Staff Writer
LIMESTONE — Questions concerning terms of employment and day-to-day responsibilities for a man hired by town officials were questions by at least two residents Feb. 4 during a regular meeting of the Limestone Selectpeople. The selectmen approved an easement for the water and sewer department. They also discussed the budget for the transportation department, the current availability of the code enforcement officer, and the purchasing authority of the Limestone Fire Department. The Selectpeople also went into executive session with Town Manager Donna Bernier to evaluate her performance.
The majority of the meeting however was spent discussing pubic comments from one concerned citizen, Fred Edgecomb, who spoke on the behalf of the former Limestone economic development director, Larry Stamen, who was hired to perform an analytical study of the town in addition to fulfilling other requirements of his employment that were discussed in a letter sent to Stamen by Limestone officials.
"When Larry arrived in Limestone in January, he thought that he was here to continue with the study,” said Edgecomb. “However, when he started working here, it became evident to him that he was actually doing the job of the chamber director/economic development director out of the office which was not what he agreed to do.”
“Because he needed to continue with the study and work at the study, and some were treating him as just an employee or chamber director, he felt he had to resign from that position so he could continue with the study,” added Edgecomb. “He really couldn't do both, he never agreed to be the director of such, so in order to try to continue doing the study, he's resigned as the director,” Edgecomb explained. “He would like to finish the study, and in order to do that, he proposed that we sign a contract with him just as a consultant to complete the study that he's already started,” he added.
When Selectperson Walter Elliot Jr. brought up the fact that the terms of his employment were documented in the letter, essentially an employment contract, which Elliot had with him at the time, Edgecomb and the Selectpeople agreed that there must have been a communication breakdown between Stamen and the town leaders.
Another breakdown of communication occurred regarding the payment of Stamen.
According to Edgecomb, when Stamen left Limestone in January, he gave an ultimatum to the Town of Limestone saying that he would receive back-payment owed to him, or he would not be back.
According to Bernier, that never happened.j
“I think there’s a lot of he-said-I-said-we-said going on,” she stated.
“Stamen still cares about the study and he still cares about Limestone,” said Edgecomb, “he just doesn’t want to work under these conditions.”
Such conditions included discrepancies as to whether or the town should have paid for his room and board paid when he visited to work on the study, according to Edgecomb.
“If we hired you to work for the town as an employee, would you expect us to pay your rent?” asked one selectperson.
“That’s the problem,” said Edgecomb, “that’s the way Larry felt when he came here because everyone looked at him and said ‘you’re an employee,’ but he took the job as a contractor. He was not an employee,” Edgecomb added. “We manipulated that to try to get through the laws.”
Though Elliot produced the document that stated the terms of employment, Edgecomb was not satisfied.
“He agreed to the terms stated in the letter because I explained it to him that we wanted him to do the study and that would be his assignment, that’s what he was here to do,” said Edgecomb. “At the end of the time it took him to complete the study, he would potentially or not potentially decide whether he wanted to continue and be the Economics Director. But when he got here, he was the ‘employee,’ and that’s what he perceived and that’s what we all just said,” Edgecomb added, “that’s what the problem was.”
It was stated by Elliot that town officials thought that they had hired an employee. Edgecomb corrected the Selectpeople, saying that it was not his understanding or Stamen’s understand of the employment terms.
Stamen, though he was in town at the time, e-mailed his resignation to the town manager.
“When I opened my inbox, there was an e-mail titled ‘letter of resignation’ from Larry Stamen, and when I tried to open it up I couldn’t,” said Bernier, “I e-mailed Larry back and stated that I couldn’t open the document and requested that he re-submit it to me. Coincidentally, Fred was in the building and he had a copy of the letter of the resignation,” she added.
A motion was passed by the Selectpeople for Bernier to contact Stamen in order to better understand his position. Stamen has been working out of his office in North Dakota for the majority of his dealings with the town.
The next Limestone Selectpeople meeting is tentatively scheduled for Feb. 18 at 6:30 p.m. in the Municipal Building conference room.
