A judge threw out residents’ lawsuit against the town of Waldoboro over voting methods for town meetings.
No hearings were held on the suit. In the town’s successful motion for dismissal, they argued that the residents failed to show any legitimate legal grounds for their position. Justice Jeffery Hjelm agreed and dismissed the suit Nov. 14.
Lincoln County Superior Court received the ruling Nov. 28.
The lawsuit, filed by nine residents in August, alleged that a July 2011 special town meeting is invalid because it was held by traditional open town meeting. The plaintiffs cited a November 2008 referendum special town meeting, at which voters approved an article calling for all future town meetings to be held by referendum.
The plaintiffs, Dennis Blanchet, Travis Reed, Michael Robitaille, John Higgins, Doreen Weiss, Wallace Walton, Patricia Chapman, Duncan Morrell and Scott Dupuis, argued the 2008 article created an ordinance that binds all future town meetings and special town meetings to referendum votes.
Waldoboro argued the 2008 article does not create an ordinance. “It is nothing more than an advisor, non-binding warrant article passed at a particular town meeting in 2008,” according to the defendant’s motion for dismissal.
“The big thing is that the town doesn’t agree that there is an ordinance, and even if there was, it would still be non-binding,” the town’s attorney, William Kelly, said in a telephone interview Aug. 29.
