Clinton Deschene does not try to disguise his pride over Hermon’s property tax rate.

Since 2002, when he came to Hermon as town manager, the rate has decreased from $16.65 per $100,000 of property value to $11.47 in 2012.

“And we’ve managed to keep it around $11 for a few years — four, maybe five years,” he said. “We’ve done a good job at keeping a good rate. As a board and a community we’ve worked hard to keep it at that.”

It wasn’t budgeting magic that reduced the tax rate, Deschene said, but simple growth in the town about 7 miles west of Bangor. The town’s assessed valuation has doubled in those 10 years and that led the tax rate to drop.

Keeping it low has been the trick. The community has tried to be especially frugal, saving money to build a new public safety building instead of going into debt and paying for some road-paving projects.

Hermon, with its $5 million annual municipal budget and 5,500 residents, is much smaller than Auburn, which has more than 23,000 residents. But Deschene thinks he can do a good job for the city.

He’s one of two candidates Auburn councilors are considering to fill the city manager’s job permanently.

“I don’t see any problems in Auburn that are any different from other communities,” Deschene said. “It’s a tough economy. We have to work hard, build trust and confidence with people. We have to be transparent in what we’re doing and you can’t expect people to give you their trust. You have to earn it.”

There has been controversy. Hermon, unlike Auburn, collects property tax payments from residents every April. That means the city begins to run low on revenue each spring.

Deschene set aside money from the one of the city’s Tax Increment Finance districts earlier this year to cover payroll. The money was not needed, and the money went back into the TIF account without being used, but it prompted questions from town councilors and residents.

“We have a policy that says that money cannot be transferred from reserve accounts without a council vote,” Deschene said. “But this was an investment move and not from a reserve account. We had a councilor that wanted to be sure, and I think it was a good due diligence process that was done.”

Deschene said the town attorney and auditor reviewed his decisions and said there was nothing wrong.

“We were covering investments,” he said. “But now, I’ve recommended they adopt stronger policies about what to do, and the attorney has agreed. You never know what’s going to happen until you are faced with it. So now I’m drafting a priority system with the finance department for the use of funds for cash flow needs.”

Deschene, 39, graduated from high school in 1991 in Presque Isle and from University of Maine, Orono, in 1995. He graduated with a law degree from Suffolk University in Boston in 1998 and began working for the town of Bradford in 1999. He began working at Hermon in 2002.

Deschene is married to Jennifer and has a daughter, Reagen, 6, and son, Duke, 2.

He and his wife are scheduled to attend a reception from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. May 8 at the Auburn Public Library to meet residents. He said he’s looking forward to learning more about the community.

“I look at Auburn as a community that I can come to, where people will see me as a common sense, hard-working person who grew up in Maine and has put a lot into his career. I won’t assume anything and will earn everything I get, if I am given that opportunity.”

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