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BUCKFIELD The three-member Select Board struggled Thursday night on how to accept the resignation of Chairwoman Tina Brooks and questions about the 2021-22 budget.
Brooks announced Monday that she was resigning for a personal family matter. Her term ends June 30.
Working with Maine Municipal Association legal officials, Town Manager John Andrews drew up a timeline where Brooks could resign during the town elections June 8 with her replacement being elected that day on a separate ballot from other selectmen races that day.
Because Brooks is resigning, the procedure to fill out nominating papers can be shortened. That would save the town money by not requiring a second election, according to MMA.
BUCKFIELD The town is still struggling to close the books with its former tax collector.
With the “consideration and discussion of settlement and discharge with tax collector” on its agenda Thursday night, the board requested that Town Manager John Andrews contact the town’s attorney on what their next step should be.
The motion, proposed by Martha Catevenis, passed unanimously by the three members, who include Cheryl Coffman and Chairman Tina Brooks.
“The term ‘settlement and discharge’ is the standard language used when a tax collector separates from a municipality,” Andrews said on Friday.
“Basically it means to settle accounts to make sure everything they were bonded for matches up and then they are discharged from their tax collector duties,” he added.
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BUCKFIELD The Select Board held an emergency meeting Friday to meet with its auditor in an hourlong executive session.
A representative from the accounting firm Ron Beaulieu and Co. of Portland met with the three selectmen behind closed doors to discuss the town’s finances and an employee, according to the representative.
The complete overhaul of the small town office staff has left officials playing catch-up as Town Manager John Andrews gets new staff trained. He took over in November after the resignation of Joe Roach in August.
Also in November came the resignation of longtime Town Clerk Cindy Dunn, who also served as treasurer, tax collector, bookkeeper, payroll clerk, registrar of voters and assessor assistant. Her other duties included motor vehicle registration agent, watercraft-ATV-snowmobile registration agent and state Department of Inland Fishers and Wildlife agent.