Life isn’t easy for Westbrook’s code enforcement officer these days.

He’s being second guessed, called a puppet of the City Council and asked to take on the work of a full-time assistant whose job was eliminated in a round of layoffs in January.

Not that it shows.

“I’ve never seen him get flustered,” Mayor Bruce Chuluda said about Gouzie, 56, who has been the code enforcement officer since 2000.

As he sat in his office on a recent afternoon, Gouzie didn’t seem troubled by the fact that the Zoning Board had recently overturned his decision in a highly publicized fight to reopen a bar on Brown Street and that another of his decisions in a dispute between two of the city’s biggest taxpayers is facing a lengthy Zoning Board review and possible court challenges.

He shrugged off the Zoning Board’s decision on the Skybox bar on Brown Street. He said he’s confident in the decisions he’s made, but, in the laid-back manner he’s known for in City Hall, he said, he understands that everyone isn’t always going to agree with him.

“It’s all interpretation… If they override the decision, that’s the way it is,” he said.

With his assistant’s position eliminated in January, Gouzie was arguably the last person who needed the extra work and added stress – but, described by his co-workers as level-headed and serious about his job, he also may have been one of the few who could handle it.

A Westbrook native, Gouzie was trained as a plumber in the U.S. Air Force, which he joined after graduating from high school in 1971. After four years, he left to work as a plumber in Old Orchard Beach and then as pipe fitter at Bath Iron Works. He returned to work in his hometown as a pipe fitter at Sappi, and part time as the city’s plumbing inspector.

A year after Gouzie was laid off at Sappi, the city’s code enforcement officer retired. Gouzie filled in temporarily and, after two months, was hired to fill the position permanently.

Though Gouzie said the past few months have challenged him with some of the toughest decisions since he took the job, he looks at them as learning experiences – ones that, in the long run, will only make him better at his job.

Decisions, decisions

Last month, the Zoning Board overturned Gouzie’s decision regarding the Skybox Bar and Grill on Brown Street. Gouzie had ruled that, because of recent renovations, the bar had changed classifications and would no longer be allowed in its zone.

“I still believe I was right,” Gouzie said, but it’s not something that weighs on his mind – even with the flack he’s gotten from Skybox owner Allen Moore.

Moore said he believes someone is telling Gouzie what decisions he should make based on the fact that his ruling was one of a series from the city that has made it difficult for the Skybox to open.

“I’ve been called a puppet to the City Council,” Gouzie said, but he insists that’s not the case and the people he works closely with defend him.

“He takes things as they come and looks at things from all perspectives,” said Chuluda, who has been impressed with how Gouzie has handled the tough decisions that have come before him.

“I wouldn’t tell him how to do his job,” Chuluda said. And, according to Gouzie, no one else has, either.

“I’ve never had any pressure from the council, not once,” he said.

Even Jonathan Olson, the regional manager of Pike Industries, which appealed Gouzie’s decision regarding its right to expand its quarrying operations on Spring Street, said he understood why Gouzie made the ruling he did.

“I think he made the only decision he thought he could make,” said Olson.

When Pike came forward with plans for an expansion, a group of residents and neighboring businesses, including Idexx Laboratories, claimed Pike had the right to neither expand nor operate its existing quarry on Spring Street. Gouzie determined the company could continue to operate its quarry, but not expand operations, adding a rock-crushing, asphalt and concrete plants, as they had proposed.

Both Pike and the opposing group, called Westbrook Works, appealed the decision.

‘Out straight’

After four meetings regarding Gouzie’s decision and the subsequent appeals, the Zoning Board still hasn’t voted on the issue. Gouzie has had to attend all of the late-night Zoning Board meetings, prepared to answer questions.

Though Gouzie can take time off during the day when he has to attend meetings, his regular workload has increased significantly, since the position of assistant code enforcement officer was one of nine eliminated in January, when the city had to make up for a $580,000 shortfall in revenue.

According to Code Enforcement secretary Linda Gain, contractors used to be able to stop by the office if they had questions for Gouzie. Now, she said, it’s imperative for them to make appointments in advance.

“He’s been out straight,” she said.

Gouzie said he’s learned a lot about quarrying recently because of having to deal with the issue of Pike’s property rights. As for Skybox, he said, he’s just glad the matter’s no longer in his hands.

Still, Gouzie said, he never lost sleep over having to make either of the decisions.

Whether it’s after a long night of meetings or hours of inspections, Gouzie said, when he’s done with his day, he doesn’t think about work.

“I try to leave the city behind me,” said Gouzie, who lives in Windham with his wife, Shannon.

Gouzie could talk shop with his daughter Brenda, 25, who works in customer service at City Hall or his son Kevin, 27, who followed in his footsteps as a plumber, but he’d rather spend his free time on snowmobile trails, the golf course or trips to warm weather places, like Las Vegas and Myrtle Beach.

Not that he doesn’t enjoy his job when he’s there. Gouzie said he likes getting out of the office and talking to contractors, learning about their jobs. And they like him, too.

Wayne Nelsen, president of D&W Builders, has worked closely with Gouzie over the past couple of years on houses he’s building on Methodist Road. He said he’s always been pleasant and personable, and, most importantly, fair.

“I think the rules apply equally to everyone,” Nelsen said about Gouzie’s balanced approach.

“I’ve had no issues and no complaints,” he said, noting that the same isn’t true for all code enforcement officers in the area.

“He interprets the code and applies it,” Nelsen said.

And according to Gouzie, that’s all he sets out to accomplish.

“My job is to interpret the land use ordinance and that’s what I do,” he said, and if his interpretation is appealed and overturned, so be it.

“I just don’t take anything personally,” he said.

Code Enforcement Rick Gouzie says he likes getting out of the office to do inspections, like he is here at a house on Constitution Drive.

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