On the afternoon of Thursday, 7-30-09, the Process Server made a special trip to the Paris Town Office, in search of the Interim Town Manager, only to find that ITM Michael Thorne works part time, and wouldn't be in until Monday.
No matter. The Process Server accomplished his mission: the Town of Paris was served with notice and a copy of the Complaint filed in Oxford County Superior Court on 7-22-09 by former Town Manager Sharon Jackson. The Complaint was accepted by the Town Assessor John Brushwein. Being a full time employee, Mr. Brushwein was at work that day.
Regardless of the recipient of these papers, the clock started ticking at that moment, and the selectmen have 20 days to make their response.
Chairman Ivey will need to get his board to fish or cut bait by August 19: to revote, and thereby admit to the truth of Count 1 of Jackson's Complaint, i.e., having had invalid votes cast; or not revote, and prepare to face all 5 counts in the Complaint for Review of Governmental Action under ME Rule of Civil Procedure 80B.
This particular business of the town, like all business of the town, must be settled (voted on) in public, even if a discussion of such a decision takes place at an executive session. The only regularly scheduled selectmen's meeting before August 19 will be August 10. Will even the fire station meeting room be big enough to hold all the interested bystanders?
What if Ivey schedules an emergency meeting? It has to be held in public, and notice must be given. If history repeats itself and Ivey continues to try to limit citizen participation, a whole lot of us will have to line up at windows. How the board handles this will be something to see.
Overheard...
From a citizen, who had the floor and was in their faces: "Any reasonable person that is in this building, no matter what side of the fence they fall on, has to...would make the determination that there's collusion and exclusion going on within this board. Now, you guys cannot possibly represent the public by doing so; because you're all here, no matter what view you have and no matter who voted for you, each one of you people are here to represent the public. Okay?"
