Damariscotta’s 2010 Annual Town meeting featured surprises, a little animosity, confusion, agreement and, after most had left, an addendum.
For the record, the 64 voters at the three-hour meeting at the Great Salt Bay School approved a $754,437 budget for the town government, a figure that is $4500 more than recommended by the budget committee and $5300 more than approved by the Board of Selectman.
This figure does not include last minute approval of donations to a trio of social service agencies that were unable to obtain 112 signatures on petitions to include their requests on the town warrant. These were approved at the tail end of the meeting after most residents had departed. The requests added another $3655 to the bottom line.
Most surprising, at least to State Rep. Jon McKane (R-Newcastle) was the approval, with no discussion, of changes to the town’s Shoreland Zoning Ordinance to bring it in line with state mandated changes.
A similar ordinance was proposed for last year’s town meeting but it was withdrawn in the face of opposition and sent back to the town planning board for revisions.
“I hope people here don’t have shoreland property,” McKane said.
Moderator Jim Gallagher decided to ask voters to consider the various units making up the total budget for municipal government, which did not grant a raise to the town’s four office workers.
Dick McLean, the chair of the Board of Selectmen, noted that the four office workers were not getting a raise but the later budget article provided for a raise for the five police patrol officers.
Despite a plea from former Selectman Walter Hilton the budget minus a raise for the town’s office workers was passed after budget committee member Ann Pinkham reminded the voters the Selectmen were trying to hold the line on taxes for taxpayers.
Later, when the town considered the police department budget, which included a three percent raise for the five police patrol officers, the discussion heated up again.
Selectman Josh Pinkham argued against the police raise saying it is not fair to provide a raise for the police and not for the office workers. Failure to give a raise to the police does not mean they are not appreciated, he said.
Hilton jumped in saying it is pretty sad not to give a raise to all town employees.
Pinkham shot back. “It is not a slap in the face to the police. These are hard times,” he said.
Budget Committee member Bob Nee, who pushed the police raise through the budget committee, said the raise would only add $4980 to the total budget or only a few dollars to each household’s tax bill.
Two residents argued that the raise to the police and not to office workers might be discriminatory because the office workers were women and most of the police officers were men.
After a general discussion, where many of the speakers favored giving a raise to both the police and office staff, Gallagher and others became somewhat confused at how this could be accomplished and stay within the law governing conduct of town meetings.
Gallagher called for a recess and, after a private discussion, said the earlier vote could be reconsidered so voters could raise the office staff pay too. Voters approved the procedures and the raises.
Then was the sticky matter of other budget line items that had to be modified to include raises for the workers retirement and insurance based on their new salaries.
That sent Town Manager Greg Zinser for his calculator and he worked the numbers. “That adds $4980 to the bottom line, for a final balance of $754,437,” he said.”
When voters adopted this final figure, Ann Pinkham summed up the discussion.
“This is a can of worms. Thank you Mr. McLean,” she said staring at the chairman of the board of selectman who started the discussion urging raises for the office staff.
Next up was the public works department and voters approved a three percent raise for them too.
Selectman Vicki Pinkham, who had opposed any raises for town workers, then argued if voters were going to raise the compensation for office staff, public works workers and police officers, they should be fair and raise the monies paid to volunteer firefighters and animal control agents.
This prompted Hilton to shoot back. “It is nice to see a change of attitude on the board.”
“I’m still shaking,” said Vicki Pinkham.
Finally, three hours into the meeting, after most of the audience had left, representatives of social service agencies, New Hope for Women, Healthy Kids and Youth Promise, admitted they had been unable to gather enough signatures (112 needed) to fulfill town requirements for inclusion on the town meeting warrant, but asked for money anyway.
The voters agreed to give them $3655 from tax funds.
