LINCOLN, Maine — Town Council members are “in discussions” with a finalist selected from 20 candidates seeking to replace departed Town Manager William Lawrence, council Chairman Steve Clay said Monday.
Clay said he personally hoped to see Lawrence’s replacement hired by early November, but cautioned that the final decision isn’t his.
“We are done with the first round of interviews,” Clay said Monday. “It depends on how this goes. We might end up with a second round. It depends on what the council as a whole decides to do.”
The council will discuss the candidate when it meets in executive session following its special meeting at 6 p.m. Monday, said Clay, who did not release the identity of the finalist. No hiring is expected to occur at the meeting.
Lawrence, 58, said on July 2 that he would resign from his job, which pays $71,500, on July 11 to take a job in Florida. He said he had hopes of retiring in Florida, where his wife’s family resides, within a few years. He also said he was resigning because he felt some councilors were micromanaging. Councilor Dede Trask denied the accusation.
Hired as Lincoln’s police chief in April 2011, Lawrence was named town manager at a salary of $70,000 in June 2013. He had served as interim manager twice before.
Cemetery, Parks and Recreation Director Ron Weatherbee was named Lincoln’s interim town manager on July 21. Weatherbee, who earns $47,146 as parks and rec director, receives a $288 weekly stipend for his interim role, officials have said.
The council will also hold a public hearing at that meeting to discuss the 776-signature petition forcing a referendum on whether the town should pursue developer Sterling Osgood’s proposal to build a new town office on Fleming Street by next summer. By forcing the referendum, the petition overturns a 5-1 council vote on Aug. 25 to pursue a memorandum of understanding with Osgood to relocate the office.
Organized by several residents and by members of the local Masonic lodge, the petition is a sign of the dissent between the council and the Masons that has occurred intermittently since the council gave the Masons a three-year notice of their intent to seek a new location for the town office in 2012.
The Masons have opposed losing the town government as the sole tenant of their three-story building on Main Street. Councilors have said that the Masons were inefficient landlords who allowed the building to decay and that the building itself is inadequate for town needs.
The council has reserved space at Mattanawcook Academy in case Monday night’s public hearing draws a crowd larger than the town office space can accommodate, Clay said.