Town manager gets contract Two Millinocket councilors object to severance package

MILLINOCKET – Town Manager Eugene Conlogue got a new deal from the Town Council on Thursday night, but not before two councilors criticized the contract and, in turn, were criticized for getting too personal.

The council voted 5-2 to accept Conlogue’s two-year contract paying $69,466 annually effective July 1. The contract lapses June 30, 2008. Conlogue’s last two-year contract paid $66,738 and expired June 30, but was extended twice by the council.

Councilors Matthew Polstein and Bruce McLean, who voted against the deal, said they objected to the inclusion of a severance package that would pay Conlogue 18 weeks’ pay, plus health insurance and vacation time, if he were fired for cause. He will be entitled to 20 weeks’ severance as of July 1, 2007.

Polstein criticized Conlogue for rejecting a three-year deal, which he called “the best contract we had ever proposed,” in favor of insisting upon the severance package, which he and McLean described as unprecedented and excessive.

Polstein expressed anger that Conlogue conceivably could steal money from the town – though he and McLean doubted Conlogue would ever commit any impropriety – and get paid. “We could terminate him for cause and then have to write him a check when we did it.

“I can’t vote for this contract when it contains a clause that is not in the interests of our town,” Polstein said Thursday. “That is a heavy price for a town to pay.”

Polstein and McLean’s motion to table the contract so that residents could react to the deal was defeated 4-3. Council Chairman David Nelson voted with the minority.

After the meeting, Conlogue expressed satisfaction with the contract but said Polstein was wrong. The severance deal was not something that he suddenly insisted upon. It evolved from negotiations begun in 2000 and benefits that had been accumulating since then, he said.

Such packages, Conlogue said, can save towns money because to get them, fired employees must agree to not file lawsuits, which usually bring heavy legal fees, over their terminations.

During the meeting, Nelson warned Polstein to not discuss personnel matters and residents Alyce Maragus and Rosanne Weymouth expressed anger that Polstein and McLean couldn’t settle differences with Conlogue privately or respect the will of the council majority.

“It seems that this council has been in executive session a number of times. You should have straightened out your differences at that time instead of having this display,” Maragus said.

Polstein, Weymouth said, gets too personal in his confrontations, and he and some other councilors often stop debate rather than listening to people they don’t agree with. They are too controlling and part of a political battle that splits Millinocket into two camps over tourism, manufacturing, environmentalism and other issues, she said.

“Gene tries to work with both sides,” Weymouth said, “and sometimes, he gets his hands tied.”

Nelson and Councilors Jimmy Busque, David Cyr, Scott Gonya and Wallace Paul expressed satisfaction with the contract and Conlogue’s performance. The new deal is almost identical to the previous, Gonya said.

“He is a good man; he deserves this contract,” Gonya said. “He has earned it. Being a town manager is a tough job.”