A union letter over the potential layoff of longtime Wiscasset assessing agent Sue Varney is drawing criticism from the town's budget committee.

The letter may not sit well with voters, members said.

“This is basically saying you're going to fund it one way or another,” committee member John Merry said.

“That's why I took it as a slight threat,” fellow member Ray Soule said at the committee's July 18 meeting.

All seven members present voted to oppose the selectmen's proposed budget for the assessing department.

The July 11 letter from Joe Flanders, directing business representative for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers cites two financial hits the town could face: Varney's contract calls for a $68,000 severance package if she's laid off; the same deal bars the town from having anyone else do her work.

“It will have to be left undone. You cannot eliminate Sue and then have someone else do her work,” Flanders' letter states. “Every time someone else does her work the Union will file a grievance and she will end up being paid more money, to not work.”

The letter will go out to the several hundred Wiscasset residents who belong to the union “if this is not worked out,” Flanders writes. (Varney belongs to the same union as the major one at Bath Iron Works.)

Reached July 19, Flanders said as a result of the budget committee's vote, he'll send the letter to the union's Wiscasset residents sometime prior to the September 10 town vote.

The letter ran in the July 18 edition of the Wiscasset Newspaper. Flanders said he also sent copies to the budget committee members because they have continued to oppose the assessing department's budget since it lost at the polls June 11.

The committee's opposition amounts to an attempt to undo Varney's contract with the town, Flanders said in a telephone interview.

“It's my job to uphold the contract,” he said.

Budget committee members said they oppose both the assessing and planning departments' budgets because the selectmen didn't pare either one after voters rejected them.

“I'm just pretty disappointed that (selectmen) didn't make any attempt to do that,” committee member Bill Barnes said. “There are people that are paying a lot of taxes, and I just think it's getting out of hand.”

Ray Soule was the lone member to support the planning budget.

In discussing Flanders' letter, members emphasized that they have no issue with Varney or her performance.

“She's an incredibly competent person,” Committee Chairman Bob Blagden said. “(The union's) battle is with the taxpayers, not the budget committee,” he said.

If the assessing budget fails in the next town vote, selectmen will probably need to call one that asks voters to fund Varney's severance package, Selectmen's Chairman Ed Polewarczyk said.

A defeat of that vote would probably send the town into mediation with the union, Polewarczyk said.

“I'm very concerned about both of these,” he said of the planning and assessing budgets.

Town Planner Misty Parker's position is not in the union; however, many businesspeople and others have been vocal about the need to keep her and the job.

In other votes, budget committee members agreed 4-3 to support the transfer station budget now that selectmen have cut $30,000 no longer needed for trash bags.

Voters rejected the pay-as-you-throw plan.

The committee is supporting proposed repairs to roads, sidewalks and the municipal building roof; and proposed buys of a pickup truck for the fire department and an extractor to clean turnout gear.

It is opposing a public works truck, a generator for the municipal building and $28,500 in wastewater pump repairs after selectmen upped that figure from $13,500.

Susan Johns can be reached at 207-844-4633 or susanjohns@wiscassetnewspaper.com.