OXFORD – Voters at a Wednesday special town meeting backed up the right of employees to participate in the Maine State Retirement System, something selectmen opposed.

They decided that a 1993 letter asking Maine State Retirement to put Oxford on the inactive list didn’t meet legal requirements of a town meeting vote, and that the town should pay $54,000 in missed employer contributions over the years.

Had voters opted to ratify the 1993 letter as proof of their withdrawal, and refused to pay the $54,000, the town would have had to face an administrative hearing, or possibly a lawsuit.

Attorney Pat Scully told the 50 people gathered in the Oxford Public Safety Building that although the intent of the 1993 letter was to withdraw from the system, it could be challenged in court because it was not backed up as required by a town meeting vote.

“There’s some uncertainty about the letter,” said Scully. “It does not comply with the strict requirements of the law.”

A majority of those present thought the town has been part of the Maine State Retirement System since voting to become a member in 1974, even though for the past decade or so, new hires were told that Maine State Retirement System was not a benefit the town offered.

Jim Davis said that when he was a selectman in 1992, he, Selectmen Roger Smedberg and Evan Thurlow voted not to offer MSRS as a benefit. However, the town has no record of that vote.

Davis said he wasn’t against employees receiving benefits, but asked, “What authority does any town employee have to contact Maine State Retirement on their own and say I want to get back in? If an employee was never offered a benefit, he or she would need to get permission from selectmen.

Selectmen said they never authorized the employees to contact Maine State Retirement. But Scully said employees were eligible because a legal withdrawal was not done.

Former Town Clerk Paula Pike said two or three years ago employees were dissatisfied with their 457 plan and asked then Town Manager Jim Rhodes what other options were available. It was then that the town found out it was still an active member, she said.

“It wasn’t about attempting to do anything underhanded,” Pike said.

Davis urged voters not to appropriate any money to cover previous service credits of employees. He said it was wrong to “place this kind of liability on the townspeople.”

But Kerry Halterman pointed out that by the previous vote not to withdraw, the money would have to be paid eventually, and the longer the town waited the more interest would be added on.

“If we’re in the system now, we have the obligation to pay the money,” Town Manager Michael Huston said. The town will also need to contribute to the buyback of benefits for eight town employees who have opted to participate.

Copy the Story Link