Staff Writer
HOULTON — Members of Houlton’s town council gathered early Monday afternoon for a work session to discuss bringing another player on board their economic development team.
Photo courtesy of East Grand School
REMEMBERING — Kindergarten teacher, Jennifer Gilman holds a teddy bear that belongs to her brother John who was at the World Trade Center when it collapsed. He is an EMT for Columbia Presbyterian Hospital.
Councilors were presented with a proposal of hiring the Southern Aroostook Development Corporation’s Executive Director Jon McLaughlin. Town Manager Doug Hazlett said McLaughlin has spent countless hours working on the town’s economic development efforts and he said it was time that McLaughlin received compensation for his work.
“Since I’ve taken this job, Jon has been providing services to the town without compensation,” he explained. “The goal today is to have a discussion on whether we want to bring it before the council.”
Councilors showed little opposition to the recommendation, however they did express concern on how McLaughlin would be paid and what methods the town manager would use in order to calculate his wages. Councilors expressed problems that they had encountered from the previous economic development employee they had hired, citing lack of communication as one of the biggest. Accountability and wage control were at the top of the list of concerns.
“I think we ought to do it by a monthly billing,” explained Councilor Carl Lord.
Payment for McLaughlin’s efforts would come out of the town’s current economic development fund, which presently has a balance of approximately $30,000. McLaughlin told councilors that he had spent, on average, approximately 15 hours per week working on projects that directly involved economic development for the town. Hazlett said he has been a great help and McLaughlin would not be duplicating anyone’s current duties, such as Grant Writer Wade Hanson.
Councilor Paul Romanelli questioned McLaughlin’s role and how it would interact with Hanson’s position. Hazlett reassured the councilors that there would be no risk of duplicated services.
“Jon’s duties are a lot more easily tracked,” he explained. “It’s highly unlikely that a month would go by without work from Jon. I have a lot of contact with him.”
Hazlett said McLaughlin deals with compiling information, statistics, numbers, studies, which are ideal for planning and executing economic development plans. Hanson’s role would focus more with hands on and face-to-face encounters, rather than data management.
The proposal suggests paying McLaughlin each month, with a cap of $2,000 per month. The councilors agreed that they would like to have a trial run and revisit the issue in three months time.
“The way you get accountability is communication,” said Councilor Romanelli. “With Brian (Hamel) we had no communication. Maybe we should have been more demanding. We asked for updates and it was cloaked in secrecy.
“When you don’t communicate, there’s mistrust,” he said.
Councilors agreed to have the matter bought before them during their regular council session on Monday, Sept. 24.
