,650 from surplus as the town’s share for the current Hows Corner Superfund cleanup and to approve a Municipal Investment Trust Fund application for the renovation of Center Theater. The theater has been approved to receive $100,000.

The board also learned that water pipes broke in the Dover-Foxcroft Police Department last Thursday causing some water damage to the floor and ceiling mostly in the section used by the probation department. The estimate of damage is not yet known.