CAPE ELIZABETH – Tensions between Cape Elizabeth Town Manager Michael McGovern and Bruce Smith, the town’s longtime code enforcement officer, reached a tipping point last year, leading McGovern to discipline Smith, and ultimately to Smith’s resignation.
The disagreement between the two regarding code enforcement is only now becoming public. Smith resigned Nov. 17, and the town issued a statement announcing his departure and quoting McGovern “wishing him well.” Benjamin McDougal of Scarborough was approved in early January by the Town Council as Smith’s replacement, and he began work last week.
The statement did not mention that McGovern had placed Smith on paid administrative leave one month earlier.
Smith said last week that his severance package prevents him from speaking of his employment with Cape Elizabeth.
“Come see me in June,” he said, during a party given in Smith’s honor by friends and colleagues last Thursday at the Purpoodock Club in Cape Elizabeth, attended by about 50 people.
In a recent interview, McGovern refused to give details on why he disciplined Smith.
“Being a code enforcement officer in Cape Elizabeth is a difficult job,” McGovern said. “I wish Bruce all the best, but it’s no secret in the community that he and I had grown apart in recent years in terms of our direction in code enforcement.”
Hearing that comment brought Smith as close as he’d venture to the topic, and then only obliquely by referencing the recent demotion of his peer, Dave Grysk, in Scarborough, which Town Manager Tom Hall confirmed on Friday.
“He’s having the same issues I had with the manager,” said Smith. “Code enforcement is supposed to be autonomous. The manager isn’t supposed to step in. Under state law they are barred from influencing decisions.”
The Purpoodock crowd included a wide array of folks he’d met on and off the job for Cape Elizabeth.
Among them was Kennebunk Code Enforcement Officer Paul Demers, president of the Maine Building Officials and Inspectors Association. In December, less than a month after Smith resigned his job, and consequently had to give up his spot in the association, the group named him Maine’s code enforcement officer of the year.
“The award was in process when he resigned,” said Demers. “There was no thought whatsoever that we shouldn’t give it to him. He’s a sharp cookie. He knows his stuff.”
“He also was the one who brought about 18 or 19 different groups together to get the ball rolling on Maine adopting the unified building code,” said Demers, referring to work Smith pushed while president of the association last decade. “If we didn’t have Bruce around, we wouldn’t have that code today in state of Maine. I thank him daily for that.”
As the microphone was passed among attendees, real estate brokers, developers, contractors, property assessors, other code officers, former Planning Board members and local residents took turns paying homage to Smith.
“I lot of us think the world of Bruce,” said Tom Dunham, founder of the Dunham Group, a Portland-based commercial real estate firm, who dealt with Smith when rebuilding a home on Becky’s Cove Lane eight years ago.
“I value people of Bruce’s integrity,” said Dunham. “He’s just a solid, solid guy. He’s fair and reasonable, a guy you really trust.”
“Bruce is a fantastic codes officer,” said Cape resident Skip Murray, owner of excavating company L.P. Murray and Sons. “Common sense are the words I would use to describe him.”
However, McGovern has intimated that love for Smith may not have been universal.
Since November, appeals have been filed by neighbors of four houses being rebuilt on Pilot Point Road, and one on Surfside Road.
“There’s lot’s of concern that the previous building inspector [Smith] didn’t properly interpret the ordinances on issues of decks, height issues, you name it,” said McGovern. “There were some issues that we had, that the records in our files were not as complete as some people would have liked to have seen, in terms of calculations and other issues. As a result I think the neighborhood lost confidence in the system.”
Smith was barred from attending the first appeal, held while he was on administrative leave. However, he points out that all the complaints, some including multiple filings on a single property, have been denied by the town’s Zoning Board of Appeals.
Three have since gone to Cumberland County Superior Court, contributing to a $7,000 overdraw in the town’s $25,000 budget for legal action.
Stemming from those cases, however, the town has moved forward on two initiatives.
One item, now before the ordinance committee, calls on creating a notification process to abutters whenever a building permit is issued. Cape does not issue such a notice for regular building permits, although they are published online.
“The Zoning Board of Appeals concurs that a policy needs to be developed to enhance the ability of citizens to know that permits are being approved for their neighborhoods,” wrote the group’s chairman, John Thibodeau, in a Jan. 2 letter to the Town Council.
Thibodeau noted that some of the Pilot Point appeals were rejected simply because they were filed more than 30 days after the permits in question were issues.
“Residents were frustrated that they were unaware of the permits being issued until it was too late,” wrote Thibodeau. “Citizens have communicated strong concern with the processes available to them to learn about decisions that have been made by the codes officer.”
Ordinance committee member Katharine Ray said her group reviewed options at a Jan. 4 meeting, but decided to wait for a conference with Cape’s new code enforcement officer before making a recommendation. The committee meets next on Feb. 8.
In addition, on Jan. 7, the council adopted an ordinance amendment requiring homeowners to obtain a boundary survey when proposing to build anything valued at more than $10,000 within five feet of a boundary setback.
Unlike the Pilot Point issues, which involve larger homes blocking views from other properties and questions about what should and should not have been approved by Smith, councilors referenced a different issue as prompting the boundary initiative.
In 2010, a homeowner in the Oakhurst neighborhood was unable to sell a home because a permitted 1999 addition violated setback requirements. The council ultimately agreed not to enforce the encroachment.
The zoning ordinance amendment also now lets the code enforcement officer require a survey when property lines are unclear.
Smith did not seem to recall the Oakhurst incident, but said it’s not the code enforcement officer’s job to verify setbacks.
“I can only tell you I haven’t done anything different than I did for 15 years,” he said. “If you come in to me to get a building permit, I’ll sit down with you and tell you what you need. I’ll tell you you’ll need an accurate site plan, but how you get there is your business. You can have a surveyor do a full-blown survey, or you can do it on a paper napkin, but it’s got to be accurate.
“I issue the permit based on the fact that the there are consequences if the applicant does not have what’s proper – worst case scenario that you may have to tear down what you built,” said Smith. “But I don’t go out an measure lines, because there’s no point. I have no way of knowing without a surveyor on site if the pins are even in the right place.”
Smith, a Standish resident, is now delivering gas and oil for JP Noonan transport in Gorham, while hoping to break back into the job he held for nearly a quarter of a century.
Many at the party expressed opinions similar to South Portland resident David Sawyer, whose wife Elizabeth said Smith was the sole Cape official who was respectful to them in 2002 when the two municipalities quarreled over the Blueberry Ridge subdivision.
“Fifteen years ago, Michael McGovern hired Bruce Smith,” said David Sawyer. “That just goes to prove, you can say something nice about anybody.”
McDougal beat out 40 applicants to replace Smith. McDougal, who grew up in Saco, was most recently the code enforcement officer in York, where he started in 2008 as a shoreland resource officer. A graduate of the University of Connecticut, McDougal also worked in the private sector as an environmental consulting for Sweet Associates in Falmouth.
“I believe Ben is a good fit for Cape Elizabeth as, like York, we have an extensive shoreline, varied neighborhoods and wish to have attention paid to our environmental resources,” said McGovern. “The interview board found him to be thoughtful, analytical and focused on customer service.”
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