POLAND — A state senator who runs an economic development consulting firm said Tuesday that his work separating the accounting records for a pair of tax-increment financing districts the town maintains was more involved than he expected.

State Sen. John Cleveland, D-Auburn, said to alleviate any misunderstanding he would stick to the rough initial estimate of $6,900 he gave town officials in December. He gave his revised bill to selectmen Tuesday night.

His first bill submitted in July was for $12,725 in July.

Cleveland was contracted to separate the revenue and the expenditures that came from each of the two TIF districts for Poland Spring Water Co.

“I was hired to do a job and that’s what I did,” Cleveland said Tuesday.

He said the job was more involved than he expected, including having to sort through boxes of paper invoices that were stored in the town office basement dating back to 2008.

The TIFs had been co-mingled since 2009 but a new directive from Maine’s Department of Economic and Community Development asked the town to separate the accounts.

“I entered into a contract that said I would be paid based on the number of hours that I had to put in to do the job,” Cleveland said. “At the beginning of the job I had said to them, I didn’t really know how much time it will take because I don’t really know where all these invoices are, how long it will take to retrieve all of them and many other things that I may not know about. So, I cannot say for absolute certain what it will cost but I said I would try to do it as inexpensively as I could.”

Cleveland said during that discussion he made some allusion to what he “hoped would be the approximate amount, but I made it clear I didn’t know what it was and it might be higher than that.”

The town is trying to amend the TIF districts but DECD wanted the accounts separated before it would allow the town to move forward on the change.

Cleveland said that over the years he’s discounted his bills to the town by more than $36,000 and is willing to do it again because he wants the town to move forward with its economic development plans.

On Tuesday, Poland Town Manager Bradley Plante confirmed Cleveland had reduced his bill to the original estimate. Plante said based on a review of invoices to the town over the last five years, Cleveland’s firm has been paid about $230,000.

Plante also confirmed that Cleveland has regularly provided the town with a discount on his monthly bills of between 8 and 15 percent.

Plante said selectmen were concerned that Cleveland’s bill was so far beyond the estimate, the work took longer than they expected because of delays and that he did not provide the town with monthly invoices for his work on the project.

He said there was nothing political about the board’s concerns.

Cleveland said he feels some selectmen and other town officials and residents are forgetting the many other successful projects he’s worked on for the town, including helping the town bring in its first bank and secure grants and low-interest loans that allowed the town to do large sewer and water infrastructure improvements.

Cleveland, who is president of the consulting firm Community Dynamics of Auburn, has done economic development work for the town for years, Plante said.

Poland is also part of state Senate District 20, where Cleveland faces a Republican challenger, Eric Brakey, of New Gloucester.  

The Maine Republican Party has been using the disagreement over the bill to suggest Cleveland was “fired” by the town of Poland for not doing his job.

In an online campaign that targets a handful of Democratic state senators, the Republican Party says,, “But the town of Poland just fired John Cleveland from his job managing economic development after years of poor results.”

The advertisement suggests Cleveland was hired to create jobs and he didn’t and the town then fired him.

But Plante said Tuesday, “that’s not true.”

“My political affiliations are other than his,” Plante said. “But fair is fair and I have to remain neutral and unbiased. I’m here to tell you that myself and the Board of Selectmen are not doing anything for political reasons.”

Cleveland said his long record working for Poland and his treatment of the town, including doing work for long periods without pay, has always been because he cares about the town and the community.

“I’m very proud of the work I’ve done there,” Cleveland said. “I’ve done a great deal to improve the economic condition of the community and to put in lots of infrastructure that will lead to future economic development, and I did it in a way that was timely and that reduced costs to the town by probably $1.5 million.” 

Cleveland also noted that when the DECD awarded the town its “Business Friendly” certification in 2013, he was the one who put the application together.

“Unfortunately, I don’t think that all of these efforts that I’ve made to help the town are fully recognized by the current leaders there,” Cleveland said. “But I did so because I cared about the town, I cared about the people there, I cared about improving the community for them and getting projects done that otherwise would not have happened.” 

sthistle@sunjournal.com