by Mary Grow

The major decision at an unusually short Feb. 3 China selectmen’s meeting was to buy a new large metal can for waste from the new pre-crusher at the transfer station. Without it, Town Manager Dennis Heath explained, staff would have no replacement under the mixed waste hopper while a filled can is hauled away.

Heath commended Transfer Station Manager Tim Grotton for arranging to sell a can too old to use for enough money to lower the cost of the new one to $8,100. Estimates had ranged from $10,000 to$13,000.

Selectmen voted to take the $8,100 from the $55,000 contingency fund voters granted them for unexpected expenses during the 2019-20 fiscal year. Later, as Heath presented his monthly financial summary, they discovered the contingency fund has less than $4,000 left in it.

They therefore amended their vote and will pay for the new waste can from the equipment reserve fund.

After the meeting, Heath shared a summary of the $51,311 spent from the contingency fund. More than $42,000 went to install three-phase power at the transfer station, primarily to accommodate the pre-crusher. Central Maine Power Company claimed the lion’s share; Windsor electrician Dan Finley was paid for labor and materials.

Heath commented that Grotton reported a welcome increase in the price China gets for one recycled material: cardboard is now worth $100 a ton, up from a negligible amount some months ago.

The Feb. 3 meeting included an executive session to discuss an employment agreement between the selectmen and Heath. Heath reported afterward board members approved a town manager’s job description and asked Heath to submit a draft employment agreement at their next regular meeting (see below).

The next regular meeting is scheduled for Tuesday evening, Feb. 18, to avoid the Presidents’ Day holiday. Before then, selectmen have scheduled a Monday, Feb. 10, special meeting to review articles for the April 6 town business meeting, and the budget committee will meet on Wednesday, Feb. 12, for the same purpose. All meetings are at 6:30 p.m. in the town office meeting room.

Description of town manager’s responsibilities

This is the position description for the China Town Manager, approved after the executive session of the China Select Board, on February 3, 2020. The draft employment agreement will be presented at the next select board meeting on Tuesday, February 18, 2020. (Monday is Presidents Day).

The Town Manager

This is responsible leadership work as chief executive and chief administrative official of the Town. The Manager is under the direction of the Board of Selectmen. Performance must be in accordance with the Maine Statutes and local ordinances.

Employee of this class is responsible for the achievement of tangible results through people. Work involves a certain degree of urgency to produce and will require firm dealing with people to achieve results. Work involves planning, budget making, problem solving and organizing with the authority to make decisions as well as delegate to others. The work environment is relatively unpredictable and requires the ability to manage many projects at once. Although governed by policies, the Manager must frequently act without precedent.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities: Examples of Work (Illustrative Only):

• Maintains the administrative organization of the Town to ensure efficiency of operation. Oversees the accounting of all monies of the Town.
• Makes monthly reports to Board of Selectmen pertaining to the financial status of the Town. Annually prepares a proposed budget and work program for the Town.
• Prepares an annual report of the previous year’s activities for presentation to the Board of Selectmen and citizens of the Town.
• Appoints, with Board of Selectmen approval, all department heads and supervises their performance on a day-to-day basis.
• Oversees the hiring, evaluating, promoting, and disciplining of employees or establishes procedures for others to follow in such matters.
• Recommends an annual salary schedule for the Town employees for Board of Selectmen consideration.
• Identifies service and policy needs of The Town and brings to the attention of the Board of Selectmen with recommendations for action.
• Maintains a sound public relations posture between the Town and its citizens, the press, and other federal, state and local governmental agencies.
• Coordinates departmental activities, and sets attainable goals for all municipal departments. Act as purchasing agent for all municipal departments, and oversees the bid process on major purchases.
• Maintains contact with public by handling suggestions, complaints and information requests.
• Carries out the directives of the Board of Selectmen.
• Attends meetings of the Board of Selectmen, preparing its agendas, providing supporting documents and information pertinent to agenda items.
• Attends various meetings on behalf of the Town.
• Prepares federal and State grant requests and administers grant programs.
• Enforces municipal and State codes.
• Ex-officio member of numerous municipal committees.
• Performs related work as required.

Requirements of Work:

• Thorough knowledge of municipal management and community problems.
• Thorough understanding of administrative organization, design, and evaluation.
• Thorough knowledge of financial administration and the design of financial accounting and reporting system.
• Thorough knowledge of the theory and practice of public personnel administration.
• Thorough knowledge of municipal government programs and decision-making processes. Working knowledge of State and federal programs.
• Ability to communicate effectively orally and in writing.
• Ability to listen to others.
• Possess conflict resolution skills.
• Ability to direct and supervise others and to delegate.
• Ability to organize and use time effectively.
• Ability to give and accept constructive criticism.
• Knowledge of road maintenance.
• Employee must be goal-minded and possess a self-starting drive to get things done, frequently through other people.
• Employee must be able to react quickly to changing situations which may be physically taxing.
• Employee must be positive and direct in striving to achieve results, but must at times be able to motivate others to act through persuasiveness and the generation of enthusiasm.
• Ability to act independently and without precedent in the face of problems.

Training and Experience Required:

• Graduation from an accredited four-year college or university program in public administration or a related field, and at least five years experience as chief administrative officer in a municipal government; or any equivalent combination of experience and training.

Additional Duty Assignments:

• Tax Collector
• Treasurer
• Road Commissioner
• Emergency Preparedness Director
• Agent to Overseers of the Poor
• General Assistance Administrator
• Public Access Officer
• Building Official
• Ex-Officio Member of all Committees/Boards.

by Mary Grow

China Planning Board members are tentatively scheduled to visit the site of one of two proposed solar developments in town Saturday morning, Feb. 8, if the developers are available and the weather cooperates. The site visit is considered a board meeting and is open to the public.

At the Jan. 28 Planning Board meeting, Codes Officer Bill Butler said he expects the solar applications to be on the board’s Feb. 11 meeting agenda. Planners would like to see the proposed site in the field behind Mike Willette’s gravel pit, off Arnold Road near Erskine Academy, which has been described as an open meadow with an area of forested wetlands.

The visit is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Feb. 8, with Butler and the developers to decide where to meet.

by Mary Grow

At their Jan 21 meeting, China selectmen, assisted by town attorney Amanda Meader, continued their discussion of conflict of interest as it relates to budget committee members who are also volunteer fire department members. They added an expansion of earlier discussions of reporting requirements for fire departments spending town funds. Neither issue was resolved.

As at the special Jan. 7 meeting (see The Town Line, Jan. 16), board Chairman Ronald Breton insisted that a budget committee member who is also a fire department member, or has a family member in one of China’s three departments, must recuse himself from any discussion of stipends, donations or other individual reimbursement, under whatever name, for firefighters. He named Budget Committee Chairman Robert Batteese and members Kevin Maroon and Tom Rumpf as those affected.

According to China’s Administrative Code of Ethics, no appointed or elected official can take any part in a decision on an item “in which he or she or a member of his or her immediate family has a financial or special interest, other than an interest shared by the public generally.”

Breton challenged Batteese, the only one of the three named budget committee members present, to declare himself in conflict and recuse himself from any committee discussion. Batteese refused, repeating, as he said on Jan. 7, that he has been in both positions for many years.

“I’m much more interested in keeping the taxes down than in the few dollars I get,” he said.

“That’s not gonna happen,” Batteese, a China Village department member, said, because individual stipend amounts are not public information.

Batteese asked whether the selectmen were in conflict when they voted to add to the 2019 town meeting warrant a request to increase their annual stipends, which voters approved. Meader replied that since only selectmen can approve the meeting warrant to be sent to voters, sometimes they must be exempted from conflict of interest rules. The voters make the final decision, she emphasized.

The attorney added that she regrets the whole “difficult conversation,” which in her view is not about local people “honorably serving your community for a few bucks,” but about possible future problems or current issues in the wider world.

Since Batteese declined to state a conflict of interest, Breton made a motion for the selectboard declaring the three budget committee members cannot vote on anything involving funds to individual firefighters, based on state law and China’s Administrative Code of Ethics. Donna Mills-Stevens seconded the motion so it could be discussed.

Breton insisted the issue was conflict of interest, not the money involved, although when Mills-Stevens called the $40,000 proposed for stipends a “very small part” of the total budget, he disagreed.

Breton voted in favor of his motion, Wayne Chadwick voted against it, and Mills-Stevens and Irene Belanger abstained. Breton demanded reasons for the abstentions. Mills-Stevens said she was confused by the emphasis on one budget item; Belanger agreed.

The motion having failed, selectmen turned to other business before returning to a related issue: when fire department treasurers submit quarterly reports on how they’ve spent town money, Breton said stipend recipients’ names should be listed.

“That’s not gonna happen,” Batteese, a China Village department member, said, because individual stipend amounts are not public information.

South China and Weeks Mills fire chiefs Dick Morse and Bill Van Wickler, respectively, also objected. Morse thought his department was filling out the quarterly form as Town Manager and Town Treasurer Dennis Heath requested. For example, he said, the line for vehicle repairs reports a total spent, but not individual amounts for tires or nuts and bolts.

Breton said without names being listed, the town treasurer can be fined, jailed or both for failing to require proper itemization of taxpayers’ money.

Heath, who had been following the meeting via livestream as he continues to recover from a broken ankle, joined on speakerphone. He said that he does not need to know how stipends are calculated or how many hours each recipient puts in, but does need each name and the amount the person received. Because the stipends are an individual benefit from public funds, the treasurer needs a public record, he said.

Breton recommended selectmen, Heath and the three fire chiefs schedule a joint meeting to seek clarification and consensus. No action was taken on the suggestion.

In other business Jan. 21, resident Anita Smith talked about a planned timber harvest in the China School Forest behind China Primary School, to begin in February. Smith and Elaine Philbrook have been overseeing the forest for years.

Smith is working with forester Harold Burnett, of Two Trees Forestry, in Winthrop, and Tyler Reynolds Forest Products, of China. She expects timber sales will bring in less than $4,000.

Proceeds from the last harvest in the late 1990s were set aside in an account for town forest maintenance, grant-matching and related purposes. Smith would like money from the February harvest to go into the same account.

After some confusion over whether she was asking permission or informing selectmen of the next step in an ongoing plan, selectmen unanimously voted approval.

Selectmen appointed Trishea Story as budget committee secretary until the next local elections in November and Sandra Isaac to the China for a Lifetime Committee.

Their next regular meeting is scheduled for Monday evening, Feb. 3. Before then, they were scheduled for a Jan. 27 review of the proposed 2020-2021 budget in advance of a Budget Committee meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 30.

by Mary Grow

China selectmen will start their Monday, Jan. 27, special meeting at 5 p.m. in the town office meeting room. The purpose of the meeting is to review and make recommendations on the 2020-2021 municipal budget; members chose the early starting time because they expect a long meeting.

The budget committee is scheduled to review the selectmen’s recommendations on Thursday, Jan. 30, beginning at 7 p.m., in the town office meeting room.