AUBURN – Androscoggin County Commissioner Elmer Berry threatened to have the sheriff thrown out of a meeting Wednesday and banned all public comment on an ongoing controversy over hiring a new deputy.

Berry repeated his opinion that commissioners – not Sheriff Guy Desjardins – decide whether deputies are hired. He was backed by Bryan Dench, a lawyer for the county, who cited several Maine statutes that assert the authority of the three-member commission.

Questions from the public and reporters were rebuffed, despite the fact the meeting was a regular posted session and held in the county courthouse.

“We’re not going to make a media spectacle out of this,” Berry said. “End of discussion.”

When Desjardins tried to talk to the commission, Berry erupted.

“One more time and I’ll ask you to be ejected,” he warned.

Berry failed to end the matter of the new deputy, though. Both sides suggested Wednesday that a lawsuit was likely.

“If this is going upstairs,” said Berry in a reference to the superior courtroom one floor above, “then let it be.”

Immediately after the meeting, Berry and Commissioner Helen Poulin went to a locked office. The third commissioner, Constance Cote, was unable to attend the regularly scheduled meeting due to a medical appointment.

Meanwhile, Desjardins recommitted himself to hiring a new deputy, meant to augment night patrols.

If the commission turns down his choice, he will likely sue, he said.

The fight has been brewing for months, ever since sheriff’s department personnel came forward with a plan to sacrifice two jobs at the jail to add two officers on the road at night.

The county Budget Committee pared the plan to one officer. The commission tried to strike the position from the 2007 budget but failed. The job became part of the formal spending package.

Berry repeated the commission’s worry Wednesday that $180,000 in community corrections revenue – used by the Budget Committee to offset spending – might not actually be coming from the state.

He also argued that the ranks of patrol deputies have grown from 11 in 2000 to a current force of 14 full-timers and six reserve deputies.

“Given our financial risks, the commissioners conclude it would not be fiscally responsible to create and fill another position,” read Berry from a prepared statement.

The numbers are not true, said Capt. Raymond Lafrance, who has led the patrol division for more than seven years.

The added full-time deputies were not patrol officers. They included a detective and a school resource officer, he said.

Meanwhile, the number and volatility of calls for sheriff’s assistance have risen sharply, Lafrance said. Domestic abuse, other assaults and firearm calls have all climbed.

The climate makes it more dangerous to be an Androscoggin County deputy than ever before, he said.

Desjardins doesn’t want to sue, he said. He’d rather do his job without the politics.

“I just want to be sheriff,” Desjardins said. “And I want the people of Androscoggin County who voted me into office to not worry. I am going to continue to be sheriff, to get up every morning, go to work and do what I’ve got to do.”

Online

Go to SunJournal.com to hear audio excerpts from the meeting.