'You can't make this up': Kennebunk recall moves forward with exact number of signatures needed

KENNEBUNK, Maine – Despite an onslaught of roughly 2,400 challenges, the petition to recall RSU 21 School Board member Tim Stentiford has been deemed sufficient.

That determination means the select board can schedule an election in which voters will decide whether Stentiford will be removed from his position.

Town Clerk Merton Brown was expected to present the successful petition Thursday evening to the select board.

Under the town charter, a total of 665 signatures – a number equal to 10% of the town's voter turnout during the last gubernatorial election – was needed to deem the petition sufficient and advance it to the select board.

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Originally, when it was submitted Dec. 31, the petition to recall Stentiford had 697 signatures. Brown reviewed the signatures and verified only 668 of them as belonging to registered Kennebunk voters. Then came the flood of challenges.

In addressing each challenge, the town agreed in three instances that certain names should be thrown out, Brown said. The final tally of verified signatures is exactly 665.

“You can’t make this up,” Brown said on Thursday.

The petition to recall Stentiford wasn't the only recall petition whose sufficiency was determined by the narrowest possible margin.

A petition seeking to recall RSU 21 School Board Chair Art LeBlanc ended up with only 664 verified signatures – meaning that, while recall proponents fell one signature short of the minimum needed to subject LeBlanc to a recall vote, recall opponents fell one challenge short of sparing Stentiford from a recall vote.

Kennebunk resident Norm Archer began the recall process in November, when he filed two affidavits against Stentiford and LeBlanc, citing poor leadership, contentious behavior toward teachers and parents, a lack of a curriculum committee and increased administrative spending as evidence enough to remove them.

Recall vote could come in March

According to the town charter, the select board needs to schedule a recall election within 50 to 60 days of accepting the petition. The board already has one date in place it could consider: Tuesday, March 29.

The select board decided Tuesday to schedule a special town election on March 29, during which voters will weigh in on two issues: a proposed contract zone for Perkins Lane and a proposed zoning amendment for York Street. Now, the Stentiford recall vote could be held on that day as well.

You might have done some quick math when you read that the charter gives the select board between 50 and 60 days to schedule a recall election upon receiving the petition that sets one in motion. If the clock started ticking Jan. 27, once the select board accepted the petition certificate from Brown, then wouldn't that make March 29 the 61st day, placing that date out of reach for the recall?

Yes. It would. But ... the town charter also reads, "If any other Town election is to occur within 75 days after the date of said certificate, the Board of Selectmen may, at its discretion, postpone the holding of the recall election to the date of such other election."

So the special town election in late March falls within the 75-day window in which the select board can schedule the recall.

But recall fate still uncertain

While recall supporters have prevailed in the legal challenges mounted by residents at Kennebunk Town Hall, that does not mean their efforts to remove Stentiford are in the clear. There’s the matter of the legal challenge at York County District Court in Alfred, too.

On Jan. 10, RSU 21 filed for an injunction at the court against the efforts to recall Stentiford. The board is arguing that its members serve a regional school unit – its own, separate entity – and not a municipality, and are therefore not subject to the recall provisions of a town charter.

Letters: I dug into the Kennebunk Charter. Its recall provisions don't apply to school board.

As of Wednesday, there had been no new developments in the lawsuit, according to a court clerk.

Also on Tuesday, the Kennebunk Select Board authorized the town to take legal action in its defense as it faces the litigation from the school board.

While Kennebunk is listed as the defendant in the school board’s lawsuit, the other two towns in the school district, Kennebunkport and Arundel, are both included as parties of interest.

Preparing to respond: Kennebunk takes step to defend itself against RSU 21 School Board's recall lawsuit

Kennebunkport selectmen decided recently to hire an attorney to defend the recall provisions in the town’s administrative code. Arundel Town Manager Keith Trefethen recently said Arundel is not getting involved in the recall matter at this time.

Preparing the March ballot

The select board’s decision Tuesday means Kennebunk voters will have to head to the polls in March, after all. Two weeks earlier, the board decided not to hold a special town meeting on March 15.

The decision to vote in March is promising news for a local veteran. The contract zone item on the ballot is being requested by Homes for Our Troops, which is seeking to build a new home on Perkins Lane for a wounded veteran. The zoning amendment is being sought by Peter Gay of Kennebunk, who has development plans and is requesting that the required lot width for multifamily dwellings be reduced in the town's mixed-use commercial zone.

Home for Our Troops is a publicly funded nonprofit organization that builds and donates homes for severely injured veterans of the post-9/11 era. The organization constructs these homes in the communities where the veteran wants to live.

“Most of these veterans have sustained injuries, including multiple limb amputations, partial or full paralysis, and/or severe traumatic brain injury,” the organization says on its website. “These homes restore some of the freedom and independence our veterans sacrificed while defending our country, and enable them to focus on their family, recovery, and rebuilding their lives.”

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On Tuesday, Attorney Ralph Austin, who represents Home for Our Troops, said the organization is willing to pay for part of the special election, which Brown had estimated could cost close to $1,000.

There are precedents for such agreements. In 2020, for example, Nelson Analytical Lab, of Kennebunk, agreed to reimburse the town for the expenses of a special election at which the company sought voter approval for an amendments to the local zoning ordinance that to allow state-licensed retail marijuana testing facilities within the local Business Park Zoning District.

During discussion on Tuesday, Selectperson Sally Carpenter emphasized the importance to the community of the proposed zoning amendment and said she was concerned that not enough voters would report to the polls on March 29, as special town meetings historically do not attract as many people as the regular, annual one in June does.

The recall situation, however, is a high-profile one, filled with dispute and controversy, so voters could turn out in droves if Stentiford’s fate on the school board is settled on March 29.

The polls on March 29 will be open in the Kennebunk Town Hall Auditorium from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Kennebunk ME recall petition advances with exact number of signatures