Brandon Dewey
At the February 12 meeting of the Stevensville Town Council, Mayor Brandon Dewey agreed to resign from his position as a volunteer firefighter.
The meeting got off to a rocky start when Councilor Bob Michalson refused to approve the minutes of a February 5 meeting of the Committee of the Whole.
“How can you approve the minutes of a meeting that hasn’t been adjourned yet?” Michalson said. “Shouldn’t we have a formal adjournment?”
Mayor Brandon Dewey said that he could facilitate that process if the Council wanted.
Michalson made a motion to close the February 5th COW meeting. He said the Mayor had adjourned the meeting abruptly and walked out with no second to the motion to adjourn and no vote.
Town Clerk Stacy Bartlett noted that the issue was not on the night’s agenda so no decision could be made about it.
Mayor Dewey said, “I think by passing the motion to accept the minutes you are effectively closing the meeting.”
The motion to adopt the minutes was approved on a 3 to 1 vote with Michalson casting the dissenting vote.
When it came to the agenda item of requesting Mayor Dewey to resign from the Stevensville Volunteer Fire Department, the Council voted unanimously to have Dewey recuse himself and Michalson, as Council President, took over the gavel for that agenda item.
Council members Michalson and Stacie Barker had together requested an opinion from Town Attorney Brian West on the issue and West had stated that, in his opinion, the office of mayor and the volunteer position on the Stevensville Fire Department were “incompatible.” Michalson noted at the meeting that the Mayor was potentially receiving retirement benefits as a Fire Department volunteer.
“He cannot consult himself as a supervisor of himself,” said Michalson. “And you can’t get two different compensations from the same source.”
Stevensville Fire Chief Jeff Motley noted that a preceding statute seemed to exempt the volunteers in a fire company from the doctrine of incompatibility.
Attorney West said that the law referred to was adopted prior to the formation of fire departments as they exist today and that it is the only law to refer to fire companies as opposed to fire departments. He said the answer wasn’t clear cut about the incompatibility, but said, “I would err on the side of caution considering that an Attorney General’s Opinion could take up to three months.”
Public comment was generally in favor of somehow allowing Dewey to continue his volunteer work.
Bill Perrin stated that Stevensville volunteer firefighters on average put in 16.73 hours per month. He said last year the department put in a total of 8,435 volunteer hours, which comes to about 200.3 hours per volunteer. He said the department got 655 calls in 2017 and answered all but 25. He said Dewey himself answered 95 calls, 64 of which were medical. Dewey is a certified EMT. He put in 202 hours in calls and training, according to Perrin. Dewey is also one of only two volunteers that can drive the town’s ladder truck. Perrin said that the town needs every firefighter it can get and should not be asking Dewey to resign.
Jan Perrin and former Mayor and Police Chief Lew Barnett and current Police Chief James Marble also supported Dewey’s continued volunteerism.
“Being a small community, many of us wear more than one hat,” said Craig Thomas. He suggested that the issue of incompatibility could be addressed by having the Mayor recuse himself from any decisions that might benefit him.
“There should be some progressive act the town could take so that the mayor wouldn’t be involved in those decisions. It’s a sticky wicket but it’s a small community and we need some progressive action here,” said Thomas.
Council member Ray Smith said that his responsibility as a Council member was to protect the town from liability. He said he highly recommended following the town attorney’s recommendation in this case.
Michalson said that the town dealt with too many issues connected with the Fire Department, including the budget, to have the Mayor recused from all that activity.
“It’s not about Brandon,” he said. “It’s about the law. Our lawyer says the two jobs are incompatible.”
The Council passed the motion requesting Dewey’s resignation from the Fire Department on a 4 to 0 vote.
“This has felt like a personal attack and has crippled the productivity of the council, my office and the administrative staff,” said Dewey. “It is apparent that something must be done to move us all forward, to lift the gridlock. For the sake of our community, so that its government can continue to work for them, I am resigning from the Stevensville Fire Department effective immediately.”
“With that said,” Dewey added, “if it is the opinion of the Attorney General that the office of Mayor is compatible with that of a volunteer firefighter, then I will reconsider my resignation and my return to service.”
Later on, the Council once again asked Mayor Dewey to recuse himself from dealing with the agenda item asking for Council consent to his appointments to the Park Board. He had recommended Renee Endicott and Whitney McBeth. The reason stated was that Endicott served on his campaign committee when he ran for mayor.
Dewey noted that she was well qualified and that the election was over.
The Council voted 3 to 1 to have the Mayor recuse himself and he did.
Endicott and McBeth were then both unanimously appointed to the Park Board.