Voters are expected to consider two amendments to the city charter Tuesday, both designed to clearly define an “employee” and what “employment” means, to prevent conflicts if a former employee wants to run for office or if a former elected official applies for a city job.
City Manager Michael Ellis said the amendments “are not directed toward any particular thing that has happened,” but came about after councilors and the city’s attorney recognized the charter does not precisely define “employee” or what city departments would be included as “employment.”
The charter now stipulates that current councilors cannot hold another city office or be employed while serving in an elected role, and that there is a one-year waiting period before a former city councilor can be employed by the city, but the charter does not define an “employee.”
The first proposed amendment, under section 2 of the charter that prohibits councilors from holding “compensated” office or employment with the city, adds language defining that city employment includes but is “not limited to the school department, water department, sewer department, police department, fire department, public works department, recreation department, library, and city administration.”
“There was not one thing that set this off,” Ellis said.
Instead, he said, it is a matter of good governance and matches language councilors have seen in other city charters.
One of the important distinctions in defining an “employee,” Ellis said, is specific to employees of the School Department, who may consider the department their employer because it is where they work, but because the city approves the school budget, those employees are city employees.
The second amendment that voters are expected to consider Tuesday is in section 4, which governs school committee qualifications, elections and terms, and is seen as reverse language to the changes proposed in section 2.
In section 4, the proposed amendment would ban current and former city employees from holding office on the school committee or City Council for at least a year after that person’s employment has been terminated.
As with the suggested changes to section 2 of the charter, the proposal for section 4 defines city employment as positions in the city’s School, Water, Sewer, Police, Fire, Public Works and Recreation departments; the Calais Free Library; and the city administration.
The proposed section also bans current and former school committee members from city employment for at least a year.
Asked if a former school committee member or city councilor might be able to volunteer in some capacity within a year of leaving office, Ellis said volunteering — at the library, for example — would be allowed under these proposals because it would not be considered “compensated” work.
Ellis said precise definitions in the proposals would “tighten things up in our charter that might be misinterpreted.”
The biggest thing, he said, “was to define a lot of the things that could become a conflict” and “avoid putting anyone (employees and public officials) in a bad situation.”
He also said the language would help clerks who verify nomination papers check precise employment and elected service dates and roles to confirm a candidate is eligible to run, and also for the city’s human resources employees to know when a former school committee or City Council member is eligible for employment.
“The charter is an ironclad document that has served the city well for many, many years,” Ellis said.
The proposed amendments are intended only to define what “employment” and “employee” mean going forward.
Read the city charter in its entirety.
Voting is scheduled for 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 4, at the Calais Recreation Department, 11 Academy St.
