OXFORD — The Board of Selectmen unanimously approved a contract with interim Town Manager Rebecca Lippincott following a 20-minute executive session at Thursday night’s meeting.

The three-month agreement is from Nov. 21, or until such time as a permanent town manager is hired or both parties agree to extend the agreement.

She will be paid $1,889.60 per week and receive the same benefits generally provided to non-public safety employees, including health insurance, vacations and holidays.

The board may terminate the agreement at any time prior to the 90 days for any reason. At that time, Lippincott is assured her previous job as full-time finance clerk, unless the termination is for a cause.

Lippincott was appointed interim town manager Nov. 17 following a brief executive session at the beginning of the selectmen meeting and the announcement of the resignation of former Town Manager Derik Goodine.

Goodine was in the audience at Thursday’s meeting. 

Goodine, who held the position a little more than five months, and board Chairman Scott Owens have declined to comment on the cause for the resignation.

Board members Scott Owens, Scott Hunter, Roger Jackson and Floyd Thayer voted to accept Goodine’s resignation, effective immediately. Selectman Peter Laverdiere was not present.

Owens said after Thursday’s meeting that the board will discuss the procedure to hire a permanent town manager at its next meeting on Dec. 15.

Addressing state mandates

In other news, Jackson asked the board to start thinking about the ramifications of two recently passed state referendums and possible changes in the town’s form of government.

“We definitely have to address these articles within a year,” Jackson said.

Last month, Maine voters approved legalizing recreational marijuana use for adults age 21 and older, and retail marijuana shops and social clubs. The latter prompted some towns to adopt moratoriums in order to write regulations to govern them.

Norway selectmen voted 2-3 recently not to ask voters to approve a moratorium on retail marijuana establishments or social clubs, because the state has up to nine months to adopt rules governing them.

The law allows Maine residents to cultivate, manufacture, distribute, test and sell marijuana and marijuana products. Marijuana will be taxed at 10 percent and be subject to local restrictions. Medical marijuana is already legal in Maine.

Town Clerk Beth Olsen provided board members with recently enacted ordinances from other towns that have regulated retail stores and social clubs.

Selectmen will also discuss the recently enacted ranked-choice voting. On Nov. 8, Maine became the first to endorse the system for statewide elections.

The process allows voters to rank their top four ballot choices from first to last instead of simply choosing a single candidate. If no candidate wins an outright majority, then the election outcome is determined by additional rounds of tabulations in Augusta. In each round, the last-place candidate would be removed, and votes reallocated, until a candidate receives a majority of the vote.

Ballots would have be shipped by town clerks to a central location in Augusta for additional voting rounds, which could delay the outcome.

Jackson also asked board members to consider the town’s government structure and how it might be changed, such as creating a public safety director.

Forms of government in Maine include: a town meeting, board selectmen; a board of selectmen, town meeting and a town manager; a town council, town meeting and a town manager; a city council and a manager; and a city council, town meeting, manager,  according to information from the Maine Municipal Association.

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