Should a non-Wiscasset resident on a town committee be a voting member? And should they have to be a taxpayer? Those were some of the issues in selectmen’s public hearing July 16.

 

Based on the hearing and selectmen’s guidance after it, Town Manager Dennis Simmons will draft ordinance changes for the board to consider on letting tax-paying, non-resident members of the planning board and airport advisory and waterfront committees be voting members. The changes would take a town vote, Simmons said.

 

Longtime airport advisory committee member and past Wiscasset Municipal Airport Manager Ervin Deck told selectmen, the committee has long struggled to have a quorum. And he said a longtime member, Georgetown’s Steve Williams, cannot vote like his fellow members can. 

 

“Steve Williams has been about as much a part of this airport, and this community, as anybody I can possibly imagine,” Deck said. He said Williams owns property in Wiscasset, he and wife Lisa Reece pay property taxes and lease land from the town for the two hangars they own at the airport; they pay excise taxes on their planes; and have helped make events like Texas Flying Legends happen there.

 

Williams is the committee’s chair and secretary, Deck continued. 

 

Williams also voiced support for the proposed change. He noted the committee is advisory to the selectboard and has no financial or other control.

 

The town also lets a non-resident serve as a non-voting member on the waterfront committee, and Simmons said the rules for planning board allow a non-resident but do not specify the voting status, so he takes that to mean a non-resident on there could vote.

 

Simmons said unlike the airport and waterfront committees, the planning board makes decisions, not just recommendations. And he said the rules for membership don’t say the non-resident must be from a neighboring town. So they could be from Fort Kent, Simmons said.

 

“I think that language needs to be cleared up ... Nothing against you, Steve, but changing one ordinance to suit one person on one committee, if you’re going to do this, I think you need to look at it across the spectrum.”

 

Simmons recommended, if the board pursues an ordinance change, it require the non-resident to be a taxpayer so they will be “invested in what’s going on.” 

 

“And if you’re going to allow this on one committee, don’t you have to allow it on all your committees,” Selectman Pamela Dunning asked. “I could see this being a very slippery slope.” Dunning and Selectmen’s Chair Sarah Whitfield saw problems with Selectman William “Bill” Maloney’s idea for the selectboard to decide case by case each non-resident’s committee voting status. 

 

“I don't think you can do it per person, ’cause that could get really messy,” Whitfield said.

 

Resident Richard Lutes, via Zoom, opposed having non-residents on town committees. In comments Whitfield read aloud, Lutes called it “totally inappropriate.”

 

Deck was not the only longtime airport advisory committee member who praised Williams and supported letting a non-resident be a voting member. Ray Soule told selectmen, Williams steps up, is accurate and “really does a good job. I think you really need to think about that. Maybe let the townspeople make the decision. Just let it get that far.”