Published in the Current
Citing higher-than-expected waste disposal fees, fuel prices and inflation rates, Cape Elizabeth Town Manager Mike McGovern told the Town Council Monday that their request for a 2 percent tax increase cap was too small, and asked for more for both the town and the schools.
He had previously presented a budget that raised taxes 1.7 percent, but that was based on an assumption of $115 per ton for trash disposal, already an increase over this year’s $110 per ton. The total spending in that budget was up $83,176.
Before Monday’s workshop council meeting, McGovern met with Regional Waste Systems Manager Chuck Foshay, who told him to expect the price to be more like $128 per ton, resulting in additional cost of $46,800 to the town.
“Half the municipal budget increase is already going to extra dumping fees,” McGovern said.
He expressed serious concern that much-needed infrastructure maintenance was left out of the budget. “A smaller tax increase might be preferable,” he said, but asked, “at what cost?”
Cutting things now will make it even worse in the future, he said. “There aren’t going to be any chances for reinstatements” in the next few years. “It really worries me,” he said.
He proposed a municipal budget increase of 2.25 percent, adding $77,000 back into the budget. Much of that would cover RWS fees, and the rest would restore the town’s hazardous materials collection.
Leaving out the hazardous materials money could result in environmental damage from illegal dumping in town, McGovern said. A further $15,000 would be “in play to go somewhere into the system,” if unforeseen expenses arise, he said.
McGovern also went to bat for the School Board, which has approved a budget with a 2.5 percent tax increase.
The school budget is $61,000 above where councilors had asked for. “It’s not really all that much money,” McGovern said.
“Is it realistic to adopt a school budget that is 1 percent less than inflation?” McGovern asked councilors.
The impact of inflation, reduced debt costs, future space needs and school enrollment all need careful consideration, McGovern told the councilors, as many members of the School Board listened from the audience.
There remains a need for kindergarten space, as well as “a significant issue with the aging of the high school,” he said.
Several members of the public also spoke. Three encouraged increased fiscal restraint, and one targeted the county budget as a particular problem.
“I think the spending is way out of control,” said Herbert Dennison. He urged an overall 3 percent decrease in town spending.
Gerald Sherry, a former teacher, told councilors many people in town do not have the proper stickers required for access to the town dump. McGovern later agreed, telling the council he was one of those people.
Patrick Babcock told the council he supported reinstating the hazardous waste collection, but remained concerned about the elimination of DARE, which he called “the only program, I believe, that addresses the issue of substance abuse in the Cape Elizabeth school system.” In a town that has a tendency to overlook the problems its children have with drugs and alcohol, he said canceling DARE was sending the wrong message to children and parents.
Superintendent Tom Forcella and School Board Finance Chairman Elaine Moloney also spoke, saying the schools had cut quite a bit and tried to be “creative” with how money was spent. Forcella defended additional school spending to help marginal students graduate from high school, saying other towns are worse off already.
“In some of those towns, 50, 60, 70 percent of kids just aren’t going to graduate from high school,” he said. Cape has projected that 15 percent of its students won’t graduate from high school without additional help.
Moloney said she is concerned about the long-term impact of low school funding. “Treading water,” she said, is not what the schools want to be doing. She also urged council support of the school building projects.
“You can delay capital improvement, but it never really goes away,” she said.
Susan Spagnola spoke “on behalf of the children,” and asked councilors to approve the schools’ budget request. When coming up with the 2 percent cap, she asked, “did you take into account the quality of education?”
She acknowledged the tough budget times, but said, “this does not mean we should abandon the needs of our children.”
The council will hold workshops on various parts of the budget April 2 and 7, at 7:30 p.m., and April 17, at 6 p.m., to accommodate people who no longer drive at night. The School Board will present its budget April 28 at 7:30 p.m.
Thursday, April 3, 2003
Fifth-graders write to local serviceman
Published in the Current
Students in Sally Connolly’s fifth-grade class at Cape Elizabeth Middle School are writing letters to Senior Airman Matt Janson, a 2000 graduate of CEHS now serving in Qatar with the Air Force.
“I think it’s nice that he went,” said one member of the class. “I think he’s being really brave,” another said. The letters they wrote included “positive things,” one student said. Others wrote about baseball season, the snow melting and, above all, “we’re thinking of you.”
They send him letters regularly. Last week’s shipment was on paper headed with the word “spring,” which students colored in. They also sent him Valentines in February, to help keep his spirits up, and many of the kids are closely on top of what he is doing.
E-mail messages from Janson’s parents, now living in Maryland, keep the class up-to-date. The kids know Janson is living in the desert in a tent and loads bombs on airplanes for work, though he wants to be a pilot.
The students are also on top of the war, for as young as they are. They know where Iraq is on a world map and know that Iraqis are surrendering in some places and fighting in others. They watch TV with their parents and have trouble with “foreign names” and “big words.” The kids think there is too much coverage of the war, and that it has become “boring” to watch.
It’s not just a faraway war, either. “My babysitter’s husband is a medic,” said one boy.
They also know there are kids their age in Iraq, who are scared and don’t have food or clothes.
“Nobody wants war,” said one student, who went on to say that it’s important to support the troops.
The students want other classes in the school, and elsewhere, to adopt service members. “I think more people should write letters,” said one student.
Students in Sally Connolly’s fifth-grade class at Cape Elizabeth Middle School are writing letters to Senior Airman Matt Janson, a 2000 graduate of CEHS now serving in Qatar with the Air Force.
“I think it’s nice that he went,” said one member of the class. “I think he’s being really brave,” another said. The letters they wrote included “positive things,” one student said. Others wrote about baseball season, the snow melting and, above all, “we’re thinking of you.”
They send him letters regularly. Last week’s shipment was on paper headed with the word “spring,” which students colored in. They also sent him Valentines in February, to help keep his spirits up, and many of the kids are closely on top of what he is doing.
E-mail messages from Janson’s parents, now living in Maryland, keep the class up-to-date. The kids know Janson is living in the desert in a tent and loads bombs on airplanes for work, though he wants to be a pilot.
The students are also on top of the war, for as young as they are. They know where Iraq is on a world map and know that Iraqis are surrendering in some places and fighting in others. They watch TV with their parents and have trouble with “foreign names” and “big words.” The kids think there is too much coverage of the war, and that it has become “boring” to watch.
It’s not just a faraway war, either. “My babysitter’s husband is a medic,” said one boy.
They also know there are kids their age in Iraq, who are scared and don’t have food or clothes.
“Nobody wants war,” said one student, who went on to say that it’s important to support the troops.
The students want other classes in the school, and elsewhere, to adopt service members. “I think more people should write letters,” said one student.
Portland cop pleads to OUI
Published in the Current
Portland Police Lt. Ted Ross, a resident of Cape Elizabeth, pled guilty Tuesday to a misdemeanor charge of OUI in connection with a car accident Dec. 17, when Ross was driving home from an evening of drinking in Portland’s Old Port.
Deputy Attorney General William Stokes filed the charges in Cumberland County Superior Court last week, after an investigation lasting several months. Ross was charged with having a blood alcohol level of 0.15 percent, nearly twice the legal limit of 0.08 percent, Stokes said. Tests done on Ross at Maine Medical Center following the accident showed he had a blood alcohol level of 0.253 percent, more than three times the legal limit, but under state law he is simply charged with being at or above 0.15.
“Ted, from the outset of this episode, has been planning to accept responsibility for what occurred on Dec. 17,” Ross’ attorney, Michael Cunniff, said last week. “He has accepted responsibility all along. He would like to move on with his life and his career.”
Ross was given the mandatory minimum sentence, a $400 fine and a 90-day driver’s license suspension.
And because he pled guilty to having a blood alcohol level of 0.15 percent, he also faces 48 hours in jail. There is a program that could allow him to serve his time without being behind bars, instead doing community service while technically “in custody.”
Stokes called the class D charge, which hits most people charged with OUI unless they have a prior record, “a higher-end misdemeanor.”
Ross does not have any prior OUI convictions, Stokes said.
He said the next-highest OUI charge is “aggravated OUI,” a class C crime, which applies only when an intoxicated driver causes “serious bodily injury” or death.
Ross started the evening of Dec. 17 at an open-bar party hosted by Portland Police Chief Michael Chitwood, and left that party for a Fore Street bar with two senior police officials. When he left the bar, he picked up his unmarked police car, assigned to him as head of the detective bureau, and headed home toward Cape Elizabeth.
On York Street, near the Casco Bay Bridge, Ross’s car collided with a pickup truck, driven by Kevin Hardy of Scarborough, waiting for a parallel parking space to open. The pickup hit a Land Rover, driven by Kimberly McLellan of Gorham, pulling out of the space.
McLellan and Hardy refused medical treatment at the scene.
Ross was not tested for alcohol in his system at the accident scene, and officers and rescue workers at the scene later told investigators that they did not suspect Ross had been drinking.
Ross was taken to Maine Medical Center, where a diagnostic blood test showed the alcohol in his blood.
Hardy and McLellan have filed a lawsuit against Chitwood under the state’s Liquor Liability Act. They are also suing the City of Portland and the Portland Police Department under the state’s Tort Claims Act.
Mark Randall, an attorney handling their case, said the criminal charge “doesn’t really affect us,” though the conviction could be a help to the civil lawsuit.
Ross is on paid administrative leave pending resolution of the case, and could face additional disciplinary action through the police department, Cunniff said.
Chitwood did not return phone calls by the Current’s deadline.
Portland Police Lt. Ted Ross, a resident of Cape Elizabeth, pled guilty Tuesday to a misdemeanor charge of OUI in connection with a car accident Dec. 17, when Ross was driving home from an evening of drinking in Portland’s Old Port.
Deputy Attorney General William Stokes filed the charges in Cumberland County Superior Court last week, after an investigation lasting several months. Ross was charged with having a blood alcohol level of 0.15 percent, nearly twice the legal limit of 0.08 percent, Stokes said. Tests done on Ross at Maine Medical Center following the accident showed he had a blood alcohol level of 0.253 percent, more than three times the legal limit, but under state law he is simply charged with being at or above 0.15.
“Ted, from the outset of this episode, has been planning to accept responsibility for what occurred on Dec. 17,” Ross’ attorney, Michael Cunniff, said last week. “He has accepted responsibility all along. He would like to move on with his life and his career.”
Ross was given the mandatory minimum sentence, a $400 fine and a 90-day driver’s license suspension.
And because he pled guilty to having a blood alcohol level of 0.15 percent, he also faces 48 hours in jail. There is a program that could allow him to serve his time without being behind bars, instead doing community service while technically “in custody.”
Stokes called the class D charge, which hits most people charged with OUI unless they have a prior record, “a higher-end misdemeanor.”
Ross does not have any prior OUI convictions, Stokes said.
He said the next-highest OUI charge is “aggravated OUI,” a class C crime, which applies only when an intoxicated driver causes “serious bodily injury” or death.
Ross started the evening of Dec. 17 at an open-bar party hosted by Portland Police Chief Michael Chitwood, and left that party for a Fore Street bar with two senior police officials. When he left the bar, he picked up his unmarked police car, assigned to him as head of the detective bureau, and headed home toward Cape Elizabeth.
On York Street, near the Casco Bay Bridge, Ross’s car collided with a pickup truck, driven by Kevin Hardy of Scarborough, waiting for a parallel parking space to open. The pickup hit a Land Rover, driven by Kimberly McLellan of Gorham, pulling out of the space.
McLellan and Hardy refused medical treatment at the scene.
Ross was not tested for alcohol in his system at the accident scene, and officers and rescue workers at the scene later told investigators that they did not suspect Ross had been drinking.
Ross was taken to Maine Medical Center, where a diagnostic blood test showed the alcohol in his blood.
Hardy and McLellan have filed a lawsuit against Chitwood under the state’s Liquor Liability Act. They are also suing the City of Portland and the Portland Police Department under the state’s Tort Claims Act.
Mark Randall, an attorney handling their case, said the criminal charge “doesn’t really affect us,” though the conviction could be a help to the civil lawsuit.
Ross is on paid administrative leave pending resolution of the case, and could face additional disciplinary action through the police department, Cunniff said.
Chitwood did not return phone calls by the Current’s deadline.
Unum fires CEO after stock slide
Published in the Current, the American Journal, and the Lakes Region Suburban Weekly
Facing as many as 13 class-action securities fraud lawsuits, profit restatements, downgrades from investment rating firms and a crisis of employee morale, UnumProvident fired long-time chairman and CEO Harold Chandler and replaced him March 27 with interim president and CEO Thomas Watjen, Chandler’s right-hand man.
Layoffs and organizational restructuring are not on the table, said the company’s spokeswoman in Portland, Linnea Olsen. “We need everyone that’s here,” she said. UnumProvident, which sells disability insurance, is headquartered in Chattanooga, Tenn.
The board’s firing of Chandler “is not something that was caused by any one event,” Olsen said. Instead, it was “the cumulative effect of many things.”
Among those were a $29.1 million restated reduction in earnings for 2000, 2001 and 2002, the result of a Securities and Exchange Commission inquiry into its investment disclosures. And in the past three weeks, several investment-rating firms, including Standard and Poor’s and Moody’s, have downgraded UnumProvident stock, citing concerns the company is over invested in high-risk companies.
The company recently sold $500 million worth of these below-investment-grade bonds specifically to placate rating agencies, Olsen said.
But the company still believes in its business plan and will continue to implement it quickly, Watjen told analysts in a Monday conference call briefing.
A crisis of confidence and leadership led to Chandler’s ouster, Olsen said. He will get $8.5 million in severance pay, roughly four times his annual pay in 2000, and $8.5 million in pension benefits.
Chandler joined Provident as its CEO in 1993, and presided over the merger with the Portland-based Unum in 1999, after which he remained CEO of the combined company. One analyst said in the conference call that she was glad that Watjen would stay on “to provide continuity,” while another expressed surprise that one architect of the company’s plan would be fired and the other would take his place.
Watjen said he would keep the plan moving, but would have a different leadership style from Chandler, who he said was less decisive, less inclusive and less communicative than Watjen will be. He said his new style would become evident very shortly, and pointed to the increased disclosures in the company’s annual report, filed with the SEC Monday, as an example of more communications.
He said company employees were notified of the management change over the weekend and would be involved in further company-wide discussions
in the coming days, to allow them to understand what happened.
In the coming months, UnumProvident will be “out in the marketplace” seeking to raise as much as $1.5 billion, according to a November 2002 filing with the SEC. Olsen said the company would be looking for between $500 million and $1 billion, while Watjen told analysts Monday that the figure would be between $750 million and $1 billion.
The money is not earmarked for spending but instead will be used as capital on hand to offset concerns held by investment analysts, Olsen said.
“We will continue to have investment losses,” she said. Rating agencies are therefore looking for additional capital on hand to cushion those losses, she said.
Some of the capital will come from internal processes, such as regrouping some old individual disability policies into group policies, and there may be further sales of below-investment-grade bonds, she said.
Also, inter-company loans from the insurance subsidiaries to the holding company will be repaid, giving the subsidiaries more ready cash, Olsen said.
She expects there will be a combination of stock sales and convertible bonds. “We will not be issuing straight debt,” Olsen said.
Initial indications from investment banks lead her to believe the company will raise the money it needs, she said.
The company also faces 13 class-action lawsuits alleging the company committed securities fraud by failing to truthfully disclose financial performance information to shareholders and prospective shareholders.
Olsen discounted the lawsuits, saying, “it’s an annoyance.” She said many of them were filed by law firms that specialize in stock-price collapses. The last group of suits was filed after the price dropped 62 percent, bottoming out below $6 per share.
“None of those classes have been certified,” Olsen said. Without a judge’s certification that a broad class of people was harmed, the suits cannot proceed.
The company also was fined $1 million by Georgia’s insurance commissioner for violations of that state’s insurance code during the merger of Unum and Provident in 1999.
“It was a slap on the wrist,” Olsen said.
The company’s search for a new, permanent CEO will begin shortly, and interim CEO Watjen will be considered for the position, Olsen said. “We have a real sense of urgency about this,” she added.
Facing as many as 13 class-action securities fraud lawsuits, profit restatements, downgrades from investment rating firms and a crisis of employee morale, UnumProvident fired long-time chairman and CEO Harold Chandler and replaced him March 27 with interim president and CEO Thomas Watjen, Chandler’s right-hand man.
Layoffs and organizational restructuring are not on the table, said the company’s spokeswoman in Portland, Linnea Olsen. “We need everyone that’s here,” she said. UnumProvident, which sells disability insurance, is headquartered in Chattanooga, Tenn.
The board’s firing of Chandler “is not something that was caused by any one event,” Olsen said. Instead, it was “the cumulative effect of many things.”
Among those were a $29.1 million restated reduction in earnings for 2000, 2001 and 2002, the result of a Securities and Exchange Commission inquiry into its investment disclosures. And in the past three weeks, several investment-rating firms, including Standard and Poor’s and Moody’s, have downgraded UnumProvident stock, citing concerns the company is over invested in high-risk companies.
The company recently sold $500 million worth of these below-investment-grade bonds specifically to placate rating agencies, Olsen said.
But the company still believes in its business plan and will continue to implement it quickly, Watjen told analysts in a Monday conference call briefing.
A crisis of confidence and leadership led to Chandler’s ouster, Olsen said. He will get $8.5 million in severance pay, roughly four times his annual pay in 2000, and $8.5 million in pension benefits.
Chandler joined Provident as its CEO in 1993, and presided over the merger with the Portland-based Unum in 1999, after which he remained CEO of the combined company. One analyst said in the conference call that she was glad that Watjen would stay on “to provide continuity,” while another expressed surprise that one architect of the company’s plan would be fired and the other would take his place.
Watjen said he would keep the plan moving, but would have a different leadership style from Chandler, who he said was less decisive, less inclusive and less communicative than Watjen will be. He said his new style would become evident very shortly, and pointed to the increased disclosures in the company’s annual report, filed with the SEC Monday, as an example of more communications.
He said company employees were notified of the management change over the weekend and would be involved in further company-wide discussions
in the coming days, to allow them to understand what happened.
In the coming months, UnumProvident will be “out in the marketplace” seeking to raise as much as $1.5 billion, according to a November 2002 filing with the SEC. Olsen said the company would be looking for between $500 million and $1 billion, while Watjen told analysts Monday that the figure would be between $750 million and $1 billion.
The money is not earmarked for spending but instead will be used as capital on hand to offset concerns held by investment analysts, Olsen said.
“We will continue to have investment losses,” she said. Rating agencies are therefore looking for additional capital on hand to cushion those losses, she said.
Some of the capital will come from internal processes, such as regrouping some old individual disability policies into group policies, and there may be further sales of below-investment-grade bonds, she said.
Also, inter-company loans from the insurance subsidiaries to the holding company will be repaid, giving the subsidiaries more ready cash, Olsen said.
She expects there will be a combination of stock sales and convertible bonds. “We will not be issuing straight debt,” Olsen said.
Initial indications from investment banks lead her to believe the company will raise the money it needs, she said.
The company also faces 13 class-action lawsuits alleging the company committed securities fraud by failing to truthfully disclose financial performance information to shareholders and prospective shareholders.
Olsen discounted the lawsuits, saying, “it’s an annoyance.” She said many of them were filed by law firms that specialize in stock-price collapses. The last group of suits was filed after the price dropped 62 percent, bottoming out below $6 per share.
“None of those classes have been certified,” Olsen said. Without a judge’s certification that a broad class of people was harmed, the suits cannot proceed.
The company also was fined $1 million by Georgia’s insurance commissioner for violations of that state’s insurance code during the merger of Unum and Provident in 1999.
“It was a slap on the wrist,” Olsen said.
The company’s search for a new, permanent CEO will begin shortly, and interim CEO Watjen will be considered for the position, Olsen said. “We have a real sense of urgency about this,” she added.
Cape assessments to skyrocket
Published in the Current
Cape Elizabeth property owners with homes along the coast could see their property values triple, and other town residents could see their values nearly
double, when the town-wide revaluation process is completed in late April.
Town Assessor Matt Sturgis is in the final phase of number-crunching that will lead up to the revaluation report he will give to town councilors April 30. Notices of new assessments will go out the first week of May, and the tax rate based on the new property values will take effect in August, Sturgis said.
Those values will be higher across the board, he said. “The assessments on pretty much all properties are going up,” Sturgis said. The primary cause is
the increase in land values since 1994, the last time the entire town was reassessed.
Sturgis said his job does not have to do with setting the town’s tax rate, but making sure the tax load is spread fairly across all of the town’s property owners.
He is working to bring the assessed values of property in line with the market value. On waterfront properties, the valuation is now close to one-third the actual market worth, Sturgis said. Owners of inland property have values about 60 to 65 percent of market value, which means “people who do not have waterfront property are paying a disproportionate amount of taxes more than they should be,” Sturgis said.
When the valuations come out, homeowners will be able to discuss with Sturgis the amounts and possibly get them adjusted, though adjustments are based on value, not the property tax rate itself, Sturgis said.
Another problem for Cape homeowners could be the recent state budget, which lowered the homestead exemption from property tax. In the past, the property tax on the first $7,000 of value of a primary residence was paid by the state.
With the state budget enacted last week, the exemption was reduced for properties worth more than $125,000. Homes valued between $125,000 and $250,000 have $5,000 of their value exempted, and those worth more than $250,000 will only have $2,500 of value exempted.
Sturgis said that is a tax directed at Southern Maine. “How many houses do you know in Cumberland County that are worth under $125,000?” he asked, saying home values are lower in the northern part of the state.
That means Cape homeowners as a group will pay as much as $127,000 more in property tax that would previously have been picked up by the state, according to Town Manager Mike McGovern.
Last year, every homestead owner in town, 2,558 of them, received a tax discount of $158.48, regardless of the value of the home, Sturgis said. That money was paid to the town coffers by the state.
Now, people with homes worth more than $125,000 will save closer to $100, and people with homes worth more than $250,000 will only save $55 on their property tax.
It connects property value and ability to pay, Sturgis said. “That’s not fair and that’s not right,” he said.
Cape Elizabeth property owners with homes along the coast could see their property values triple, and other town residents could see their values nearly
double, when the town-wide revaluation process is completed in late April.
Town Assessor Matt Sturgis is in the final phase of number-crunching that will lead up to the revaluation report he will give to town councilors April 30. Notices of new assessments will go out the first week of May, and the tax rate based on the new property values will take effect in August, Sturgis said.
Those values will be higher across the board, he said. “The assessments on pretty much all properties are going up,” Sturgis said. The primary cause is
the increase in land values since 1994, the last time the entire town was reassessed.
Sturgis said his job does not have to do with setting the town’s tax rate, but making sure the tax load is spread fairly across all of the town’s property owners.
He is working to bring the assessed values of property in line with the market value. On waterfront properties, the valuation is now close to one-third the actual market worth, Sturgis said. Owners of inland property have values about 60 to 65 percent of market value, which means “people who do not have waterfront property are paying a disproportionate amount of taxes more than they should be,” Sturgis said.
When the valuations come out, homeowners will be able to discuss with Sturgis the amounts and possibly get them adjusted, though adjustments are based on value, not the property tax rate itself, Sturgis said.
Another problem for Cape homeowners could be the recent state budget, which lowered the homestead exemption from property tax. In the past, the property tax on the first $7,000 of value of a primary residence was paid by the state.
With the state budget enacted last week, the exemption was reduced for properties worth more than $125,000. Homes valued between $125,000 and $250,000 have $5,000 of their value exempted, and those worth more than $250,000 will only have $2,500 of value exempted.
Sturgis said that is a tax directed at Southern Maine. “How many houses do you know in Cumberland County that are worth under $125,000?” he asked, saying home values are lower in the northern part of the state.
That means Cape homeowners as a group will pay as much as $127,000 more in property tax that would previously have been picked up by the state, according to Town Manager Mike McGovern.
Last year, every homestead owner in town, 2,558 of them, received a tax discount of $158.48, regardless of the value of the home, Sturgis said. That money was paid to the town coffers by the state.
Now, people with homes worth more than $125,000 will save closer to $100, and people with homes worth more than $250,000 will only save $55 on their property tax.
It connects property value and ability to pay, Sturgis said. “That’s not fair and that’s not right,” he said.
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