By Michael Howell
Paul Ludington was appointed Mayor of Stevensville last week and is scheduled to take the oath of office on September 30 at 11 a.m. at Town Hall. He is replacing Mayor Gene Mim Mack whose resignation becomes effective on October 1. After Councilor Jim Crews and his wife Cindy Brown withdrew their applications on the day of scheduled candidate interviews, there were only two candidates in the running, Paul Ludington and Jerry Phillips. A motion was made to appoint Ludington and the Council split over the decision. Councilors Bill Perrin and Tim Hunter voted in the affirmative and Councilors Robin Holcomb and Jim Crews voted against. Having already received a legal opinion from Town Attorney Brian West that the Mayor could cast a tie breaking vote in the selection of his replacement, Mim Mack voted in favor of appointing Ludington.
The vote did not take place, however, without a previous action by the Council to reconsider its decision to have Crews recuse himself from the selection process. That decision was made following advice from Town Attorney Brian West that any Council member who was a candidate for mayor should probably recuse himself to avoid any conflict of interest or the appearance of a conflict of interest.
Crews stated that he did not attend the candidate interviews even though he had withdrawn his candidacy because the motion that was made leading to his recusal from the process did not say that it depended on his candidacy. So he did not believe that he could attend the interviews based on the motion and did not believe he could participate in the selection process that evening for the same reason. He asked the Council to reconsider the motion and change it. And they did.
Councilor Bill Perrin apologized for not including reference to the candidacy issue in the motion.
Attention was then turned to the appointment of mayor. Mayor Mim Mack stated that, at the request of Councilor Crews, he had requested a legal opinion from the town’s attorney concerning the selection process. He said the attorney found the process to date in compliance with state law, Council rules and adopted practices.
Crews then made a motion that, instead of appointing a mayor, they designate the Council President to serve as temporary mayor and then hold a special election for mayor. He said it would eliminate questions of conflict of interest. He was critical of the application form that was submitted by the candidates because it did not ask what organizations they belonged to. He thought that because Ludington was on the Main Street Association Board, it would be a conflict of interest for him to serve as mayor.
“I don’t know how many times this has to be answered,” said Mim Mack. He noted that the question has been asked and answered numerous times by different attorneys and the answer always comes up the same: ‘It is not a conflict of interest for a public official to sit on the board of a non-profit organization’.
In the end the Mayor ruled that the motion was out of order because it was not on the agenda. He said the agenda item was the appointment of a mayor based on interviews that were conducted.
“It says nothing about holding a special election for mayor,” said Mim Mack.
The motion was made to appoint Ludington and Councilor Robin Holcomb said that his application made her wonder if he had time to be mayor. She said he mentions hiring an assistant in his application because he is working a full time job that he is going to retain.
Asked by the mayor, Ludington said he believed he had time to serve as mayor.
Councilor Crews said that in his application, “Ludington up front says he can’t do the job.”
Councilor Perrin said that the issue was already considered in depth and it was put in the job description that the mayor can hire an assistant paying out of money allocated in the budget for that so there would be no increase in expenditures.
Ludington said that he thought he did have time to serve as mayor but recognized due to certain project demands that he may have to hire an assistant at times.
Two people in the audience spoke in favor of appointing Ludington, talking about his ethical standards, his good family life, and his ability to get along with others. Also mentioned was his previous experience on the Council and on the Planning and Zoning Board.
“We’ve also had many mayors in the past who have held full-time jobs,” said Ben Longbottom.
Following the split vote, the Mayor said he thought Ludington was the better choice because of his experience and he then broke the tie. Ludington was selected on a 3 to 2 vote.
The Council subsequently voted unanimously that the Oath of Office would be administered on Wednesday, September 30, at 11 a.m. at the Town Hall.
The Council then agreed to reconsider the Tree Ordinance that was already approved on second reading. An amendment had been added to the ordinance requiring that one of the three members of the board be an arborist, but failed to provide the definition of an arborist. It was moved to define arborist as an international certified arborist (ISA) or other equivalent certification or who by a combination of experience and education meets the requirement to the satisfaction of the Council to act as an arborist for the Board.
Based on advice from its auditor, the Council made the decision to re-allocate a portion of the General Fund Reserves to certain separate funds. According to the mayor, the auditors determined that the town was holding too much money in the General Fund Reserves. He said state law limits the amount of money that a municipality can hold in General Fund Reserves. It cannot be in excess of 50% of the budget in any year.
Upon consulting with the auditor, it was recommended that the Council consider reducing the General Fund Reserves from $375,987 to $150,000 and transferring the remainder (about $225,987) to separate funds: half the remainder, about $114,993 would be placed in the Capital Improvement Fund; 25% or about $57,496, would be placed in the Airport Fund; 15%, or about $34,498 would be placed in the Sidewalk Fund; and 10%, or about $22,998, would be placed in the Economic Development Fund.
The mayor noted that the state requirement to review and update the town’s Growth Policy was past due. He said a CDBG grant was being applied for to meet the estimated cost of about $36,000. The grant package would include a $27,000 CDBG grant with the remaining matching funds of $6,000 from the Stevensville Main Street Association and $3,000 from the Town.