It is once again that time of
year to start the budget process for both the School and Municipal side of the
town. This is always an interesting time
of year. The residents get to sit back
and see what our elected officials determine to be important and what is not. It
also is a time in which the people find out how much their taxes are going to
be for next year.
Last year, Councilors Pesce,
Bickford, Metivier, Brunelle and Crafts decided to cut the School budget by at
least $600,000.00. This caused a massive
problem for the School Department and cost the taxpayers a great deal of money
in legal fees. It would appear that Councilor Metivier is
going to challenge the School Department budget again; so get ready for an
another very costly year.
I have very little knowledge
about the School side of the town’s budget but I do have what I consider a good
understanding of the Municipal side. So,
I will only talk about the Municipal side.
Thanks
to the previous leadership of the town, Lisbon is a haven for individuals with
little or no credentials to be place in positions with outrageous salaries. The major two individuals
are Ryan Leighton, Director of Public Works and Superintendent of Sewer and
then Fire Chief Sean Galipeau. Ryan
Leighton combined salary is over $80,000.00 and the last time I checked he had
a Grade 2 level for the Sewer Department which requires by the state that the
individual be at least a Grade 4 to operate the facility. The Fire Chief is supposed to have a bare
minimum of Associate Degree in Public Safety and he has been working on his
Associates for twelve years. The town is
paying him roughly $67,413.00 according to last year’s budget.
Former Councilors Pesce and
Garrison was looking into ways to save taxpayer money and determined there was
a cost saving of approximately
$199,000.00 by closing the Lisbon Communication Center. The Town Manager estimated the savings at
roughly $163,000.00. I determine it to
be closer to $250,000.00. Whichever
number you want to choose, it would be a significant savings to the
people. So where do we stand on this
issue? The Sheriff and County would like the
emergency services for Lisbon to be by the Androscoggin County Dispatch. However, this
initiative has been stopped by Councilors Pesce, Bickford, Metivier, Brunelle and Crafts. According
to Chairman Bickford, the question is if the people want to close the Lisbon
Communication Center will appear on the November ballot. I was under the impression that we elected
these officials to make this type determination so we could save money
now. Also, there will be no facts put out to the people so once again the
people will be voting without the benefit of ALL the facts.
Now, we have one
Administrative Assistant which receives roughly $10,000.00 tax dollars more
than any other Administrative Assistant in the town. This same individual Job Description is so
outdated it is not funny. By the way, the Ethnic Panel determined
that this individual was not doing what is in her Job Description but the
Department Head never rewrote the Job Description to coincide with the duties
she is actually doing.
It appears that Lisbon’s salary structure is
NOT determined by the duties you are performing but by what previous leadership
determined they wanted you to have.
Lisbon has individual’s receiving large salaries and they no credentials
to support these salaries.
There are plenty of
reductions that can make on the Municipal side before anyone does a hatch job
on the School Department. I agree the School Department needs to
reduce its operating cost but I trust the School Committee and Richard Green
make the cuts.
Larry Fillmore
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