NEW GLOUCESTER – Cumberland County Sheriff Kevin Joyce said that his department will likely look into the case of a personnel file that went missing from a file cabinet in the New Gloucester town office, after selectmen voted Monday night to request a sheriff’s investigation.

The personnel file belongs to the town’s former bookkeeper, Sandra Sacco, who has been embroiled in controversy ever since three selectmen – Steve Libby, Nat Berry and Linda Chase – voted to cut her hours and benefits after a Nov. 4 executive session. After Sacco, who had served in the position for 25 years, resigned three weeks later on Nov. 25, some New Gloucester residents initiated an effort to recall various selectmen, citing the Sacco incident as “the last straw.”

Now, said Town Manager Sumner Field, Sacco’s personnel file has disappeared. Field said that the filing cabinet that holds all town personnel files is located in his private office, and that he is in possession of the only key that he is “aware of.” Field said that there may be an extra key to the cabinet in the town’s vault.

“I do not know where the location of the file is,” Field said in an interview. “It is missing.”

At a Jan. 13 meeting, the selectmen voted, 4-1, that Field “contact law enforcement to investigate the missing personnel file,” with Berry, a retired Maine game warden, opposed. According to Joyce, Field left a message on his answering machine Tuesday afternoon, notifying him of the incident.

“My guess is we’d probably take a look at it,” Joyce said. “I can’t see why we wouldn’t.”

According to Sacco’s husband, Gary, who serves as the town’s fire chief and lost a bid for selectmen in November’s election, the couple sent email requests to Field in early December, requesting their respective personnel files. Gary Sacco said that they didn’t hear back from Field for weeks.

“Nobody got back to us,” Sacco said. “He did not get back to us at all.”

Gary Sacco said that he and his wife are in the midst of suing the town of New Gloucester, but declined to specify the grounds for the suit. Although Sacco said that town officials were “well aware” of the nascent legal action, Field said that he was not aware of the lawsuit, and that the town had not been served papers.

Maine law requires that municipal employers keep personnel files confidential and respond to employee requests to view their respective personnel files within 10 days. Failure to comply “without good cause” can lead to cumulative fines not exceeding $500, at a rate of $25 forfeited per day.

The statute defines a personnel file as “any formal or informal employee evaluations and reports relating to the employee’s character, credit, work habits, compensation and benefits and non-privileged medical records or nurses’ station notes relating to the employee that the employer has in the employer’s possession.” Field said he maintains a personnel file for every town employee.

By the middle of December, still waiting for a response from Field, Gary Sacco contacted officials at the Maine Department of Labor, who proceeded to investigate the personnel file request.

“In the Department of Labor’s words, there was a break-in and Sandi’s file [was gone],” Sacco said. “That happened sometime in late November. Nov. 25 is the date I was given when the file came up missing.”

Department of Labor spokeswoman Julie Rabinowitz said she could not comment on “open investigations.”

Gary Sacco said that Field sent him his personnel file on Jan. 6, nearly a month after his Dec. 9 email request. Field confirmed Sacco’s recollection, adding that he had not seen Sacco’s email until the labor investigator notified him of the request.

“I’ve spoken with the investigator,” he said. “We seemed to get things ironed out and there was a misunderstanding on Gary Sacco’s file, and when I went back and found that I had received a request from him I immediately made the file available.”

Field said that on Nov. 13, he inserted a medical leave notice into Sandra Sacco’s file. That was the last time he saw her file, he said.

“She had made a request for it so I went to the file where it was kept and found that it was not there,” Field said. “So I instituted a search and I talked to each of the employees in the building, asking if they had seen it, or seen me set it down some place, or have any idea of its whereabouts, and that was all negative. No one knew anything about it.”

Field said that he did not take the file, and that he had “no idea” what had happened to it.

At the Jan. 13 meeting, the selectmen voted unanimously to direct Field to purchase a “fireproof filing cabinet with only two keys to be kept by the town manager and the acting town manager.”

Field had announced his retirement from the town office effective Jan. 2, but the town has not yet hired a new town manager. The board voted on Dec. 26 to retain Field until Feb. 14.

Town Manager Sumner Field

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