OTISFIELD – Selectmen voted 2-1 Wednesday night to put the question of whether the town should hire a town manager on the ballot at the June annual town meeting.
There will be two annual town meetings in Otisfield this year because the town is moving the date of its meeting from March to June. The board opted to vote on the town manager at the latter meeting.
The dissenting vote was cast by Chairman Mark Cyr, who said he felt that since the March and June meetings were 90 days apart, it would be possible to vote on whether to hire a town manager at the earlier meeting, and to vote on the budgeting of the manager at the second meeting, provided citizens vote to hire one.
Legally, the vote for change of government style must happen at a separate regular meeting 90 days or more before a vote for the budgeting of the position.
The proponents of holding the vote in June listed two main advantages: The later date would allow for more time to educate the citizens of Otisfield on the nature of a town manager-led government; and the June date allows the Finance Committee a full year before the next annual meeting to put together a complete proposal to budget hiring a town manager.
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