MADISON, Maine — Town officials failed to follow proper procedure when voting to terminate their town manager’s employment last month, the town’s attorney said, so they reversed that decision, suspended her and recently reached an agreement in which she resigned.
Why exactly the Select Board decided to remove Denise Ducharme from the town’s top administrative post remains unknown.
The town refused to release a written resolution required under state law listing reasons for the temporary suspension, taking the position it is not a public record due to broad exceptions to Maine’s Freedom of Access Act for government personnel records.
Board Chair Sally Dwyer has declined to comment on specifics of the board’s decisions, and referred questions about the series of recent votes regarding Ducharme’s employment status to town attorney Kenneth Lexier. In the wake of Ducharme’s ousting in April, the other four board members either referred inquiries to Dwyer or did not respond to phone calls and emails.
After the board initially voted to terminate her, Ducharme said she was disappointed in the board’s decision but grateful for the opportunity to serve her community. Ducharme said Tuesday she had not much more to say.
“I want only what is best for Madison,” she said in a phone call.
A separation agreement signed last week forbids the town and Ducharme from publicly saying anything derogatatory, critical or disparaging about the other.
According to meeting minutes, the board April 6 unanimously voted not to renew Ducharme’s contract, which was set to expire June 30, following a closed-door executive session.
After another closed session that night, the board unanimously voted to “terminate duties of contract” for Ducharme.
But Lexier, of the Skowhegan law firm Mills, Shay, Lexier & Talbot, said that was not a valid vote because the board did not follow state law.
“They did not understand what they were supposed to do,” Lexier said via telephone. “So, I pointed them to the statute.”
In Maine, for a select board to remove a town manager, the board must file a written preliminary resolution with the town clerk stating the specific reasons for the proposed removal, which must be given to the manager within 10 days. The manager then has 20 days to reply and request a public hearing, if desired.
The board can proceed with the removal of the town manager only if it does not receive a response to the preliminary resolution or after the public hearing.
The board can suspend the town manager with full pay while the preliminary resolution is pending.
And that is what the Madison Select Board did April 13, at Lexier’s advice. The board unanimously voted to rescind the termination and then suspended Ducharme.
While Ducharme was suspended, the town negotiated an agreement with her and she agreed to formally resign. Lexier said Ducharme was represented by Peter Marchesi, of Wheeler & Arey in Waterville.
The agreement requires the town to provide Ducharme with a lump sum payment of full salary and benefits through June 30, when her three-year contract was set to end.
Dwyer, the Select Board chair, said previously the town was planning to pay Ducharme in full through the end of her contract. Her contract also had provisions for severance pay that, had the board terminated her in April, essentially would have paid her through the end of the contract.
The Select Board signed the separation agreement after an executive session April 27. Ducharme signed it Friday, and the town provided a copy of it to the Morning Sentinel on Friday evening in response to a public records request.
The town, meanwhile, denied a request for the written resolution of removal the board was required to file to suspend Ducharme two weeks prior.
Town Clerk and Treasurer Cheyenne Stevens, who is also interim town manager, wrote in response to the request that the resolution was not a final written decision relating to disciplinary action imposed on an employee. Such decisions are considered public under Maine law, while most other municipal personnel records are confidential.
Stevens said there was no record of any discipline imposed on Ducharme during her tenure, which is also noted in the separation agreement.
Ducharme, 66, was hired in August 2023, after working in software consulting and as an auditor and unclaimed property manager for the state.
Ducharme’s annual salary was initially set at $81,500, with periodic increases to $90,500 by July 2025, pending performance reviews. It was later amended to reflect increases would be in line with the raises given each year to town office staff and the town librarian, estimated at the time to be lower than the original wage increases.
The board appointed Stevens, 24, of Anson, as interim town manager, and is accepting applications through May 14 to fill the job.
Stevens is earning her town clerk wage of $27.04 per hour at 40 hours per week, which totals about $1,082, plus an additional stipend of $480 per week for the interim town manager duties.
This story was originally published by the Maine Trust for Local News. Jake Freudberg can be reached at jfreudberg@centralmaine.com.