LINCOLN, Maine — Voters will decide on Election Day whether to move the town office from a Main Street building owned by a local Masonic chapter despite objections from a Town Council member who also is a Mason.
Former District 12 state Rep. Jeffery Gifford was the sole opponent in a 6-1 vote on Monday to put on the Nov. 3 ballot the proposed move from 63 Main St. to the Lincoln District Court building at 52 Main St.
Gifford said he objected to the move’s cost — $1.1 million for the courthouse building’s purchase and renovation — and did not see any conflict of interest or other impropriety.
“I’m trying to keep the tax rates from going any higher. That’s my job,” Gifford said in a social media message on Wednesday. “It has nothing to do with being a Mason.”
Council Chairman Steve Clay said that Gifford’s vote does not appear to violate any conflict of interest provisions in the Town Charter. The state’s conflict of interest law says votes are “voidable when any official in an official position votes on any question in which that official has a direct or an indirect pecuniary [financial] interest.”
Such interest occurs “only where the official is directly or indirectly the owner of at least 10 percent of the stock of the private corporation or owns at least a 10 percent interest in the business or other economic entity.”
A member of Horeb Masonic Lodge No. 93, Gifford said he does not have any financial interest in the issue.
Gifford made no secret of his being a Mason before he voted in a July 20 meeting against the hiring of a Brewer engineering firm to determine the cost of turning 52 Main St. into a town office. T he meeting’s minutes indicate no councilors objected to Gifford’s vote when they voted 4-1 to pay $37,000 to CES Inc.
Clay said that he would have recused himself if he were a Mason, fearing an appearance of impropriety. Such decisions are personal choices, he said.
“I have known Jeff long enough that I don’t believe there is any impropriety there, but I can see how some people might think so,” Clay said Wednesday.
Clay agreed with Gifford that the Masons’ price was good but said that the town faces significant liability if it doesn’t leave the building. The town pays $3,300 per month to lease the building, including heat costs, said Ruth Birtz, the town’s code enforcement supervisor.
“Eventually we will need a town office, whether they [voters] choose this building this year or something else next year,” Clay said. “Eventually we are going to get complaints and maybe even lawsuits because of the current condition of our current building.”
Town officials have said since November 2004 that the present office is undersized and lacks full Americans with Disabilities Act compliance. Town officials also characterized the Masons as unresponsive landlords who have tried to get the town to finance repairs that landlords typically handle. Masonic officials have denied being unresponsive.
The state would have to relocate the courthouse, which leases space in 52 Main St., if the purchase occurs. The council will hold an informational session and a public hearing on the proposal before the election, Clay said.