Dear Editor:

The Town of Wiscasset is fortunate to have a well qualified assessor to meet its obligations, but our Assessing budget includes more than just the assessor. It became obvious with all the State and Federal obligations that the town needed an individual to perform the Human Resources functions. Our Assessor accepted and has been performing these tasks for a number of years. The Assessor/Human Resource Officer maintains all employee files, benefit information, training records and legal obligations. The Assessor also has taken on the important role of insuring that there are checks and balances in the financial auditing of our Town accounts.

For a number of years our assessor has been performing additional duties without additional compensation. The increase in this budget item recognizes that these additional duties provide justification for a long overdue grade change. Union Contract negotiations have included this grade change. Our Assessor is an excellent example of an employee performing beyond expectations and she should be adequately compensated.

The change in salary ($7,779) appears to be significant (17.5 %) but this is a half truth. It fails to include decreases that were given up during negotiations including a change in medical plans, a decrease in retirement medical benefits and decrease in compensation when acting as Town Manager. It is doubtful that these jobs could be performed by a number of part time employees for a lesser budget. Our assessor was given a layoff notice after the June vote when this budget article failed. Failure of this article could result in her layoff and an obligation to the Town to pay a contractual severance of approximately $68,000. The Union contract prevents hiring someone else by requiring the assessor to be rehired during the following 12 months.

Vote YES on the Office of Assessment/Human Resources Article 5.

Absentee Ballots are now available. You can vote at your convenience at the Town Office. Voting at the polls will be on Tuesday, Sept. 10. Please vote.

Pam Dunning, Judy Colby, Jeff Slack, Tim Merry and Ed Polewarczyk

Wiscasset Selectmen