for info box

What: Androscoggin County Commission meeting

When: 1:30 p.m. Wednesday

Where: County Building, 2 Turner St., Auburn

Turner may bill commission
Town wants deputy hired or it may ask for a refund

AUBURN – If the Androscoggin County Commission continues to oppose hiring a new deputy – a position funded in the budget – then Turner wants a refund.

Turner selectmen voted 3-1 to bill the county for its share of the controversial position’s cost if the hiring does not move forward at today’s scheduled commission meeting.

“It’s as though somebody came to me wanting to mow my lawn and I gave them $100,” Turner Selectman Charlie Mock said Tuesday. “Then, they just decided not to do it and didn’t want to give the money back. That’s what it comes to, in its simplest terms, for me.”

The deputy’s position has been at the center of an ongoing dispute between Sheriff Guy Desjardins and the commission.

The added deputy was meant to augment late-night patrols in the department, which has two deputies on duty after midnight.

In February, the county’s 11-member budget committee passed the budget, which funded the position despite commission objections.

Commissioners have since rejected requests to fill the job, citing worries that $180,000 in community corrections funds were used by the budget committee to offset increases. The money might not come from the state, they argued.

Commission Chairman Elmer Berry came under fire after he criticized Desjardins’ decision to allow eight full- and part-time officers to attend a memorial service in Washington for Deputy David Rancourt, a longtime Androscoggin officer who died on duty in November.

Last week, the Maine Association of Police joined calls within the local department for Berry’s resignation.

Meanwhile, a growing number of towns – including Greene, Turner, Leeds and Poland – have sent letters to the county supporting Desjardins.

And though they have not sent a letter, selectmen in Durham also side with the sheriff.

“If (Desjardins) wants the deputy, he should have it,” said Wesley Bennett, chairman of the Durham selectmen. “Everybody I have talked to backs the sheriff.”

No others have gone as far as Turner, though.

Mock, a paramedic with United Ambulance, came up with the idea of billing the county after attending several county meetings.

“I am very disappointed with (the commission’s) lack of response to constituents,” Mock said. “They simply don’t like the sheriff.”

Some of the meetings he attended were cordial. Some weren’t.

“I was absolutely astounded at one point when (Berry) threatened to have the sheriff removed from the meeting,” he said. “My first thought was, ‘Who’s he going to have do that?'”

Turner selectmen voted on the billing measure on Monday night. Of the four selectmen present – Mock, Ralph Caldwell, Lawrence House and Angelo Terreri – only Caldwell voted against the measure.

Attempts to reach Caldwell or commissioners Helen Poulin, Constance Cote and Berry were unsuccessful.

Mock said he was unsure how big the bill might be, leaving interim Town Manager Eva Leavitt to do the math.

On Tuesday, Leavitt e-mailed County Clerk Patricia Fournier for details on the position and Turner’s share.

“I don’t have all the nuts and bolts,” Mock said.

The measure will add one more dimension to an already full agenda for today’s commission meeting.

Desjardins has written to the commissioners, informing them of his choice for the controversial deputy’s job. He has threatened to sue the three-member board if it does not let him hire someone.

“I hope for the best,” Desjardins said of today’s meeting.

Mock said he was not optimistic for the deputy’s job or Turner’s bill.

“I don’t actually expect them to ever pay that,” said Mock, who plans to leave the Turner board next week, following the town election. He is moving.

“I refer to this as my parting shot to the commission,” Mock said.