City hopes to clear public safety hiring

SOUTH PORTLAND — Two years ago, when Portland hit a budget brick wall and laid off several firefighters, South Portland Fire Chief Kevin Guimond saw “a prefect opportunity” to pick up some fully trained, certified staffers.

“We should have been right there knocking on their doors, saying come on across the bridge, we’ll take you in, but we can’t do that,” Guimond said, during a recent City Council workshop.

When told they had to wait until the annual testing process run by South Portland Civil Service Commission each fall before they could even apply, most of the potential recruits simply faded into the suburbs, said Guimond, taking jobs with municipal and volunteer departments that would sign them on right away.

That’s because the cumbersome, largely archaic civil service process forces potential new hires to jump through hoops regardless of prior experience, and those hoops are held aloft only once per year for the fire department, twice for police. However, efforts to streamline the hiring process have become bogged down, with commission members and city staffers at odds regarding how far the changes should go.

South Portland is one of only three cities in Maine that still has a civil service commission to oversee hiring in the police and fire departments, the others being Portland and Lewiston. Such entities, said City Councilor Tom Coward, “were a very valuable addition to city government back when they were proposed before the 1930s, to stop nepotism.”

“They were meant to stop when a new mayor came in and suddenly all the patrolmen and firefighters were his nephews and cousins and friends and business associates and children of business associates,” said Coward. “I think the world has moved beyond this and I would not be opposed to eliminate the Civil Service Commission completely.”

City Manage Jim Gailey said he’s not pushing to kill the commission, just to loosen its stranglehold on the process.

“Being able to hire that person right out of the gate would save a lot of time for the applicant and the department, and a lot of expense to the taxpayer,” said Gailey, pointing out that those willing to wait on the city tend to require a fair amount of training, and that’s if they’re up to snuff at all.

According to George Hackett, chairman of South Portland’s seven-member Civil Service Commission, 50 people applied for fire department jobs last fall. Just 39 passed the written test. All but 17 washed out of the agility test. Two more got tripped up in the oral interviews.

And that’s before the background checks, which Police Chief Ed Googins said cost him more potential hires than any other part of the process.

“We could not fill out three positions in the current academy, because we ran out of names,” said Googins. “What we need are more candidates to look at in a shorter period of time.”

“What I’m looking for is a rolling process, not one that happens once a year,” agreed Guimond.

In 2010, city staff tried to craft amendments to the ordinance governing the commission in hope of streamlining the process. The seven-member commission set those amendments aside after the firefighters’ union rejected them.

“We thought it was too major a rewrite of the ordinance,” said Mike Williams, president of Local 1476 International Association of Fire Fighters.

Instead, the commission began work on its own version, which, Gailey said, saw undue union influence. As proof, he points out that while the hiring process for firefighters saw few changes, many of the city’s proposals for police officers, supported by the police union, made it into the commission-authored amendments. That has resulted in an ordinance proposal in which trained police officers coming from another department can be exempted from certain testing, while firefighters, even certified paramedics, must start at square one.

“My concern is, what part does the union have in our hiring process?” asked Gailey, rhetorically. “This is really not an ordinance amendment the union should have any say in. I can see if we’re talking about modifying the promotions process, but we did not touch that. For an applicant to come through the system and be ultimately hired, he or she had to be on the job for one year before they’re even invited into the union. So, these are not union positions.”

For his part, Hackett said Gailey created a “pretty muddy process,” by presenting councilors with both the ordinance changes OK’d by his commission, as well as those originally proposed by city staff.

“It was not presented to them by the city manager in typical fashion, typical being that normally only the proposed changes are provided to them and nothing more,” said Hackett. “You would have to ask the city manager or some of the council members as to why they felt this time needed to be different.”

That juxtaposition did cause some concern among councilors at their Feb. 13 workshop, prompting a can’t-we-all-get-along response.

“I do get really concerned when it looks like you have the city in opposition to a commission,” said Councilor Maxine Beecher. “I don’t see any reason they could both have been working on this together for the past two years.”

“I don’t enjoy being presented with two opposing views this evening, and the difference between the two proposals is considerable,” agreed Councilor Tom Blake, a former firefighter and IAFF Local 1476 president. “For 30 years, there had been a power struggle between the Civil Service Commission and city administration. There’s no question about that.

“I see the city’s proposal as a clear rewrite of the Civil Service Ordinance, an attempt to weaken it considerably, in an effort to give city staff and department heads a greater ability to hire, promote and fire,” said Blake.

Gailey denied this charge, saying he only wants to put South Portland on an even keel with surrounding cities and towns, which can hire at will, without a rigorous civil service vetting process.

“We’re just trying to bring in the best and brightest to our police and fire departments,” he said.

But Blake saw it differently.

“This is not an attempt to streamline the process. It’s an attempt to undermine the authority and ability of the commission,” he said. “It undermines the protections over 100 of our employees need.”

Among other things, Blake objected to a change in the city proposal that took the interview process from a commission responsibility and set up a new interview board for the fire department that includes the fire chief, another fire department member, the city’s human resources director, and just three of the seven commission members.

The largest change in the commission-drafted update is the creation of a hiring process exemption for previously certified police officers, referred to as “blue pins” in the trade, along with more frequent hiring boards to help speed those trained officers into service. This “second list” of applicants has a so-called “sunset provision” of Dec. 31, 2013, at which time it must be re-adopted to continue.

Both Googins and Guimond said they approved of the commission draft as a starting point, although Guimond said he wanted a similar process to enable him to bring paramedics on staff without a laborious application process. Essentially, they said, they are losing qualified candidates to departments that did not even exist when South Portland created the civil service hiring process it continues to live by.

“We’re in competition now with smaller departments that hire paramedics,” said Guimond. “We’re in the same pool looking for quality people and our system has become cumbersome.”

The council sent the commissions ordinance draft back for reconsideration, with hopes something better aligned with the city version can be created. The goal, said Mayor Patti Smith, is to get something back for review by the council within the next two months – not forever in municipal terms, but far off for Guimond, who needs to fill five positions and only has one paramedic in the current approved applicant list.

According to Hackett, the chief may have to wait even longer than he’d like.

“Despite the call of some council members to move this forward in weeks rather then months, it does not appear we will be back on the agenda any time soon,” he wrote, in a recent email reply to a request for comment.  “Although language concerning paramedics appeared to be all that needed to be added, we have been told to expect more requests for changes beyond that one from the city. 

“I guess you can't rush city hall,” said Hackett.

That, at least, is something the council seems to agree with.

“We rarely move from an imperfect to a perfect situation right away,” said Councilor Gerard Jalbert.

Requests high, funds low for South Portland grants

SOUTH PORTLAND — South Portland’s Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Committee has a tough row to hoe, with $127,602 in public-sector requests from a dozen different agencies, including some city departments, but only $58,000 available to give.

“I don’t know why I volunteered to put myself in this awful position of having to decide who doesn’t get something,” said committee member Don Legere, “because all of the proposals are very worthy. They all provide great services to the community.

“Unfortunately, some aren’t going to get what they’re looking for,” said Legere. “It’s nothing personal, it’s just a result of us trying to balance everything.”

According to South Portland Community Development Director Eric Carson, when the city was invited to disband its own block grant program in 2007 and go in under the umbrella of the county, it made a deal under which it gets 23 percent of the annual CDBG allocation to Portland, made by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Because of cuts on the federal level, that allocation is down 12 percent this year, to $447,238. Of that, 20 percent goes to administration costs, including part of Carson’s salary. Another 15 percent is allocated to public services, while the remainder is dedicated to public infrastructure projects. Other eligible projects include housing, economic development and planning.

Infrastructure awards this year are expected to be the Ocean Street/Cottage Road sewer separation project ($125,000) and the Mill Creek Park redesign ($100,000), both slated to get under way this summer.

In both the public service and infrastructure awards, money must be awarded in city census tracts where at least 51 percent of the population is considered to be “low and moderate income.” The latest federal definitions set that at an annual income between $57,850 and $72,300 for a family of four.

Citywide, between 36 and 41 percent of all families qualify as low- to moderate-income. Neighborhoods eligible for CDBG funds under the 51 percent rule are Ferry Village (66.2 percent), Pleasantdale (60.7 percent) and Red Bank (59 percent). However, Carson notes that other areas, like Knightville/Mill Creek (32 percent) qualify because they have pockets that are more than 40 percent. There are seven of these block groups throughout the city that, with the full-tracts eligible for funding, account for 4,284 people.

“We have more people with more need than we have ever before,” said Carson. “We have less funds than ever before. If you go to the food shelters, they’ll tell you, there are people in suits coming in now asking for help.

Hoping for assistance this year, from highest request to lowest, are:

• The South Portland School Dept. for its 21 Club  – $16,000.

• City of South Portland, for the Red Bank Village Resource HUB  –$15,140.

• The Southern Maine Agency on Aging for Meals on Wheels – $15,000.

• City of South Portland, for general assistance – $15,000.

• The Community Counseling Center for its Trauma Intervention Program – $15,000.

• The Opportunity Alliance for its foster grandparent program – $10,462.

• Family Crisis Services, for administrative support – $10,000.

• City of South Portland, for recreation scholarships – $10,000.

• Skillin Elementary School PTA for its Snack Pantry – $7,500.

• Boys and Girls Club of Southern Maine, for transportation of children – $5,000.

• City of South Portland, for its bus pass program – $4,500.

• Easter Seals, for the Center for Therapeutic Recreation – $4,000.

Carson said the committee will review the applications at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 28 in the City Council chambers.

Town gauging Wentworth impact

SCARBOROUGH — A potential pinch in the pocketbook for Scarborough taxpayers is not the only impact to be felt from the new Wentworth Intermediate School, a $39.1 million construction project overwhelmingly approved by voters last November.

The town is now maneuvering to skirt a $218,000 fine it could draw for filling 1.35 acres of wetlands where the new 163,000-square-foot building will go. Construction slated to begin in August also means the end of the Bessworth Beginners Pre-School program, which will be shuttered when the building that houses it comes down to make way for the new school.

Meanwhile, parents picking up and dropping off students could find commuting a tricky proposition come 2014, when the Wentworth entrance on Route 114 becomes right turn only.

And finally, any new residents in Scarborough could end up footing an extra share of the construction bill if the ordinance committee elects to hike an existing impact fee when it takes up the topic later this month.

“We’ve spent a considerable about of time since the election getting a handle on the site,” said building committee Chairman Paul Koziell. “There’s been a lot of work at understanding from all different departments here in town just how to make this site work as best as it can.

“The overall goal has been to continue to have a fiscal and financially responsible project, while at the same time looking to deliver a school that serves the best interest of our children here in Scarborough, serves the best interests of our teachers and serves the best interests of our community in general,” said Koziell.

WETLANDS

In the eyes of the state Department of Environmental Protection, there are two ways to make up for destroying wetland habitat during development. One is to donate land for conservation. The other is to pay a fine.

“You do have that option, of just simply writing a check to the Army Corps of Engineers,” said Dan Cecil, an architect from the Portland office of Harriman Associates, which designed the new school.

Given the required size of that check, however, the town has elected to give up a parcel of land, although that option also has a steep price. According to Cecil, the state agency has a 15-to-1 rule, meaning that for every acre of wetlands destroyed, the developer (in this case, the town) must agree to preserve 15 acres.

“If you put other wetlands land in conservation so they can be never be developed in the future, they’ll accept that swap,” said Cecil.

Fortunately, the town has a suitable lot. In the so-called Wiley Parcel off Tenney Road, the town owns 42 acres obtained from its own land-or-fee demands on developers. Much of that property is dedicated to ball fields, walking trails and water retention basins for nearby homes. However, there are 20.5 acres of existing wetlands to be had. As luck would have it, that land abuts the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge and is already encumbered. Last year, the town signed a land management agreement with the refuge, setting aside 12 acres of that lot for 10 years as a preserve for the endangered New England cottontail rabbit.

“If we indeed offer a portion of this property,” wrote Town Manager Tom Hall in a Feb. 10 memo to town councilors, in which he reported a “positive” meeting with state and Army Corps officials, “I expect we will be required to deed the land to another entity, most likely to be combined into the Rachel Carson refuge.

According to Cecil, the Army Corps of Engineers has asked for “some additional documentation” related to the proposal, which should be submitted by the end of February.

“They will then deliberate down in Boston about whether or not they will accept this land as part of the mitigation,” Cecil said. “It might take them a month, or even two months, but we think the chances are excellent that they will.”

Ultimately, the Town Council will have to vote to hand over the land.

However, one person is hoping to create a slight wrinkle in the plan. School Board member John Cole said he hopes the building committee will refrain from filling in one small section of wetland, even if it can do so with a donation of other property.

On the southwest corner of the Bessworth building parking lot is an area “about half the size of tennis court,” Cole said, which would be perfect to retain as an outdoor laboratory for students to study the flora and fauna of wetland habitats.

Cole, who spent 2007-09 cataloging vernal pools in town while on the conservation commission, plans to visit the Bessworth pool this spring as part of an adult education class he is teaching. It would be nice, he said, if Wentworth students (grades 3-5) were to get that same opportunity.

“It’s not ideal,” said Cole, noting that the area is not a true vernal pool because it does not dry up in the summer, “but it definitely would give kids ready access to this type of environment, and the associated biology, without getting into a bus.”

Cole said he has yet to make a formal preservation request to either the school board or the building committee, although he has been working “behind he scenes” to engage individual members.

“I want people to not be sidetracked by this,” he said. “I’m just trying to build some awareness, if we can, to keep this one area from getting plowed over.

“I’m hoping that over time there will be some critical mass of interest to say, ‘Let’s do something with this,’ because, it’s like anything, if they fill it in, it’s a done deal and all that opportunity goes away. It never comes back.”

PRESCHOOL PROGRAM

The original plan – before nearly 10,000 square feet was cut in hopes of finding a palatable price tag for voters – was to provide space in the new Wentworth building for the child care programs run by Scarborough Community Services.

In some sense, that will still happen. The before- and after-school programs will move there this fall, but an administrative office will go to the Narragansett Building at Scarborough Middle School, which also will host child care during snow days, teacher workshop days and “vacation experience” camps.

However, the beginners pre-school did not make the cut, for lack of space.

SCHOOL ACCESS

Planning Board members have cast a dim eye on the parking plan presented by Cecil, which features access roads circulating traffic around a 248-car parking lot.

“It’s kind of a complicated,” admitted Cecil at a Jan. 30 Planning Board meeting, “but this is scheme No. 27 of all the ones we’ve looked at to try and address all of the potential parking problems.”

Town Planner Dan Bacon has pointed out that while the board can offer suggestions and comment, it cannot make demands of the building committee, due to the municipal nature of the project.

However, perhaps the biggest change will take place on Route 114. The main entrance for Wentworth will move to the one now used for the middle school. The current entrance will remain, but only right turns will be allowed, while a traffic island will block access to that drive to vehicles coming from the Oak Hill intersection at Route 1.

“It will be one-way out, one-way in,” explains Cecil. “What that will do is, it will prevent people from coming from the Hannaford lot, heading north for 100 feet and then making a sharp left-hand turn onto Wentworth, because it won’t be possible.

“It will greatly improve the safety of that particular intersection,” he said. “The new cross-campus road will allow people to get anywhere on site from Quentin Drive.”

IMPACT FEE

When the Town Council’s ordinance committee meets on Feb. 28, it will take up the issue of school impact fees.

“I want to review that ordinance again and see it go before council review, to see how they feel, because we’re buying a new school here,” said Councilor Richard Sullivan at the Jan. 31 committee meeting.

Scarborough has an impact fee that must be paid before the town will issue a residential building permit. Created in 2001, and based on a formula that takes into account the presumed financial load each new home creates on town services, the fee has garnered Scarborough as much as $446,000 (FY 2003) and as little as $119,170 (FY 2009).

“I don’t think we can have a specific Wentworth fee,” said Hall, “but the new debt may force us to reevaluate what the existing school impact fee should be.”

Adjusted for inflation each year since its incepting, the school impact fee now runs $4,130 for a single-family home, with senior housing units exempted.

A CLOSER LOOK

A timeline for reconstruction of Wentworth Intermediate School, as presented by project architect Harriman Associates:

June 2012 – Design specifications and architectural plans completed.

July 2012 – Project put out to bid.

August 2012 – General contractor selected. Bessworth child care building demolished. Modular classrooms now used for storage on northeast corner of building removed. Temporary playgrounds built on northeast and south ends of the old Wentworth building. Some hazardous materials removed.

September 2012 – Groundbreaking begins. Trees cleared on west side of old Wentworth

October 2012 – New access road built linking Municipal Drive to Scarborough Middle School.

December 2012 – Site of new Wentworth fully cleared. Foundation work begins, starting from western-most classroom wings. Work begins to reroute utilities to new building.

Fall 2013 – Shell in place for classroom wing of new Wentworth. Foundation laid for communal wing (gym, cafeteria, kitchen, administration, music and art). Drilling begins on geothermal well field.

June 2014 – New Wentworth “substantially complete.” Bus loop and playground built in front of the new building at its south side.

Summer 2014 – Equipment and materials moved from old building to new. Remaining modular classrooms removed from old building. Last of hazardous materials removed from old Wentworth and demolition begins.

September 2014 – Classes begin at new Wentworth. Once old Wentworth building is removed, work begins on parking lot on footprint of demolished building. Stormwater catch basins installed.

November 2014 – Driveways, sidewalks and landscaping finished. Project completed.

Red Robin hiring 142

‘Gourmet burger’ chain opening Scarborough store in late March

SCARBOROUGH — Burger fans have been salivating for more than a year, ever since Red Robin Gourmet Burgers signed a lease with KGI Properties for a 6,000-square-foot space at 800 Gallery Boulevard in Scarborough. Now, the popular eatery is prepping to open in late March, and here’s the really good news – they’re hiring for 142 positions.

“We’re looking for team members who are passionate about burgers and who can deliver superior service to our guests,” said General Manager Claude Hadjaissa, who arrives in town this week from Red Robin’s Augusta location to begin taking applications.

Officially founded in 1969 when Seattle restaurant entrepreneur Gerry Kingen bought Sam’s Red Robin – which began in the mid-1940s as Sam’s Tavern, near the University of Washington – the company went public in 2002 and now has 465 locations in 42 states, and Canada. Its first Maine branch opened in Augusta six years ago under Hadjaissa’s leadership.

Both Maine locations are corporate owned. Only about one-third of the Red Robin restaurants are franchises.

Winter said applications are being taken at the new Scarborough location, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Saturday. Anyone interested in a position with the company can also go online to the “careers” section of www.redrobin.com.