The Winslow Town Council, pictured Aug. 6 at the Winslow Public Library, discussed Monday how it will proceed in finding a replacement for Ella Bowman, who will step down as town manager Feb. 5, 2025. Anna Chadwick/Morning Sentinel

WINSLOW — Town councilors discussed the search for a new town manager at their meeting Monday night, roughly a month after Town Manager Ella Bowman tendered her resignation.

While no action was taken at the meeting, councilors considered how they want to go about finding a new manager and floated candidates for an interim manager to fill the role in the meantime.

Winslow Town Manager Ella Bowman

Bowman issued her resignation to the council last month after serving for about a year, saying vitriolic and “hateful” rhetoric from town councilors and the public made her job untenable. Her resignation will take effect Feb. 5, 2025, though the council can vote to waive her contract sooner.

Council Chair Jeff West suggested appointing Public Works Director Paul Fongemie, who previously served as interim town manager for about three months in 2020, to hold the role until a successor can be hired.

“Obviously, for town manager, it’s going to take a while to get somebody in here,” West said. “My suggestion would be, if Paul’s interested because he’s done it before, is have him be our interim with a stipend.”

Appointing someone “in house” in the interim like Fongemie would likely save the town money, Town Attorney William A. Lee III said, as standard pay for an interim manager can be as much as $100 an hour.

Fongemie was previously hired at a rate of $500 a week during his prior stint as interim town manager. Councilor Mike Joseph asked if he’d work for the same rate now.

“No way,” Fongemie replied, eliciting laughs from the council and those in attendance.

Joseph said he’d like to see the town begin its search for a new manager before hiring anyone to an interim role. Councilor Fran Hudson posed waiting until January, closer to when Bowman will leave office, to ink a deal with a new manager, interim or otherwise.

Hudson also suggested the town hire the Maine Municipal Association or a local law firm to help conduct the search for a new manager, a process that will cost between $6,000 and $8,000.

Winslow Public Works Director Paul Fongemie stands in a salt shed in 2022. The Winslow Town Council is considering Fongemie as interim town manager, a role he served in previously. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel file

“There’s not a need right now for the interim, but we should start now on deciding,” Hudson said. “You’re going to have a very transparent and fair way to hire a town manager. It’s not somebody (that) somebody else knew.”

Bowman was hired by Winslow in October 2023 without public input or a formal search committee after being placed on administrative leave without an explanation by councilors in nearby Oakland. Bowman spent nine years as town manager in that community.

Some Winslow residents were critical of the lack of transparency in Bowman’s hiring.

Bowman’s time in Winslow was marred by strife and scandal on the Town Council, where she often butted heads with the three political newcomers elected shortly after she joined the town’s administration.

Bowman has admonished councilors Hudson, Joseph and Adam Lint for “creating a divide within our town” through social media and the politicization of municipal roles long considered nonpartisan.

Bowman also decried Joseph and Hudson’s “lack of empathy” after emails surfaced showing the duo looking to vacate Councilor Lee Trahan’s seat and requesting a list of his medication after Trahan fell into a coma earlier this year.

Joseph requested a protective order against Bowman in July after a confrontation following Joseph’s nearly 10-minute tirade during a council meeting accusing Bowman of attempting to “undermine” and “embarrass” him.

In court paperwork, Joseph stated he feared for his life when Bowman “started to yell at me and putting her finger in my face,” though his filing never detailed what incited the conversation. A judge would ultimately deny his request for a protective order.

The incident and charged environment in the town office culminated in Bowman tendering her resignation in early November, she wrote in a letter announcing her departure.

Councilors ultimately took no action on hiring a new manager Monday night, interim or otherwise. They recommended reaching out to the Maine Municipal Association to begin a search for applicants as soon as this month.

It’s likely to take no less than three or four months before the search is completed, Councilor Dale Macklin said, though a precise timeline remains uncertain.