The majority of residents speaking at a Sept. 26 public hearing expressed support for the Damariscotta Police Department and some offered suggestions for a compromise.
The Damariscotta Board of Selectmen has proposed a town charter amendment that would grant the board the authority to close the police department and contract for law enforcement.
Damariscotta citizens will likely vote on the amendment Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 6.
According to a document authored by Damariscotta Town Manager Matt Lutkus and distributed at the public hearing, if voters approve the amendment, the selectmen would start negotiating a contract with the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office.
The sheriff’s office has, at Lutkus’ request, submitted a proposal to provide 24/7 law enforcement services in the town.
The charter amendment was the subject of the public hearing at Great Salt Bay Community School.
Damariscotta resident Dick Mayer outlined a number of recommendations for the police department in a document he distributed to the Board of Selectmen and town manager.
Mayer, a former Brunswick police chief and assistant director of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, currently works as a U.S. Department of State consultant on law enforcement issues. He is also the husband of Damariscotta Selectman Robin Mayer.
Dick Mayer said he thinks the town should retain the police department, but reduce the budget “reasonably and prudently” by eliminating a vacant position and asking the sheriff’s office to cover shifts when the remaining officers cannot.
Mayer said the department “has improved the quality of its services” under the leadership of Damariscotta Police Chief Chad Andrews. He also said contracting with the sheriff’s office would result in a loss of local control and said he does not think the town would see “substantial or, indeed, any cost savings” through the change.
Mike Stailing, a former Damariscotta Police officer, said the town should commission the Maine Chiefs of Police Association to conduct a “top-to-bottom review” of the police department.
The town government previously issued a request for proposals for a study, but town officials have said it did not receive any responses.
Stailing also said the town should poll all taxpayers about what they want in a police department.
He said he worked as a contract deputy for two sheriff’s offices during his law enforcement career.
“We were never in the town we were actually assigned to be in under the contract,” Stailing said, repeating what another former contract deputy, Damariscotta Police Officer Richard Alexander, said last week.
Stailing asked whether the contract with the county would include a guarantee that the contract deputies stay in the town 24/7 except in the case of a life-threatening emergency.
Finally, he questioned whether the small room in the town office where the town says it would house the deputies would be adequately private and secure to conduct interviews with suspects and victims of serious crimes.
“You need private areas, secure areas where you can protect these people,” Stailing said.
Repeating a theme of the previous public hearing, Stailing said he would “gladly” forgo any property tax savings to maintain the police department.
Damariscotta resident Lorraine Faherty said the town is missing “the big picture” with all the talk of the minutiae of department operations, office space and the sheriff’s proposal.
“As residents and taxpayers of this city, we’re stockholders. We’re shareholders. We have a stake in this department,” Faherty said.
If the town contracts for law enforcement, “We’re no longer stockholders. We’re customers,” she said. “Once the county gets ahold of it, we don’t really have a lot of say.”
“We want to be stockholders, shareholders,” Faherty said. “We don’t want to be consumers. I think we need to focus on the philosophy here.”
Damariscotta resident Shari Sage said she believes the police department “contributes to the value and the reputation of our town.”
“I like the security,” she said. “I like the fact that I don’t have to walk with Mace in my pocket. I feel very confident and comfortable.”
“I interact with these people,” she said of the department’s officers. “They’re not just faces or numbers.”
As for taxes, “I’d pay double,” she said. “I think this is a bargain.”
She also said the citizens, not the Board of Selectmen, should have the final say about whether the town closes the department and contracts with the county.
Damariscotta resident Amy Lalime related an account of how an erratic driver nearly hit her and her daughter while they were walking along Church Street.
The police department “got that person by my very scanty description of a car that was a sedan, that was black, that was going that way,” Lalime said, pointing.
“I like my town. I like my police department. I think it’s very shortsighted to think about farming it out,” she said.
Maine Association of Police Executive Director Paul Gaspar encouraged citizens to read the proposed charter amendment carefully.
The amendment would shift authority “from you, as the stockholders, to this body right here,” Gaspar said, indicating the Board of Selectmen.
Jim Campbell, a persistent critic of the police department in recent years, questioned the wisdom of contracting with the sheriff’s office.
He noted that the controversy has had a positive effect, as he sees police officers, including the chief, on foot patrol again.
Campbell then said the town should keep the department, but cut its budget in half and give the approximately $250,000 in savings to the Damariscotta Fire Department.
A local business owner said the foot patrols resumed when Andrews became the police chief, before the town government started looking into closing the department.
Selectman Vicki Pinkham defended the decision to request the county proposal and start the charter amendment process.
“It’s a wonderful feeling to have our own police department and I think they do an exceptional job,” Pinkham said.
“It’s not your fault that we are where we are,” she said to the officers present at the hearing.
Pinkham said the town applied for and received two U.S. Department of Justice grants to pay for new police officers. After the three-year grants ran out, the expense became part of the municipal budget.
“Adding two officers to the force has put the budget up over a half a million dollars and that’s where I’m looking,” Pinkham said. “I’m looking at being financially responsible.”
Damariscotta resident Cheryl Scavetta said she has had recent interaction with both the police department and the sheriff’s office.
“I support the Damariscotta Police Department and all that they do and I feel that we really do need a police department in our town with the increase in crime and in drugs in our area,” Scavetta said. “I ask that everybody in town support our police department because they are an exceptional group of men and women.”
A public information meeting about the same subject will take place at Great Salt Bay Community School Wednesday, Oct. 3 at 5:30 p.m.
The final public hearing will follow Thursday, Oct. 4 at 5:30 p.m. at the Damariscotta town office. The Board of Selectmen would have to take official action after the Oct. 4 hearing in order to place the amendment before voters.
