LEWISTON — Five candidates have entered the race for a pair of seats on the Androscoggin County Commission.

They include two incumbents, Randall Greenwood of Wales and Beth Bell of Auburn, a Mechanic Falls man who has never held political office in Maine, Lawrence McCarthy, and two men who work in the county jail and would have to quit their jobs if elected.

“It expresses the level of frustration we feel as county employees,” said Ron Potvin, a former Auburn city councilor who works as a reserve corrections officer.

Statute prevents county employees from serving as commissioners. The elected position carries an annual salary of $7,273 for two of the commissioners and $8,492 for the chairman. The position also comes with a benefit package that includes health care insurance. 

Also running for the office is Michael Shostak of Minot, a sheriff’s deputy who serves as a transportation officer in jail. 

“I feel very strongly about running,” Shostak said. “I started keeping an eye on (the county commission) about three years ago. Frankly, I was very disappointed with the commission as it was made up back then.”

He was particularly upset by the commission’s attempts to reduce benefits promised to former employees, he said.

“One of the things that I want to do as a county commissioner is treat the county employees with a lot more respect and fairness than what has been evident in the past,” Shostak said.

At least at first, the five county candidates will be running on different ballots.

Greenwood, a Republican and the current commission chairman, is the only candidate for the county’s largest area, District 1. He currently represents Durham, Greene, Leeds, Lisbon, Livermore, Livermore Falls, Sabattus, Turner and Wales.

Bell will be the only Republican on the ballot for the county’s second district, covering Auburn, Poland, Minot and Mechanic Falls. Shostak and McCarthy will be on the Democratic primary ballot. Potvin has registered as an independent and will appear on the ballot in November’s general election.

Bell said she planned to run for re-election even before her appointment in December by Gov. Paul LePage. She replaced Commissioner Jonathan LaBonte, who stepped down to become Auburn’s mayor.

“I’ve put the time in to learn as much as I can and get up to speed as quickly as I can,” Bell said. “I certainly want to have a lot more opportunity to accomplish some things in the next four years.

The dispatching issue has been particularly tough, she said.

“The hardest thing is the amount of time I’ve put in,” said Bell, who also works full time as a Realtor. “I’m just the type of person who, when I decide to do something, I put everything into it.”

McCarthy, who works on maintenance and drives the Zamboni at Auburn’s Ingersoll Arena, said he, too, hopes to throw himself into the job.

Of particular concern for him is the county dispatch issue, determining who will answer emergency calls outside of Lewiston-Auburn.

“I don’t want to see (commissioners) make any expensive mistakes that could affect the efficiency of the system,” he said. “People don’t care who answers the phone. They care how fast help gets there.” He worries that the commission may invest in a system that will cost taxpayers in the long run.

More information about the county and its inner workings should be available on the Web, McCarthy said. Currently, it has little presence on the Internet.

“Even the smallest towns have their minutes and agendas and all the municipal information available online nowadays,” he said.

Potvin, who has worked for the county for 13 years, said he wants to find a way for the county’s 14 towns to more equitably share the cost of operating.

“The broken system of county financing weighs too heavily on the big towns,” he said.

Shostak, who has worked for the county for 23 years, said he wants the county to have a better long-term vision. For instance, multi-million-dollar plans for renovating the county building wouldn’t be needed if past commissions had spent more to maintain the building.

“Too often, they can only see as far as the next year,” he said.

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