Lisbon Town Management And The Trail Of Conflict Of Interest Broadens

By: Peter Reuter
The Lisbon Reporter

As one who has attended just about all town meetings and workshops I can only say, that I am simply baffled with amazement and complete total disgust with the way Lisbon's leaders are running this nice community into the ground.   The leaders are not doing it alone.  We have all heard them say "it is with the advice of our lawyer" how many times now?

It is no secret that the town's attorney is involved with a questionable 'legal' scheme to "rape the taxpayer's" pockets of every last penny that he can possibly get.  Lisbon's attorney, Roger Therriault has to be the most unscrupulous heathen that has ever practiced law.  Not only did he promulgate, as personal witness, the complete an fallacious attack of local citizens by Lisbon Chief of Police David T. Brooks recently, he has also provided terrible legal guidance for Freedom of Access requests.  Prompting, so far, two lawsuits that the Town of Lisbon has lost because of his representation.


And the current Town Manager, Stephen G. Eldridge, is proposing to raise the town's legal defense fund by at least another $6000 dollars?   Why is it that we as taxpayer's in this once business oriented community have to continue supporting this? 

How about it Councilor Gina Mason. you and your Councilor Co-hort Cousin Dale Crafts must really be proud of the championship that you provided to former EDC Director Rosie Bradley provided on this one.

 What are you all afraid of?  The economy sucks, taxes are going to rise again and we have a 'money sucking pig' that is only looking out for his selfish legacy all the while providing misinformation about the true expenditures of his department's true operating costs.  Yeah you David T. Brooks, Lisbon's so called Chief of Police.  You are just at the top of the list.  It is Long don't ever forget that.


Isn't enough, enough already?  

Larry Fillmore, Roger Cote, Dorothy Fitzgerald, and many others that have stood tall in the past, for you residents, the taxpayers, the youth in this community deserve to be given a lot of credit for their tenacity. For with out them and this median that was created by the Lisbon Concerned Citizens you would be no different  than a mushroom growing in the wild.  Alone and in the dark.

Doesn't it make more sense to have a so called manager that knows how to do their job and not play party to what soon will break as the biggest corruption scandal in Lisbon's history?  I certainly think so. 

But let's take a look at Roger Therriault for the moment.  He as a licensed bar member has a history of sanctions against him by Justice Andrew Horton of Sagadahoc County Superior Court.


What?

Attorney Roger Therriault  of the same fame, as Lisbon's law firm, Therriault & Therriault, a father and son dynamic law-less duo, was representing Bath and West Bath at the same time at trial proceedings during the summer of 2010.  CONFLICT OF INTEREST come to mind anyone?


When:  August 2010
http://www.theforecaster.net/content/m-bathwingfarm-3


Be sure and click on the above link to get the full context of their Planning Board's actions.


Now does this sound like where Lisbon is heading with our Planning Board's recent recommendations?  I certainly think so.


It took Therriault several more months before he ended his involvement with the case.  We are now into November 2010.


On December 15, 2010  West Bath District Court Judge Andrew Horton ordered the case be sent back to the Planning Board.

Ol' Sleepy himself Roger Therriault
"Lisbon's Highly Paid Idiot, earning his money."

But more importantly he 'slapped' the wrist of Attorney Roger Therriault for Conflict of Interest between Bath and West Bath.  You would think the he, being a 'supposedly' noted scholar of Law, would have known that.  Any reasonable person with a sound mind and basic understanding of the Law could have seen that just as plain as someone having egg on their face.  But not ole sleepy Therriault and his quasi legal fees of some $170 plus per hour.  Nope, he only sees the meter running with the dollars of public funding.  Legal monetary rape of the taxpayers once again

After a hearing at West Bath District Court, Judge Andrew Horton ordered the case remanded to the Planning Board, which approved the third phase in April. He had called for similar action in July, prompted by a lawsuit filed in May by Robert and Wendy Johansen in Sagadahoc County Superior Court.

In his first order of remand, Horton also noted that attorney Roger Therriault represented both defendant Bath and applicant West Bath. The judge suggested he was concerned about Therriault's work with both sides.

On Tuesday, Therriault's continued involvement – which ended last month – prompted Horton to send the case back again to the Planning Board, with a new attorney representing Bath.

The new attorney, Patrick Scully of Bernstein Shur, said last week that the Johansens alleged that Therriault had a conflict of interest or that the Planning Board process was conflicted because Therriault is also town attorney for West Bath. The dispute, in part, concerns an access road in Bath that leads to the lots to be developed in West Bath.
"In looking at the merits of that argument, I don't believe that it has any legal significance," Scully said. "... I don't think there's a conflict, and nor do I think that it's an appealable issue, but I think the city concluded that in order to essentially take the issue off the table and to eliminate any further suggestion that there's something inappropriate about that, that they should go out and bring somebody else in to handle the appeal from here forward. So that's why they brought me in."

 http://www.theforecaster.net/node/76656


 http://www.theforecaster.net/node/77614




Another 'blind' attorney covering for his fellow union member?   Do your due diligence and you will see what I mean about that question. They are very similar to a religious cult with their protection for each other.


Bath's saga continued into February of 2011 with Therriault still proclaiming that he did not have a Conflict of Interest.  Yeah right Therriault we know you for the putt's that you really are.


 http://www.theforecaster.net/node/81414


So you see Lisbon Residents, taxpayer's and The Lisbon Reporter reader's you cannot always believe what comes out of the mouths of our leaders.  We are in fact throwing away our money for legal representation that is a complete and total waste of my money.  

How about yours?