With a deadlocked 3-3 town council vote Tuesday, the fate of Gorham’s historic clock remains undecided.
At issue is whether to re-install the clock, currently being restored, in either the steeple or vestibule of the First Parish Church, or to move it to the municipal center. The debate is complicated by the fact that some town councilors are also members of the church, and by the suggestion that moving the clock, whose restoration was paid for by the town, to the church would be a violation of the constitutional principle of separation of church and state.
The measure the council faced Tuesday called for installing the clock in the municipal center. The contentious issue drew a full house to the council chambers.
Councilors Phil Dugas, Shonn Moulton and Jane Willett voted against it, and Burleigh Loviett, Norm Justice and Mike Phinney voted in favor.
The clock was given in 1868 to the town by Toppan Robie, who was a leading Gorham citizen. The clock had been in the steeple of the First Parish Church for 138 years. But when it stopped last year, the town council approved spending $75,000 for restoring the clock. It is now in a repair shop in Freeport. After restoration, the church wants the clock returned.
Justice, the council chairman, said Wednesday the deadlock didn’t mean the clock is going back to the church. He said four votes would be required to return the clock to the church.
Justice was uncertain what the next step would be.
“Who knows? It leaves it in limbo,” Justice said about status of the clock location.
Church member and Gorham resident Sen. Phil Bartlett, D-Cumberland County, spoke on behalf of the church for the clock. After the meeting, Bartlett hoped the town would agree to meet with church leaders to talk about a compromise. “The negotiation is just beginning,” Bartlett said.
The deadlock occurred after Councilor Brenda Caldwell abstained because of her affiliation with the church. She is a member of the church’s executive council and historian. She has also worked in the church office for four months but without pay.
Three other town councilors – Loveitt, Phinney and Willett – identified themselves as members of the church. Loveitt and Phinney said they were not active in the church.
During public comment, Matt Robinson, a former town councilor who had previously raised the separation-of-church-and-state question, thanked Caldwell for stepping down and asked if anyone else was a voting member of the church. After a recess, Loveitt pursued the questioning, asking if any other councilor were a church officer.
Then, Willett said she did have a position in the church, but said it wasn’t relevant. “I happen to be a deacon,” Willett said.
Loveitt said a deacon makes policy, and he felt Willett should abstain. “It’s demeaning to the town council and the board of deacons,” Loveitt said.
But Willett argued her work at the church did not present a conflict because she’s a volunteer and isn’t paid.
The Rev. David Butler, senior pastor at First Parish, said Wednesday that the board of deacons is responsible for the worship service and spiritual life of the church. He said deacons have nothing to do with money or property.
But Loveitt said Wednesday that the church deacons supervise the minister, who, Loveitt said, is a proponent of retaining the clock for the church.
“I’m flabbergasted,” Loveitt said about Willett not abstaining.
Justice said Wednesday that Willett didn’t disclose until pushed that she was a church deacon. Justice said the town council could have voted on whether to allow Willett to vote on the clock. “But no one made a motion,” Justice said.
Mike Starn, communications director for the Maine Municipal Association, said Wednesday that conflict of interest according to state law would involve someone having a financial interest in a matter the individual was voting on.
But, other than that, there are no black-and-white guidelines, he said.
“If the public perceives in a broad fashion there is a conflict of interest, it could be damaging to a public official,” Starn said.
Starn said abstaining from a vote boils down to an individual judgment for a councilor unless a council has an adopted policy. Justice didn’t believe Gorham had a written policy.
Deborah Loveitt, wife of councilor Loveitt, spoke about history of the clock and its lasting gift from Robie. She is a member of the town council’s clock committee and a member of the church. Until recently, she served on the church executive board, but has resigned.
She urged the council to maximize the historic value of the clock in choosing a location, and to restore the clock faces in the steeple to working order.
Bartlett said the clock would have a greater value located in the church. Butler said Robie intended for the clock to be at the church.
If it had passed, the council’s order Tuesday would have placed the clock in the municipal center. The town would also have reimbursed the church up to $20,000 to install another clock works to turn hands for the four faces on the church’s steeple.
During the public hearing, several residents spoke in favor of returning the clock to the church. Noah Miner, who is not a member of First Parish, lives in the village and favored the church having the clock. “I urge the town council to return the clock to the steeple,” Miner said.
Robie also gave the church a Paul Revere bell, which was once tolled by the clock. A resident, Christine Sawyer, called the clock and the bell a twosome. She asked the town council to keep faith with the clock’s donor and opposed moving it to the municipal center.
Clyde Grant handed the town council a petition with 166 names opposing mounting the clock in the municipal center. “Its location is an important part of its value to citizens,” Grant said. “I request it be returned to its original location in the church tower.”
Robinson wanted the clock in the municipal center. Opposing it being returned to the church on constitutional grounds, Robinson asked if the state had ever given money to places of worship.
Also, Robinson said, some religions prohibit members from entering other places of worship. “It’s more open to everyone to look at here,” Robinson said.
The Gorham Historical Society voted unanimously in October to ask the town council for a public hearing. Jan Labrecque, president of the society, said it also recommended the council delay making its decision until after it had digested information gathered during the public hearing.
Labrecque hoped for some type of council documentation of its decision. “People don’t want to go through this again,” Lebrecque said.
Burleigh Loveitt said it would be up to those who “derailed” the move to locate the clock on town property to generate a proposal that passes “constitutional scrutiny” while preserving the clock.
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