Guilford town manager departing at end of the month

Town treasurer to serve as interim manager

GUILFORD — After nearly a year on the job, Guilford Town Manager David Wilson will be leaving the position in several weeks to become director of campus security at Eastern Maine Community College in Bangor. Town Treasurer/Deputy Town Clerk Johanna Turner will serve as interim town manager through the March 2021 annual town meetings as part of a shift in several municipal positions.

“May 1 will be my last day,” said Wilson, a resident of Bowerbank. He began as town manager in mid-May 2019 with an annual salary of $62,500, taking over for Tom Goulette following his retirement after about 18 years on the job. Wilson also served as tax collector, deputy treasurer, emergency management director, public health officer and chief of police following nearly three years as Howland town manager.

Wilson

Wilson said his resignation was accepted during the March selectmen’s meeting to pave the way for him to become EMMC director of campus security. He said the opportunity was unexpected.

“It just kind of brings my entire career full circle as far as my law enforcement career, my 20 years in law enforcement, and my administrative career because I will be part of the administrative team at the college and the educational piece because that particular position is not exactly as it sounds like,” he said. “The director of campus security is not a chief of police per say or anything like that, it’s looking at the entire college campus and thinking of ways to keep the physical grounds safe, not just the students but the faculty and staff. So a number of different things, they contract their on-site security so that’s just a piece of what I will be overseeing.”

Before becoming a municipal administration, Wilson worked for a number of law enforcement agencies including the Piscataquis County Sheriff’s Office, MDEA and Dover-Foxcroft, Milo and Lincoln police departments.   

In Bangor Wilson will oversee the college community and provide safety education to students and staff. “So it’s really going to be a diverse position and something I’m very excited about doing,” he said.

As Guilford town manager Wilson said he is proud of work done on the municipal budget, switching to a gross budgeting method from net budgeting. “This year’s budget, which unfortunately with the coronavirus no one has really been able to take a look at it yet because we haven’t been able to get town meeting in, we have been able to cut $150,000 out of the municipal budget and that’s not to say anything bad about how budgeting was done in the past. It’s just a different style that I tend to use and I’ve worked with the current auditor for a number of years (dating back to Howland).

“So if you take a small town like the one I came from and Guilford you think of innovative ways to not hit the taxpayers in the wallet. It’s tough in these economic times, you have to really be willing to live and breathe a budget, not just during the budget season but all year long and try to think of ways to provide the same level of service the community expects and has come to enjoy without increasing those costs.”

Wilson said town officials looked at health insurance expenses and changed companies while not reducing services for employees. “Offering those same levels of healthcare that they have received but we have gone to a much less expensive company and created health savings accounts so not only was it a cost savings to the municipality, which was significant, but there is also a savings to the employee in the long-term because they have health savings accounts set up that we deposit into,” he said.

Another accomplishment Wilson is proud of is moving the municipal office late last year from the fire station complex on School St. across town to the C.H. Lightbody Medical Center on Park St. The new town office is named in memory of Dr. Charles “Harry” Lightbody — who passed away in 2010 —  and had been the home of Guilford Medical Associates until 2019 when what was then known as Mayo Regional Hospital closed the practice after leasing the space from the town.

Wilson said situations were avoided “where a tenant doesn’t want that large amount of space or you’re going to sell it on the commercial market for far less than what it would be valued at.”

He said the C.H. Lightbody Medical Center has office space leased to the public. “We have two tenants now and those folks are paying far less than they would be in another commercial building because we are not looking to make a profit off of that, we own the building,” Wilson said.

“So that was a huge accomplishment,” he said. “We have taken the building that Charles Lightbody had his practice in — and probably meant for it to always be in the town — and we just kind of continued that legacy for him by making it the face of the town and also allowing all these other small businesses to benefit by using office space here.”

“We’re continuing the goals of economic development but not hitting the taxpayers in the wallet for it,” Wilson said in summarizing his accomplishments as town manager.

He said he recommended Turner take over after she worked with him. “We did have a lot of fiscal, financial challenges over the last year and, again nothing toward the previous administration, it’s just those challenges were just there and those were challenges that we took on.”

During an April 7 select meeting conducted via Zoom, Turner was appointed as interim town manager from May 1 until the March 2021 town meeting.

“I think along with those challenges it wouldn’t be fair to bring in a new face when you have someone on site willing to step into that role and has that history of what we’ve worked for the last 12 months,” Wilson said.

“She was more than willing to step into that role for the remainder of that budget year and then the town will see where it goes beyond that but I think she was a very wise choice,” he said.

Via an online message Turner wrote that she plans “to continue in my capacity as county treasurer while I am interim town manager for Guilford.  My schedule and duties for the county will remain unchanged.”

On April 7 the selectmen appointed Town Clerk Monica Dyson to also serve as treasurer, succeeding Turner. 

Wilson said Dyson was hired several months ago and by becoming treasurer Dyson will help the town follow best financial practices with treasurer and town manager positions continuing to be staffed by different people. 

He said Turner will become deputy treasurer. “Monica will move into the position of treasurer for the town of Guilford and that’s great for her because it will give her the opportunity to learn a new skill,” Wilson said. “What we’ll do is we’ll hire a part-time clerk to fill Monica’s position,” enabling Dyson to focus more on the treasury components of her new job rather than the counter hours.

“So it’s kind of a win-win situation because not only is Johanna willing to step into that role it’s also a cost savings for the town for the way they are going to operate for at least the next nine months,” he said.