LIVERMORE FALLS — A petition asking the Select Board to take a no confidence vote on the leadership of the town manager is gaining some support.
Amanda Ricci of Livermore Falls, an organizer of the nonbinding, five-page petition, said she has 53 signatures of the 107 needed to file the petition and have it certified, but is prepared to do an official petition. More residents have asked to sign it, she said.
“It is with great regret that I must request that the Board of Selectmen to provide Town Manager Amanda Allen with an immediate notice of termination from her position with the town of Livermore Falls, after a vote of no confidence in her leadership out of concern for the general welfare of the town under her direction — in particular the fire department,” Ricci wrote in the petition.
“I intend to consult with legal counsel regarding a possible lawsuit as (Ricci’s) letter is a malicious attempt to defame me,” Allen wrote in an email. She said Ricci is making personal attacks on her character.
Ricci denied that and said it was not personal. It is about behavior.
The Sun Journal has not seen the signatures on the petition but it is alleged some of them belong to town employees. The signatures, which are public information, have not been provided, though requested by the Sun Journal.
“Neither I nor the Select Board have a comment,” Select Board Chairman James “Jim” Long wrote in an email Monday.
“Town personnel matters involving disciplinary investigations (other than final discipline), employee evaluations, and hiring decisions are confidential by statute, so I am not at liberty to discuss many of the allegations that Ms. Ricci asserts in her letter,” Allen wrote in an email Monday.
Ricci is a former firefighter with the town but was released from duties in January because of allegedly not attending a certain amount of incident calls or meetings. The dismissal letter to firefighters who were inactive was sent by former Chief Mike Booker, Ricci said, and not Allen.
The petition alleges the vote of no confidence is to protect people speaking up from retaliation, continued harassment and confrontation, and an otherwise hostile environment.
The fire department has had no fire chief since September. Four chiefs or deputy chiefs have quit since former Chief Edward Hastings IV left June 29, 2021, to return to being a state fire investigator.
Allen said most of the allegations in the nonbinding petition are false.
“With respect to retaining and attracting qualified employees to the fire department, it has been a difficult couple of years. The labor shortage that has affected all sectors of the economy has hit municipalities particularly hard because of limited budgets that cannot match the pay offered in the private sector,” Allen said in her email. “This is a statewide problem which is particularly pronounced when it comes to police and fire departments. The town is doing the best it can to recruit qualified candidates given its resources.”
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