Peabody alleges Orient government actions are improper

    Editor’s note: A taxpayer stood during the May 2011 special Town Meeting and questioned the efficiency of Orient’s elected government officials. Selectman Terry Silkey objected stating, “I believe the town has run excellent for the last ten years.” Motivated by that statement and armed with years of research, former First Selectman David Peabody vigorously disagreed. His disagreement is encapsulated in a 24-page report that depicts just the opposite. The Houlton Pioneer Times secured a copy of the report, “Small Town Big Trouble” and it is available at our Court St. office. The following incidents were garnered from Peabody’s report.
• While former Chairmen, Mary Beth Foley, Selectman Terry Silkey and Alicia Silkey, town clerk, treasurer and tax collector were managing the town, there was a total of over $92,000 in overdrafts recorded.
• In 2005, during her term in office, Mary Beth Foley presented a plan to have the selectmen, Terry Silkey and Victor Alexander, hire the services of her company, MBA, for revaluation of the town at a cost of $30,000, along with an additional fee of several thousand dollars for assessment services. The selectmen did not advertise the position. Ms. Foley placed an article expressing the need of revaluation in the year 2003 town report, which included a $30,000 package for herself. Selectman Peabody, who served as first selectman at that time, voted against the article. He was out-voted and lost. Ms. Foley was paid $30,000 and did not complete the job. The present Board of Selectmen has no plan to demand repayment.
• During the annual town meeting in 2011, the town voted 12-2 to have the entire valuation redone. Mary Beth Foley and her brother, Dale Foley, voted against it. The cost of the second valuation was $39,500. Because of Foley and present selectmen, Alexander and Silkey, Orient taxpayers will pay nearly $70,000 for the valuation.
• On one occasion, while accompanying Foley as she assessed a taxpayer’s property, Selectman Silkey allegedly entered the taxpayer’s residence without permission. When challenged for illegal entry during a special meeting later he said, “I have every legal right to enter any town residence or private property at any time I wish because I am an assessor.” Another assessment services director was hired to replace Ms. Foley. He found “… problems with the existing valuation … that has caused much concern.” An accountant’s audit pointed out a marital relationship exists between Mrs. Silkey, town clerk, treasurer and tax collector and Selectman Terry Silkey (her husband).
• In May of 2003, the Board of Selectmen voted to hear a professional financial services firm to show how it could do the town books at nearly half the cost of hiring and training Alicia Silkey. An appointment was set at 11 a.m. on May 16, 2003 for the presentation in the town office. Prior to the meeting, Ms. Foley phoned the company without informing the other board members and cancelled the meeting. In effect, that phone call killed the legal vote to have the meeting that could have blocked Silkey from being elected town clerk, treasurer and tax collector.
• In 2003, the Board of Selectmen took $2,500 out of town funds to train Ms. Silkey, the present town clerk, treasurer and tax collector without town authorization. She had no qualifications for any of the three positions. Selectman Peabody voted “no” on the transfer of funds. A few months prior to that event, five job applications had been received for two of the positions. One was very highly qualified, having a degree in accounting from the University of Maine accompanied by an excellent resume. The application was retrieved from the waste basket by Selectman Peabody.
• That same year, Chairman Foley and Chairman of the School Board, Julie Bartlett, made a failed attempt to recall First Selectman Peabody. The petition they prepared was also signed by Alicia Silkey. Their attempt violated six ordinances.
• In 2006, the Foley-Silkey controlled board held back the tax bills without authorization. That move forced taxpayers to pay two years’ taxes in a single year.
• In the fall of 2008, Orient taxpayers received a tax bill with a 75 percent increase over the previous year. The increase came without warning or a public hearing. Taxes were increased by a manipulation of the annual mill rate.
• That same year the accountant’s report showed an overdraft of $4,250 for Town Clerk/Treasurer/Tax Collector, Alicia Silkey. She never explained the overdraft. $23,600 was raised for those three positions and $27,850 was withdrawn.
• Town contracts for the majority of town projects, such as snow plowing, were uncontrolled. For example, Micah Bartlett & Sons’ contract was increased $25,000 in a single year, costing the town $60,000 for clearing 10.08 miles of roads. That amounted to $6,000 a mile. Hodgdon paid $2,350 per mile less than the Bartlett contract. The town bidding process needs serious investigation.
• The School Board budget was exceeded by $22,049 in 2008. Orient’s average cost-per-student is over $7,456 per student more than the state average over a three-year period. The School Board chairwoman, Julie Bartlett, wrongly informed Orient residents that they could send their students to any school they wished.
• The so-titled, “Tax Relief Program”, reported by the town clerk and the Board of Selectmen in 2010, was actually a cover for the highest municipal spending ever made in the history of the town by manipulating the mill rate. Two articles placed in the minutes of the annual town meeting made spending appear lower that year. The fact is $120,000 was taken out of surplus. That made Orient tax bills temporarily lower. Actually it was higher than 2008 when there was a 75 percent tax increase.
    Over the past 10 years the following government agencies were petitioned for help: The Maine State Attorney General’s Office, a local state senator and a local representative, the local sheriff, the local district attorney, four Maine newspapers, two TV stations, CBS “60 Minutes” and the present and former Maine governors. None has offered assistance.
    This year taxes will increase by nearly double in Orient. For decades, nearly 90 percent of Orient’s taxes has come from non-residents, according to Peabody.
    “This country was founded on the principles of taxation with representation. Those principles are absent in budget matters in Orient as well as other Maine communities. Maine needs a law that will allow all non-resident property taxpayers and American citizens to vote on municipal budget matters; a law such as those that have already been adopted by 10 other states,” he said.