SKOWHEGAN — Somerset County officials blew the dust off their law books and discovered one of the many, and seemingly unusual, requirements of county officials outlined in state statute.

The arcane law in question deals with the sheriff’s bond, essentially an insurance policy the county’s top law enforcement official must hold to ensure “the faithful performance of the duties of the office and to answer for all neglect and misdoings of the chief deputy.” 

Whose responsibility it is to ensure the sheriff secures such a bond is where the law gets interesting, some might say, and the process played out Wednesday in the county commissioners’ chambers in Skowhegan.

Somerset County Administrator Tim Curtis discovered the little-known statute during a recent review of state law governing county offices and operations with county officials from across Maine. The group is looking at possible updates and revisions.

He informed the board of commissioners of his discovery, among others, at their prior meeting June 17. 

“We just came across all these obscure things,” Curtis said.

Per the law, a sheriff of York, Cumberland, Kennebec or Penobscot counties must provide a bond to the state treasurer with three “sufficient sureties” or in a sum of $40,000. For sheriffs of other counties, the bond must be $25,000.

After executing the bond, the sheriff must file it with the county clerk, a role now often held by a county’s administrator, for review and approval by the county commissioners. 

Then, each year, at the first county commissioners’ meeting after the third Tuesday of June, the county’s district attorney must move the commissioners to examine the sufficiency of the bond.

If the bond is found to be inadequate, the sheriff gets a chance to file a new one.

The sheriff faces a $150 forfeiture for each month’s failure to provide a sufficient bond. The law directs the state attorney general to prosecute the civil action on behalf of the state treasurer.

From there, the law outlines what comes next, a process involving not the county clerk, but the clerk of courts in the county, as well as the governor. Long story short: A misbehaving sheriff ultimately can be removed from office.

The district attorney has skin in the game, too. According to a different section of the law, failure to bring the matter before the commissioners each year at their first meeting after the third Tuesday in June is considered a civil violation.

The state treasurer is who gets to pursue that civil action against the district attorney, the statute states. The maximum forfeiture the district attorney could face: $100. 

Evidently, though, state treasurers and their attorneys in recent history have not had much of an appetite for enforcement.

“I conferred with the other district attorneys, and nobody has ever heard of this or ever done it,” Maeghan Maloney, district attorney for Kennebec and Somerset counties, said of her requirement to bring the bond forward each year for review.

Crediting Curtis’ research, Maloney on Wednesday read the commissioners a proposed approval of Sheriff Dale Lancaster’s bond with language provided by the Maine County Commissioners Association Self-Funded Risk Management Pool. 

After digging up the relevant statute, Curtis said he learned Somerset County’s insurance policy from the risk pool includes a $100,000 commercial blanket bond that satisfies the requirements in state law. The risk pool, a publicly funded insurer that provides risk management services to Maine’s county governments via the Maine County Commissioners Association, began including that in its coverage several years ago, Curtis said.

“This wasn’t nearly as exciting as I thought it was going to be,” Curtis joked.

Later in the meeting, commissioners gave their unanimous approval, with District 4 Commissioner John Alsop, of Cornville, absent.

Exciting or not, review of the other sections of the coverage document prompted clarifying questions from District 2 Commissioner Don Skillings, of Madison. Skillings owns a Skowhegan insurance agency.

Board Chairman and District 1 Commissioner Robert Sezak, of Fairfield, said he would bring Skillings’ concerns to the risk pool’s meeting next week. Sezak represents Somerset County on the risk pool board.