The Selectmen problem in small towns

To the Editor;

A concerned resident is frustrated with the selectman problem and abuse of power in the town of Sangerville. This is a problem that many small towns are concerned about.

As you may or may not know, the executive branch of town government in New England is commonly run by a board of selectmen. In the State of Maine there is currently no way to remove a rogue selectman or town official from office once he is elected or appointed. The Maine State Recall Statute Title 30A,  chapter 121, sub chapter 2505, section 9 reads “Limitation of Recall, an official may be recalled only if the official is convicted of a crime, the conduct of which occurred during the official’s term of office and the victim of which is the municipality.”

Section 9 makes the Statute totally useless for the citizens to use. If the Maine State Legislature would amend the Recall Statute and take out section 9. Limitation of Recall. It would save municipalities a lot of headaches, time and money.

Maine laws are very limited when it comes to municipal laws concerning ethics and town officials because the legislators believe it should be left up to the municipalities to set in place there own laws concerning ethics and recall procedures. The problem is that it is next to impossible to recall an official charged with any crime because in Maine an individual can not prosecute a criminal offense; the State District Attorney has to prosecute crimes, and they just simply will not get involved in town business. They have much more important issues to deal with.

Even if you were lucky enough to get an official charged and convicted, the cost to the town would be astronomical, and the official’s term of office probably would be well over by that time.

All this being said please keep in mind that previous crimes do not count for the above Maine State Recall Statute according to section 9 Limitation of Recall.

Sadly, for now, the only option we the small towns of Maine have is to enact our own Recall Ordinances and give the power back to the citizens of the town where as we are the municipality and these individuals are working for and representing us and took an oath of office to abide by the law. When we voted these officials in to office, we did not have to state a reason to vote them in to office; we each had our personal reason. Therefore we the registered voters should have in place a law or ordinance to allow the voters to vote the officials out of office, the same way we voted them into office. Of course the only difference would be that we would have to use the petition process to ask for a warrant article to vote to recall the official at a special town meeting or at a regular town meeting to vote them out of office.

This is the democratic process we use in America, and this process should be done without interference from a rogue select person or town official as we had been in the past.

Richard R. Dobson Sr.

Sangerville