MILLINOCKET – A Town Council member wants to call on the Maine Municipal Association to help clear up misunderstandings about what Town Manager Eugene Conlogue is required to tell councilors when fledgling business owners call on Conlogue for help or advice.

Councilor David Nelson asked Conlogue to draft an order that would schedule a workshop with MMA. He asked that the order be drafted before the council’s next meeting. Conlogue said Thursday that the order will be drafted and the request placed on the council’s April 14 agenda.

In a four-page letter to Conlogue and local media, Nelson said he found sections of state law that undermined Conlogue’s claim that over the last five years or so about a dozen prospective business owners had approached him about moving to Millinocket and that he had kept the inquiries confidential at their request.

Nelson said withholding information from councilors makes it difficult for them to arrive at decisions properly.

“It also appears that you have the right to disclose that confidential information to some councilors [and Web sites] but not to others, …” Nelson wrote in his letter dated March 24. “How can I perform my elected duties and be accountable to the citizens of Millinocket if I do not have access to information concerning the town?

“No town manager has the right to withhold information from Council members,” he added. “If this were true, we would not need a Council and it would save us a great deal of time and effort.”

Conlogue declined to discuss the specifics of Nelson’s letter.

“My goal is I want to get this settled,” Conlogue said Thursday.

Councilor David Cyr said that bringing in MMA, a nonprofit organization that helps municipalities, would be fruitless.

“It’s a waste of their time and our effort,” Cyr said. “It’s an issue that three members of the council are trying to push.”

Nelson’s letter is the latest in a series of disagreements between Conlogue and some councilors since December over the direction of the town’s economic development.

Nelson and Councilors Matthew Polstein and Gail Fanjoy have criticized Conlogue for what they called a failure to provide complete or balanced information to councilors on economic development issues and other town business. Councilors David Cyr and Jimmy Busque have said the three have a vendetta against Conlogue.

Among the areas where Conlogue has clashed with some councilors:

. The town’s continuing to pay Millinocket Insurance Agency about $75,000 annually to manage several policies. Polstein accused Conlogue on March 14 of deflecting council commands in favor of his own initiatives after Conlogue admitted that he did not spread bids for such services wide enough. Conlogue called the incident a miscommunication.

. On March 3, Fanjoy asked Conlogue to provide a weekly accounting of his economic development dealings. These included contacts with potential businesses, current businesses and landowners, contacts with councilors regarding economic development and any other economic development activities.

. The week before, Polstein and Fanjoy accused Conlogue of secretly meeting with other councilors and failing to inform them of his efforts to lure a private company to town.

Conlogue admitted to meeting with Paul, Busque and the business owner, but said his doing so was part of his regular responsibilities as town manager.

. In late February, Polstein accused Conlogue, a founding and continuing member of Millinocket Area Growth and Investment Council’s board of directors, of failing to stand up for the quasi-public economic development organization instead of allowing MAGIC to be smeared during debates over its continued interaction with the town.

. An attempt to hire a consultant to handle town negotiations instead of Conlogue in late February was defeated 4-3. Polstein said he felt that Conlogue indirectly benefited from negotiations with town workers although he does not belong to their unions because union changes in work conditions eventually are applied to Conlogue.

. Fanjoy claimed in January that Conlogue’s 49-page report on annexation possibilities was a vendetta against Polstein and other interests, while Councilor Wallace Paul criticized it for supposedly excluding all of the town’s business interests.