Sun, 09/26/2021 - 8:45am

SUSAN JOHNS

File photo

A petition in Alna seeks a secret ballot vote to change selectmen’s terms and pay. The residents who collected signatures told Wiscasset Newspaper, they want to make serving more appealing and help avoid what happened this year: a board with all new members.

In a joint response to email questions, Tom Aldrich and Katy Papagiannis said new selectmen Linda Kristan and Charles Culbertson have done great, but the proposed changes would help the board and the town.

Selectmen take up the would be referendum Thursday night, Sept. 30. It proposes the first, second and third selectmen get the same pay, “authority and responsibility,” except whichever one the board makes chair each year would call and preside over the meetings; terms would change from two years to three; and instead of one member being elected one year and two the next, the town would elect one a year, further staggering terms and aiding continuity, Aldrich and Papagiannis said.

“If forced to elect two new members every other year, it effectively means the town loses roughly 65% of the recent historical experience of the board,” they said.

Getting signatures was not a problem, they said. “(The response was) most enthusiastic and those who signed ... were from all sides of previous issues we faced. It took very little for them to understand the benefits of these healthy changes to the community.”

They said the changes, including evening out members’ roles, would encourage more people to eye a run. “While some towns vest more responsibility in one board member, this is not a uniform practice ... This change would also give better visibility to and a larger role in the day-to-day working of the town, minimizing the chance that the town would ever find itself in a situation it faced earlier this year. We find it incredibly unhealthy to have all or even most of the institutional knowledge concentrated in one individual,” they told Wiscasset Newspaper.

Neither Greg Shute nor Doug Baston ran to keep their second and third selectmen’s seats in March. Voters elected Kristan second selectman and Culbertson third. First Selectman Melissa Spinney then resigned and has since been emailing the board with concerns and questions over its handling of town business, including setting a flat tax rate instead of tapping more excise taxes to lower it.

Spinney called that a huge blunder. Kristan told her by email: “The economy has not yet stabilized, and we can't count on such large revenues again this year. (The) tax commitment reflects a responsible and thoughtful balance between our strong desire to minimize taxes and our shared interest in ensuring that the town is able to meet its financial commitments in a timely manner.”

As for paying everyone the same instead of more for first selectman, Aldrich and Papagiannis said it would ensure “more diversity on ... issues, duties and responsibilities ... so (members) become equally invested in how the town works and the outcomes that benefit the town. Having them elect their own chair helps insure that they serve together, as one,” they added.

They said they hoped to piggyback on the Nov. 2 statewide ballot so the changes, if passed, would start with the March 2022 elections.

The petition, released Sept. 22 with the board’s Sept. 30 agenda in a town email, states in part: “To phase in the staggered terms, the next first selectperson shall be elected in 2022 for a three-year term to expire in 2025; the next second selectperson ... in 2023 for a three-year term to expire in 2026; and the next third selectperson ... in 2023 for a one-year term to expire in 2024.”

Town Clerk Lisa Arsenault said in a phone interview Sept. 23, the petition, received Sept. 14, arrived too late by law to make the Nov. 2 ballot. Arsensault has verified the signatures. The petition met the required 10% of voters in the last governor’s election, she said.

Also Thursday night, the board is set to take up a remote meetings policy. The meeting at the town office and on Zoom starts at 6 p.m. Join it at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88456061612?pwd=cGUyMGJNOHNaREY1RHN0L211RXRUZz09 with passcode 857851; or call 1 (312) 626-6799, webinar ID 884 5606 1612 and passcode 857851