MACHIAS, Maine — In a split vote Wednesday, the Washington County Commission agreed to send department budget requests for next year — a 40% spending increase — to the county’s Budget Advisory Committee without making any cuts.
Commission Chair David Burns opposed the move, saying he was not comfortable forwarding such a large increase without the commission first attempting reductions.
Commissioner Courtney Hammond said it was the Budget Advisory Committee’s job to meet with department heads and find a way to pare the numbers down.
“They may be doing the work,” Burns said, “but we’re going to be responsible for it. Is that appropriate to give to the taxpayers? As far as I’m concerned, it is not.”
Burns then asked Hammond to explain why he supported presenting the budget in full.
“We’re down here all alone,” Hammond said. “The state has handed more and more down to both the county and municipalities. We didn’t create this issue. I just think it’s state policy that’s put all this on us.”
Hammond said it is up to the county to build a budget that pays for the services taxpayers need.
Commissioner Billy Howard, who ultimately voted to present the budget without cuts, initially sided with Burns.
“Spending more money is not going to dig us out of this,” Howard said, indicating he favored having commissioners make the first round of reductions. “I don’t feel comfortable with this. It’s not because we’re growing by leaps and bounds. We’re not growing at all and we have a responsibility to taxpayers.”
Hammond blamed the situation on previous commissioners.
“It’s not just the budget, but all the other things that they put off, like the audit,” he said. “Now we have to catch up.”
Hammond also noted that the county’s portion of property tax bills is between 11 and 12%, and that school and municipal spending are the biggest factors driving increases.
Washington County Sheriff Barry Curtis then interrupted, saying the commissioners were overlooking urgent needs in his department.
“This isn’t right. It’s not working,” Curtis said.
“What’s not working?” Burns asked.
Curtis said the sheriff’s office has vehicles that need to be replaced, and warned that if the county did not budget for those fixes now, next year would be worse.
“But nobody’s listening,” Curtis said. “Someone ought to sit down and listen to us.”
“I’ll sit down with you any time,” Burns said.
“If you’ll listen,” Curtis said.
“I’ll listen,” Burns said. “I do a lot more listening than talking.”
Burns said he empathized with Curtis’ struggle to cover areas that should be handled by other law enforcement agencies in Washington County.
“I can’t imagine the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office covering the city of Portland,” he said.
Curtis agreed, saying his department covers a much larger area than the Bangor Police Department with a far smaller staff.
Despite his empathy, Burns pushed fellow commissioners to cut the proposed budget, focusing on the three departments with the highest spending: the sheriff’s office, the jail and the regional communications center.
“I just don’t have the will to tell people we’re going to increase the county budget 40% this year,” Burns said.
Burns suggested cutting the sheriff’s office request to replace 11 cruisers down to three and recommended rotating vehicles with higher mileage more often to reduce wear and tear.
Of the three vehicles, one would be purchased with grant funding.
Burns also said he would like to see one cruiser dedicated to the unorganized territories, something discussed but not implemented last year.
Burns said he wants all three departments to tighten scheduling to reduce mounting overtime.
“I’ve advocated all along, to no avail, that you take another look at the length of the shifts,” Burns told Curtis. “For 43 hours straight, we’re paying people to stay at home some of that time.”
A retired Maine state trooper, Burns said he understands “there are times when visibility is very important and accessibility is very important. There are other times that are not so busy,” which he said could mean deploying fewer people than the county does now.
Burns said he had no specific recommendations to cut costs at the jail.
“I’ve tried my best to see how we can make cuts at the jail, but I just don’t see how we can do it with the state share of funding and the requirements that we have,” Burns told Curtis and Jail Administrator Capt. Rich Rolfe.
Burns said it is possible “that until we find a way to combine services with another county, I think we’re stuck.”
He added, “Until the Legislature comes to its senses and funds jails, we’re going to be in a hole.”
By this point, Howard seemed convinced that department budget requests should be forwarded to the Budget Advisory Committee without cuts at the commission level.
“We’ve been dealt a bad hand and it’ll take us a few years to get out of this,” Howard said, referring to past years of financial management and overspending.
Hammond agreed it would take years and would not be easy.
Burns remained insistent that the commission cut costs.
“What is the role of the commission? Is it to just pass things through and then try to manage it? Or is it to actually have an impact?” Burns said.
Rolfe said he appreciated that Burns did not want to send the budget to the Budget Advisory Committee, or BAC, as is, “but if you make cuts before it goes to the BAC, the first thing I’m going to do is to say, before the Budget Advisory Committee, that this is not what I asked for.”
Burns said that was the problem. Last year, he said, the Budget Advisory Committee “just chucked our suggestions and sent the budget through” with a 42% increase.
“During my eight years of legislative service, I never once thought I was there as window dressing,” Burns said. “I don’t feel any different about this now.”
Hammond said he felt comfortable moving the full budget forward to the Budget Advisory Committee.
“This is what department heads say they need,” he said.
“Well, that’s business as usual, commissioner, in my opinion,” Burns said to Hammond. “It’s the way it’s been done in the past, and I’m not comfortable with that.”
Finance Director Jenny Windsor told the commissioners that if they wanted to make a final decision on the budget at their regular meeting in September, she needed an answer about potential cuts before the end of Wednesday’s meeting.
Looking at his fellow commissioners, Burns said he thought he would get support for what he called “nickel-and-dime” changes to the budget, “but without that I guess we have to send the budget through.”
Earlier this year, Burns suggested the county could benefit from an efficiency analysis and proposed hiring an outside expert to review workflow and organization across departments to identify possible savings, including examining how other counties manage their resources.
At Wednesday’s meeting, Howard made a motion to authorize Burns to investigate options.
“We need to find somebody who is independent, doesn’t have any biases and knows what they’re doing,” Burns said, adding he would start by contacting the Maine County Commissioners Association.
In other matters, the commission adopted a new protocol for Zoom meetings after its Aug. 5 meeting was Zoombombed — disrupted by intruders sharing pornographic images.
In the past, the meeting link was posted on the county’s calendar, but starting with its next meeting Sept. 10, those who want to attend remotely will have to contact the county and request access.
The county will require each requester to provide a name, an email address and a telephone number for confirmation before a link is provided.
This story appears as part of a collaboration to strengthen investigative journalism in Maine between the BDN and The Maine Monitor. Read more about the partnership.