MILO, Maine — Town leaders opted Tuesday to pay former Town Manager Jeffrey Gahagan 60 days of severance pay after he abruptly resigned on Friday, April 6, amidst an investigation into allegations that $45,000 was missing from a local club for whom he was treasurer.
The Board of Selectmen voted 5-0 during a meeting Tuesday to give Gahagan the severance pay — about $9,600, town Treasurer Robin Larson said — despite questions from several residents about the propriety of the move.
Gahagan resigned as the treasurer of the Three Rivers Kiwanis club on April 5, a day before resigning as town manager, in the midst of an investigation by the Piscataquis County Sheriff’s Department, according to Piscataquis County District Attorney R. Christopher Almy. The investigation continues.
Gahagan told town leaders that he was resigning from the town manager position for health reasons. No allegations about any missing town money have surfaced, but selectmen said they will have an auditor review town finances beginning April 23 as a precaution.
The board praised Gahagan for what they described as his superb work as town manager, saying that when he took the job, the town was in heavy debt and now carries a $500,000 balance.
“I would hire him back. He did a damn good job for us,” Selectwoman Lois Wagner said. “I don’t think many people realize how many hours he put in for us. It was more like 60 hours a week or 80 hours for us.”
“Jeff didn’t have any access to town finances,” Selectman Bob Ade said, calling the $500,000 balance “not just [the work of] Jeff, but as a whole they [town staff] worked together and we are in the best position we have ever been in.”
Selectmen also voted 5-0 to hire the Bangor law firm Rudman Winchell to do the search for a permanent replacement for Gahagan for $4,000 plus job advertising costs and to hire Roger Raymond, the town manager of Bucksport for 27 years, as Gahagan’s interim or temporary replacement.
The law firm of Eaton Peabody bid $4,500 to do the search, while Maine Municipal Association bid $4,000.
The selectmen’s meeting was attended by about 70 residents, far more than the usual number. Many questioned how the search process would go and said they hoped an interim town manager would be named quickly.
Ade expressed satisfaction with the hiring of Raymond.
“He comes highly recommended and this is something he does on an as-needed basis,” Ade said. “Picking somebody outside keeps us transparent,” he said, adding that an outsider isn’t “going to be pulled into our politics here.”
The town’s attorney, Eric Stumpfel of Rudman Winchell, said he expected the search for a permanent town manager would go quickly.
$9600 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How did he manage to get a severance package if he quit? I guess it’s all in who you know. I wish I could have gone to this meeting.
Maybe the town should have paid it to the Kiwanis!
The spin here is beyond surreal. From “Heavily indebt” to 500K in the bank? That is not good management, that is MASSIVE overtaxation. With an estimated 1000 households, that’s $500 in overtaxation per household, ignoring any extra funds required to pay off those heavy debts the board spoke about. Not a small chunk of change when your median income is only about 30K and there are NO jobs moving in. What bills would you pay off with YOUR $500 sitting in the town coffers?
Attempting to forget for a moment the missing $45,000 from the children’s charity, let me go out on a limb here. A “good job” would have kept taxes as low as possible in these troubled times and brought JOBS to the town. I do not know about anyone else, but my kid will have to move away to find a good job.
It is crazy how high the taxes are in this town. If there is that much money sitting there why not lower the taxes so people can afford to pay them. I do not see where he did a good job. And then to pay him that much money after he quit is just crazy in my opinion.
They’ll only get worse with Raymond.
It took 4 and a half years to get the $500,000 balance that is recommended in case of a major emergency. The powers that be in town did not attain this balance just to overtax people, they did it as a recomendation. I can’t remember where the recomendation came from, but alot of the thanks for getting the town into the better financial situation that it is in needs to go to Jeff! As Mr Ade stated in the meeting if people do not like the decisions that the Milo selectman make they should run for selectman then! At the least they should start showing up for some meetings. I have been to a couple myself and normally there are onnly a few people that do show up! Your voice can’t be heard if you are not there!
Yet another testament to the stupidity of the powers that be in Milo. They’ve got to be the only folks dumb enough to pay a thief to leave.
you know Roger is a good town manager. bucksport has had him for a long time. he was ready to retire but you know he wasnt that old . he did some good things for the town of bucksport. milo might be a little smaller but let see what he does for milo
Raymond is good at spending money. That’s what he’s good at.
he is done with bucksport thursday night towncoucil finalizes new town manager lets see what this new guy does for bucksport . he is from a small town in Iowa the size of Milo going to a bigger town
milo, a crooked little town….
I believe it is foolish to pay him anything until his name is cleared or he’s convicted. He quit. The town is not obligated to pay him. I can only shake my head at the stupidity.
True – why would any monies be paid out until he is cleared of any wrongdoing? Why in this country are we ALWAYS paying the criminal? Look at all these people who actually have charges filed or grievances filed, and they still collect a fat payout – what is wrong with this – what about all the people you see in the news skimming tens, or hundreds of thousands of dollars in their positions. I want to hear about their house, cars, their retirement–everything being sold to pay that money back. You never get to hear that part of the story
I agree about rewarding the criminal. My boss hired a couple to do odd jobs and cleaning around a property she owns. This is a cottage complex in southern Maine. They received free rent-room above the office- in exchange for working. The owner went on vacation for 5 months and I was left to supervise these people. They did nothing but drugs and drink.. When I would question them about the work they would scream and swear at me. Needless to say, they did not do the work as agreed. When the owner was notified about the behavior I was told we had to be careful how we treat them as the arrangement regarding rent was not legal and that I would have to put up with it. The owner returned and treated them like they were heaven sent and that I was the bad guy. Even paid them to move and ever since I have been given the the silent treatment, trained my replacement and had my hours cut in half. These criminals are still treated better than I. And I still don’t understand it…
I don’t know about the rest of the country but here in Maine we do an extremely poor job of enforcing laws and people’s emotions (such as these selectmen) tend to rule their decisions. Not logical, not fair to the process of finding out if he is guilty or not. More importantly, why give a severance to ANYONE who resigns their position? Again, not logical. Until Maine sets a pattern of enforcing laws vs letting criminals who are convicted walk with suspended sentences, there will be more of the same. I’m so tired of reading about people who embezzle. There are safeguards that can be put in place but seemingly few do. Municipality are rife with crooks but their purpose is to serve their community. Go figure.
They still don’t know for sure this guy didn’t steal from the town. Unfortunately, if they use the same auditing firm they have in the past, the truth will never come out. That firm is tied very tightly into Milo’s good old boy network and will “report” whatever spin they’re told to report. If the Selectmen want the truth, the’ll bring in a fair, impartial auditor. I’m not holding my breath…
This is a clear case of rewarding bad behavior. Hopefully these imbeciles will take some political flak, but I doubt it. Milo is a good old boy town if there ever was one.
Jeff Gahagan is a good man who did a bad thing. People suffer from addictions sometimes, maybe that’s what happened to him for whatever reason, it could be something he’s aware of or not. A visit to a mental health professional could give some peace to the family. It would be a good thing.
Best wishes to you and yours, my prayers are with you.
Good men do not repeatedly steal from a charity. Bringing up a possible addiction is just an excuse. There are many, many people who battle addictions every day of their lives and do not use their disease to excuse evil behavior. THOSE people are good people.
If he is so good then lets wait and see if he gives the $9600 back to the town or better yet to the Kiwanis!
Bdn where are the comments going? Who is deleting them? There where 33 comments here just a couple minutes ago, now there are only 19!
Just had one of my comments removed. I guess the truth hurts, but it bears repeating. Recall the idiots who wasted $9600 in taxpayer money on a guy that quit in disgrace.
Is this $500,000 balance separate from the $500,000 grant that was never spent to rebuild the town after the fire????
Good point. If the $500,000 fund balace was gained, as these Selectmen say, through scrimping and Jeff’s financial acumen, it kind of makes me wonder what happened to that grant money. Something doesn’t add up, and having a confessed thief just exit stage left makes it all the more fishy.