Steuben manager’s past may spur discussion

STEUBEN – The incoming town manager for Steuben said Tuesday he did not share details of the January adjudication of his criminal case with the town’s five selectmen during the hiring process because he “figured they knew about that.”

Steuben selectmen, who have not yet signed a contract with Robert Sharkey, had not been aware Sharkey pleaded no contest in Hancock County Superior Court to a 2001 charge of criminal invasion of a computer. He was judged guilty and fined $500.

“I did not bring that up,” Sharkey said of his recent interviews with selectmen. “I don’t want to get into a long discussion of this.”

The Board of Selectmen is planning to meet with Sharkey this evening at its regularly scheduled meeting to discuss the terms of the contract.

A Lamoine resident, Sharkey has been working since last November as the Etna town manager. His last day in Etna is today, and he is slated to start in the Steuben office next Tuesday.

Steuben selectmen told Sharkey he had the job two weeks ago but have not yet signed their contract with him because they are still working out the details.

Sharkey will be Steuben’s first-ever town manager. The town has been governed by a Board of Selectmen that expanded two years ago from three positions to five.

One of the selectmen, Adelbert Pinkham, said Tuesday that the selectmen were not aware how Sharkey’s last weeks as code enforcement officer in Bar Harbor in June 2001 led to both his resignation and the criminal charge.

Once charged, Sharkey was placed on paid administrative leave on May 31, 2001, after the Maine State Police criminal investigation division looked into allegations that Sharkey hacked into another town employee’s computer because he suspected the co-worker was using his office computer to access Web sites of a personal nature.

The state police executed a search warrant June 1 at Sharkey’s home in Lamoine and confiscated his computer. Police also removed computer equipment from the town office.

Sharkey resigned his position two weeks later after an executive session with Bar Harbor selectmen. He had worked for the town since 1990.

Steuben Selectman Pinkham said, “We did not know about this but possibly should have. We called a couple people and did do some background checking. We got a good response.”

The Bangor Daily News reported last January that Sharkey had not told Etna selectmen before he was hired that a criminal charge was pending against him because he did not think the case was going to court.

Etna Selectman Vicki Donaldson last week said Sharkey had been a good town manager, focusing on bringing code enforcement and building inspection processes up to date.

“This [Etna position] has been a learning experience for me,” Sharkey said. “My only reason for leaving here is that I reduce my travel distance from 54 miles to 23 miles.”

Sharkey continues to hold a position in Lamoine as the town’s deputy plumbing inspector.

He is active in the politics of his hometown, calling for referendums and vote recounts and circulating petitions. He has had a hand “with others” in running an anonymous Web site that has been critical of Lamoine’s town policies, he said. Comments posted on the Web site www.lamoinemaine.com have been tempered in the last year.

Last year, too, Sharkey asked that Lamoine’s town office make available to him the e-mail addresses of all town residents who had communicated with the town because he wanted to communicate in a speedy manner with other residents. The e-mails were released after town officials realized that e-mail addresses are not confidential, as they had believed.

Now Sharkey has seen how town business works from a manager’s perspective.

“I live in Lamoine, so I have an interest in what happens in Lamoine as a citizen,” he said. “As for politics in Steuben, I will remain neutral and intend to stay out of that. I look forward to a long and happy relationship with Steuben.”