The Lisbon Reporter

WELCOME TO THE LISBON REPORTER. In an effort to keep our community informed of what is going on at local and Federal levels of government, we decided to create this on-line newspaper. It is our hope that this on-line newspaper will help you stay informed so that you can get involved and take action for the benefit of our ENTIRE community. Thank you for visiting and please check back frequently for information about what is happening in LISBON/LISBON FALLS, MAINE USA

Thursday, June 14, 2018

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY DISCUSSION

During the June 5, 2018 Town Council meeting, there was a discussion on MUNIS. MUNIS is the computer software used by the town to control the majority of its business. This software package cost the taxpayers $680,000.00 for a period of 7 years.

Apparently, the town was sold a bill of goods because it is not working out the way it was advertised. This is not surprising to me, because I remember the initial discussion about getting rid of TRIO. The Town Manager made two mistakes with this purchase:

The first mistake was taking advise from someone who had absolutely no credentials or certifications in the Information Technology field. She never thought to professional advice first.

The second mistake is pushing the Town Council into entering into a 7 year contract without first having the software installed and seeing how it would work for the town.

This is yet another example of the Town Manager duping the Town Council into getting her way. On June 5^th at the meeting, she did it again and no one realized it. Instead of providing all the options and information, she left off a very important fact, “What is the cost of termination this contract?” To me and the Council because they asked, this information would be critical to making a sound decision but neither the Finance Director nor the Town Manager had that information. This is how she has always manipulated the Town Council.

The Town Council voted to spend $5,000.00 tax dollars on an assessment verses terminating this contract and going with another software package. Having the information on the penalty to terminate the contract early may have had an impact on the decision by the Town Council.

Chairman Ward should have tabled any further discussion until the Town Manager was able to provide ALL information needed for the Council to make a sound and logical decision. It should be a rule that if all the information is not available at the time of the discussion, the item will be tabled until all information is available to the Council. Information needed to make decisions by the Town Council is conveniently not available. This is how our Town Council is being forced to make decisions that the Town Manager wants.

The Town Manager is being paid over $90,000.00 yearly and should be providing better recommendations to our Town Council.

Larry Fillmore

GENERAL ASSISTANCE IN LISBON

At the Lisbon Town Office there is a door with the wording "General Assistance".

This morning, needing to contact someone at General Assistance, I went on the town's

website, clicked on "Departments", looking for the phone number so I could leave a

message.

I clicked on "Departments". No General Assistance listed under Departments.

I went to :Boards and Committees", no General Assistance listed there either.

I than called the Town Clerk's office, asked how to find General Assistance.

No one there knew that General Assistance was not listed under Departments.

I was told that General Assistance could be found under the Department of Community Development.

I tried that, and guess what? General Assistance is not listed there either!!!!!.

My question is; how does anyone in town, needing General Assistance, contact General Assistance?

General Assistance in Lisbon is a part-time position.

I asked Town Manager, Diane Barnes, why we do not have at least a part-time person in General Assistance? She said that the only time anyone is in need of general assistance is in the winter. This from a person making $95,000+ per year plus benefits.

Judy Goddard, the Town of Lisbon's General Assistance director also works for the town of Brunswick. She also works for the City of Bath. Is it any wonder she is not available for the citizens of the Town of Lisbon?

Our Town Council and Town Manager recently hired 2 addtional police officers. They also approved a full time position, part-time for the front counter, part time for the Finance Department. But they do not see any need to help those in town most in need of assistance.

Perhaps it is time to stop wasting money on someone not available to render assistance, when it is needed.

Dorothy Fitzgerald
Concerned Citizen

EDITOR'S NOTE: According to the latest proposed budget, under General Assistance 05-500 there is a line item 5211 Cell Phone which has a proposed budget of $363.00. If this is the case, why is the cell phone NOT listed on the town web site. When is the Town Council going to force the Town Manager to do her job?

Wednesday, June 13, 2018

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SO VERY TRUE

LISBON JUNE ELECTION RESULTS

LISBON Norway Maples to be Removed from Town Space

Norway Maples to be Removed from Town Space

Lisbon invasive species will soon be removed from town spaces. Two Norway Maples are overwhelming all other vegetation in Gazebo Park. The memorial park is directly across from the Lisbon High School. Yes, they look nice, but they are destroying grass, populating yards across the street with annual shoots and encroaches on the other vegetation in the Park. The Spruce tree, which is part of the memorial, is threatened by the close presence of the invasive Norway Maples.
Norway Maples are now illegal to sell, buy or plant, in the State of Maine. The State of Maine ban is as of January 1, 2018. This buy/sell/plant ban follows the same action of other Northeastern states.
The plan is to replace the two trees with native species – as soon as possible. Lisbon is not the only community which has had to remove these trees; Philadelphia and New York City are both having to remove these invasive species from their parks – think of Grand Central Park native tree species being destroyed by Norway Maples. Their experience is that native species return after the invasive species is removed.

SUBMITTED BY: TOWN OF LISBON

LISBON PAVING RFP

ADDENDUM #1 - Paving RFP

Please click on the following link for the first addendum to the Paving RFP:
Paving Addendum #1(June 12, 2018)

SUBMITTED BY: TOWN OF LISBON

Monday, June 11, 2018

NOT FORGOTTEN

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MORON

RESIDENT IGNORED BY LISBON TOWN COUNCIL

After reviewing the Town Council meeting of June 5, 2018, I remembered why I no longer attend the Town Council meetings. For years, I was very faithful about attending the Town Council meetings, I tried to offer suggestions to the Town Council on improving our community. No matter what I suggested, the Town Council ignored everything. My suggestions went in one ear and out the other. It was a total waste of my time.

Nothing has changed since I stopped going to these meetings. If you go to the town website and click on Live Video Streaming and then click on June and Town Council meeting for June 5^th. Go into the video to approximately 1 hour and 23 minutes, you will see the Town Council ignoring Dorothy Fitzgerald. Mrs. Fitzgerald tried to show the Town Council how they could save the taxpayers over a quarter of a million dollars (250,000.00) and the council was not interested. They asked no questions and totally ignored Mrs. Fitzgerald.

I cannot explain why the Town Council is not interested in saving tax dollars. It appears they are more interested in spending our money than saving it. This year’s municipal budget is going to increase roughly $660,806.00 which is a 8% increase according to the Town Manager, Diane Barnes. Amazing as it may sound, Mrs. Barnes in proud of the increase. The fact, that Mrs. Barnes and the Town Council are not looking for ways to either cut spending or lower our taxes in disgusting and not why the people elected them.

Mrs. Barnes does not realize that the people pay her salary. She works for the Town Council and not the people. Mrs. Barnes, our Town Manager, includes a COLA increase every year in her budget which amounts to a salary increase of over $1,800.00 every year. The town has substituted COLA for wage increase in order to fool the people. Mrs. Barnes does not mind a $200.00 increase in her taxes when she has a $1,800.00 increase in her salary but those who are on a fixed income are left to suffer. The residents of Lisbon cannot stand a tax increase every year especially when the town could be saving over a quarter of a million dollars (250,000.00) by eliminating COLA and transferring dispatch to Androscoggin County Dispatch.

There is no recession so there is no need for a COLA. The Lisbon Communication Center is a duplication of services and could be eliminated with no loss of service. In fact, it would improve the response time of First Responder by eliminating the middle man in the process. Four of our Councilors voted to keep the Lisbon Communication Center open for political reasons (Councilors Ward, Crafts, Brunelle and Albert). This was a political decision interest of what was best for the community.

According to Mr. Fern LaRochelle, the town does not need to give up control of the communication center. What he failed to tell everyone is that he a sub-contractor for the town and works directly with the communication center for vehicle recovery. Mr. LaRochelle will be voting on the budget for the communication center because there is no such thing as “conflict of interest” in Lisbon. He already has voted on Chief Hagan’s recommendation to promote a communication specialist to supervisor and to approve an Information Technology (IT) person for the Police Department.

The people need to vote in November, councilors who are going to stop spending; look for ways to save tax dollars and listen to residents.

Larry Fillmore

LISBON TOWN COUNCIL PUSHED THE CAN DOWN THE ROAD!

During recent budget meeting, our Town Council was presented with a unique problem with the Police Department. Chief Hagan described the major reasons towns are getting sued and that was lack of training and lack of direct supervisor. These two items create a liability for Lisbon. In order to help eliminate this liability, Chief Hagan offered the following:

1. Add a part-time Information Technology position in the Lisbon

Communication Center; so that the Patrol Sergeant currently performing these duties can return to Patrol. Cost is approximately $1,600.00 to $4,000.00.

2. Promote a Communication specialist to a Communication Supervisory.

Costing between $1,040.00 to $4,800.00

3. Hired two additional Patrol Officers. Costing between $69,000.00-

$81,000.00 each

Four members of our Town Council support this plan to throw more money at the problem instead of trying to eliminate the liability. These members are Allen Ward, Chris Brunelle, Norman Albert and Fern LaRochelle. I believe that three of these individuals are supporting this plan by throwing more of our tax dollars at it because of misguided loyalty and the four is for personal agenda.

When you are trying to solve a problem, it is crucial that you look at eliminating the liability. Trying to eliminate the core liability; will always be the best solution. This will reduces the risk management to the town and, will to a great deal, to reducing the chances of being sued. These four individuals have overlooked the obvious answer to the problem. Instead of throwing our tax dollars at the problem; just eliminate the problem all together. So how do we eliminate this liability?

The basic solution is to transfer dispatching to Androscoggin County Dispatch. With this transfer goes all the liability for this operation. It will eliminate the need for an additional Information Technology position saving approximately $1,600.00 to $4,000.00 tax dollars. There will no longer be a need to promote anyone because Androscoggin Country Dispatch will have this responsibility. This will save the town between $1,040.00 and $4,800.00 tax dollars. SGT Moore will be returned full-time to directly supervisor Patrol which is really his assigned duty.

It has been verified by two former Councilors that transferring the Lisbon Communication Center duties to Androscoggin County Dispatch would save the town approximately $200,000.00 per year. This cost saving would be more than enough to pay for the two additional officers needed to meet the 2015 manpower survey of fourteen officers. The town currently has twelve officers. Utilizing the cost savings will eliminate a need to raise our taxes to cover this expense.

The bottom line is that these four individuals need to step up and do what is right for the community instead of wasting more tax dollars. Throwing money at any problem is never the answer when you can eliminate the problem.

Problem solved at no additional cost to the taxpayers. Try using common sense!

Call these four individuals and tell them to put what is best for the community first and help our people out.

Larry Fillmore

NEEDY OR GREEDY – YOU BE THE JUDGE

Back in early 2015, our Town Council terminated the contract on the previous Town Manager and rightfully so. However, that left a critical vacancy and needed to be filled quickly. In the Town Council’s hurry to fill this critical position; the Town Council allowed Diane Barnes to include paragraph 5F under Section 5 Salary and Fringe Benefits which states and I quote “The Manager shall also receive any benefits as the Town provides to its other employees.”

This minor item has raised Mrs. Barnes’s starting salary of $87,000.00 per year to last year’s salary of $95,047.00 in just 3 years. So how is this possible? It is possible because Mrs. Barnes is misusing the Federal government Cost-of-Living Allowance (COLA) program to fill her pockets. Below is the purpose, the program was intended to be utilized for:

PURPOSE AS DEFINED BY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT:

A cost-of-living adjustment is made to social security and supplemental security income to counteract the effects of inflation. Cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) are typically equal to the percentage increase in the consumer price index for urban wage earners and clerical workers (CPI-W) for a specific period.

However, in Lisbon it has taken on an entirely new meaning. There is no inflation in the current economy and the town is not using the consumer index to determine any COLA adjustments needed. The Town Manager, Diane Barnes includes a 2% COLA allowance every year in her proposed budget and our Town Council approves it every year. This means that every year, Mrs. Barnes receives a $1,900 PLUS salary increase every year. Have any of you every received such a salary increase?

Lisbon is a small community with a tax base made up of mostly residents. This means that our taxes are always going to go up every year to offset this COLA give away. I always believed this allowance with to be given to the “Blue Collar” workers instead of those in management positions. So let’s look to the impact of a Blue Collar employee making $40,000.00 per year. 2% increase is $800.00 which is still a good pay increase every year but not as substantial as $1,900.00 received by the Town Manager. I believe,Mrs. Barnes is trying to make people believe that she is looking out for the rank-in-file when she is actually lining her pockets with our tax dollars. It takes a very special type of person, in my opinion, to make money off the backs of her employees.

So how do we correct this injustice to the people? It comes in two parts”

A. The Town Council must immediately re-negotiate the Town Managers’ contract and eliminate paragraph 5F of Section 5 Salaries and Fringe Benefits. This will eliminate these massive salary increases to the Town Manager. Mrs. Barnes should be able to live comfortable on $95,000.00 yearly in Lisbon.

B. The Town Council must restrict any salary increase to ONLY those in Blue Collar positions. Those individuals in management positions make enough money off the taxpayers. Let’s look at the three recent hires”

1. Sewer Director was hired for approximately $80,000.00 per year. If you filter in the COLA this salary increases roughly $1,600.00 per year.

2. This is the same with the new Public Works Director hired for $80,000.00 per year. The COLA is the same.

3. Now, let’s look at the new Fire Chief who was hired for $70,000 per year. The COLA on this is roughly $1,400.00 per year. Also, the previous Fire Chief received $69,284.80, according to the 2016-2017 Annual Report. This was after several years on the job, so what was his starting salary?

The people in this town need to get a handle on the mismanagement of our tax dollars before it is too later. Start calling the Town Council, and tell them to stop spending and start looking for ways to save residents tax dollars.

Larry Fillmore

NOTE: I believe that every employee of the Town of Lisbon should continue to receive “longevity compensation”. As of July 1 of each year and commencing with five years of continuous employment with the town, all permanent employees shall be credited with longevity compensation at the rate of $5.00 per month up to and including a maximum of 180 months.