Lisbon’s Town Leaders Are Similar to a Ship with No Captain at the Helm

We have a wonderful community that is comprised of many talented and caring persons. What makes a community special are its people. They give it the personality, the capacity to give in service to others, and the ability to get things accomplished. A ship sailing the mighty seas is no different. Every ship takes on or acquires its own personality because of the people on board. They succeed in their mission because of leadership. The Captain is responsible for all of them and missions are successful because of the unity, capabilities and demeanor of their combined operations, all under his guidance.

What does this analogy have to do with our town? Everything. The similarities of operation are comparative in nature. But the real underlying message is that if you have a “Captain” in a position of leading or managing the town affairs with no distinguishing leadership qualities to set him apart from the “crew”, all are left to flounder.

Should the course be changed, you might ask? And at what point does mutiny simply become the need to protect oneself from harm or destruction?

The townspeople have clearly established they are unhappy with the current Town Council chairperson, as was indicated in the October 28th vote. 333 voted to recall the chairperson, and 111 voted their approval. That’s only 25% of voters who believed the chairperson should not be recalled. In comparison, President Bush recently received the lowest job approval rating of his presidency at 29% according to a Gallup poll. Richard Nixon's lowest job approval rating was 24% percent before his resignation in the summer of 1974.

The townspeople have clearly established they are unhappy with the current Town Council representation. From the Council’s inability to follow Town Charter and establish an Ethics Panel until questioned by taxpayers, to purchasing a truck in three pieces to get around the need to bring it to public referendum, to lying to taxpayers saying they never gave their approval for a BMX track after the minutes of the 8/19/08 Town Council meeting read, "Attorney Therriault said the Council would approve a lease, which would be the official vote and recommended for now the Council take a straw poll vote indicating their preliminary approval to use town property. The Council unanimously voted in favor of the BMX group moving forward to the Planning Board to build this track."

Oh, and Conflict of Interest you say? No, they took care of that by simply voting that there was no conflict. After all, the town lawyer says it’s okay. And what are we left with after all these increases? Not much more than an inflated police budget.

The townspeople have clearly established they are unhappy with the current Town Manager. Remember the tax bills which were not only out-sourced, but printed twice because of a un-checked math error? Spending 11k on MMA and 34k on town lawyer fees, much of it to rid the Town Office of uncompromising employees or spent chasing an ex-employee who had a $2300 unemployment claim after resigning following retribution and intimidation for actually doing their job and uncovering misappropriated funds? Now he’s begun pushing to tear down the old Lisbon High School building. When he tried to close the MTM building, his scheme turned and blew up in his own face.

As we all know money is tight, and even the School Department has mandated a freeze on all purchases. The town, however, bought four new police vehicles, the Fire Department cried for New Squad 3 vehicle and received a majority vote of the Town Council. Instead of looking to spend money on Police and Fire Department vehicles, why aren’t they looking for ways to curb spending. Let’s begin by considering combining job responsibilities and replace the Police Chief and Fire Chief with a Public Safety Director as the rest of small municipalities in this state are doing.

What course to chart for safe harbor?

Almost 2,500 citizens voted for a change in the Town Council, starting the process of changing the “crew” with a new Town Councilor that will listen and respect the citizens interests.

This Ship, the USS Eldridge is heading quickly towards shallow water, water that is filled with sharks and hidden reefs. The hull was bumped once already with the MTM fiasco… the hole is small but leaking slime.

It is hard to run a ship by remote control, i.e., a computer at BIW. What happened to the separation of powers that was just voted on in the November 4th election?

And for all the remaining passengers still willing to board the ship, the next Town Council meeting is Tuesday 11/18 at 7pm at the Town Office. But fair warning, be there early to get a seat as the building was designed to hold not more than 35 people in attendance…

Here’s to fair winds and following seas for this great community.