CHINA: Discussions continue over conflict of interest

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.