Road Commissioner Sam Snow casts his vote March 16 during the Pittston annual town meeting at Pittston-Randolph Consolidated School. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal file

PITTSTON — The town’s Select Board is withholding the road commissioner’s stipend until he can meet to discuss his job performance, which board members believe is not in line with his elected duties.

Road Commissioner Sam Snow has been at the center of municipal controversy over the past year regarding the services he provides the town. Specifically, officials have said Snow has not shown up at jobs. They have also questioned the paving of Jewett Road, which the town repaired in 2019 and is expected to cost at least $300,000 to repair again.

The Select Board voted unanimously June 26 to withhold half the $6,000 biannual stipend Snow receives as the town’s elected road commissioner. Officials said board members have invited Snow to one of the town’s weekly board work sessions to discuss the matter, but he has not attended any of the meetings over the past three weeks.

Board member Cathy Thomas brought up the discussion of withholding the pay after Snow submitted expenses for jobs he performed as road commissioner, yet he has not shown up to recent jobs when his services were requested.

“I had an issue last Thursday night when a resident called me with a washed-out culvert, and they didn’t think they could get to work in the morning,” Jane Hubert, chair of the Select Board, said. “I called Sam and Sam said, ‘The Select Board will take care of it.'”

Snow has been Pittston’s road commissioner for 10 years. During that time, the Select Board has agreed it will send out to bid projects costing more than $5,000 to repair.

Board members said Snow should be available to address smaller projects, such as a washed-out culvert. Maine law stipulates a road commissioner should repair anything the majority of a select board says to repair, and give monthly job status statements to the board.

The board claims that when Snow is asked to make a quick fix, he says the board, or Selectmen Joe Caputo, is handling it.

“When Jane (Hubert) asks him to do something, (Snow) says he’s not doing it,” Caputo said at the board’s meeting June 26. “When you ask him to come to the Monday Select Board meetings so he can be a part of what’s going on, he says he can’t come because he needs to work, but what’s the relationship for Pittston? Is he not compensated to be road commissioner? The issue is that he comes and goes as he pleases.”

Pittston resident Tony Garvan said at the June 26 meeting he did not think keeping Snow’s stipend from him was the right decision.

“I agree a discussion needs to be in order,” Garvan said. “When you say you are withholding pay, you are saying you are doubting his performance. Otherwise, you wouldn’t withhold it. It seems like you are putting Sam in a position of guilt rather than innocence.”

Reached by telephone Monday, Snow told the Kennebec Journal he did not have any comment.

Hubert told the Kennebec Journal on Monday that the Select Board is waiting for Snow to show up to one of Monday’s weekly public work sessions or Wednesday’s weekly Select Board meetings.

Since the motion was made to withhold his pay, he has missed two Select Board meetings and three work sessions.

“It’s up to Sam to come in and talk with us,” Hubert said. “I don’t know what else to say. We need to talk, and that’s the bottom line.”

Editor’s note: Pittston resident Tony Garvan was misidentified in an earlier version of this story.