Robbing Peter To Pay Paul, Lisbon Style!!!!!

RESIDENTS ROBBED OF RIGHTS

The people of Lisbon are constantly being robbed of their rights.  Maine law is being ignored by the very people who are responsible to ensure the town is compliant at all times.  Town Attorney, Roger Therriault and Town Manager, Stephen Eldridge continues

 to strip Lisbon residents of their right to be informed on town matters.  What is very ironic is that these two individuals are the very ones who have taken an oath to protect our rights.  Case in point, under Maine Revised Statute 401, the people have the right to be informed on town business.  Below is a copy of this statute for your review.

 

The second line of the first paragraph sums it up very clearly.  “It is the intent of the Legislature that their actions be taken openly and that the records of their actions be open to public inspection and their deliberations be conducted openly.”  If you review the minutes of the meeting of January 29, 2013, you will see where after coming out of their Executive Session a motion was made and voted on but what the motion was is not recorded as required by Maine Revised Statue 401.  This certainly is NOT “open to public inspection” and how can you keep records of the events when the town does not record what the actual motion is?

The town council has been hiding behind Maine Revised Statue 405 and going into Executive Sessions without any explanation.  Above I have provided you at copy of this statute for your review.  It is very clear to me; the town council, town attorney nor town manager has read this statue.  This very first paragraph states “An executive session may not be used to defeat the purpose of this subchapter as stated in section 401.”  I believe this means all actions of the town council are to be above board and not hidden behind closed doors.  This statute provides for closed door sessions to discuss critical topics that should not be disclosed to the Public but the Public is entitled to know the “precise nature of the business” being discussed.  A general title such a Personnel Matters does not meet the requirements “precise nature of the business”.

If you read paragraph 4, it is very specific as to how a motion to go into Executive Session is required to be made.  It reads “A motion to go into executive session must indicate the precise nature of the business of the executive session and include a citation of one or more sources of statutory or other authority that permits an executive session for that business.”  Our town council certainly does not meet this requirement of the law.  Someone makes a motion to go into executive session, someone second and a show of hands and then off to the executive session.  This does not inform the Public of the “precise nature of business” being discussed behind closed doors.  The words precise nature was put into the statue for a reason. 

If you take the time to read these statutes governing the town councils responsibilities under Maine law, you will see Lisbon’s town council does not come anywhere close to complying with the law.  These councilors swore under oath to obey the very laws they are violating.  Is it the town council’s fault; I think not?  The fault lies with the two individuals who are required to provide legal guidance to our councilors and that is Roger Therrault and Stephen Eldridge.  These two individuals have been trained in these matters and are tasked to ensure our councilors comply with Maine laws.  Instead, they let our councilors violate their oath of office and to break Maine law.

 As a result of this, the residents of Lisbon have been denied the right to be informed on town business.

Larry Fillmore

Concerned Citizen