MACHIAS — With only three of five members present, the Machias Select Board voted unanimously at an emergency meeting last month to uphold the administrative separation of Amanda Taylor from the Machias Ambulance Service.
Vice Chair Ben Edwards chaired the meeting, noting that the board’s deliberation focused on one question: whether the separation properly applied the terms of Taylor’s employment and personnel policy.
“The separation was approved by counsel with the agreement from the town manager, the ambulance chief, and senior Machias Ambulance Service command staff,” Edwards said. “This was institutional action.”
Ambulance Service Chief Ryan Maker and Taylor presented their sides of the dispute during a public session at the board’s regular meeting June 10. Taylor insisted on a public hearing rather than an executive session, which the board routinely uses for employee or contract disputes and negotiations.
Maine’s Freedom of Access Act allows employees to request public hearings for charges or complaints.
During the hearing, both sides agreed on most of the basic facts and timeline — beginning with the board’s approval of Taylor’s request Oct. 27, 2025, to change her employment status from per diem to “call when needed.”
“The terms Ms. Taylor accepted in writing on Oct. 27 are the controlling document,” Edwards said. “The engagement clause in those terms authorizes the service to deactivate ‘call when needed’ personnel who fail to maintain required credentials or remain inactive for extended periods.”
Maker said he informed all ambulance crew members in January 2026 of a Feb. 15 deadline to complete annual requirements for a respiratory medical protection clearance and an N95 respirator fit test to ensure proper mask seals. Because Taylor missed the deadline, Maker placed her on inactive status Feb. 16. Edwards agreed.
“Ms. Taylor missed the January 2026 OSHA (U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration) respiratory compliance deadline that applied to all crew uniformly,” Edwards said at the June 15 meeting.
However, Taylor said the new deadline should not have applied to her because her existing OSHA-compliant certifications do not expire until Nov. 13, 2026. She said she was unaware the requirement applied to her.
“I received the letter of inactive status because I did not complete the N95 fit and medical clearance by Feb. 15th but what Chief Maker failed to mention is that the only reason these were being redone at this time is because he wanted all the crew to be closely aligned to the same expiration date,” Taylor wrote via email. “Mine were in fact still up to date at that time and still are. I redid them just to comply with the letter of inactive status.”
Taylor also stated that the ambulance service’s previous medical clearance forms violated OSHA compliance. She said Assistant Chief Stephen Simmons told her this when she submitted a new clearance form to satisfy her reinstatement policy.
After receiving her letter of inactive status Feb. 16, Taylor quickly fulfilled two of the three reinstatement requirements: a respiratory protection medical clearance and an N95 fit test. However, Taylor never completed the third requirement, an administrative review to return to duty, according to Maker.
Taylor maintains it was Maker’s responsibility to schedule the review. She said that after communicating with the ambulance service and attending virtual crew meetings for months, she assumed she had returned to active status.
Taylor also said she emailed Maker and Town Manager Sarah Craighead Dedmon twice, asking first in April why her affiliation with the service was removed from the National Registry, and then why she was not informed of the annual training. She said she received no reply until her administrative separation notice arrived May 29, three days after her last email.
“All I’m asking is that you consider the facts,” she said at the June 10 meeting. “One: I was up-to-date on all my requirements and did not realize that they needed to be redone. Two: Once I was made aware of these requirements needing to be redone, I was proactive, and completed the requirements within my control in under 48 hours. Which left Chief Maker 72 hours to schedule the administrative return-to-duty review.”
Edwards agreed that Taylor raised valid arguments before casting his vote to uphold the decision.
“Her principal points are that she completed the credentialing items within the deadline, that her prior medical clearance was already valid, that the ‘call when needed’ terms restricted her from responding to general requests and that the administrative review meeting was the chief’s responsibility to schedule,” he said. “I believe each one of those has some merit.”
Edwards noted, however, that Taylor shared an obligation to address the delay.
“There does come a point when she has responsibility to follow up for herself,” he said. “The record reflects she did not. Her status remained unresolved as a result.”
After reviewing all the information, Select Board member Carole Porcher said she could not find a “compelling reason to overturn the decision.”
With that decision upheld, the focus of the Machias Select Board shifts to an upcoming legislative matter.
The board has scheduled a public hearing and special town meeting for 6 p.m. Wednesday, July 8, at the Machias Memorial High School gymnasium at 30 Bulldog Lane. The purpose is to consider a proposed 180-day moratorium on processing new applications and issuing permits under the adult use and medical cannabis ordinance, which is to be followed by the regular Select Board meeting.
If enacted, the moratorium will allow Machias time to “gather public feedback and consider potential revisions to the ordinance,” according to Craighead Dedmon’s town newsletter.
