WOODLAND, Maine – Woodland residents will soon decide whether to adopt rules governing public meetings and a strict ethics code for elected officials.
In February, a citizen steering committee began exploring how to create more accountability for town officials after months of dysfunction that led to canceled meetings and conflicts among the selectboard.
The committee’s proposed “operational procedures ordinance” lays out rules for how the selectboard should conduct themselves and public comments during meetings and bars board members from taking part in conflicts of interest, influencing local elections and contributing to a negative work environment among the board and town staff.
The selectboard voted Wednesday to schedule a special town meeting for Tuesday, Nov. 19, the same evening as the board’s next regular meeting. The meeting will begin at 5:30 p.m. and take place at the Woodland Consolidated School gymnasium.
The board’s vote followed a brief public hearing at the school’s gymnasium in which steering committee chairperson Lorraine Chamberlain read the entire ordinance and took questions from residents. Over 25 residents attended the hearing Wednesday.
If passed as written, the ordinance would establish a 5-member selectboard, adding two more slots to the current 3-member board.
Though state statute does not require selectboards to be capped at five members, officials from Maine Municipal Association said that they support towns of Woodland’s size having five members, Chamberlain said. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, Woodland had a population of just over 1,200 people.
With five slots, the majority of the selectboard would still be able to hold meetings if one or two members resigned, became sick for a period of time or passed away, Chamberlain said.
Both the town’s recent governmental dysfunction and a recent citizen survey influenced the steering committee’s choice to recommend a 5-member board, Chamberlain noted.
In the survey, which had a 41-percent response rate among Woodland households, 45 percent said that they are in favor of having five board members, while 24 percent preferred keeping the cap to three.
Woodland resident David Hall asked what would happen if nobody ran for the fifth selectboard position. Chamberlain said that the town would then operate with a 4-member board because a majority would still be present if one member could not be at a meeting.
Resident Amy Espling wondered if MMA’s legal counsel approved of going with an ordinance to govern meetings and the board, rather than another option, like town bylaws.
The committee considered bylaws, Chamberlin said. But they chose to go against MMA’s recommendation for bylaws because a new selectboard could potentially vote down or change the bylaws. By contrast, an ordinance requires a special town meeting for adoption or any future changes.
Though MMA tends to recommend bylaws, that option is better for towns who have not been in Woodland’s situation, said committee member Lewis Cousins.
Resident Sherri Parker addressed a section of the code of ethics that states all community members are expected to comply with state and local real estate and property tax laws and pay all taxes owed.
“Is there a timeframe for when their taxes should be paid?” Parker said. “I have concerns about this because someone might be an upstanding citizen [and pay taxes] but others might not be.”
Since Woodland does not have a town charter, the town cannot pass an ordinance mandating that all selectboard members and other committee members pay taxes by a certain date, Chamberlain said. The next best option is for the selectboard chair to talk with members about paying taxes if the issue comes up.
“We sought out a way to work around that concern and see how that can be embedded into the ordinance,” Chamberlain noted. “People should be model citizens if they’re going to serve on a board or committee.”
