PARIS — Oxford County commissioners have agreed to see if voters would prefer to have a county treasurer appointed by the board rather than elected for a four-year term.

In a 2-0 vote on Tuesday, with commissioner Caldwell Jackson abstaining, the board agreed to put the question on the June primary ballot. County Administrator Scott Cole said the county will file the request with the secretary of state. Commissioners also discussed the possibility of having a single registrar of deeds serve the county rather than two.

Commissioner David Duguay, who initiated the question, said he believes an appointed treasurer would be beneficial because it would save a candidate from having to go through an election every four years. He said an appointee would be able to stay in the position for as long as they wanted, and as long as they performed the job satisfactorily. He said this would lead to greater job security as well as more accountability to the county government. Chairman Steve Merrill said Tuesday that the commissioners would also be able to review the qualifications of a treasurer.

Under a state statute, the commissioners may abolish the treasurer as an elected position and replace it as an appointed position. The change can also be requested by petitioners equal to at least 10 percent of the number of voters in the last gubernatorial election. In either case, the commissioners are required to put the question to voters at the next available regular or special statewide election.

Mary Ann Prue, who has been county treasurer for 13 years, has resigned effective March 1 because she is moving out of the area. She disagreed with the assertion that the review of qualifications is an added benefit, saying that county voters are aware of who they vote for and their background when they go to the polls.

“I don’t know that there’s going to be any advantage one way or the other,” Prue said on Tuesday.

Cole said the Oxford County Democrats will nominate a replacement for Prue, and Gov. John Baldacci will have the final approval on their choice. Though Jackson and Merrill are Republicans and Duguay was a Republican before becoming an Independent in 2008, Duguay said the decision is not politically motivated.

“I believe from past actions that I am a strong advocate of reducing or eliminating partisanship in county government,” Duguay said. “And this is just one more action going toward that. So this position would not be partisan, because they wouldn’t have to run under a D or an R or an I. They wouldn’t have to run a campaign in a partisan way.”

Cole said the commissioners asked him in January what restructuring options were available in the county government to save costs, since the coming retirement of Prue and registrar of Deeds East allowed for possible changes without affecting individuals. The treasurer’s office currently has a treasurer, deputy treasurer, assistant to the deputy treasurer, and part-time civil process clerk with salaries totaling $96,912. Cole said one option would be eliminating the elected treasurer’s position and having other staffers assume the duties, leading to a savings of $12,524 in wages and about $10,000 in benefits.

“Nothing is concrete, but it’s going to be an ongoing process,”Cole said. “It could be a combination of things.”

The registry of deeds option discussed by commissioners would have a registrar of deeds serve the entire county, with a deputy registrar maintaining a second office in Fryeburg. The Register of Deeds West maintains records for Brownfield, Denmark, Fryeburg, Hiram, Lovell, Porter, Stow and Sweden. Oxford and Aroostook counties are the only two counties in Maine with two registries of deeds due to their size.

Jane Rich, who has served as registrar of Deeds East for 20 years, said the idea of using a single registrar has been brought up before, but she did not think it would be possible without combining the two offices. She said that option presents its own difficulties, such as the expense of moving records from Fryeburg and the question of where to put them.

“I will be happy to leave this dilemma to the next registrar and the county commissioners,” Rich said. “Ideally it would be a good thing, but it would take a lot of work.”

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