We Aren’t Troublemakers, We Are Troubleshooters, Who Identify the Problems and Fix Them

The Lisbon Concerned Citizens Group is in fact circulating a recall petition to remove Town Council Chairman Norma Wells. In order to successfully remove Chairman Wells, we need 288 or more signatures in her district to force the recall vote. So far, we have about 100 signatures.

Why Norma you might ask? We are tired of Chairman Wells’ patronizing us and rolling her eyes when we speak on behalf of the community at public meetings. We are insulted by her not allowing other Town Council members to speak, by shutting us down when we are trying to address issues that concern us, and by her rude condescending attitude in general.

We have spent a countless number of hours educating ourselves about how the Town Council form of government is supposed to work and what laws they are supposed to adhere to. We have read the Lisbon Charter and the Lisbon Ordinances from front to back many, many times. We are educating the Town Council about Lisbon code they are not even aware of.

We know for a fact that Norma Wells denied putting Councilor Dale Crafts’ concerns about the Recreation Department on the Agenda. She claims that she “simply forgot” meanwhile Mr. Crafts admits at a Town Council meeting that he had been asking her to put the issue on the agenda for over three months! Now, we can assume that she has no integrity as well.

We know for a fact that Norma Wells meets with the Town Manager before Town Council Meetings and after Town Council meetings. We know for a fact that Mike Bowie calls the Town Manager and e-mails the Town Manager several times a day. We know for a fact that both Mike Bowie and Norma Wells call the lawyer on their own accord as opposed to addressing the issues in a public setting or in executive session and having the Town Manager deal with the attorney. We can see that Norma and Mike run the show. They purposefully leave the other Councilors out of the loop and then convince them why they need to vote in favor or against an issue. We can see that they have ostracized both Dale Crafts and Janet Henry. And, we know for a fact that town employees have been told not to talk to certain councilors.

We know for a fact that Chairman Wells is allowing our current Town Manager to continue with his fiscal mismanagement and they support it in its entirety. Not only did they increase an already excessive Police Department budget by 6% but they did so without realizing that it would raise our taxes by 3%. In the meantime, they are scurrying around trying to find monies any way they can to soften the blow of the tax bills this year because when you see the increase in taxes, you are going to flip out. The Town Manager and Town Council pushed through $400,000 dollars worth of transfers to make up for the Town Manager’s ridiculous salary, the Police Department’s ridiculous budget, and the uneducated Economic Developer’s incredibly generous salary. Remember this woman is making $60,000 per year for working three days a week. We wonder if the Town of Lisbon is paying for her schooling and the mileage to and from school as well. In the meantime, there is no accountability with Department Heads who are overspending their budgets and as opposed to calling them out and holding them responsible for their bad habits, the Town Council is instead making up the difference at our expense. Chairman Wells tells the newspaper that she has no control over how the Department’s spend their money. What a joke! She would be the first to fire someone for not doing exactly what she wants them to do.

And, finally, we know for a fact that there is not only a conflict of interest but there is a perceived conflict of interest where both Mike Bowie and Fern Larochelle are concerned. We have pointed out to the Council that both Councilor Fern Larochelle and Michael Bowie violated the town's conflict of interest policy when they voted on this year's budget. Fern Larochelle owns an auto body repair business that benefits from funds budgeted to repair police cruisers and Bowie is married to a police department employee, the Police Chief’s secretary as a matter of fact (annual salary of $48,000+).

We find Wells’ response in the Times Record article particularly amusing given how incredibly ironic her responses are. She claims that she supports our “right to the democratic process” when in fact she doesn’t even know what a democracy is and all of her actions are tyrannist and authoritarian in nature.

She also claimed that the councilors discussed the fact that “Bowie's spouse was a town employee during the inaugural meeting of Lisbon's Town Council” and that they “set a protocol then that Bowie wouldn't vote on police department compensation.” We know for a fact that Bowie voted on the overall budget which includes the Police Department’s budget. They did not vote separately on the budget items or the line items. They may have discussed them separately but they voted on the budget as a whole which included increasing the Police Department budget by 6%, overriding the Pulaskey tax cap by 1 million plus dollars, and increasing our taxes overall by 3%. Another lie.

Wells also claimed that the Maine Municipal Association didn't feel that Larochelle’s vote for the police department budget was a conflict of interest because the Maine Municipal Association spokesman Michael Starn said that “state law defines conflict of interest as a 10 percent financial interest in a matter, although town charters often have tighter provisions.” We’ve researched Maine Law in regards to municipalities and we would like to know where this particular law is? Please enlighten us Mr. Starn. Please forward us the link to this particular law?

Also, is this the same Maine Municipal Association that helped get Eldridge hired in the Town of Rumford and then again in the Town of Lisbon. According to the Sun Journal, Mr. David Barrett helped facilitate him getting hired in Rumford and again in Lisbon. One of our Town Council members informed us that when the Town Council asked MMA about Eldridge's "experience" in the Town of Rumford, they were informed that the people of Rumford are “crazy”. No, the Town Council was crazy for paying MMA $4,500+ to help us find this Town Manager, for listening to their opinion about our ill equipped Town Manager, and for paying this guy $80,000 per year. Thanks MMA. We appreciate your professionalism, integrity, and your support of conflicts of interest. But, this is nothing new to you. You see this all the time, don’t you?

We spoke to an attorney at MMA and we were informed that in fact both Larochelle and Bowie voting for the Police Department budget are considered conflicts of interest. Mr. Starn of MMA states, "there are precautions to take so that it doesn't preclude the town from doing business with someone” and “It's not unusual for people to have concerns for the appearance of conflicts.” Mr. Starn, maybe you should have spoken to your co-worker, one of the attorneys at MMA that we spoke to, so you could get your facts straight instead of automatically coming to the defense of a Town official without checking the facts. This particular stunt has not only cost you your credibility but it proves that you support the municipalities at all costs. This is twice now that MMA has let the people of the Town of Lisbon down, first by recommending Eldridge and then by not checking the facts before spouting off at the mouth about what a conflict of interest is according to State Law.

Mr. Starn states that town charters often have tighter provisions. He was right about that. So before stating that there wasn’t a conflict of interest, maybe he should have looked at the Lisbon Municipal Code and the Lisbon Charter which trumps the State laws because of the HOME RULE law!

The Lisbon Municipal Code codified through Town Meeting of April 1, 2008 clearly states in Sec. 12-4 under Conflicts of interest that “A public official shall refrain from participation in a matter when there exists an actual, potential or reasonably perceived conflict of interest.”

And the Council-Manager Charter of The Town of Lisbon (November 2005) clearly states in Section 9.03 that “if any elected or appointed officer, official, employee, or the spouse of any such person, has a substantial financial interest, direct or indirect, in any contract with the Town or in the purchase or sale of any land, material, supplies, or service to the Town or to a contractor supplying the Town, that person shall make known that interest and shall refrain from voting or otherwise participating in his or her capacity as an elected or appointed officer, official, or employee in making any such purchase or sale or in making such contract. Any such person who willfully conceals said financial interest or that of his or her spouse, or willfully violates the requirements of this section shall be guilty of malfeasance in office or position and shall forfeit the same. Any contract made in violation of this section shall be voidable by the Town.”

And, finally, Chairman Wells states “The town of Lisbon elected me as a councilor to do the specific duties that are laid out in the charter” and “I know those rules don't always agree with every taxpayer in this town.” Yes, Chairman Wells, you were elected to help run the town but not with an IRON FIST and no accountability. You were elected to represent the people of this community of which you clearly are not doing. Of course, you would think that the town council form of government is working because it allows you to do whatever the hell you want without any consequences. And, don’t even talk to us about the “rules” because you don’t even know what the “rules” are. You state that you find it sad that 200 people are making the decisions for several thousand but you are fine with four people making the decisions for 9,000+ people.

We need to return the town to a selectmen form of government and if people are concerned about going back to voting at the Annual Town Meeting then we can change that by creating a ballot procedure so that the power is in the hands of the community, not four people, two of which have financial interests in the budget. The Town Council form of government is failing this community because councilors are ignoring what townspeople want and are neglecting their responsibilities to oversee the budget process and ensure that it is handled appropriately.

We lost two of our petitioners today because they fear how the public fallout might affect their children. And, we don’t blame them given the history in this community. But, we thank them for showing their public support of our efforts and letting us know how they felt about the petitioner’s claims and intent. It is a breach of trust and the Town Council is not abiding by its own laws, specifically the conflict of interest policy. Given the input we have received from Lisbon community members, maybe we need to re-evaluate the recall petition for Norma and include more people.