The Paris Select Board will hold a special election Dec. 2 at the Town Office to choose two board members.

Vice Chair Matthew Brackett resigned Sept. 9 and Michael Bailey resigned Oct. 20.

Since then, the body has been left with a bare quorum of three to manage town affairs and finances. The members — Chair Scott McElravy, Stephen Cronce and Robert Ripley — held a special meeting Friday morning to approve a warrant for a special election on Dec. 2, with polling hours from 4-8 p.m.

Selectmen also voted to approve a shortened nomination process ahead of the election.

Following Friday’s meeting, Ripley’s brother, Troy, took out nomination papers to serve out the final 18 months of Bailey’s term.

Nomination papers became available at 8 a.m. Friday. 

Signed nomination papers must be submitted by 5 p.m. Nov. 18.

Over the past year, Troy Ripley has frequently and publicly challenged the Select Board.

When the town took steps to expand the Police Department, he proposed an alternative, inviting Oxford County Sheriff Christopher Wainwright to a citizens’ forum to share information about law enforcement services the Sheriff’s Office provides to Bethel, Mexico and Dixfield.

Paris has maintained its full-time department.

Troy Ripley was also among a group of residents who forced budget cuts to municipal departments during the annual town meeting, eliminating hours for codes and administration departments, which resulted in Town Clerk Elizabeth Knox quitting.

More recently, Troy Ripley filed a complaint against Paris with the Maine Department of Environmental Protection when roads the Highway Department had repaired and repaved were left in worse shape, washing out and causing erosion. That complaint led to Highway Director James Hutchinson resigning in October.

The term for Brackett’s seat expires in June 2026. The person who is elected to complete Bailey’s term will serve until June 2027.

A fully staffed Select Board will safeguard the three-person quorum necessary to conduct business and help eliminate the voting deadlock that followed Brackett’s resignation.

During the board’s Sept. 22 business meeting, Cronce and Ripley, who were elected in June, motioned and seconded to delay filling Brackett’s vacant seat until next June; the senior two selectmen, Michael Bailey and Chair Scott McElravy, voted no and the motion failed.

When McElravy made a motion, seconded by Bailey, to hold a special election to maintain a full board, Cronce and Ripley voted no, leading the motion to fail.

Cronce and Ripley’s terms will be up in 2028. McElravy’s term expires next June.

Troy Ripley is serving as one of Paris’ four representatives to Maine School Administrative District 17 board of directors and is its chairman.

He said if he wins Bailey’s seat, he will not seek reelection to the school board when his term expires next June.