LEWISTON – City Administrator Jim Bennett described the city’s failure to make its first $25,000 payment for the Colisee ice arena as a simple oversight.
City officials had hoped that the arena’s former owner, Roger Theriault, would accept the city’s late payment along with a $1,750 penalty and drop his lawsuit.
But that didn’t happen.
According to Bennett, Theriault, who is suing the city for the full $225,000 due on the sale, didn’t respond to the city’s offers to reach a settlement.
Now the city is suing Theriault, alleging he also violated the agreement by conveying false information during the sale that has already cost the city money.
“There are some things that are not exactly as we anticipated them,” Bennett said during a news conference Friday. “I’ll just say that what we thought we were getting is not what we got.”
The city’s countersuit doesn’t contain details of the false information or other specific examples of how Theriault breached the contract.
Other than saying that they are not “small, minor issues,” Bennett declined to elaborate Friday.
“The best legal strategy is not to share a lot,” he said.
Theriault’s lawyer, Rebecca Webber, responded to the city’s counterclaim and press conference with words such as “shameless,” “frivolous,” and “an abuse of governmental power.”
She claims that the city doesn’t cite specific examples because there aren’t any, and she questioned Bennett’s motive for holding a press conference in the city attorney’s office.
“There is no reason for the city to air its laundry on television, using its weight to publicly defame Mr. Theriault, other than to try to intimidate him,” she said.
Theriault owned the Colisee when it was called the Central Maine Civic Center and helped work the deal to bring the Lewiston Maineiacs hockey team to town.
The city got involved late last year after Theriault’s debt continued to mount and he was unable to continue with renovations to the arena.
In an effort to keep the arena open, keep the Maineiacs happy and protect its own $2 million loan to bring the team here, the City Council voted in January to buy the arena for $250,000. It also acquired Theriault’s $3.2 million in debt to area builders, painters and engineers for work completed on the center.
The city agreed to pay Theriault $25,000 a year over 10 years. The first payment was made on the day of the closing. The next was due Feb. 1.
By mid-March, Theriault was still waiting.
That is when he sued the city in Androscoggin County Superior Court for the entire amount, plus interest, costs and attorney’s fees.
“It was not malice. It was not intentional,” Bennett said about the city’s failure to pay Theriault. Bennett described the sale as a complicated business transaction that required “tons of paperwork” and many signatures.
“For whatever reason, it didn’t get set up,” and Theriault didn’t get paid, Bennett said.
Bennett didn’t learn about the “oversight” until after he received notice of Theriault’s lawsuit. At that point, he said, he immediately issued Theriault a check for $26,750.
The check had not been cashed as of Friday afternoon.
According to Bennett, the city waited for the last possible day to file its response and counterclaim in hopes that a settlement could be reached.
He described the city’s attempts to reach Theriault, who now lives in Greene, as informal, and he expressed hope that a settlement could still be reached.
“I always believe that reasonable people can resolve issues. I’d like to just get this thing resolved if we could,” he said.
Webber argued that no city official or attorney has ever called her office to work out a deal, and she blasted the city’s explanation for missing its payment to Theriault.
“The argument that missing a $25,000 payment for weeks on end is a mere technicality ought to ring hollow in all the ears of those citizens who have had municipal tax liens put on their properties for missing tax payments,” the Auburn attorney said.
If a settlement isn’t reached, it could be a year before the lawsuits go to trial.
Comments are no longer available on this story