Citing concerns over “dysfunction” at City Hall, Ellsworth’s city planner abruptly resigned her position on Wednesday.
In an 11-page resignation letter sent to City Manager Glenn Moshier and the elected City Council, Elena Piekut said she has “deep, continuing, and worsening frustration” with how city officials have kept the public apprised of deliberative processes.
She wrote that she has had an increasingly tense working relationship with Moshier that came to a head on Oct. 27, when she claims she was told to “accept the current conditions and illegal actions or go.”
Piekut claims that the “illegal actions” amount to improper advance public notice of council and committee meetings and improper record keeping of such meetings, as required by the City Charter and state law.
Piekut cited the process by which city staff pursued a proposal to lease a former hardware store at the corner of High Street and Buttermilk Road, which is expected to be converted into a new police department headquarters, as an example of improper procedure.
The committee that was formed to look into the proposal did not hold public meetings, and that the city’s decision to spend nearly $4 million on the project was not in compliance with the city’s procurement policies, she said.
Piekut said she has tried to navigate her way through situations such as this and continue to do her job “but I can’t continue to sacrifice myself to make it happen while under the direction of a few who exhibit no respect for a whole host of plans, documents, their own past decisions and policies, the source of their powers, law, or common sense.”
Attempts to contact Moshier, who was at a conference Thursday in Portland, were unsuccessful.
According to a report in the Ellsworth American, Moshier said that Piekut “was not happy working for the city of Ellsworth, so I understand her desire to resign.”
Moshier, who also serves as the city’s police chief, also defended the way the city developed and handled the plans for leasing the building for the police department, saying that “the process was transparent and effort was made to notify the public about the proposal.” He noted that the committee that pursued the leasing plan was formed during a public City Council meeting in July.
With Piekut’s departure, the city has two high-level positions to fill. The finance director position has been vacant since Josh McIntyre, who was hired for the post in early 2021, left the job in July.
