Durham voters will decide Nov. 3 if they favor amending the Androscoggin County charter, an issue that is an outgrowth of a county budget dispute that pits the county commissioners against the budget committee, and has resulted in a lawsuit.
Residents do have a suggested course of action from the town’s Board of Selectmen. The board last Wednesday voted to join the city of Lewiston in opposing the amendment to the county charter, which reads as follows: “Nothwithstanding the final authority of the Board of Commissioners over the adoption of the county budget under Section 5.5.4, no increase in the salaries or expansion of benefits of elected officials is effective without the approval of a majority plus one vote of the full Budget Committee.”
Jeff Wakeman, chairman of the Durham Board of Selectmen, said that Durham is one of 13 Androscoggin County towns involved in the lawsuit, filed in Superior Court. The action challenges the commissioners’ interpretation of the county charter, passed in 2012, versus the authority of the Budget Committee, Wakeman said. It’s a question of whether the county commissioners can act alone on a budget that includes their salaries and benefits.
In a civil lawsuit filed in Superior Court, nearly all the municipalities in the county say that the commissioners set their own salaries and benefits without having the legal authority to do so.
“We feel that the charter says the Budget Committee has the authority over the commissioners’ salary, and benefits,” Wakeman said. “The Budget Committee voted last year to cut commissioners’ salaries, then the commissoners restored them and put in higher salaries. The difference is $70,000-$80,000.”
Wakeman said that the lawsuit has cost the town between $600 and $700 thus far, and that the county will pass along its legal expenses on to its communities.
During the Oct. 20 meeting, Selectwoman Sarah Hall said that the proposed charter amendment does not serve the voters of Androscoggin County. Wakeman suggested following Lewiston’s resolve.
“I think it would be good for the town of Durham to oppose this,” he said.
The Lewiston resolve, passed on Oct. 20, states in part: “The City Council hereby hereby expresses its concern that the process instituted by the County Commissioners for the County Budget Committee’s review of the proposed county budget will negatively impact the committee’s ability to review and exercise reasonable scrutiny over the proposed budget and will undermine the credibility of the overall budget process and final budget amongst the county’s cities and towns …”
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