AUBURN — The battle between city councilors and the local firefighters’ union continued Monday night when the union served individual councilors with civil complaints for failing to comply with a freedom of information request.

Councilors said the move was unnecessary and an attempt by union officials to harass the council.

“At this point, I have to really question their motives because they’ve gone this route and chosen to expend the use of a lot of taxpayer money,” Councilor Mike Farrell said.

The Auburn Firefighters Association Local 797 filed a suit in Androscoggin County Superior Court  against the city, the city manager and city councilors in May. It claims city officials violated state laws that allow access to public records. The union also claimed city officials violated members’ civil rights.

In a March 20 letter, Craig Bouchard, president of the local firefighters’ union, requested electronic and printed public documents showing communications among members of the Auburn City Council, City Manager Glenn Aho and Deputy (fire) Chief Geoffrey Low dating back to Jan. 1, 2010, having to do with complaints or concerns about the Fire Department and its vehicles on the road, fuel cost-saving measures and life-safety inspections performed by the department.

Councilors said Monday that the request stemmed from remarks they’d made concerning the use of firetrucks performing non-firefighting jobs.

“Both Councilor (Dan) Herrick and myself had heard complaints, and one of those complaints came in these chambers,” Farrell said. “We’d heard about firetrucks being at Dairy Joy and at Hannaford and diesel fuel costs were hovering at about $5 per gallon. We were outraged.”

Bouchard said in May that he had received documents from City Councilors Eric Samson, Belinda Gerry and Bob Hayes. Aho responded, saying he was having trouble complying with the request because of problems with his office computer. Mayor Dick Gleason said he did not have any emails that met the union’s description.

Herrick said Monday he had no emails whatsoever. He does not use email and does not know how to use email. Councilor Ray Berube said the only emails he has sent were responses to constituents.

Farrell said he offered to give union officials his emails if they agreed to pay a $40 fee and collect them during a City Council meeting. Maine’s open records law does allow Freedom of Access Act request recipients to charge a reasonable fee. Farrell said he is charging for five hours of work to go through almost 18 months of emails on his Yahoo! mail account.

“They limit the space on their servers and they start deleting emails,” Farrell said. “As you can imagine, it’s a substantial and very time-consuming endeavor to pull these things up; hence, my $40 request.”

Aho said the city’s attorney would handle individual responses to the union’s complaints.

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