Robert Levesque, a Casco resident unhappy with the tax increases he and other waterfront property owners face as a result of recent revaluation of town properties, has asked the Board of Selectmen to clarify the correct procedure for gathering signatures for two petition drives he would like to launch.

Levesque wants to have a new revaluation done and an ordinance to recall selectmen placed on the November ballot. That’s what his petitions would do if enough signatures are gathered.

There are good reasons to sign these petitions, but voters should be very careful when deciding if the questions should become law.

As head of the Casco Tax Fairness Association, Levesque leads a movement of 225 property owners seeking $24 million in tax abatements, which average out to $104,000.

The abatement requests were almost completely rejected by the town’s assessor, John O’Donnell, who also owns the firm that conducted the revaluation last year. O’Donnell granted 12 abatement requests, for less than $100 each.

Levesque and the association will now ask Cumberland County Commissioners to review their abatement requests, and the quest for tax relief could eventually reach the Superior Court.

There is nothing illegal about O’Donnell’s behavior, although it bears repeating that having the owner of an assessment company act as the arbiter of assessments conducted by the company is bad policy.

In promising to defend each abatement before the commissioners, O’Donnell said the town would also ask the commissioners to force property owners to pay the town’s cost for defending the property value decisions he made.

The problem is that the cost to the town to defend the revaluation are already borne in part by these same property owners. Billing them for, a second time, for pursuing their legal rights reeks of intimidation against future challenges of any town policy.

Before voters agree to a new revaluation, they should ask what Levesque and the others would accept as a fair assessment or whether O’Donnell’s work accurately represents a townwide depiction of current market values.

While procedures for recalling elected officials should be in place in all towns, they should adhere to the strictest standards regarding illegal behavior. By launching a petition drive for a recall ordinance, while also seeking a new property revaluation, Levesque’s motives appear as intimidating as O’Donnell’s plan to bill the property owners appealing his decisions.

Local politics is a contact sport. Since 2005, recall efforts have been launched against officials in Lyman, Waterboro, Hollis and Brownfield. Two of three selectmen were removed in Hollis and the entire board was recalled in Brownfield.

Efforts failed in Lyman and Waterboro, because the voters realized the supporters of the recalls had more personal grudges against selectmen than evidence of illegal behavior.

The three-year term of a selectman or councilor may seem interminable to their opponents, but unless there is clear evidence of illegal behavior, these terms of office must be respected.

Levesque has every right, and his own reasons, to start the two petition drives. Should his drives succeed, Casco voters must understand what those rights and reasons are before voting to approve the ballot questions this November.

–David Harry,

editor