LINCOLN, Maine — Town Manager Lisa Goodwin will be Bangor’s new city clerk.
Goodwin, 49, of Lincoln announced her resignation Tuesday effective March 23 as Lincoln’s top local government official, a position she has held since May 2008. She now is paid $73,177 a year. Goodwin said she hopes to sign a contract in Bangor this week.
“This opportunity came up and I have a passion for the municipal clerk’s position,” said Goodwin, who previously was Lincoln’s town clerk for 17 years. “I have really enjoyed myself and learned a lot as the town manager, but this opportunity came up and I want to do something that I really love.”
The Bangor City Council appointed Goodwin with a 9-0 vote during its meeting on Monday night. Goodwin is due to start her new job April 2. She will replace City Clerk Patti Dubois, who left for another job in late December, and interim Clerk Dianne Lovejoy. Lovejoy will resume her position as deputy city clerk when Goodwin starts her new job, Goodwin said.
Goodwin will have a starting salary of $69,321 in Bangor. She is a Master Municipal Clerk and Lifetime Certified Clerk of Maine. She is a member of several city clerk associations and has held leadership positions in those organizations, Bangor City Council Chairman Cary Weston said.
“Ms. Goodwin possessed the depth and breadth of experience that the council was hoping to find in our next city clerk,” Weston said in a statement Tuesday. “We are very excited that Ms. Goodwin will be leading the important functions associated with the clerk’s office and we look forward to her arrival.”
Weston also praised Lovejoy’s work as interim city clerk during the selection process.
Goodwin has been a fine town manager and, before that, town clerk, Lincoln Town Council Chairman Steve Clay said.
“It is a big loss for Lincoln,” Clay said. “She has led us through some tough times over the last few years and I am sad to see her go. It is too bad to see her go, but that’s what she wants to do. I am disappointed for the town, happy for her.”
Goodwin counted several accomplishments during her tenure as town manager, including:
• The completion of the rebuilding of Lincoln’s Main Street, which was devastated by two arson fires a decade ago, with the addition of a $3.7 million, 24-unit Lakeview Senior Housing project at 20 Main St. in November 2010.
Town officials have said the housing project and the downtown revitalization that occurred with it represent the most complex and largest construction effort they ever have attempted.
• Completion of the $130 million Rollins Mountain industrial wind facility, which represented $42.2 million in value added to local taxes in the 2011-12 fiscal year. Revenue from the project allowed town leaders to pave Fleming Street, purchase two Public Works Department vehicles and partially pay for several other vehicles without raising taxes, Goodwin said.
Without the tax increment financing revenues, the equipment purchases and other expenses would have increased the town’s mill rate from last year’s 20.12 mills, under which $100,000 in property was assessed $2,012 in taxes, to 22.12 mills, or $2,212 for every $100,000 of property.
Instead, the town’s present mill rate, 19.86 mills, lowered taxes on $100,000 worth of property by $26. Residents and town leaders should benefit even more in the 2012-13 tax year, which starts July 1, as the project will have been on line for a full year by then, Goodwin said.
• The mapping of all town cemeteries, a vast project that involved town workers and several classes of volunteers from Mattanawcook Academy of Lincoln for several years.
• The replacement of the town’s Public Works Department garage with a new $1.15 million structure.
• The accumulation of a group of what Goodwin called exceptionally talented town department managers. That includes Police Chief William Lawrence, whose hiring in March 2011 has solidified a police department that had suffered from considerable turnover with its chiefs and officers, Goodwin said.
“Having worked for the town for more than 20 years, the employees are my extended family and I will miss working with them,” Goodwin said. “At the same time, I look forward to my new position and the challenges that will be presented to me as Bangor’s city clerk.”
That mean Glenn Aho goes back to Lincoln?
If he tries he’ll be met with a pitchfork and torch weilding mob.
Plus a few very protective men.
Slap yourself silly for even having that thought! :)
LINCOLN TOWN COUNCIL NEEDS TO VOTE NO ON GLENN AHO FOR
INTERIM TOWN MANAGER–REAL TOWN MANAGER OR AIRPORT FACILITATOR—LARRY
ARTHURS
How much do you want to bet that whoever they hire as town manager will be someone whose family has lived there for generations, has no town manager experience, and has no education related to municipal government? Small town politics surely do warm the cockles of ones heart.
You quit your job before you sign a contract with your new employer? What will you do if you are offered less money on the new job? You must have really wanted to leave Lincoln.
As she was under the Lincoln contract, perhaps she could not sign another without resigning from the first. Just speculating.
The Bangor City Council approved her on Monday night. She resigned from her position in Lincoln the next day. There was no risk involved, as she had already negotiated the contract.
It’s much more likely that she got tired of Lincoln’s “good ol’ boy” network of cronyism that thinks they have the right to run the town as would best benefit themselves. And a couple of these larger business owners down even live in Lincoln. So how many Town Managers, Police Chiefs, policemen, and other municiple workers have to quit their jobs before something changes?
I used to think that they called it “Stinkin Lincoln” because of the mill, I now realize it’s because of town politics that it gained that moniker.
This is pretty simple-very few people know or care who the city clerk is. Ask the average Bangor tax payer who heads the various departments. Folks know the fire chief, police chief, and a few others, but not the clerk. Compare that to heading up town governmnet for Lincoln. Which job would you want?
Good for her and hopefully she does a wonderful job.
LINCOLN TOWN COUNCIL NEEDS TO VOTE NO ON GLENN AHO FOR
INTERIM TOWN MANAGER–REAL TOWN MANAGER OR AIRPORT FACILITATOR AT NEXT WEEKS COUNCIL MEETING—LARRY
ARTHURS
Send him back to Brewer they are losing alot of people.
She definately got tired of something to accept less money and a long commute in this era of $4/gal gasoline. There is a back story here. Get on it Nick!
Plain and simple, it is not easy being a town manager.It’s a lot of long hours and a very thankless job. No matter how much you do there is always someone that still has a problem with the work you’re doing. I am sure there are a lot of managers/former managers wishing they could have the same outcome as her. Then there are managers, God bless them, that make a success out of their profession, with many many sacrifices. It’s a profession I would never choose. I could not handle the bad mouthing especially when you’re working your behind off for the same people that will throw you under the bus given the chance.