PORTLAND – The Regional Organization of Municipal Attorneys will hold a luncheon meeting on Wednesday, Dec. 14, at Portland City Hall.

Attorney Robert Hark of Portland, former Lewiston corporation counsel, will speak on “Paper Streets,” streets laid out on old subdivision plans, which were never actually built but create rights on the part of lot owners. Lawyers have been perplexed for years about how such rights can be eliminated to clear the title to the unbuilt or “paper” streets.

Attorney Bryan Dench of Auburn will also speak. Dench, who is attorney for the Sun Journal and an expert in First Amendment issues, will discuss the application of the state’s Right To Know Law to electronic materials such as e-mails.

Although the application of the law to paper records is well established, considerable uncertainty exists regarding the right of citizens to obtain copies of electronic records from local governments and state agencies.

If time permits, Attorney Curtis Webber of Auburn and James Adolph of the Corporation Counsel’s office in Portland will discuss the state law authorizing municipal boards of appeal to grant variances based on “practical difficulty” rather than undue hardship.

Although the State Legislature authorized the granting of such variances in 1997, confusion about the application of the law has resulted in its being adopted in only a few communities.

The organization is a state-wide group of attorneys who concentrate their practices in the area of municipal law. Additional information may be obtained from Webber in Auburn or Attorney Rebecca Seel at the Maine Municipal Association in Augusta.

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