Maine news, sports, weather | Kennebec Journal, Augusta, Maine

March 12

Selectmen say they won't resign despite recall petition following town clerk's firing

By Paul Koenig
Staff Writer

PITTSTON -- Supporters of the longtime town clerk fired last week by the Board of Selectmen submitted petitions Monday afternoon with around triple the number of signatures required to trigger an election to recall the three selectmen.

Those board members -- Tim Marks, who is also a state representative; Wanda Burns-Macomber; and Ted Sparrow Jr. -- stood behind their decision on Monday evening and said they do not intend to resign.

Marks said Ann Chadwick's job performance was subpar for more than a year, and she did not make improvements when given the chance.

"I said last Wednesday that this was not personal, that this was a personnel matter," Marks said. "And we stick by that. We're sorry that the town is so divided. A lot of people have taken this personal, and please don't take it personal. This was a very well thought-out decision that happened over a period of time."

In a memo dated March 8, the selectmen noted a history of performance issues involving the former clerk, Ann Chadwick, and a failure to improve after two evaluations last year. Town attorney Matthew Tarasevich provided the memo to the Kennebec Journal.

The board concluded that Chadwick's "errors, mistakes and continued sub-par performance" didn't merit reappointment as town clerk, registrar of voters, deputy tax collector and deputy treasurer, according to the memo. Clerks perform a variety of tasks, including managing elections, issuing marriage licenses and advertising public meeting notices.

Chadwick supporters want her to have the opportunity to return as town clerk, but she said she would have to think about it if offered the job again.

Chadwick, 75, said she's still capable of doing the work, despite what the selectmen claim.

"If my performance had a lot of mistakes in it, I do believe the customers I waited on would have brought it to my attention," Chadwick said.

Selectmen first alerted Chadwick that they were considering not reappointing her in a Feb. 20 letter, according to the memo.

She offered at a March 4 meeting to retire after the March 18 election, and the board agreed to that.

When the board met with her two days later, however, Chadwick refused to provide the selectmen with a retirement letter and said she needed more time to think about it. The board went into executive session, came out a short time later, and voted unanimously not to reappoint her.

A small group of Chadwick's relatives and other supporters gathered around 330 of the nearly 400 total signatures Thursday night outside the fire station, after the Wednesday decision. People also signed petitions supporting the recall of the two remaining office staff members, but those employees can't be recalled, because they're appointed by the selectmen.

A town ordinance states that petitioners must present at least 137 signatures to force a recall vote, which equals at least 10 percent of Pittston voters who participated in the most recent gubernatorial election.

The town has 10 days to certify the signatures and pass them on to the selectmen. The board then has 10 days to order an election by secret ballot, which may be held 30 to 60 days after that.

The document about the decision listed mistakes Chadwick made in the last year and summarized her last two evaluations.

Among the mistakes were erroneously entering a customer check number as the check amount; erroneously issuing a marriage license and failing to correct the mistake; pushing the wrong button while backing up computer files, which cost the town "hundreds of dollars in employee man hours" to correct; and missing a deadline with the Department of the Secretary of State and failing to comply after receiving multiple phone calls from the state, according to the memo.

(Continued on page 2)

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