HOULTON, Maine — A number of residents spoke to the Town Council evening on Monday evening to express displeasure with councilors who cast votes in opposition to the reappointment of some municipal department heads at a meeting two weeks ago.
All of the department heads, who must be reappointed to their posts once a year as mandated by charter, were reconfirmed. Some residents stated that they felt that the councilors in question brought personal issues into the process or embarrassed the employees.
Priscilla Monroe of Houlton said she found it upsetting that several department heads were the recipient of at least one negative vote from the council on their reappointment. She said she found the “most egregious” example being Police Chief Tim DeLuca, who had been employed the least amount of time in the community. She said that she feels he is doing an outstanding job, partnering with local schools and organizations and working with the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians to expand outreach.
Rosa McNally, a Houlton resident and former councilor, praised DeLuca, Fire Chief Milton Cone, Public Works Director Chris Stewart, and Nancy Ketch, the town’s economic and community development director. All received at least one negative vote, which she said “did not reflect the majority of the community.”
DeLuca began his position with the town on Jan. 3, 2017, taking over the post in Houlton that was vacated by Terry “Joe” McKenna, who was police chief for a year and seven months before resigning in August 2016. McKenna now sits on the council.
McNally noted that McKenna and councilors Hal Britton and Raymond Jay had been behind some negative votes. She said that she had been on the council in 2016 when McKenna had resigned.
“You suddenly and voluntarily resigned,” she told him. “It is time for you to look in the mirror and not at who has the seat you no longer hold.”
She also said that she had cautioned Jay during his first year on council that he “was going to get the town sued if he did not stay out of personal biases,” which she reiterated during the meeting.
McNally also said that she had heard “many concerns” about Jane Torres doing town business while serving on the council. Torres is also the executive director of the Greater Houlton Chamber of Commerce.
Paul Cleary, another former councilor, also addressed the group.
“You or some of you voted negative on four department heads,” he said. “You represent 5,500 people. If you are voting no because of personal jealousy and bitterness, you could get the town or yourself into a lawsuit…You can’t vote on innuendo or because you didn’t succeed in a job.”
Addressing the crowd, Councilor William McCluskey said that he had voted against the reappointment of Nancy Ketch because he had asked her several questions during a board of budget review meeting last year, which he said that she could not answer.
Britton told the crowd that he felt that he had gotten “slammed” for his vote.
“When you are in this position, you are in the middle,” he said. “Prior to the vote two weeks ago, people came to me with concerns. Afterwards, they thanked me for my vote. No one has been fired. If there is an issue, we’ll take care of it. If there isn’t, we’ll clear it up. I can’t just represent you folks and forget other people, or represent them and forget you.”
McKenna denied that he wanted his job as police chief back, and told McNally and Cleary that there were things going on that they didn’t know about.
“There are things we can’t tell the public. We ask you to respect what we are doing,” he said. “You sit back and judge us. You know what was going on when I left. We are going to leave it at that. I don’t want the job back.”
Jay said he handled the situation with the information he had at the time.
“Yes, some of you didn’t like how we voted, but as Rosa said, we ran unopposed,” he said. “Why didn’t you folks run?…We give up our time for nothing for pay, really.”
