Stetson selectmen fill jobs after mass resignations

STETSON – Selectmen filled 10 town jobs during an emergency meeting Monday, a week after mass resignations of municipal employees and committee members.

A town clerk and tax collector were among the positions filled during the five-minute meeting.

Nearly 15 residents attended, with some raising questions, and selectmen faced yet another alleged resignation.

Ten town employees and committee members resigned at the June 21 selectmen’s meeting, many citing alleged disrespectful and accusatory comments made during a public hearing by Selectmen George Hockstadter and David Buchstaber.

Among those who resigned were a selectman, the town clerk, a deputy clerk and some planning board members.

On Sunday, the remaining two selectmen called an emergency meeting for 8:30 a.m. Monday at the town office. In addition, selectmen will hold their first regularly scheduled meeting of the fiscal year on Wednesday, during which they expect to continue to iron out operational details.

Most of the 15 residents who showed up Monday questioned the validity of the emergency meeting.

Millard Butler, a longtime resident, said his main concern was the hiring of town employees without the positions being posted. He said it could give the impression of suspicious behavior.

“We are an equal opportunity employment town,” he said. “We take all appropriate measures to hire the best candidates. But this could give the appearance that [selectmen] hired their friends or whatever.”

Michael Starn, a Maine Municipal Association spokesman, said in a telephone interview Monday that a town can hold an emergency meeting if news media are contacted in a reasonable time frame.

The selectmen alerted the Bangor Daily News on Sunday, and the newspaper ran a brief news story in Monday’s editions.

As long as there is not a local ordinance, Starn said, there is no law requiring employers to post positions.

At Monday’s meeting, tension mounted when planning board member Jeff Perry, who had stayed on despite the other resignations, discovered he was being appointed to an alternate position on the board. He had been serving as an alternate before the resignations.

Perry said in an interview that he was upset that others were being appointed to full membership on the panel, so he typed his letter of resignation at the town office during the meeting.

Later Monday, Perry and Hockstadter said in separate telephone interviews that the two had spoken together after Monday’s meeting, and that Perry’s status would be addressed at Wednesday’s meeting.

A special election is expected to take place in September to fill the vacant selectman’s position. Nomination papers will go out Friday and are due back July 17, Buchstaber said.

Appointed to town positions by the two selectmen during Monday’s meeting were: Corinne Babcock, town clerk, treasurer and registrar of voters; Catherine Fisher, tax collector and deputy town clerk; Kathy Richer, animal control officer; Travis Gould, assessing agent, code enforcement officer and plumbing inspector; Roger Collins and Allecia Collins, park and recreation department; Timothy Briggs, sealer of weights and measures; Bruce McNaghton, Kirsten Helper, Charles Merrill, Deloris Butler, Darren Flewelling, Thomas Maher (alternate) and Jeff Perry (alternate), planning board; Kim Tracy, fire department chief; Andrew Gray, assistant chief; David Emerson, lieutenant; Beverly Tracy, Emergency Management Services chief.

Emergency crews were concerned how the transition would affect their services, Tracy said, because Buda Belly’s, a local store, had discontinued the town’s charge account, which rescuers use to pay for the emergency vehicles’ gasoline.

Buchstaber told Tracy not to worry and that the selectmen would pay for the gasoline out of their own pockets if necessary.

Jennifer Boyd, owner of Buda Belly’s, said Monday at the store that she decided against discontinuing the town’s line of credit because she felt it was “more important for the Fire Department to have gas than I getting my money, even though obviously I want bills paid.”

The selectmen will meet again at 6 p.m. Wednesday, July 5, at the Meeting House.