Lewiston Council hands Bennett his head on Bastille Day.

Wow! Radical stuff there.

Do you have any background, Stavros? Why were the three former councilors there?

"They pre-empted a previously scheduled executive session before their regular meeting to meet with the city attorney to discuss Bennett's contract. They came out of that session at 7 p.m. and immediately went back behind closed doors to continue their conversation.

They came out 20 minutes later and announced their decision."

I hope this reporting is wrong. Debate and votes can not be taken in executive session.

Steven Scharf
SCSMedia@aol.com

Actually, debate is permitted in executive session. But the vote to dismiss the employee has to be taken in public.

From the Freedom of Access law:

Deliberations may be conducted in executive sessions on the following matters and no others:

A. Discussion or consideration of the employment, appointment, assignment, duties, promotion, demotion, compensation, evaluation, disciplining, resignation or dismissal of an individual or group of public officials, appointees or employees of the body or agency or the investigation or hearing of charges or complaints against a person or persons subject to the following conditions:

(1) An executive session may be held only if public discussion could be reasonably expected to cause damage to the reputation or the individual's right to privacy would be violated;

(2) Any person charged or investigated shall be permitted to be present at an executive session if he so desires;

(3) Any person charged or investigated may request in writing that the investigation or hearing of charges or complaints against him be conducted in open session. A request, if made to the agency, must be honored; and

(4) Any person bringing charges, complaints or allegations of misconduct against the individual under discussion shall be permitted to be present.

This paragraph does not apply to discussion of a budget or budget proposal.

Well at least he has his training as a circus clown to fall back on.

There must have been some kind of "interesting" reason... most councils never act in such a decisive and swift manner.

Nice parachute, however; there's a lot of folks that would be happy to have a year's pay and benefits while they search for another job.

As with most things in Lewiston city gov't this is likely about personalities and not professional competence. I bet Jim will have offers before the month is out. I didn't agree with him about everything but overall he has done a very competent job while having to deal with a small minded city council that spends more time worried about perceived slights than what is good for our city. Good luck to you Jim and thanks for all your efforts.

Having grown up in the area, I follow the twin cities news from the Sun Journal online. I'll have to say from what I've read I would have to agree with Jim. The Peters brothers were at Lewiston High when I was at ELHS and they seemed to me to be pretty straght shooters.

My memories of the Lewiston city council go back to the Ernest Malanfant, Paul Couture and Bill Jacques days when their meetings were broadcast on WLAM. With television just in it's infancy, they were the best entertainment in town. It appears that little has changed in 50 years.

Jim Bennett did a heck of a good job in Westbrook while here. He is a strong personality and that can rub elected people the wrong way. He is also very confident in his approach and that intimidates a lot of people.

I have no doubt he will find employment very quickly in a community that is looking for an innovative approach to fiscal matters and economic development.

An occupational hazard that occurs frequently and usually sooner. I believe 5 years is an average.
He did dserve Westbrook well and being a sinmiliar city albeit a little smaller it was a good fit for him to go to Lewiston.
There is only one significant difference between the two cities. When he came to Westbrook there was a clear vision of where we were going and city had been on the road awhile. I am not sure Lewiston knows yet where it is going and is still stuck where it had been in some respects.

What a shame. Bennett did a great job for Lewiston. He helped bring in business, cleaned up many parts of the city, and was beginning to streamline operations. The city councilors that voted for his ouster should be ashamed. To top it off, they now get to pay him severance totalling a years salary and bennies. Stupid.

A classic interview... between Councilor Reed and Scott Taylor of the Sun-Journal:
..
When asked about the decision..

Councilor Reed: It just kinda happened and it just was time for a new direction..

Scott Taylor: What is the new direction? Do we know what the new direction is?

CR: No..

ST: Okay, do we know what the old direction was.. that we disagreed with?

CR: That gets us into kind of a grey area..

Reed's comments were right on. Its really not that hard to figure out. All anyone paying attention has to do is get over their own ego and inflated self of importance. Bennett was released from his contract without cause as was allowed in his contract. As part of that agreement the councilors who voted to end his services are not allowed to disclose what or even if there were reasons. It doesn't take a rockets scientists to figure that out.

But then again, we have people who think it would be better to not renew his contract for 5 years until it ran out and leave him in charge of an $80 million budget just to save $110k.

I had concerns with Jim when on the council but I like him and was able to work with him. He had strong ideas but was sometimes reluctant to take direction that he did not agree with. I'm sure he and the city of Lewiston will be just fine.

The quote does say it all. The City Council has no direction. I thought that's what a Council is supposed to do. The City Manager runs the operations of the city.

So Councilor Reed should easily be able to respond to the question regarding what direction he would like the City to go. West?

First, no votes were taken in the executive session, we simply met with city attorney to discuss the contract and understand implications. As to my interview, it speaks for itself, as it was a personnel matter we cannot go into details of what happened the locall press was not satisfied with that answer, thus their reprisal in todays editorial. the termination was without cause and as such no reason needs be given. As to the golden parachute - ask the last council they agreed to a contract that we were now bound to.

Mr. Reed, Perhaps you could define the new direction our city is taking and why this could not be carried out by Mr. Bennett?

Lame response. What is your vision, your direction for the city Councilor Reed?

I know the answer. You don't have one. This decision is one of the worst I've seen, even compared to the dysfunctional Council that Mr. Mendros was a member of.

Bottom line, Councilor Reed, you don't have a vision. You just want to cut the budget anyway you can. A penny wise, pound foolish approach.

I can't believe people vote for you.

Well, we will know in November if it was a smart move. IMHO, Lewiston will get a new council.

I think its pretty clear. Tee council decided they wanted a city with policy set by the elected officials through debate and the democratic process. They did not wish to be a rubber stamp. This comment is not a criticism of Jim Bennett. He was very effective and his style worked great with past council majorities who were not interested in setting policy and were very happy to have that policy set by an aggressive administrator with them simply approving or disapproving.

This council has a vision of Lewiston where they policy will once again be set by the elected officials with open and public debate. The way democratic government should be run.

OH yea, and councilor Reed is only one councilor. He has neither the responsibility nor the authority to speak for the "vision" of the council. The only guy who claimed to have that power just went down with his brother on the wrong side of a 5-2 vote.

Stavros, makes alot of good points, as to my vision, I want to see a vibrant downtown, and maybe that includes more outdoor cafes, street art shows and other items. I'd like to see some of the more blighted neighbrohoods cleaned up. I'd like the CDBG monies to be used to truly make a difference in the neighborhoods its intended for, and not just to give a bunch of charities a small pittance and use a large chunk for needed infrastructure that should have been in the regular budget. And lastly, I want less borrowing. Our debt service has grown tremendously over the past 8 years and at some point that will come back to haunt each and every taxpayer in Lewiston. We still have over six million in bonded debt o the Colisee wich we no longer own andsold for $1.5M over 17 years - we canot do that. We cannot have contracts that give exclusive rights to one party.

As to a bigger vision for the city, I'd like to see the waterfront changed into an outdoor recreation opprtunity. We have a major river that is being cleaned up and supports canoeists, kayakers and other boating. Fishing above the dams is excellent. A trail system following the waterfront (and connectors from all parts of the city) - where you could have cycling and walking paths, boat launch area for summer, a storage facility where people pay to rent storage spots for the boats, thats my vision, we could attract outdoor enthusiasts throughout the region. Local recreation opportunities is fast becoming an important commodoty as people stay closer to home and look for day opprtunities.

LaMaine as to your concerns, I've heard worse from better people so I'll not have a sleepless night based on your comments.

Bennett is a very capable person. However, he does not know the proper role of a manager in a Council/Manager form of government. I think he too often tried to impose his will in policy areas that should be decided by elected officials.

I think the council made a wise decision.

I also think the compensation, when someone is let go basically due to political changes on the council, is appopriate. They bought out his contract. He was NOT fired for cause.

I also give Bennet credit for not whining and complaining on his way out.

Bingo. The people elect the council. They should be out front on issues and be the ones to determine direction for the city. Bennett is staff. He is hired to make recommendations to the council, lead other staff, and carry out the directions of the council.

Agree with me or not but Lewiston does not currently have a person with the vision to make it a city attractive to tourists. It's really a shame actually as you won't find harder working people anywhere else.

One of the sadder tales is the fact that most voters in the area think that the democrat party is the same as it was during the previous generation. And as a result keep voting the same people in again and again.

We lost that when Greg Mitchell left.

Nice vision Councilor Reed. We actually agree on a lot of it. But please let me know when you are actually willing to follow this vision. Your voting record indicates you routinely vote against anything that might involve spending money. And yes, to accomplish your vision, the city needs to spend some money.

Have a fun time this next year molding a new City Manager that will bow to your wishes. I'll give Mr. Bennett credit, he left gracefully. Now the City Council needs to prove itself. At least cable access ratings will continue to go up. It's the greatest show in town. Let's see who can be more powerful! I expect that all of you will get voted out next election. You've failed.

Hard to carry out directions of a council that can't speak to the Manager. My gut tells me, that most of the council was intimidated by Bennett. He was intellectually superior to them and they couldn't handle that.

TM, you have obviously never met Bob Reed or Betty Dube and certainly not Larry Poulin.

Lamaine, it's tough to spend money in a down economy when taxpayers are asking you not to. What we need to do now is determine the vision, get agreement on it from citizens & businesses in the community and then begin preparing the way. That may mean baby steps such as making sure development in the area takes into account this vision and does not make it impossible to undertake later at a much higher price. It means luring those businesses to maine that might thrive as you develop the vision. But most of all it means sending a cvlear message to the citizxens that their is a vision for Lewiston AND that we hope Auburn will join us in this endeavor.

I've tracks the citizen response as to my home phone and email and to date 9 responses - 3 against, 3 in favor and 3 just upset about the severance. Doesn't seem to me considering the size of the city and even my ward that this is much more than a small issue for many people, although I'll bet the local newspaper will be sure to print one editorial a day opposed to it to keep the fires flames.

Lastly, a good town manager can be found and in fact there could be several candidates interesting in managing maine's second largest city possibly including some who post here. But make it clear, the next city manager will under stand his job is managing and not setting policy, it wil be day to day operations and not long term strategy. Thats a job the council was elected to do and that the citizens expect of us. We will not be a rubber stamp for someone elses wishes.

LaMaine - I sense you wish to have a friendly wager on the upcoming elections? Lets say based on the 5 who voted to dimiss, based on any of them who might run again? Perhaps a dinner certificate or some other harmless but fun bet? Put your money where your mouth is!