Recap Of Last Night's Town Council Meeting

RECAP April 3rd

Last night’s meeting was a very historical event for the citizens of Lisbon. The Chairman Fern LaRochelle and the council added an additional line item called “Audience Participation Responses”. This line item is where the council responds to the questions asked at the previous meeting. The people have always asked for answers and now we have it. I personally want to commend and thank this town council for adding this valuable means of communication to the agenda.

Who is the Chief Administrative Officer for the Town of Lisbon? 

As the Town Manager, all requests for Freedom of Access Acts should be signed by the Chief Administrative Officer since he is the sole Custodian of Public Records for the Town of Lisbon. If the Town of Lisbon is denying the information requested, it should be signed by this Council and not a Town Employee since this action could result in a lawsuit being filed which will cost the taxpayer tax dollars in legal fees. Right now two individuals, who do not pay taxes in this town, are making decisions which results in tax dollars being utilized to defend their actions.

The response was we hired these individuals to do a job and so we must allow them to do so. My take on this is neither the town manager or town attorney has a vested interest in the taxpayer’s money nor how it is spent. The people elected the council to be responsible for how our tax dollars are being spent and not these two individuals who do not pay taxes in this town. When the charter was developed our town manager resided in Lisbon and paid taxes but this has changed.

Why doesn’t the town manager brief the people on the status of voting on the municipal budget at every meeting like he did on the Lisbon Connection? The people are still waiting to hear when they will be allowed to vote on the municipal budget.

The response was the change to allow the people to vote one the municipal budget by department is currently with the town attorney and should be ready for the November 2012 ballot.

What is the status of the $32,500 tax dollars? 

The last time the Town Manager briefed the people he stated the town was seeking to recover the funds in civil court. Has this been filed in civil court? The reason I asked is because the listing the town manager provide the court on all open loans the $32,500 is not on this list. Why is that?

The response was the misappropriated $32,500 dollars is not a loan because the proper procedures were not followed. My take on this is yet another attempt at making this disappear. It was also said it was filed in civil court. I have a copy of the signed Purchase Order, Promissory note and the check issued to Atlantic Commercial Cleaners. It has been stated in the past procedures were lax during this time frame; but if the Finance Officer wrote out a check then that person had to have followed some kind of procedure. Clearly the town is hoping the public will forget about the $32,500 dollars and the incomplete investigation. I believe this is a play on words in yet another attempt to cover all this up.

Please advise everyone on which ordinances we are required to comply with and which ordinances we can ignore?

The response was this is clearly a difficult question to answer and we are looking into it.

The town council vote 6-0-1 with Councilor Mason abstaining to approve the first reading of the proposed zone change on Gartley Street from General Residential to Diversified Development District. Vice-Chair Don Fellows of the Planning Board spoke on this issue and explained the Planning Boards position on this controversial issue. Also former Councilor Cote spoke on how the Lisbon Comprehensive Plan was developed and why. Mr. Cote also made it crystal clear there will be serious issues with the Route 9 trouble being presented by the Planning Board.

Mr. Fellows and the town manager both announced there was going to be a Public Hearing April 26, 2012 with no firm meeting location on the Route 9 changes proposed by the Planning Board. The changes involve “Conditional Usage” to allow for all the businesses currently located on Route 9.

The entire town council meeting will air on Channel 7 at 07:00 PM on Friday night April 6, 2012.

Larry Fillmore

Concerned Citizen

Originally posted: 2012-04-04 20:01