ROCKLAND, Maine — The Rockland City Council has scheduled another special meeting, this time to decide whether to hire an outside attorney to deal with an unspecified personnel matter.
Three items are on the agenda for the 6 p.m. Wednesday meeting. The first is to hold a closed-door meeting concerning a personnel matter. The second is for councilors to take a vote on whether to retain an outside attorney to represent the City Council in a personnel matter.
Should that vote approve the hiring, the third agenda item has councilors meeting with that attorney to discuss a personnel matter. The agenda does not name the outside attorney the councilors will consider hiring.
City Manager James Chaousis referred questions about the special meeting to Mayor Louise MacLellan-Ruf.
MacLellan-Ruf said since the council will meet and vet possible counsel in executive session and since none has been selected, there is no name to release.
The special meeting follows an announcement two weeks ago by Chaousis that he was investigating multiple employees. He did not identify those employees, but the city-supplied computers of both harbor master Ed Glaser and city attorney Kevin Beal were inspected by the manager.
On Jan. 8, Chaousis announced he had fired Glaser, three weeks before the harbor master was set to retire. The reasons for the termination have not been released pending an appeal by Glaser to a grievance committee. If the firing is upheld, it would mean that Glaser would not receive any accrued vacation or sick time.
Beal declined to comment when contacted Tuesday morning about the planned Wednesday meeting and the hiring of an outside attorney.
The city attorney is hired by the council.
Chaousis issued a memo on Dec. 23 in which he directed that “no further actions, requests, projects or inquiries will be processed by the Legal Department without authorization from the City Manager.” He also directed the city attorney to tell city councilors and department heads to obtain authorization from the city manager before seeking the attorney’s legal advice.
The manager also directed city attorney Kevin Beal to make all digital, written and other correspondence, notes and records available for inspection by the city manager.
The manager stated in that Dec. 23 email that the administration of the city has been tumultuous since his appointment as city manager 10 months ago.
“Often, there is a disconnect between communications coming from the City Council, City Manager and the City Attorney. This also appears to be a repeated pattern of behavior from the Legal Department in which the City Council has offered guidance. It does not appear that this guidance has had an effect. It is clear that the City has deviated from the path written in the Rockland Charter and Code and I intend to bring that direction back through this order, new protocols and reporting systems,” Chaousis stated.