PERHAM, Maine—The Perham selectmen recently tried to vote on two alternates to their local Planning Board, despite their recent approval of Tina Bogdanovic and Debora Viola for those open positions. While the town of Perham adopted Robert’s Rules of Order for the conduct of meetings years ago, the Rules still seem to be lost on the selectmen.

The situation resurfaced on the agenda of the December 8 meeting of the Perham selectmen, where they once again attempted to vote on the two nominees of Bogdanovic and Viola. However, the selectmen left their Robert’s Rules of Order notes at home as they proceeded haphazardly through the process.

Newly elected chair of the selectmen, Jerry Dow, opened the meeting with the planning board vote being first on the agenda. “There is [sic] two alternates that [sic] have applied to be on the planning board. Both are here tonight,” said Dow. “We as a selectboard [sic] need to vote on each application. Do we have any discussion before we start, or do we just want to vote?”

Not aware of what a planning board does, selectman, Angela Beckwith asked Dow to describe the roles that are to be filled when someone serves on the planning board.

“The planning board’s role, in my estimation it may not be exactly as it is, is to serve the selectmen as investigators,” Dow proceeded to explain convolutedly. “If you got [sic] something you want to have researched such as a building code, a solid waste [sic], we give it to the planning board, they break up in committees, they do this work, they report back to us. They have no authority to change laws, they make suggestions. We read the suggestions, then we vote and make it law. But it’s actually a arm of the selectmen to do some research, it also gets four, five or six other people involved in that one problem. Like the comprehensive plan, was, [sic] people were off in all different directions. So, eventually brought it together [sic] and came up with a comprehensive plan. That was almost all done in the planning board and then the selectmen elected to make it law so we have a comprehensive plan. That is the procedure of the planning board.”

Dow further explained, “Any questions that they have of any town official, if they have questions of us they would ask us to come, if they want to talk to the code enforcement officer, they would ask him to come, or state people or if it was solid waste they could bring people from Presque Isle, they don’t have subpoena right but they can call the people and say we’re discussing this could you please come. NMDC has a person that will come and present to the planning board if it’s something that they have anything to do with. So, they are kind of research people plus it gives you more people than the three of us to figure out what we really think we need and then we get the final say. That’s how it works.”

Dow's confusingly laid out description of a planning board aside, the responsibilities and duties of most Planning Boards in Maine are: Review and approval of site plans; Review and approval of subdivision applications; Review and approval of sign plans; Review proposed changes to the Land Use Ordinance and advise the Town Council; Participate in updating or amending the Municipal Comprehensive Plan; and Review any matter referred to the Board by the Town Council or Code Enforcement Officer. Despite Dow's misunderstanding of their duties, Planning Boards do have some authority to approve site and sign plans as well as subdivision applications.

Dow said Perham needs to have a planning board that is active and interested in the town moving forward. “If it’s a building code that needs to be redone, we go from today forward. What happened yesterday, or three years ago or five years ago, it’s [sic] what it says today and we move forward .”

After the explanation phase was over, the selectmen went into a thinly veiled discussion of the two nominees with no motion or second on the floor regarding the matter, in violation of Robert’s Rules of Order. Bogdanovic had recently had a lengthy battle with the town over a building permit for a chicken coop even though the town’s building codes were not clear on the subject. Viola has also had problems with the town misreading their codes when applying the rules to her property and buildings.

“People who step up to serve on the planning board should have the best interest of all citizens in town. Looking out for everyone,” said Beckwith.

“They should have no agenda, no mind made up on any of the things that they look at, should be objective,” Dow added. “You’re almost better off not knowing, you need to read the building codes, ask the experts that you think [sic], get an expert to tell you and then you make a decision. You can’t be related to something that happened in the past, well I did this and that happened. It’s in the past, we move from here to the future, in my estimation.”

Expanding into the discussion phase on one of the nominees, again without a motion or second, Beckwith insinuated a slanderous statement of hearsay against Bogdanovic; “I believe that Tina was heard saying in the office before that she did not move to Perham to be regulated. I don’t understand why someone would step up to serve on the planning board when that’s part of what they do, is to uphold ordinances.”

Dow then added, “That, I would call an agenda,” in violation of Robert’s Rules of order because he, as chair, took an active part in the debate. Robert’s Rules states, “One who expects to take an active part in debate should never accept the chair.” (see RRO, Sec. 10, article 58).

“I never said I didn’t move to Perham to be regulated,” Bogdanovic told the Fort Fairfield Journal after the meeting. “What happened was during a past selectmen’s meeting former selectmen chair, Ray Wood said some people in town don’t like to be regulated and looked at me as he said, ‘we get our freedoms from regulations.’”

Beckwith then focused discussion on the other nominee, again, without a motion or second on the floor; “And then Ms Viola also had issues already, not, I mean [sic], things were harder than they need to be regarding town ordinances that needed to be put in check, or, [sic] I don’t understand why these two would want to step up to serve on the planning board where there’s been so much friction regarding what the planning board actually does. I’m just saying this ahead of time before we vote. So they’ll understand as to why I’m going to vote the way I am.

Exposing more bias from the Chair, Dow added, “I’d like to say also that as selectmen we do not need to create problems for ourselves and I can see in these two nominations that there may be a problem. So, that will influence the way I vote.”

Viola then addressed the selectmen; “I served on the planning board very well for over three years, did the bulk of the work and have a lot of experience. I think you really need to look at your ordinances, there are contradictions throughout and that is something I’ve been saying for at least a year and I haven’t seen your planning board look at them yet and I have attended meetings.”

“We haven’t told them to work at it yet. They work for what we would like to have them do and we have not asked them to check the ordinances to my knowledge, since I’ve been here,” said Dow. “We haven’t mentioned any work for the planning board.”

Viola reminded the selectmen there hasn’t been a full planning board for quite some time. “You also have members who don’t come to but two meetings a year, but you have two volunteers and because of your own personal bias, which is what my belief system is, then we’re not going to be in.”

As Chair, Dow then proceeded to call a motion and, against Robert’s Rules of Order, made a motion. “I move that we vote on the nominees to be on the planning board,” Dow moved. However, Robert’s Rules of Order indicate that making a motion is not one of the duties delegated to the Chair.

As it stands, Bogdanovic and Viola are still duly elected alternates to the Perham Planning Board, but the selectmen still plan to continue looking for other candidates to fill those slots.