Paris News Briefs

Drug debate

Selectmen from Oxford and Paris have scheduled a joint session to  discuss a drug enforcement agent shared by the two towns.  That meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, February 9, at the Paris town office.

According to Paris Town Manager Sharon Jackson, selectmen will receive an update on the position from a director of the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency.  That presentation will be given behind closed doors because of the sensitive nature of the position, which involves significant undercover work.

No go

According to Paris Town Manager Sharon Jackson, Oxford County Superior Court has denied a motion made by Paris attorney Dana Hanley to reconsider a suit filed on behalf of Ron Fitts and 24 others.  Fitts charged selectmen with discrimination when they refused last July to reappoint him an an alternate to the planning board. 

At the time, selectboard chairman Raymond Glover said he did not personally feel that a developer or real estate agent should be allowed to sit on a municipal planning board.  Fitts maintains that while he has filed two subdivision application in Paris within the last five years, he is not a developer.  He owns his own business, Ron’s Double-Wide Service, which transports and assembles modular homes.

In November, Justice Ronald Cole threw out the suit, noting Fitts had 30 days from the selectboard decision to file a complain.  By not filing suit until September, Hanley had let the clock run out, said Cole.

Hanley now has 21 days, to appeal to the Maine Supreme Court.

Budget brouhaha

As they launch the budgeting process for FY 2010, Paris selectmen made note of one minor snafu.  The budget committee had four people appointed to three alternate positions on the budget committee.  As a compromise, they ruled unanimously that all four may serve.  The problem will right itself eventually when someone resigns from the board, said selectboard Chairman Ray Glover.

The committee will hold its first organizational meeting of the year at 7 p.m. on Thursday, February 5, at the town office.

Budget committee members include Al Atkinson, Armand “Sonny” Norton, Barbara Payne, Tom Hurd, Donald Allen, Forrie Everett, Heidi Ricci, Janet Jamison and Vic Hodgkins. The alternate members are Troy Ripley, Shelly Everett, David Starbird and Charleen Ripley.

Trash talks resume

Nearly three months after agreeing to enter into talks that could lead to a new solid waste agreement, a meeting has been set for a committee made up of selectmen from Norway and Paris, along with Norway-Paris Solid Waste (NPSW) directors.

That initial session is set to kick off at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, February 10, at the Norway town office.

Appointed to serve on the committee are NPSW directors Al Atkinson and Irene Millett, Paris selectmen Ray Glover and David Ivey and Norway selectmen Warren Sessions and Bruce Cook.  Citizens Arthur Hill, of Norway and Janet Jamison, of Paris, also volunteered to serve.

Manager evaluation

Paris selectmen met in executive session for about 30 minutes on Monday, January 26, for the annual evaluation of Town Manager Sharon Jackson.  Board Chairman Ray Glover declined to characterize the session, Tuesday, in part because the evaluation process continues tonight.

Selectmen have called a special meeting for 6 p.m. on Thursday, January 29, at the town office to continue the performance review and to settle Jackson’s contract.

That meeting will be held in executive session.  However, Glover said he expects selectmen will enter open session following the review to vote on any amendments to Jackson’s salary.  Her current contract runs though 2011. 

Veterans takeover

Paris selectmen voted unanimously January 26 to accept responsibility for lighting the new Veterans’ Memorial monument in Moore Park.

The town will begin paying the Central Maine Power bills, which amounts to roughly $325, annually, effective July 1.  Previously, the bill was paid by a citizens’ committee created to manage creation of the monument, because it had yet to be included in the municipal budget.

“I think it was always known that we would take it over, at some point,” said Paris Town Manager Sharon Jackson. 

Time’s up

Former Paris Selectman Ernie Fitts was once again denied consideration of his legal bills at the January 26 selectboard meeting.  Following the filing of a complaint in Superior Court against him last year, stemming from votes he made while on the selectboard, and the board’s subsequent refusal to cover those costs, Fitts has tried repeatedly to reintroduce the topic. 

Selectmen David Ivey attempted to bring the topic up at the January 26 meeting, but Chairman Raymond Glover ruled him out of order.  Agenda items must be submitted to the town manager no later than four days before any selectboard meeting, per board by-laws.

Fitts tried to bring up the issue on his own during the portion of the meeting reserved for “citizen’s comments,” but was similarly rebuffed.  Glover noted that, as was pointed out when Fitts had previously tried to gain compensation, that more than 30 days have passed since selectmen first refused to accept the bill.

Bylaws for the Paris selectboard limit reconsideration to 30 days after any vote.

However, when those bylaws were rewritten recently, Glover pointed out that selectmen can vote to temporarily set aside the 30-day time limit.

The day after the meeting, Glover said by phone that this action was not pursued on Fitt’s behalf because “we don’t have the votes.”

Both Glover and Selectman David Ivey have in the past voiced support for paying Fitts’ legal bills, even before the complaint against him was dropped.  Selectman Gerald Kilgore has refused to vote on the matter because he plows driveways for Robert Moorehead, who filed the complaint against Fitts.  Because Selectman Glen Young also was named in the Moorehead suit, it is assumed he, too, would recuse himself. 

Selectboard bylaws call on at least three affirmative votes for any decision.  With two selectmen either unable to, or refusing to vote, that means the remaining selectmen must be unanimous. 

That leaves Selectman Skip Herrick, a former Oxford County Sheriff, as the presumed vote against Fitts.