PARIS — Although the Board of Selectmen did not formally accept a resignation from one of its members Monday, it will still be considered effective, Town Manager Philip Tarr said Tuesday.

  “It’s our opinion that the board has accepted the resignation and acknowledged that a vacancy exists,” he said.

Selectman Troy Ripley, who did not attend Monday’s meeting, sent in a short letter before the meeting announcing he was resigning immediately.

The board discussed how to fill the vacancy but took no action to set a special election to fill the remainder of the three-year term. Ripley was elected in June and appointed vice chairman at his first meeting.

“There is a good deal of misunderstanding about when a resignation is effective,” the Municipal Officer’s manual published by the Maine Municipal Association states. “A resignation of a municipal officer is not effective until it has been accepted by the remaining municipal officers at a regular or special board meeting, or they have taken action which indicates that the resignation is accepted, in the absence of a charter or ordinance provision to the contrary.”

The manual says an official may withdraw their resignation and continue to serve if a board does not take action to accept the resignation. It gives the setting of an election to fill a vacancy as an example of a recognition of resignation without formal acceptance.

“The board certainly had that discussion for quite some time last night,” Tarr said.

At Monday’s meeting, Tarr said an election to fill the rest of Ripley’s term could be set within 24 days. Selectman Glen Young said he would be out of town and unable to attend the board’s two meetings in February and supported setting an election to replace Ripley as soon as possible.

Young wanted the action done in advance of recall elections scheduled next week for Ripley and three other selectmen on the board: Chairman David Ivey and Selectmen Raymond Glover and Lloyd “Skip” Herrick.

Ivey said an election could not be scheduled since the matter had not been placed on the meeting’s agenda.

Glover disagreed, saying that requirement of the board’s bylaws could be set aside due to the “immediacy of the issue.”

However, Glover said the board would be better able to determine future elections to fill any vacancies once the recall elections have taken place. He said special elections would be required to fill the remainder of Ripley’s term, as well as his own term and Herrick’s if they are recalled. He said a special election might not be necessary to fill Ivey’s term if he is recalled, since it expires in June.

Herrick supported waiting to set an election until after the recall votes because there is a plan in place to conduct town business if a minority board of less than three selectmen is left to conduct business at their next meeting on Feb. 8.

“It may be a little premature, even in lieu of Troy resigning tonight, not knowing what the first and the fifth are actually going to bring for outcomes,” Herrick said.

Tarr said Monday that a minority board would be allowed to call an election to fill vacancies on the board, and a Superior Court judge could approve having Tarr sign town warrants with the approval of a minority board. He said Tuesday that a judge could also make a ruling regarding the operation of the town in the event that all four selectmen are recalled and Young is absent.

“There is always Superior Court. It’s happened in the past in other areas of the state,” he said. “We obviously can’t be without a government.”

Recall elections have been set for Ivey and Herrick on Feb. 1, and Ripley and Glover on Feb. 5. Polls will be open from 8:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the South Paris Fire Station on Western Avenue both days.

Interim Town Clerk Elizabeth Knox said voters may still choose whether or not to recall Ripley, since the ballots have already been printed and the town has been accepting absentee ballots for the two elections.

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