ROCKLAND – Opponents of a proposed $14 million expansion of the Samoset Resort claim a tax break application the city approved for the project failed to meet state law.

Clifford Goodall, an Augusta lawyer representing opponents of the expansion, hand-delivered a letter Monday to Commissioner Steven Levesque of the state Department of Economic and Community Development.

In the letter, Goodall argues that the City Council had not published a notice of the meeting in the required time.

The council met Oct. 19 for a public hearing on the request from Samoset owner Ocean Properties for a tax break known as tax-increment financing. After the hearing, the council voted 3-1 to approve the application, which then was sent to the state for review and possible approval.

Ocean Properties’ proposal includes building a new 200-room hotel off Samoset Road in Rockland, a 90-room motel on Route 1 just north of downtown Rockland, and spa facilities at the resort in neighboring Rockport. Under terms of the TIF, the Samoset would get an $800,000 property tax break over 10 years.

Under state law, the city must post a notice of the hearing 10 days in advance. The notice was published in The Courier-Gazette newspaper in its Oct. 10 edition, a Tuesday. Although the paper is delivered to some homes and stores in the city and other communities on Monday night, Goodall argues in his letter that the actual publication date is what should be considered and that Tuesday, Oct. 10, was just nine days before the hearing.

In his letter to Levesque, Goodall notes that “in the masthead of the newspaper on page A-1, it clearly states that The Courier-Gazette is ‘Published Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.’ Also on the masthead on the right-hand side of the page is the publication date of Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2000.”

The city attorney, Greg Dorr, certified that the public notice was published Oct. 9, Goodall wrote.

“That clearly is not an accurate representation which the newspaper masthead clearly demonstrates,” Goodall’s letter states. “Some copies of the edition may have been circulated on Oct. 9, but the circulation, in fact, is not completed until Oct. 10.”

Goodall cites a case from 1883 in which the Maine Supreme Judicial Court “ruled that the publication date is the date of the newspaper.”

On Monday, Dorr maintained that the actual Monday availability of the paper was sufficient to meet the law.

“It is available as of 6 p.m. every Monday evening,” he said.

“We were under some time pressure to get that notice in,” Dorr said, adding that he and others at City Hall reviewed the issue before putting the notice in the Oct. 10 paper, believing it was sufficient time before the meeting.

Those opposing the expansion and the tax break have said that Mayor James Raye rushed to get the TIF approved in October when Councilor Joe Steinberger, a vocal opponent of the TIF, was out of the country. One of the councilors voting in favor of the TIF was Elizabeth Stuart, who was not seeking re-election. She was replaced on Election Day by Brian Harden.

Ocean Properties first requested the TIF in May, seeking a $1.4 million tax break on $24 million in construction. The request was withdrawn, and the smaller version offered in its place this fall.