According to recent rulings handed down by the Maine Municipal Association and the state Board of Education the Wiscasset Selectmen will have a larger pool of candidates in selecting the town’s Withdrawal Committee.

Town Clerk Christine Wolfe, at the request of selectmen, submitted an inquiry to the Maine Municipal Association legal department, as well as to Jim Rier at the state Department of Education, requesting additional information regarding the guidelines or requirements concerning the Withdrawal Committee appointments.

The law regarding the appointments to the Withdrawal Committee requires “one member from the municipal officers, one member from the general public, and one member for the group filing the petition.”

According to Michael Stultz from the Maine Municipal Association’s Legal Services Division the portion of the law that says “one member of the group filing the petition” is unclear.

“There is no way to determine any other intent of the meaning from the statue since it provides no guidance. Nevertheless, in my view, the most simple and clear understanding and one which would lead to consistent results for every municipality is to conclude that ‘the group’ must refer to the collective of individuals who signed the petition,” Stultz wrote in his reply to the town clerk.

Jim Rier from the state Department of Education concurred with Shultz’s interpretation of the law. According to Rier, the municipalities that have undergone the withdrawal process, have chosen from among those people who signed the petition as they represented the group of people advocating for the initiation withdrawal process.

The town clerk asked Rier what the state De-partment Education’s position is on who can be appointed from the Board of Selectmen.

Rier said there were no restrictions on who may be appointed to the committee, the fact that a selectman and resident of Wiscasset is an employee of the school district does not prohibit he or she from being appointed.

“My response to the Withdrawal Committee appointments are: one member of the board of selectmen, their choice, no restrictions; one member from the general public, again their choice, no restrictions; one member from the group that filed the petition, again their choice, no restrictions. Being for or against the withdrawal is not a prerequisite for any these appointments,” Rier said.

At the selectmen’s June 19 meeting, Wiscasset Educational Research Panel member Sharon Nichols told the board that Selectmen Judy Colby and Ed Polewarczyk should recuse them-selves from voting on school district matters and from serving on the Withdrawal Committee.

She pointed out that Colby was an employee of the district and therefore had a financial conflict in serving on the Withdrawal Committee.

In referring to Polewarczyk she said he had written a letter to the editor saying that he had concluded that Wiscasset property owners would see an accumulative tax increase of approximately 20 percent by the time the town would actually withdraw from the RSU.

“In doing that he demonstrated a prejudicial bias in withdrawing from the RSU,” Nichols said.

Selectman William Curtis agreed with Nichols and he told both Colby and Polewarczyk they should not even vote on who would go on the committee or serve on the committee.

After the discussion Colby and Polewarczyk both indicated they would not serve on the with-drawal committee, but they would take part in the selection of the committee.

It is unclear if the Maine Municipal Associa-tion’s opinion or that of the state Department of Education will change the minds of Colby or Polewarczyk in serving on the Withdrawal Committee.

Prior to the opinion of the Maine Municipal Association and the state Department of Education, most people were under the impression the appointment from the group presenting the petition was limited to the Wiscasset Educational Research Panel.

Wiscasset selectmen have a full agenda for their meeting the night before the Fourth of July, with the possibility of making appointments to the RSU 12 Withdrawal Committee and setting a date for a special town meeting to address several budgets that were rejected in the June 12 town meeting election.

Special town meeting

The selectmen agreed at their last meeting to ask the voters at a special town meeting to accept a reduction in the contingency fund from $60,000 to $50,000 and a reduction in the donation to Lincoln County Television from $7,000 to $5,000.

The selectmen will need to decide if they want to hold an open town meeting or a special election at the polls.

Town Manager Laurie Smith will present a re-duced code enforcement budget to the selectmen at their Tuesday, July 3 meeting.

The new proposed budget reduces the hours of the code enforcement officer to an average of 25 hours a week, as well as a reduction in the training budget of $500. This would be a total reduction of $6,322.

The voters turned down a budget of $54,996 on June 12. Sometime in August or September they will be asked to approve a budget of $48,674.

Other agenda items

Other agenda items on the selectmen’s July 3 meeting include:

• Appointments of Senior Center Trustees
• Quit claim deed for the Hart property
• Award the tax anticipation note
• Discuss RFP for tax acquired property at Mason Station and Ferry Landing development
• Discuss seeking legal advice in collection of outstanding taxes, and legal issues with the Mason Station and Ferry Landing Development
• Town manager’s report