The Lisbon Reporter

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Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Residents of the Town of Lisbon

As you can see, more violations of the Town of Lisbon Charter by the Town Manager. It appears on the surface, the Town Council supports violations of the Charter because they do nothing to stop the continued violations of the Town Charter by the Town Manager. Can any resident of Lisbon tell me why we have a Town Charter if the Town Manager is not going to abide by it and the Town Council allows these continued violations to go on? Keep in mind, the Town Manager and Town Council took an oath of office swearing to abide by and support the Town Charter.

Next Tuesday at 7:00 PM is the next Town Council meeting and I request all residents of the Town of Lisbon who are aware of more violations by the Town Manager to come forward and voice these violations to the Town Council. Supposedly, the Town Council is going to review the Town Manager's contract for renewal. The Town Council has totally ignored by letter of 8 November 2010 calling for the immediate termination of the Town Manager for cause.

I believe the delay in processing my letter of 8 November 2010 was a delaying tactic. The residents of Lisbon will have to pay an additional FORTY THOUSAND DOLLARS to the Town Manager if the Council does not renew his contract. I personally believe the residents of the Town of Lisbon have paid more than enough for the Town Manager's continued violations of our Charter. I have provided the Council more than enough information on continued violations of the Town Charter. Terminating the Town Manager for Cause will save the residents of Lisbon from having to pay an additional $40K. Given the financial situation of the Town of Lisbon, why spend more than we have too?

Larry A. Fillmore

Letter 1

LARRY A. FILLMORE

38 Andrea Street

Lisbon, ME 04250

Tel: 207-407-1048

Cel: 207-755-1082

Subject: Filing an Official Complaint against Mr. Stephen Eldridge

Town Council

Town of Lisbon

ATTN: Mr. Mark Lunt

Lisbon, ME 04250

Dear Mr. Lunt,

On 7 October 2010, Mrs. Dorothy Fitzgerald filed a Recall Petition with the Town of Lisbon pertaining to Mr. Mike Bowie. This petition was certified and went through the entire process as outlined in Section 8-31 of the Town of Lisbon Charter. On 7 December 2010, the Town Council, accepted the petition as being legally sufficient, established a Public Hearing for 14 December 2010 and a Special Election date of 4 January 2011. The Town of Lisbon should not have been involved with any further action on this recall except to create the ballots, setup the voting station, count the votes and announce the outcome as outlined in the Charter.

However, Mr. Stephen Eldridge sent a letter to Mrs. Fitzgerald on 8 December 2010 requesting she provide the “public records” relating to the four allegations outlined in the recall petition in accordance with the Maine Freedom of Access Act. There are several unethical issues with this request:

a. The Town of Lisbon had since 7 October 2010 to request any type of information from Mrs. Fitzgerald. Once the Town Council established a voting date there should have been no further action taken because this interferes with the recall process. This is highly improper and should not have been allowed. The Town Manager over stepped his authority and should be cited for this.

b. By nature of the four allegations outlined in the petition and Mr. Eldridge’s letter, any reasonable person can tell these allegations were while Mr. Bowie served as the Chairman of the Town Council. Any “public records” requested would be in the minutes of the Town Council meetings which Mrs. Fitzgerald would not be the custodian. Mr. Eldridge’s action clearly demonstrates his lack of knowledge of Maine law and boarders on pure harassment of a private citizen of the Town of Lisbon which I fine to be extremely offensive and unethical.

c. The Maine Freedom of Access Act provides the rights of individuals to obtain “public records” from the custodian of the documents. In this case, the custodian of the Town Council Meetings is the Chief Administrative Officer for the Town of Lisbon, Mr. Stephen Eldridge. As Mr. Eldridge’s position required he know Maine laws, he had to be aware he was the custodian of the public records he was requesting. The letter he wrote to Mrs. Fitzgerald was totally unethical and he should be cited for his misuse of his position.

I believe I have clearly demonstrated the unethical behavior and misuse of his position of Mr. Stephen Eldridge, as Town Manager for the Town of Lisbon. Respectfully, request action is taken again Mr. Eldridge for this unconscionable act.

Thank you

Larry A. Fillmore

Letter 1 Addendum

ADDENDEM TO 8 November 2010 letter Subject: Termination of Town Manager for Cause

The following subparagraphs outlined the continued violations of the Town of Lisbon Charter by the Town Manager. Some of these items are extremely picky but demonstrate a continued disregard for the Charter and demonstrated his dereliction of duties as prescribed by the Town of Lisbon Charter. According to the Charter and I quote “The Manager shall be appointed solely on the basis of character and executive and administrative qualifications with special reference to actual experience in, or knowledge of, accepted practice in respect to the duties of office as hereafter set forth.”

Section 3.01 – As the Chief Administrative Officer for the town Mr. Eldridge is responsible for the proper administration of all affairs of the Town. As such he is responsible for the sign board in front of the town office. The information on the sign board keeps the residents of Lisbon informed of upcoming meeting and events. The sign board displays information which has passed, sometimes up to a week. I have brought this to the attention of Councilwoman Gina Mason. As I am writing this, the sign board still has information about a meeting on January 27^th which is four days old. A minor infraction but clearly demonstrates a lack of supervisory skills required for the position.

b. The web site is another method of relaying information to the residents of the town. Again, the web site continues to display information on events which is old. I pointed this out to Councilwoman Mason and she worked to get it corrected but Councilwoman has better things to concentrate on than to go behind the Town Manager to ensure he is performing his duties as outlined in the Charter and his contract.

c. There have been several Town Council meetings I attended in which one or more Councilors were surprised by information which came out during the meeting. The latest is the burning of the house by the Fire Department and publishing the event on their web site. I believe burning of someone’s house is a big deal and the Town Council and all members of the Council should have been made aware of this action. And of course, we all remember the surprise over the tax issue. These continued surprises clearly demonstrate the lack of communication and are in violation of Section 3.02 of the Charter. It appears Mr. Eldridge would rather ask for forgiveness than permission.

d. The Town Manager sent a letter to Mrs. Fitzgerald requesting public record documents for which he is the custodian. This clearly demonstrates a lack of knowledge of who is the custodian of the Town Council Meeting minutes.

Section 3.02(b) – “The Manager shall direct and supervise the administration of all departments, offices and agencies of the Town except as otherwise provided by this charter or by law. “ The word “supervise” according to the dictionary means to “oversee”. It is clear Mr. Eldridge failed to supervise/oversee the initial tax commitment produced by Mr. Dow because the Town had to hire another Tax Assessor to redo the tax commitment which in turn cost the tax payers of Lisbon approximately $10K.

Section 3.02(d) – “The Manager shall see that all laws, provisions of the charter and acts of the council, subject to enforcement by him or her or by officers subject to his or her direction and supervision, are faithfully executed.” This provision in the charter clearly states the Town Manage must have knowledge of Maine laws pertaining to the operation of a municipality. Mr. Eldridge has clearly demonstrated his lack of knowledge pertaining to Maine law when he did not know which documents are required for a valid commitment under Maine Property Tax Bulletin Number 15.

a. This section also states the Town Manager is responsible for “acts of the council, subject to enforcement by him or her or by the officers subject to his or her direction and supervision, are faithfully executed.” The Tax Assessor did not perform his duties as required by Maine law but the Town Manager also failed to perform his duties by not providing direction and supervision as required by the provisions of this section.

b. The Town Manager also did not understand the provisions of the Maine Freedom of Access Act when he sent Mrs. Fitzgerald an official letter requesting public record documents in which the Town Manager is the custodian. This is a simple law enabling individuals the rights to public record documents. Any reasonable person, reading the petition for recall, would have known the violations outlined in the petition pertained to Mr. Bowie’s duties as Chairman of the Town Council and therefore would be in the minutes of the Town Council Meeting minute for which Mr. Eldridge is the custodian as the Chief Administrative Officer for the Town of Lisbon.

Section 3.02(g) – “The Manager shall prepare and submit to the Council such reports and shall perform such duties as the council may require and shall make such recommendations to the council concerning the affairs of the Town as he or she deems desirable or as the Council may request.” Mr. Eldridge violated his section miserable when the Town Council ordered the Town Manager to send a “Letter” to all mortgage companies explaining the situation and requesting no action be taken on month mortgage payments until a new commitment was completed. Mr. Eldridge demonstrated his true feelings for the taxpayers of the Town of Lisbon by utilizing “internal letter head” stationary and four brief lines. This internal memo read “Please be advised that there were errors in the 2010-2011 Town of Lisbon Tax Commitment and Tax Billing that was mailed on September 1, 2010. The errors were caught and we are in the process of correcting them and this will be reflected in the March billing. We apologize for this inconvenience as we take the proper steps to prevent this from occurring again.” This internal memo sent to all mortgage companies, was never signed by anyone. This is another violation of the charters.

I have deal with the continued misinformation put out by the Town Manager at Town Council meeting. I asked the Town Council to have an independent audit performed on the Economic Development Department in support of the new Director. The Town Manager stated an independent audit had been conducted. I went in the next day to review the audit and it was not there. The only audit was the entire town audit which only has to do with numbers and not where or not we are following the requirements for funding in this department. Also Mr. Eldridge stated the case involving $32.5K which had to do with Mr. Feeney was closed. Upon further review, the Chief of Police informed me it was returned to the District Attorney for further action by the State Attorney General. The case is still pending. This comes under the heading of “integrity” which is a must in public office. I do not have any faith in anything the Town Manager says.