AUBURN — An 11th-hour attempt to end almost three years of talks between the Androscoggin County Commission and the Sheriff’s Department labor union failed Thursday evening.

“I was optimistic that we would get a positive vote,” Commission Chairman Randall Greenwood said. “It’s unfortunate we didn’t.

Both sides met behind closed doors for several hours on Wednesday, eventually crafting a new proposal to take to the union membership. The union has about 70 members, including patrol deputies, dispatchers and jail guards.

They were scheduled to meet at 6 p.m. and again at 7 p.m. to discuss the proposals and to vote.

When the meetings ended, Eric Samson, a member of the union’s executive committee, declined to answer questions. He referred all inquiries to Greenwood.

Greenwood also declined to describe the outcome. However, he said fact-finding between the two sides will begin Wednesday, Oct. 27.

Offers on both sides will be analyzed and assessed in a report that will eventually be made public.

The union contract expired just as Greenwood and his fellow commissioners — Elaine Makas and Jonathan LaBonte — took office at the end of 2008.

And that contract had merely been a one-year extension of the previous agreement signed in 2005.

When the current commissioners took office, both sides agreed to start from scratch. They also agreed not to disclose the details of the negotiations, holding their offers and counteroffers secret. Such disclosure is also banned under the expired contract, which remains in force until another is signed.

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