Town manager given OK to contract with North East as new EMS provider

Mon, 06/17/2013 - 10:41 pm

Holly S. Edwards

Robin McIntosh and Richard 'Rick' Bates are married and live in Camden. Bates is Rockport's new town manager and McIntosh is director of development at Penobscot Bay Regional Chamber of Commerce. They are both avid sailors and familiar to locals aboard their '(little) Appledore.' (Photo by Holly S. Edwards)

From left, Rockport Select Board members Geoffrey Parker, Kenneth McKinley, William Chapman (chair), Charlton Ames (vice-chair) and Tracy Lee Murphy. (Photo by Holly S. Edwards)

ROCKPORT — The Rockport Select Board Monday night unanimously confirmed the appointment of Camden resident Richard "Rick" Bates as the new town manager.

Since 2007, Bates has been a senior consultant with Municipal Resources Inc. of Meredith, N.H., and last year he egan working with the town of Warren in their search for a new town manager. Bates was himself a former town manager in Raymond, N.H., from 2000 to 2007, having started in municipal government in that town's parks and recreation department in 1977.

While working for Municipal Resources, Bates served as interim town manager of Sabattus for a year and a half, and as interim town manager of Milton, N.H., for more than two years.

The former town manager of Rockport, Robert Peabody, resigned his position Feb. 19 following nearly two months of secret personnel intrigue, details of what and whom have never been made public.

Peabody eventually landed a job as interim town manager of Old Orchard Beach, beginning March 25.

Roger Moody, former town manager of Camden, quickly stepped into the role of interim town manager of Rockport following Peabody's resignation, while a town manager search committee immediately began work to find a permanent replacement.

Monday night, Rockport Select Board member Tracy Lee Murphy, who served as the board liaison to the search committee, said a lot of hard work from a lot of very hardworking people enabled the town leaders to feel good about their final decision.

"I am eternally grateful for their work, the committee's. It was an enormous amount of work they did in a very short time and they came up with a great group of candidates for us to choose from," said Murphy. "And I really feel like Rick is the candidate for us."

Select Board member Ken McKinley credited the authors of the Rockport Town Charter, for providing the tools the select board needed to guide their decision-making process.

"The unheralded work of the Town Charter authors guided us to this excellent candidate," said McKinley.

Although the details of the contract were not available for public inspection at Monday night's meeting, Select Board chairman William Chapman said Bates' contract salary was $80,000 per year plus benefits. Chapman said the contract was for three years.

The contract was effective immediately, and Bates' first day on the job will be Tuesday, June 18.

The signed contract will be available for public inspection at the town office beginning Tuesday morning for anyone to look at. An electronic version of the contract is attached to this story.

Chapman and the other Select Board members also took a moment to thank Moody for his service to the town.

"Thanks to Roger for the incredible job he has done for the town of Rockport. He accomplished a lot and did it with a constant sense of calm," said McKinley.

In a press release distributed at the meeting, the Select Board collectively said, "[We] extend our deepest thanks to Roger Moody who has served admirably as interim town manager for the last four months. Roger was asked to step in at a difficult time for the town, having just parted ways with our previous town manager, Robert Peabody. Roger has done an admirable job 'righting the ship of state' so to speak and we are deeply indebted to Roger for his efforts through difficult times.

"We now look forward to having Richard 'Rick' Bates as town manager. Rick starts work tomorrow morning. He and Roger have worked out a transition that will bring Rick quickly up to speed."

After the meeting, Bates said being hired as Rockport's town manager was "a dream job for me."

"Midcoast Maine is sailor's heaven and to have the opportunity to work in a town that is probably the most beautiful in Maine is really a dream for me," said Bates. "The consulting work I have done is great, but as a town manager, you have the connections and you are in the community day in and day out. I have missed that and I look forward to making those connections in Rockport."

Also Monday night, the Rockport Select Board voted unanimously to allow the town manager to sign a provider contract for emergency medical services with North East Mobile Health Services.

A preliminary agreement has been drawn up for North East to provide EMS and amublance service to Camden, Hope, Lincolnville and Rockport from July 1, 2013 to June 30, 2015. The agreement is based on North East's response to an earlier RFP, in which it proposed to provide EMS for the first two years at a cost of $10,000 for Camden, $1,000 for Hope, $5,000 for Lincolnville and $12,000 for Rockport.

Monday night's vote is Rockport's OK for its town manager to work with the managers of the other three towns to finalize the EMS provider agreement with North East to help ensure a smooth transition from Camden First Aid Association to North East.

Leading up to the June 11 referendum voting and subsequent town meeting votes for each municipality, Camden First Aid had told the towns it needed them to contribute a total of $407,000 to enable it to provide EMS and ambulance service for the coming year.

At Town Meeting June 12, Camden's Budget Committee recommended voters approve the EMS line funded at the full $147,000 Camden First Aid asked for, while the Select Board recommended only funding up to $100,000. At town meeting, a motion was made from the floor to drop the line to $50,000 and it carried clearly by a show of hands.

Also June 12 at its Town Meeting, Rockport voters approved the $48,000 EMS line that Camden First Aid had requested, but a floor vote seeking to gauge the people's will of who to contract WITH said the opposite, with seven people supporting the town's pursuing a contract with Camden First Aid and 30-35 citizens raising their hands in opposition.

Three days later, citizens in Lincolnville gathered for their town meeting June 15 and slashed the EMS line from the warrant's recommended $77,000, which was the amount Camden First Aid sought, to $5,000, which was North East's proposed cost.

At Hope Town Meeting, which was under way at the same time Rockport's Select Board was convening, citizens adjusted their budget down, and endorsing a contract with North East for half of the town, while the other half would be serviced by Union Ambulance.

Camden First Aid Service Chief Julia Libby has said all along that all four towns needed to band together to provide the call volume and funding total for the 77-year-old organization to keep its doors open. She also said that the nonprofit would close down at the end of the month if funds to at least cover payroll didn't materialize, including during any kind of transition period between EMS providers, if that's the direction it was going to go.

The Rockport Select Board Monday night said the managers of the four towns were expected to meet tomorrow, June 18, and work to finalize the contract with North East.

Select Board member Ames said that the outcome of the EMS provider issue looks to be good for Rockport, after all the work that has gone on to get it sorted out.

"I suggest we review the service and how it's going since it's a new provider and service plan. We want to ensure it's working properly and adequately," said Ames.