The Wiscasset Select Board has the option of holding an open town meeting or an election to reconsider raising $66,764 for town planning. A legal opinion states the board can decide the voting method regardless of what petitioners asked for.

The petition, submitted July 5, requests an open town meeting to restore the planning budget. The Wiscasset Area Chamber of Commerce led the petition effort. At the polls June 13, voters rejected the planning budget 464-256.

On July 25, the town received an opinion from Shana Cook Mueller of Bernstein Shur of Portland. “There is no statutory requirement that the Board must adhere to the indications of a petition about whether to hold an open town meeting or a secret ballot vote,” she wrote, noting a court would likely rule a select board has discretion to choose the voting method.

“Additionally, the Town of Wiscasset has historically and consistently used secret ballot voting,” Cook Mueller continues. “Accordingly, a court may consider a decision to hold a secret ballot vote, as opposed to an open town meeting, as a reasonable adherence to the Town’s common practice even though it is different from the indication stated in the Petition.”

Cook Mueller concludes: “The Board must honor a properly submitted petition request by calling for a special town meeting within 60 days of the petition submission or by placing the article before voters at the next scheduled town meeting, unless the Board determines it is reasonable to refuse to bring it to voters at all.”

On July 18, Selectmen’s Vice Chairman Ben Rines Jr. moved to place the question on the ballot of the November general election. His motion drew a second from Selectman Bob Blagden but members were  unable to reach unanimity. At the suggestion of Chairman Judy Colby, they opted instead to get the legal opinion.

“We’ll discuss what to do when we meet Tuesday evening, Aug. 1,” Colby said late Wednesday afternoon, July 26. “I know two of the members initially wanted to hold off the vote until November’s general election but I’d like to see this decided before we set the tax commitment.” The board sets the commitment in September.

Colby added people signed the petition thinking an open town meeting would be held.

Rines said he couldn’t predict how the board would resolve the issue. “We should respect the wishes of the people who voted the planning article down in June,” he commented.