AUBURN — Councilor Ron Potvin told his colleagues Monday that he shouldn’t have to endure angry phone messages from other city councilors.

“I’ve been a corrections officer in the Androscoggin County Jail for 10 years, and I’ve never had an inmate call me at home like that,” Potvin said. “But I get on the City Council, and that’s when the calls start.”

Potvin and the City Council aired two months worth of bad feelings Monday night, stemming from a vote in May to cut money for the city’s rescue vehicle from the budget.

Potvin, who supported expanding the city Fire Department’s rescue program, not cutting it, filed a complaint with the State Attorney General after that meeting alleging that either City Manager Glenn Aho had acted without council consent or that councilors had colluded in executive session.

That angered his council colleagues, he said — especially Mayor John Jenkins and Councilor Dan Herrick.

“When I did that, they had a hissy fit, and Herrick called me at home — and I recorded it,” Potvin said. “He said the war was started, I was finished and that I was dead, dead, dead wrong.”

Potvin promptly filed a harassment complaint against Herrick with Auburn police. That complaint was dismissed last week.

Herrick said he was angry, but not angry enough to merit a police report.

“There’s not a person on this council that I’ve agreed with 100 percent, and not Mayor Jenkins or Glenn Aho,” Herrick said. “And they all hear about it. I’m not one to keep that kind of thing to myself, but it never becomes a problem. Do you want know why? Because they’re men.”

Councilor Mike Farrell said his criticism of Potvin went beyond the most recent incident. He complained that Potvin frequently tries to speak on the council’s behalf — to the city’s firefighters’ union, to other communities, to local businesses or to other boards.

“But you don’t speak for the council, you speak for yourself,” Farrell said. “It seems that every trail you walk on, there’s a wildfire Ron.”

Mayor John Jenkins said the matter pointed to the need for a City Council code of conduct. He gave each councilor copies of the information from the City Council handbook summing up the scope of their job, as well as codes of conduct from the city of Augusta and the town of Ellsworth. He asked councilors to read through the information and make recommendations for creating a similar code for Auburn’s elected officials

Both Jenkins and Potvin have taken out paperwork nominating petitions seeking the mayor’s job in this November’s municipal election.

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