The Common Denominator: David Brooks

Editor's Note: Please be advised that we do not feel that all of our police officers are part of this charade. We, in an attempt to disclose the truth, need to spell out the facts about the Police Chief and his Police Department budget. This article by no means reflects on ALL of the police department personnel.

Timeline of Events:

1. Brooks hired by the Town of Lisbon at about 18 years of age
2. Brooks touts that he was the youngest Chief in the State
3. Brooks retired once from Lisbon & collects retirement income
4. Brooks continues to work for Lisbon after retirement for $70,000+
5. Over the years, Brooks builds a 21+ full-time member police dept
6. Community discouraged due to flawed Town Mtg voting procedure
7. Town Council Government emerges to overcome stacking the vote
8. Dan Feeney resigns from Economic Development Director position
9. Jen Norris hired as Economic Development Director for $42,000
10. Curtis Lunt fired from Town Manager position after 15 years
11. Brooks Appointed as Interim Town Manager after Lunt
12. Fraudulent use of funds discovered in Econ Dev Office
13. Eldridge hired as TM for $80,000+ despite past in Rumford
14. Norris (of Rumford) resigns after five months on the job
15. Eldridge begins official duties as the Lisbon Town Manager
16. Eldridge fires Maryanne Morgan, Accounts Payable Manager
17. Eldridge fires Cassie LeBlonde, Town Manager's Secretary
18. Eldridge hires his friend Rosie Bradley as Director for $60,000+
19. Eldridge hires Jody Durisko as Town Manager's Secretary
20. Eldridge targets the Recreation Department for cuts
21. Eldridge supports increase in the Police Department budget
22. Eldridge does not consult with the Advisory Board
23. Lisbon sees 3% increase in taxes
24. Eldridge requests $300,000 transfer from undesignated funds
25. Eldridge requests $100,000 in transfers from carry forward $$

Does anyone else see what we see based on the timeline of events alone? We have drawn the following conclusions based on history which includes newspaper articles, interviews with Lisbon community members, public meetings, and the public actions of town officials. Our attempts at creating a Town Council form of government to remedy the pitfalls of a Board of Selectmen/Town Meeting form of government are futile. Town officials have found a new way to manipulate the outcome of government proceedings to ensure that Chief David Brook's budget is protected at everyone else's expense.

Brooks is the common denominator in everything that is going wrong in the Town of Lisbon. He stacked the votes at Annual Town Meeting to build up his incredibly overstaffed police department and now he befriends Town Council members and encourages hiring a Town Manager with a checkered past to ensure his budget not only stays in tact but increases. If you don't believe us, check out what other towns similar in size to Lisbon have for a police force. One example is the Town of Yarmouth which employs twelve full-time police officers. Currently, the Lisbon Police Department is almost double the size of most police departments similar in size to the Town of Lisbon. And, Chief Brooks pays his police officers an average of $50,000+ per year which is much higher than any other average police officer salary in the State including our biggest cities. According to our sources, this has caused resentment throughout the entire State.

After the Town Council form of government emerges, it appears that he uses his friendship and connections with Mike Bowie and Norma Wells to control the Town from behind the scenes. All of a sudden Curt Lunt is getting fired. And, immediately Brooks is appointed as Interim Town Manager, against the wishes of many community members and even a couple of the Town Council members who insisted that he not be allowed to hire or fire anyone. Chief Brooks doesn't waste any time and begins working on building cases against Morgan, LeBlonde, Norris, and Stevens. Why these folks you might ask?

Is it because Morgan was involved in the town finances for years?
Is it because LeBlonde was privy to "sensitive" information?
Is it because Norris discovered fraud and "leaked" information?

He was influential in the decision to hire Eldridge who also appears to be under his control and this is evident by the decisions Eldridge made upon starting his job in an official capacity. Norris gone! Morgan gone! LeBlonde gone! Until YOU the community stood up to the injustices and put a stop to the dictatorship, the Recreation Department would have been ripped to shreds and Stevens eventually would have been gone, too!

In the meantime, Brook's overstaffed, heavily funded Police Department gets an increase and he gets a new police cruiser to boot. It's not too late to halt this year's budget which was voted in by four members of the Town Council (Wells, Bowie, Larochelle, & Smith). These people are not only followers but we proved that two of them have a DIRECT CONFLICT OF INTEREST regarding the Police Department. We called them out on the Conflict of Interest issues and now we need to insist that the Budget is halted and done over. This time it will be done right.

We can think of thousands of dollars in cuts starting with Brooks, Eldridge, and Bradley. Bradley, too, is overpaid and underqualified. She only works three days a week because she is going to school the other two days in an effort to obtain her Bachelor's Degree, and Eldridge still hooked her up with $60,000 per year. This is $10,000 more than Dan Feeney made after working for Lisbon for fifteen years and $20,000 more than Norris who has a Master's Degree. According to the Sun Journal, Eldridge helped Bradley get her foot in the door in Rumford and it appears that he is going to continue to take care of her at our expense and to the detriment of the community.

If you want to see your taxes remain the same or go down, we can cut these three positions, and then cut the police department budget in half and still be in line with the remainder of the State. Our crime rates are so incredibly low, we could get away with doing away with the Police Department all together and using the Androscoggin County Sheriff's Department for services. We are a bedroom community not the Bronx in New York. Don't be dazzled by Brook's calls for service graph (many of which are probably wrong numbers) because they mean NOTHING. And don't be fooled by the numbers that he creates himself by encouraging and supporting some of his well paid officers to harass you and your family.

Remember, he's using OUR tax dollars to do it and we can use OUR tax dollars to stop it.