The Lincoln interim town manager has resigned after being appointed in May.
Wade Shaefer was appointed to the position on May 11 and resigned on Monday, according to News Center Maine.
Shaefer was Lincoln’s third town manager this year. The Town Council initially hired a candidate that later declined the position, then hired Dennis Bullen, who was fired less than two months after he started because of disagreements between him and the council about the town’s budget.
Shaefer notified the council on Monday night, according to the report. That came after the town council passed a highly criticized budget on Monday.
The budget, which was passed 4-3 by the council, includes heavy spending cuts that would downsize crucial services. Those include the police department, which could lose several officers and fire and emergency medical services could lose three or four employees.
Shaefer, who was tapped for the job by the council conservatives after his predecessor proved unwilling to make the steep cuts they were hoping for, proposed a small budget increase that would have required only modest cuts. For example, his version would have slightly raised the police department’s budget from $1.5 million to more than $1.7 million. But the version championed by Ireland cut it down to just over $1.2 million.
The approved $9.9 million budget is down 12.8% from Shaefer’s proposed $11.5 million budget.
BDN reporters Kasey Turman and Dan O’Connor contributed to this report.
