By Kelly Morgan,Staff Writer

HARTFORD – Selectman Laura Marston resigned during a special meeting Friday, leaving one selectman in charge of the town, while questions still loom about a series of problems with the May 17 election.

Lee Holman is now the only member of the Hartford Board of Selectmen. A third selectman, Scott Swain, resigned March 3.

Attorneys have conflicting opinions as to whether one selectman may run a town.

Holman said she has been advised by town attorney Geoffrey Hole to continue with town business, including a runoff election for the position of town clerk and now a race for Marston’s seat.

“Geoff Hole has been in municipal (law) a long, long time, which is why I feel comfortable,” Holman said in a phone conversation late Friday afternoon. She said she does not expect any new town business to arise prior to a special election, which will be scheduled for June 24. Holman said she intends to deal with old business, such as an audit report that the town auditor has failed to complete, even while there is no quorum of the board. She said the selectmen had a policy in place to allow one board member to sign payroll warrants.

But Roy Pierce, an attorney with Preti, Flaherty, Beliveau, Pachios & Haley LLP of Portland, said that a board without a quorum can do nothing but call a special election to elect new members.

“She’s really going to have to do it, or else nothing’s going to get done in the town,” he said.

Towns can have three, five or seven selectmen under state law. The law says a board needs to meet with a majority of its members in order to operate, Pierce said. “Unless they do math different in Hartford, one is not a majority.”

Marston tendered her letter of resignation shortly after she and Holman entered into an executive session with the town attorney at the town office at 8:08 a.m. Friday. They were to discuss the town’s “legal rights and duties” regarding the May 17 election.

Within 10 minutes, Hole emerged and addressed a small group of residents, including Monica Mailly, the former town clerk who was defeated in the clerk’s race on May 17. A runoff election has been scheduled because Lianne Bedard and incumbent Zoe Cowett each received 71 votes. One of the problems with the balloting was that Mailly’s name was omitted from a number of the ballots.

Also on hand Friday morning was Selectman-elect Roland Downing, who won May 17 but has yet to be sworn into office. Hole said the board had come out of executive session to receive Marston’s resignation.

The residents entered the office, where Marston handed out a letter explaining that she was resigning because with “the ongoing problems in the town, the position of selectman now demands much more time and attention than I can cope with.”

Marston said her career, personal life and health were being affected.

She left, and Hole advised Holman to re-enter into executive session.

The public was invited back into the town office an hour later. At that point, Holman said she had made no decision regarding the controversial May 17 election but would be speaking with Hole later in the day.

“How are you going to notify us of your decision?” Mailly asked.

Holman said she would call a newspaper.

She called the Sun Journal on Friday afternoon and announced her intention to begin a May 31 runoff election at 10 a.m. as planned, but then to ask the moderator to postpone the race until June 24.

She said no action will be taken regarding calls for a revote due to problems at the May 17 polls, which included a ballot box being opened before the polls closed, and ballots being removed from the box.

Holman said Hole has advised the town to move on, since a court is unlikely to overturn the results unless a complainant can prove that mistakes were made deliberately and had a significant effect on the results.

“Anyone who wants to contest the election has 30 days to do so, and it has to be contested in Superior Court,” Holman said.