Breaking news from NPCTV

New broadcast information re. the "Meet the Candidate Forum" held last night (2-25-10) at the Paris Fire Station:

The presentation will be aired:

Today, Friday (2-26-10) at 4:30 pm; again at 8:00 pm - prime time, no less!

Sunday (2-29-10) at 6:30 pm

[editor's note: The broadcast times posted below have been corerected; the additional time for broadcasts today are new.]

Encourage friends and neighbors who were not able to attend last night to watch and learn - about the candidates themselves, and also about the questions Paris citizens asked.

Our local cable tv broadcasting system at work in the community!

Who ever heard of...

... a town with 3300 registered voters having a "Meet the Candidates" night - for 3 candidates running for 2 slots on the selectboard vacated by a recall election? A recall election that itself was the tortured product of 9 months of political mishmash and upheaval?

But tonight, the Town of Paris did. This town is fighting its way back from a place where no town ever deserves to be. We learned the hard way that we have to look - with our eyes, our heads, and our hearts - and see who we are electing to make the decisions that operate our town.

Flood warnings, slush, gale force winds; and still 35 people turned out, at supper time, to hear what these 3 good folks had to say. The moderator was a pinch hitter because of bad weather and travel difficulties for the previously arranged moderator - and she did an outstanding job.

Questions were neither frivolous nor mean; they were real. First out of the chute: Name 3 things you see as priorities for Paris. Responses included finances; governing by law; job opportunities, if we have any say in the matter; informed citizens; civility; citizens being proud of their town. Civility. Proud of their town. Imagine such positive and creative answers.

Harder questions: Staffing our fire department? What about this law suit? Avoid surprise special town meetings? Oversight by the selectboard of the town manager, assessor, and other hired positions? Good, thoughtful, responsible questions. Candidates responded honestly, often saying they didn't have enough information - and, in the balance, for this moment, that was a reasonable response.

Three good candidates. The town deserves them all. Would that we could.

Election day Tuesday March 9. Vote absentee ballot any time between now and then. But don't make the mistake of thinking your vote doesn't matter. If Paris voters have had one painful lesson, it is that a few votes can change a town for the indefinite future. We cannot let that happen again.

Make the effort. Get out there. Get your friends and neighbors out there. Vote.

If You Missed It

If you missed the candidate's forum, NPC-TV was on site tonight to capture it on camera. Sunday (2-28) at 6:30 pm, or check the website www.npctv11.org schedule for "Paris Government." Tell your friends.

The combined meeting of selectboards from Norway and Paris, following the candidates' forum, will be aired on Tuesday (3-2), 4:00 pm. Check the website to be certain.

Norway and Paris are very fortunate to have this broadcast opportunity. We need to take better advantage of it as the future unfolds. The enterprise is moving into a new, bigger studio. They need our support, and we need their services.

At 7PM

The combined selectboards of Norway and Paris sat together tonight at the front table in a determined effort to "right the ship" of the Norway Paris Solid Waste board of directors' interpretation of the interlocal agreement that was enacted by voters in both towns in June 2009.

One restated article of incorporation, and 3 resolutions removed the current directors, and temporarily put the two town managers in charge of the operations until new board members can be appointed. Atty. Crawford, of Bernstein & Shur, was on site to collect appropriate signatures, and will file them in Augusta tomorrow, if weather permits.

The Norway board left, and the remaining Paris business was perfunctory. A citizen asked if a way could be found, on a regular basis, to make information in the routine financial payments by the town, i.e., warrants approved each selectmen's meeting, available to voters. There is work being done on the town's website that will eventually make that easier; but for now a paper product, or at least a verbal account, will be forthcoming. To prove the point, Town Clerk Liz Knox handed the copy of the warrant information for this evening's approval (all public information, available in the office to the public upon request) over to the question-asker right then and there.

The next meeting for selectmen will be after the election, on a Thursday instead of the usual Monday: March 11.

There was a question about where the meeting would be, and a tiny comment from the front table that "We will plan to have the next three or four meetings in the fire station until the crowd lessens." Surely a careless, off-the-cuff comment, since the last gentleman to say "This will all settle down and we can get back to busines as usual" was very, very wrong....

Meet Your Candidates

Not so many towns do this for their local elections, you say? Well, they should. This town is fresh from a shoulda-woulda-coulda - lesson of we voters not paying enough attention to who's on the ballot and what's going on in the town office.

Thursday, Feb.25, at 6 PM in the Paris Fire Station, there will be an opportunity to hear what the 3 candidates running for 2 seats on the Paris selectboard have to say. And they will be available to answer questions. An opportunity, Paris voters!

It will take time and energy...

...to get Paris back on track.

Paris voters are intent on doing so; but...the weather is not pleasant...we are still working out what to tackle first...and the plate seems so very full. We will have to help each other stay on task. [see Feb.14 Asking questions, not blaming or pointing fingers].

Tomorrow, Thursday 2-25-10, at 7 PM, Paris Selectmen will meet at the Paris Fire Station, immediately following the candidate forum. [agenda] Note item #3, "Joint meeting with the Norway Board of Selectmen..."

It seems that Paris isn't the only town needing to tackle irresponsible leadership issues. Norway Paris Solid Waste, a jointly operated waste management program for the two towns, is in critical need of long-neglected oversight - a correction thought to have been put in place June 2009, when voters of both towns enacted a new interlocal agreement. [ Feb.17 Stepping in to assess]

Yes, our plate is as full as it looks at first glance. Many, many people have stepped up; more are needed.

*People are taking advantage of voting by absentee ballot for the election on March 9th.
*Others are marking their calendars, and joining the list of volunteers who will call to remind folks to vote March 9.
*New names are being added to committees that make this municipal machine work.
*More and more people are finding the time to come to meetings where decisions that affect all of us are routinely made - meetings using information, that, except for very few instances, should always be available to the voters.
*Better and more informed questions keep coming - from a wide variety of voters.

This is our town. We are responsible for it. All of it - even the mistakes. Mistakes have to be cleaned up; we just have to roll up our sleeves, pitch in, and get the job done.

Is it really all that important to vote March 9?

Haven’t Paris voters done enough? Haven’t we petitioned and talked and voted, already? Can’t we take a little break now? Aren’t things all better now? Isn’t this where we’re supposed to live happily ever after?

Well…voting is no less critical now than it was on January 7, when 487 Paris voters turned out on a cold, dark Thursday night at Paris Elementary School and took a defiant stand against a poorly planned, small-group agenda. It is no less critical than the 2 recall elections in the first week of February, when, including those who voted absentee ballot, over 700 Paris voters marked their ballots each day.

Paris voters are getting Paris back on track, and we must take nothing for granted. We need to finish the job of getting responsible people elected; and then we need to be certain we understand what the issues are and demand responsible solutions.

We have a lawsuit about which most of the voters know very little, and a deadline with responsibilities; we have a solid waste program, in joint municipal management with Norway, being run by less than responsible individuals; and we have a budget that has become irresponsibly over-burdened.

The word responsible crops up everywhere.

So, No, Paris voters - we are not finished. We’ve just begun.

If you are ready to vote but cannot vote on the 9th, go to the Paris Town office and vote absentee ballot beginning Monday, Feb. 22.

If you want to learn more about who is running to fill the 2 vacancies left by the recall elections, plan to attend the candidate forum at 6 PM this Thursday, February 25 at the Paris Fire Station; find out what those running have to offer this town, so you can make an informed choice. We need to elect good leaders, people who are informed, people we judge to be responsive to the whole town, not just people who have fine words to offer.

Stay for the selectmen’s meeting if you can, at 7 PM. As noted in the previous post, a heavy agenda is planned.

Moving forward

Actively looking for ways to step out of the tangle at their feet, Paris citizens have begun asking questions and examining answers. We are intent on finding ways to get the municipal machinery in the town of Paris back on a forward moving track.

It is the voters in a town who are responsible for how money is spent and resources are safeguarded. It is the voters who are responsible for the people they put into public office and the voters who must demand accountability from those officials.

Paris is preparing for an election on March 9^th to fill two positions that became available on the selectboard as a result of the February recalls.

February 25^th at 6pm, Paris Fire Station: An open forum for voters to meet three candidates running for these positions. Come to listen and ask questions.

February 25^th at 7pm, Paris Fire Station: Paris selectmen meet to conduct the business of the town. This meeting will also include a joint session with the Norway board of selectmen to take decisive action to resolve critical issues relating to the makeup and operation of the Norway Paris Solid Waste board of directors.

Stepping in to assess

As Paris citizens are asking questions and working to understand what went wrong and where do things stand now, Sunday 2-14-10, Paris voters have an additional opportunity. We have an opportunity to work in tandem with voters in Norway to assess what is working - or not - in the implementation of an interlocal agreement that Paris and Norway voters approved in June 2009 to operate a solid waste management program.

Today the Norway Paris Solid Waste board held their regular monthly meeting, this time at 3 pm at the Norway Town Office. As the board of directors were about to go into executive session to discuss the board's legal rights as interpreted by counsel, one of the directors, currently in exile at the whim of the board, pointed out that the presence of an attorney, either in person or by phone, was required for such a session to be legal. Failing in that effort, she attempted to attend the executive session, and was escorted from the room by 2 Norway police officers.

[editor's note: Executive session, according to Title 1 MRSA sec.405(6)(e) , requires either a lawyer to be present, or one to be on site via a conference call by phone MMA's interpretation of case law. The NPSW board had neither of these today.]

Fifteen or twenty minutes later, the executive session ended, the door opened to the public, and the exiled officer who had been removed was returned to the group; everyone went back in to continue the meeting.

All business continued lickety-split; questions were put out by the chairman or treasurer; and voted on in lockstep, neat and tidy, all hands up, all eyes on the table; no discussion required.

Except: in the silence following a motion that had been seconded and approved to have an inter-account transfer of $10,000, the chairman seemed compelled to ask the board members, "Doesn't anyone want to know why [there was a transfer] ?" There was another minute of silence; then, as if picking up the cue, one board member finally said, "Yes, I want to know." The treasurer then took great pains, and went to great lengths to explain why it had always been done this way.

The reason for this little staged activity was...?

...Then back to lockstep, before, during, and after.

"Any questions? All in favor? Unanimous," says the chairman.

The audience wonders: Where did any discussion happen? Are we to assume that everybody on the board already knew everything? As opposed to the tax payers sitting in the audience who knew nothing? So, of course the vote was unanimous? Every time?

If a nugget of intention could be derived from the proceedings, it might very well be that, in defiance of the interlocal agreement, the NPSW board threw down the gauntlet: they intend to ask their attorney (a local attorney, not either town's attorney) to correspond with the Town of Paris regarding whether there has been... a breach?...of agreement? of contract? of what, seemed not too clear.... and how it should be resolved.

In defending a decision made in keeping with the new bylaws for the board, drafted by them for them, in favor of them, they cherry-picked a piece out of Section 7 of the interlocal agreement (the agreement they have long declared unacceptable)): the piece that says if there is a dispute that cannot be settled, then an arbiter needs to be brought in.

Did you get that? Good for you. Most everybody in the room this afternoon was left in complete confusion, not to mention dismay.

Thursday 2-18-10 at 6 PM at the Norway Town Office, the selectmen and town managers of both towns will have another go at it.

Our money, our resources, our responsibility. And their mismanagement. Come and watch. There might be a slim chance of asking a question.

[editor's note: On the board of the NPSW: Norway: Bruce Cook; Eric Grondahl; Dundee Pratt; Paris: Joe Bracey; Bruce Hanson, treasurer; Al Atkinson, Ch.; Janet Jamison, in exile.]

Citizen tidbit....

Just in:

The Norway Paris Solid Waste board is to meet monthly. Over the last 6 months, the time and place for those meetings, all public access, have not always been published in a timely manner - nor has the pattern of the time and place been particularly predictable.

Jungle drums are telling us, today, that at 3 PM this Wednesday, 2-17-10 (day after tomorrow, depending on when you read this) at the Norway Town Office, whoever can find their way there , will meet for this month.

A meeting of the newly-self-bylawed NPSW board....a really obscure time, and, a day before the selectmen and town managers of both towns in the interlocal agreement plan to hold a meeting to review and discuss the whole set up....

Come and watch.

Citizen Reminder

Thursday Feb. 18 at 6 PM the selectboard and town managers from Norway and Paris will meet together to examine and discuss where responsibility and authority lie vis-à-vis the interlocal agreement both towns entered into regarding Norway-Paris Solid Waste. This meeting was rescheduled from 2-4-10. See previous posting

Our tax dollars are at stake; private agendas are involved; controversy seems to be reigning supreme. It is a positive step to begin a dialog between the two towns on this issue. It is a public meeting, as all meetings involving our town resources must be.

Please come if you can.

Asking questions, not blaming and finger pointing....

Paris citizens are in the midst of figuring out what happened; what brought us to this, elected officials recalled and a law suit against the town? These are not little nothing pieces, normally expected incidents of every day life for the average Paris tax payer, citizen, resident.

We need to be asking questions, uncovering information, learning the truth of activities not presented to the public honestly for 7 months; we need to understand what has happened, where our town government's system went wrong, and what we can do to repair it. We need to know how to make the mechanical operation of our town stronger and we need to rebuild the trust that greases the skids and fuels that operation for all citizens.

We need to be very wary of the blaming and finger pointing that inevitably crops up when some folks look for handy quick solutions, especially if that blaming and finger pointing can act as a diversion from something somebody doesn't wish to have discovered; or, if discovered, certainly not considered valid. Or if, perhaps, blaming, finger pointing, and making excuses might deflect focusing on something overlooked, or something that could have been changed if caught earlier.

On the topic of law suits, we need to ask:
*There have clearly been two offers to settle out of court. Why was the first one not picked up on? Phone bills are an excellent source of information, and they are public record. TPR has published several, including the October bill in question. posting

*Unfortunately Paris is only now becoming savvy to uncovering tricky maneuvers, like not making legal offers known to the proper people. Would that offer have made clear what the original intent was for the lawsuit (instead of the behemoth that issue has become since) ?

As a citizen asked at the selectmen's meeting 2-08, "Might one of those offers still be good?" Did anyone call either lawyer to find out? Are they going to? Why not? It's a good question.

*If the ball was dropped on the town's side, whether because of tricky maneuvers or simply not paying attention, is there not some responsibility to look more closely, examine options more carefully now? As opposed to slamming the door shut and announcing in a loud voice "Too late" ?

On the topic of officials recalled, we need to ask:
*In order to understand how to prevent every citizen who chooses to run for office to fear for that dreaded R-word, what happened to cause over 330 Paris Voters to sign petitions in November 2009 for recall of two elected officials? The petition, even though bullied this way and that, that achieved the recall, in February 2010, of those two officials who had, at one time, been duly elected?

On the topic of who's paying the bill for all this, we need to ask:
*As the Checkbook for who pays for what goes on in this town, how do we tax payers get a handle on
(1) what we owe because of this circus;
(2) where is the money going to come from;
(3) what can we demand be put in place to make sure the tax payers have easy access to information, on a regular basis, explaining in full what we owe? Now, and in the future.

This is only the beginning of what we need to ask. This town is run at the behest of the voters in this town. There are times when nobody agrees on how; times when some agree on one thing, and some on another; and, fortunately, there are times when a majority agrees on a thing.

Then, there are times when a small minority wants its own way, at the expense of the rest of us; and that is not a good thing.

Then we need to talk.

To run this town

Monday Selectmen's meeting, 2-8-10. A different feel in the room. The town has the same people in it; there are people who are content with their lot and those who want something else; people with needs and people who don't need anything right now; people who have grievances and people who don't.

In short, no matter how described, the Town of Paris is full of the same people as before the recall elections of Feb. 1st and Feb. 5th.

This meeting of the selectmen felt different because a majority of voters have chosen to try to do a better job of paying attention to what is going on in the leadership they elect to run their company - this town. The people in the room tonight reflected that choice and the feelings that come with it.

Because of the recall, there are now 2 positions open, and there will be an election to fill those positions.

Position #1 - a 2 1/2 year position;
Position #2 - a 3 1/2 month position, and then re-file end of May to fill a 3 year position.

Petition papers to run for the office of either position may be picked up at the Town Office Tuesday AM 2-9-10. Be sure to specify which position running for. Petitions must be returned by February 19.

Absentee ballots will be available 2-22-10.

March 9 - Election Day, 8AM -8PM.

This is a short time to get everything in place. This town needs to hustle. Business has been stacking up, and we have much to do.

It is critical, however, that the important pieces of our town that have been thrown helter-skelter in the last 7 months are not just swept into a pile and randomly pasted back together. As much as we all crave "regular life" and good feelings, consider: when a surgeon finishes a piece of surgery, he or she doesn't just stitch the patient back up without first looking to see if everything is back in the right place and that there isn't a box of bandages or pair of scissors left inside.

We need to understand what has happened and we need to know where we are headed next. We need to understand the extra financial obligations that we now face as a result of poor management; we need to be clear on what we have been obligated to as a result of decisions made because of personal agendas, decisions we did not authorize.

We are ready to move on, and we can move on. But we have to know where we are going, and we look to our elected officials to not only be honest with us about that, but to let us be a part of that decision. This town belongs to all of us.

The clock cannot be turned back

Selectmen meet in the Paris Town Office 2-8-10, 7PM.

Monday the Town of Paris starts over again. Right? New plan, some new people - or arrangements to be made for new people? A little shake up, straighten things a bit here, set a couple of things in order there? Pay a few back bills, reset some gears put in motion in a less than desirable way?

Except:
the clock cannot be turned back. It is not just a matter of cleaning house and then putting the furniture all back where it was. The house is our town, and it is not shaped the same as it was 7 months ago.

Recalling an elected official, or two in our case, means that the situation was seriously, dangerously wrong. It means that while those individuals were in office, real damage was inflicted; by their decisions, their actions, and the continuing, unfolding results of those decisions and actions.

The Paris Reporter has pointed out some of the financial burdens of the impetuous actions and self-serving agendas over the 7 months: legal costs, law suits, new hirings. Items not in any budget approved by Paris voters last June 2009.

But consider the audacity of individuals coming into office, and, at their very first meeting as a majority:

*taking action, the consequence of which saddled the town - all of us, tax payers, citizens, residents - with a law suit that has every look of winning.

Then, later:

*turning down, without even a negotiating word, two offers (mentioned here) to settle out of court;

* hiring an interim manager who cost us money and did very little for it;

* then hiring a full time manager, allegedly at a savings of money, but who, in the end, will cost the town more. This new manager was given a contract - crafted purely with the intent of preventing the undoing of it - at the behest of a majority that already had 2 of its members slated for recall, and who have since been recalled.

Certain things were put in place with this contract. Taxpayers were not consulted.

Questions our current selectmen, and whoever else is elected to come on board with them, need to answer:

(1)Instead of being told that everything is ok and costs will be covered, where is the money coming from to pay the overload of legal bills incurred by the previous 3-2 board majority?

(2)Are we financially prepared to deal with this law suit that no one has talked out loud to us about for 7 months?

(3)And, when are you going to tell us, the bill payers, anything about what that cost - and it's implications - might be?

...and these are the rest of the facts

The second half of the recall elections for 4 selectmen in the Town of Paris was completed tonight (2-05-10).

437 people came to the polls to vote today; 300 votes were cast by absentee ballot before today, 22 of them since Monday's election. Total votes cast for the final half of this election = 737 votes.

For all the tricky ads and signs and naysayers, Paris voters made the effort, made their own decisions, and voted accordingly. It is not difficult to distinguish between who takes care of this town and who takes care of himself.

The ballots and their results:

*Shall Selectman Ray Glover be recalled? 155 Yes 578 No (4 no vote)

*Shall Selectman Troy Ripley be recalled? 628 Yes 102 No (7 no vote)

AND

The Town of Paris is indebted to the ladies who implemented these two elections; sat 12 hours both days and collected ballots, smiled at voters, and then stayed another hour or two and counted every single ballot - twice; accurately. We are grateful for all their efforts. We are grateful that we have a staff in the office of the Town of Paris that keeps this town running, in spite of squabbles, the occasional less-than-professional behavior, and just plain oversight at some other times. Thank you!Thank you! Thank you all!

Now....

The Town of Paris has a great deal of clean-up to deal with. In the last 6 months there have been decisions made, things put in motion that are not stop-able. The financial fallout of these is staggering. It will not go away all by itself, like hives, maybe, or a bruised elbow.

A municipal organization is not a hobby or a game; it is a living, breathing thing that includes all the lives and happenings of the people in it. It requires planning, implementing, and vision. We have been 6 months without that; and worse, with the negative of that, the agenda of a select few. And now we have to see what this is really going to cost us.... You can bet it's going to be plenty.

The town of Paris has stepped up. We have remembered that we are the ones who are supposed to be running this town. We are the ones who are responsible for electing officials who will do the operating of our municipal organization. We are the ones who have to clean up - and, yes, pay the tab - for mistakes made. And we have learned that we have to be better prepared, and we have to do a better job.

We have made a very fine start this week.

Monday, 2-8-10, 7 pm, 2 of the remaining selectmen will meet at the town office. There will have to be a new plan. There may be some naysayers there....but there will be many more informed, concerned citizens.

Paris will not be as easy to fool the next time.

New: A Postponement

The joint meeting of the selectboards and town managers of Paris and Norway - scheduled for 6:00pm tonight (2/4/10) - to discuss issues relating to Norway-Paris Solid Waste, has been postponed due to the illness of Paris Town Mgr. Phil Tarr. A new meeting date will be determined.

Despite Mr. Tarr's absence, the Paris budget committee's meeting at 7:00pm tonight will occur as planned at the Paris town office.

Thursday at 6 PM

The continuing debacle over who is in control of who on the board of directors of Norway Paris Solid Waste and which person says so, has prompted the town managers of both towns to set a meeting for the selectmen from both towns to look at the situation - which the interlocal agreement says selectmen of both towns are in charge of in the first place.

Any continuing problem on that board effects both towns; and the half million dollar budget - for that board to operate a solid waste management program that is intended to benefit both towns - is directly relevant to the concerns of the tax payers in both towns.

They are spending our money.

The handling of that budget needs to receive a complete audit; there should be no rewriting of bylaws - just because they think they can - by board members who decide to shape the rules differently than the interlocal agreement. The agreement was written by Atty. Geoff Hole, town attorney for Norway and Paris, and enacted by voters in both towns in 2009; this NPSW board has no autonomous authority granted by any higher authority.

At 6 PM Thursday, 2-4-10, the joint boards of selectmen and town managers will meet at the Norway Town Hall. Norway and Paris voters are encouraged to attend and see just what these elected officials know about all this - and what they plan to do about the whole thing.

Our money...money...money...

These are the facts

The first half of the recall elections for 4 selectmen in the Town of Paris was completed tonight.

444 people voted today; 276 votes were cast by absentee ballot before today. Total votes cast for this part of the election = 720 votes.

The ballots, and the results:

*Shall Selectman David Ivey be recalled? 651 Yes 69 No

*Shall Selectman Lloyd "Skip" Herrick be recalled? 116 Yes 600 No (4" no vote")

One half of the job done. Paris voters made the effort, made their own decisions, and voted accordingly.

Now there is Friday.

Friday February 5, another recall election, another $1000 from the taxpayers' pockets for the cost of a second 8 AM to 8 PM election. It did not need to come to this.

But, since it did, Paris voters, we need to finish the job. The polls will open Friday at 8 AM., and it will cost another $1000. So get your money's worth, bearing in mind who takes care of this town and who takes care of himself.

On the ballot: Selectman Ray Glover; and Selectman Troy Ripley. Come and vote.