PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — When a city councilor began wearing a gun to council meetings, City Manager Tom Stevens knew his problems were more complicated than ever.
Stevens, who is serving out the last weeks of a one-year renewal of what previously were multiyear contracts as city manager of Presque Isle, told the Bangor Daily News recently that his last years in his position were fraught with meetings of questionable legality among councilors, interference by councilors in the manager’s work, and contention about public safety at council meetings prompted by one councilor carrying a firearm.
Councilors have said the decision not to renew Stevens’ contract, ending his 17-year tenure, was made because city officials wanted “to take the city into the 21st century” by looking for a creative way to bring more innovation, jobs, businesses and other advancements to the area.
But documents obtained by the Bangor Daily News under the state’s Freedom of Access law indicate there were other frictions between the manager and the council leading up to the decision that he not be rehired.
Stevens, 54, said during an interview last month that he believes those work-related frictions influenced the council’s decision.
Councilors who spoke to the BDN denied that was the case.
Last fall, Presque Isle city councilors, who at the time included Walt Elish, Ed Nickerson, Don Gardner, Calvin Hall, Jennifer Trombley, Mel Hovey and Ron McPherson, opted to relinquish the past practice of renewing the contract of Stevens for multiple years. Instead, Stevens was given a one-year contract and told by councilors to begin seeking employment elsewhere.
During an interview with the BDN in October, Nickerson said councilors told Stevens they wanted to bring more innovation and jobs to the area and several years earlier had presented him with their suggestions about what they wanted to see and how to do it.
Councilors contend that Stevens failed to take adequate action on those suggestions, according to Nickerson.
The BDN requested the list as part of the FOA investigation, but no list was submitted.
City Solicitor Hugo Olore Jr. said the list may have been given to Stevens during an executive session held by the council, making it unavailable to the public.
Stevens denies that he was ever given such a list.
Nickerson, now the council chairman who took over from Elish in January 2009, in an interview this month stood by his statement that the council opted not to renew the manager’s contract because the council wanted to move the city forward with a new manager. He denied that illegal meetings took place and said he believed that Stevens was “reaching” about any other reasons behind the council’s decision.
“I think it is time to move on,” Nickerson told the BDN.
Councilor Calvin Hall agreed, saying in an interview this month that he stood by Nickerson’s statement regarding the council decision not to renew Steven’s contract beyond one year.
“It’s been tough,” he said, referring to the controversy surrounding Stevens’ departure. “But the actions of the council were just as Nickerson said. There was nothing beyond that.”
Meetings questioned
Documents obtained under the FOA law show that during 2007 and 2008, Stevens wrote memorandums and e-mails to councilors regarding what he perceived to be three illegal meetings.
According to documents, Councilors Elish, Hall, Hovey and Nickerson met at the Presque Isle Fire Department on Nov. 15, 2007, to pose questions to Fire Chief Darrell White and gather information on the city possibly having its own ambulance service.
Stevens, with supporting documents, told the BDN he had no idea the meeting was going to take place.
After learning about the meeting, Stevens issued a memo to Elish, a copy of which was sent to all council members. Stevens said in the memo that the meeting was “clandestine” and “improperly called,” and violated Maine’s FOA law.
Before taking office, Stevens said, all councilors were schooled on Maine’s Freedom of Access law. The FOA law grants citizens a broad right of access to public records while protecting legitimate governmental interests and the privacy rights of individual residents. The act also ensures the accountability of the government to the residents of the state by requiring public access to the meetings of public bodies.
Under the law, public notice has to be given for all proceedings if the proceedings are meetings of a body or agency “consisting of three or more persons.”
Stevens told councilors that proper notice had not been given.
Stevens contends that another illegal meeting was held on Feb. 26, 2008, when Elish, Hall, Hovey and Nickerson stayed after a meeting to discuss business. A meeting held after an official meeting has adjourned, he said, is an illegal meeting.
Stevens issued another memo about the unannounced meeting, urging councilors once again to familiarize themselves with Maine law.
Another illegal meeting reportedly occurred on March 3, 2008, when Stevens indicated that Elish, Gardner, McPherson and Nickerson arrived nearly an hour early for a city council meeting and conducted a “pre-meeting” to discuss options surrounding the Presque Isle bypass.
Stevens said he told the group that he asked everyone why they were there so early, and he was told by Nickerson that he and Elish “wanted to get an early start on the bypass.”
Stevens said he advised them that the meeting was not legal and left the room. Stevens said that discussion continued.
Stevens again issued a memo, calling the meeting illegal and urged Elish to ask the city solicitor to put on a training workshop.
“I really don’t know any better way to state this,” Stevens wrote in the memo. “But the council is creating an undue and unfair strain on the relationship between the council and the manager.”
He told councilors that “These meetings are undermining my ability to ensure that laws are followed by setting an example for staff and public to follow.”
Elish did not respond to requests from the BDN for comment about this matter.
Nickerson, the current council chairman, said he recalled the meeting at the fire station. He denied that it was an illegal meeting.
“We just met with the fire chief to ask him some questions about the possibility of an ambulance service,” he said. “We did not have a meeting. We asked questions and we left with no decision made. He [Stevens] may think it was an illegal meeting, but I don’t agree.”
He recalls getting one memo from Stevens about the Feb. 28 meeting. He said the councilors who remained after the meeting were not discussing business, they simply wanted to ask questions about an ongoing project.
“Again, we just asked questions,” he said. “No decisions were made.”
He said he did not recall the March meeting.
Councilor Calvin Hall also said last week that he “did not know of any illegal meetings.”
In response to the situation, Stevens said he suggested that the city solicitor provide a training workshop on the issue “to ensure that it does not repeat itself in the future.”
“Stevens called me and let me know about the issue,” City Solicitor Hugo Olore told the BDN this month, “and he thought that the council needed to be refreshed on the [Freedom of Access] law. I agreed, and as I recall, I told Tom [Stevens] that he should tell the chairman that I would be available to do such a training. “But the council never requested that I give the training. I never got a single request from them,” Olore said.
The city solicitor said that Stevens never asked him to do anything else about the issue and confirmed that Stevens never recommended to him that any further inquiry into the legality of the council actions be taken.
“He never asked that any more be done,” Olore said. “I can only act if he [the city manager] asks me to.”
Stevens also contended that councilors had interfered with his administration by talking to city employees directly, instead of going through the city manager as protocol dictates.
Elish responded to Stevens in an e-mail, noting that it was Stevens’ duty “to point out the error in judgment on my part to have the meeting when four councilors were present.”
He assured the city manager that the meeting “was never an attempt to usurp your authority as city manager.”
Elish added that he did not think a training workshop was necessary.
A gun at council meetings
Stevens said his relationship with the council grew worse around the time Councilor McPherson began wearing a gun to meetings.
Stevens said he first noticed the gun during a meeting on March 17, 2008.
Documents show that Stevens immediately consulted the city solicitor and the Maine Municipal Association for guidance.
Stevens acknowledged that McPherson had a concealed weapons permit and confirmed that there is no law in place preventing him from wearing the weapon to City Hall or to council meetings. Still, he said, Maine has an Occupational Safety and Health Law that protects state and local government from workplace safety and health problems. Stevens said he is required by law to keep the workplace safe, and said he believed that McPherson’s wearing a gun to meetings infringed upon his ability to do so.
He added that city personnel rules and regulations also placed workplace safety as its “highest priority.”
City Solicitor Olore recommended that the appropriate way to deal with the situation was to have Elish, the chairman, address it. That information was passed on to Elish.
The MMA also recommended that Elish address the issue. The MMA pointed out that the city could consider adopting an ordinance prohibiting discharge of firearms on city-owned property or at public meetings.
According to documents, Stevens pressed Elish to take care of the issue several times in March, and on April 1 provided Elish a memo with eight options on how the city could deal with the presence of the gun. Stevens stressed that he was most concerned about McPherson carrying a gun because he had noticed a change in McPherson’s overall behavior.
Documents, including a diary Stevens kept which logged his interactions with the council, show that Stevens’ concern grew when McPherson wore a gun to a meeting in the basement meeting room of the Mark and Emily Turner Library on July 9, 2008. Stevens said children were present in the basement Children’s Library.
Stevens told the BDN that the issue began to affect him and his job performance, adding that fear for his personal safety and that of his employees also was compounded by several other matters.
The city manager said that he was already slightly on edge before McPherson began wearing the gun to meetings in March. That is because in February 2008, a gunman went on a shooting rampage at a city council meeting in Kirkwood, Mo. The gunman killed five people and wounded two others before police shot him.
A short time later, a woman who Stevens believes suffers from a mental illness frightened his wife by showing up at her workplace and trying to use his wife to serve Stevens with a lawsuit against the city.
Then, at a council meeting in mid-February, a resident who was upset over the city’s stance on the development of a Route 1 highway bypass plan invited Stevens to “take it out into the hall.”
According to documents, on Feb. 14 Stevens issued a memo to councilors detailing the incidents. He said they had affected his and his wife’s sense of safety at work and at home.
Noting to councilors that “we all need to take security seriously,” he said the city installed additional panic buttons in City Hall, including inside the council chambers. Once pressed, the buttons dial the police department.
Stevens contends that Elish delayed speaking to McPherson, and that McPherson continued wearing the gun to meetings until early August 2008.
Nickerson told the BDN last week that he did not know McPherson was wearing a gun until near the time he stopped wearing it.
Speaking about the gun incident, Hall said he could only confirm that McPherson did indeed wear a weapon to council meetings.
He said he did not want to comment further.
McPherson did not respond to several requests for comment.
Alleged threat
Stevens said he became even more fearful after McPherson telephoned him in September 2008, irate that Stevens had talked to Elish about his wearing the gun.
Stevens said he felt harassed and threatened by his discussion with McPherson and contacted the police chief a couple of days later to discuss it.
McPherson did not respond to requests for comment on the incident.
That evening, the council met in executive session to discuss Stevens’ contract. Stevens said that, in an unusual move, he was told not to attend the session.
Council meeting minutes from that date indicate that councilors met in executive session for nearly an hour. Stevens said he was still in his office when councilors left at 9:22 p.m.
On Sept. 5, Elish and Nickerson met with Stevens to discuss his contract, telling him that he did not have a majority of votes in favor of a new contract.
Stevens said he stressed that his work performance had been affected by numerous events and told them of his disturbing phone conversation with McPherson.
Stevens said he was told “that the issue was between him and [Ron] McPherson.”
Stevens said that he then felt that no one cared about his situation, and ultimately agreed to look for other employment during a one-year extension of his contract.
Stevens said he spoke to police on Sept. 8 about his phone conversation with McPherson but was reluctant to file charges alleging a threat so as not to “blow the city apart.”
Stevens said he met with two law enforcement officers to discuss the matter, including Presque Isle Police Chief Naldo Gagnon.
Gagnon on Monday confirmed that he met with Stevens regarding the phone conversation.
“I did meet with him about that,” said Gagnon. “But I do not remember the specific language of it. I can confirm that I talked with Tom [Stevens] about it.”
No charges were filed.
Stevens instead considered filing a cease harassment civil complaint against McPherson but eventually decided not to do so and never submitted the paperwork, after learning McPherson was charged with operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicants in mid-September 2008. Gagnon confirmed that the charge had been lodged.
Aroostook County Assistant District Attorney Carrie Linthicum said Tuesday that the OUI charge was dismissed and McPherson pleaded guilty to driving to endanger in March, she added.
Moving on
Stevens said he has always loved public service and his job with the city. He said he dealt with the illegal meetings and the gun issue himself to avoid any embarrassment for the city. During his tenure, he pointed out, the city has grown, welcomed countless new businesses and expanded its retail business district.
The city also has invested in its infrastructure, streamlined its government and more.
He admitted that he would have stayed on with the city had the council decided to reverse its decision and offer him a new contract and had he not taken a new job.
Early this month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development branch tapped him to serve as area director at the Presque Isle office.
Stevens will oversee USDA Rural Development program delivery at the agency’s Presque Isle office, which serves Aroostook, Washington and a portion of northern Penobscot counties.
He begins his new job on Jan. 11.
The council began looking for a new manager in October. An interim town manager is expected to be appointed until a new manager is found.