HOWLAND, Maine — Fire Chief Phil Dawson had second thoughts about resigning from the Howland Fire Department. The town’s Board of Selectmen didn’t.
During its meeting Monday, selectmen voted 4-0 to accept a letter of resignation Dawson tendered last month. It also effectively refused his attempt to rescind it when a motion to go into executive session with him failed. Another 4-0 vote appointed Assistant Chief Bob Thomas as interim fire chief. Board member Will Lloyd was absent.
“I am done. They didn’t even let me have a chance to talk,” Dawson said Monday. “They had their minds made up.”
Dawson, 59, tendered his resignation letter at a board meeting on May 11 immediately after selectmen voted 4-1 to hire former Lincoln Town Manager William Lawrence to replace interim Town Manager Peggy Daigle on July 1. Lawrence and Dawson, Lincoln’s former fire chief, clashed when they served in Lincoln.
“The bottom line is that I brought part of this on myself,” Dawson said. “I lost my temper and I resigned, but you know what? I had a lot of people who came to me and asked me to reconsider, and I asked to rescind my [letter]. But [the selectmen] don’t want to hear it, so basically 46 years of experience and training doesn’t mean anything to them.”
Chairman Glenn Brawn said another meeting with Dawson was probably unnecessary. Lawrence has said he is willing to work with Dawson, and board members avoided accepting the letter during the May 11 meeting to give the situation time to settle, Brawn said.
Dawson “needs to get himself under control,” Brawn said Tuesday. “Phil had extensive conversations with all the board members as well as around 10 hours of Peggy Daigle’s time [since May 11]. My guess as to why nobody was willing to go back into executive session is that we have already heard it all.”
Dawson said Tuesday that 10 hours is an exaggeration and that he found Brawn’s statement patronizing. He did discuss the resignation with Daigle and selectmen when he tried to rescind it a week after its tendering, he said.
Dawson’s public criticism of selectmen, the town’s top elected officials and “the people he works for” as fire chief, made rescinding his resignation difficult, Selectman Joseph Dunn said.
“I told him he has made some major mistakes when he threw his resignation down [on March 11]. We can’t have employees telling us who we can and cannot hire. We have to keep a little order,” Dunn said. “It’s too bad because Phil has been here a lot of years, but this is one major mistake that the board isn’t going to put up with from any employee.”
Daigle said she cautioned Dawson before the May 11 meeting to “be very thoughtful about what you are doing. Most employees don’t get to pick their bosses. I told him that he needed to be cautious and professional about it.”
Dawson was paid about $3,800 annually to oversee the 22-member volunteer department. His resignation might spur more defections. Nine volunteers who attended Monday’s meeting said they were at least considering resigning from the department effective June 26, the week before Lawrence starts. Dawson’s brother, firefighter Dwight Dawson, resigned immediately.
The eight possible resignations would leave the department without training officers and significantly understaffed, firefighter Thurlow Harper said. He and other firefighters praised Dawson for his extensive service to the town and criticized selectmen for not hearing Dawson behind closed doors.