WINDHAM–A veteran Windham police detective is on paid administrative leave while his role in an unofficial investigation of a Windham town councilor is being probed.

According to documents released by the Windham town manager’s office earlier this week, Detective Mike Denbow sent an e-mail to Councilor Carol Waig alleging that Council Chairman Bill Tracy, a vice president at Gorham Savings Bank, had a conflict of interest regarding the recent merger of Windham dispatch with Cumberland County.

Denbow told Waig in the e-mail that he thought Tracy shouldn’t have voted on the controversial county merger since he was a senior officer at Gorham Savings Bank, which has a financial relationship with Cumberland County.

In response to Denbow’s allegations, town attorney Ken Cole III issued a statement arguing that Tracy’s position at the bank did not represent a conflict of interest. Now, Windham police are conducting an internal investigation of Denbow’s actions to see if he acted improperly when looking into Tracy’s background.

Denbow could not be reached for comment.

The conflict

In the undated e-mail to Waig, who, like Denbow, was an opponent of the dispatch merger, Denbow wrote: “If you look up Gorham Savings Bank (online) and type in Bill Tracy you will see he is Vice President assigned to the Windham Branch. He is not in the public finance office, but as one of the vice presidents … there is a huge conflict of interest problem regarding a county contract with Windham, which when you add county taxes and fees that will be charged to Windham for dispatch will be well over $1,000,000 in a 21?2 year period.”

Denbow goes on to write: “If the county is doing millions of dollars worth of business with Gorham Savings Bank, Bill Tracy is one of the vice presidents and considered by the bank to be “one of the decision makers” for that bank … there is a definite problem with this … He should be bowing out of the vote due to conflict of interest and should never have allowed himself to be placed on the Finance Committee in the first place … I believe this would definitely be a violation of the charter, if not law.”

Cole was contacted by Tracy once he found out about the investigation. Cole wrote to Tracy and the town manager and found that Tracy’s vote for the merger wasn’t a conflict of interest, as Denbow suggested.

In the written reply dated June 3, Cole wrote: “The state statute in this regard specifies that the individual must have a direct or indirect pecuniary interest or must own a certain percentage of a company. Gorham Savings Bank is a mutual company so Mr. Tracy owns no interest in it and for him to have even an indirect pecuniary interest in Gorham Savings Bank’s financial dealings with Cumberland County, those dealings would have to at least be in his area of expertise. As Sergeant Denbow points out in his email, it is not. Mr. Tracy has nothing to do with the public finance arm of the bank and the fact that he happens to be listed as a ‘decision maker’ for the bank, has no relevance given that that decision-making capacity has nothing to do with lending money to the Cumberland County and nearly 30 individuals are listed as ‘decision makers’ in the (online) description of the senior officers of Gorham Savings Bank.”

Cole goes on to say, “These facts do not create a conflict of interest under Maine law or under the town’s charter.”

The councilors

While Tracy did not return calls seeking comment on the allegations against Denbow, other councilors have spoken this week regarding the matter.

“Every citizen has the right to check online for the backgrounds of town councilors or others in government. I think the question revolves around whether that was appropriate in his capacity as a police officer,” Councilor John MacKinnon said.

Councilor Donna Chapman, who sided with Tracy on voting for the dispatch merger with Cumberland County, was “shocked and disappointed” with the revelation that a Windham police officer would investigate a councilor.

“I hate to think he would dig up dirt just for the fun of it. There has to be due cause. We all have some connection to something,” Chapman said. “Yes, Bill works at Gorham Savings Bank. But I think it’s actually beneficial to have those connections. Now, don’t get me wrong, if we have something to financially gain, that’s a different story. But Bill Tracy had nothing to gain, he was just doing his job.”

Vice Chairman Matthew Noel, who was voted into office last fall with Tracy, also believes Tracy isn’t at fault, and that Denbow’s allegations were answered properly by the town attorney.

“In general, I know that there has been a question raised regarding a potential conflict of interest with Bill Tracy and his role on the Finance Committee and the Town Council as it relates to the budget vote,” Noel said. “While I think the question can be asked, I also believe the question was answered long ago by the town’s attorney, Ken Cole, when he addressed the ‘conflict of interest issue’ many months ago. Based on his assessment at that time, and his most recent letter, there is no conflict of interest in this situation.”

The case

While police and town officials say they aren’t allowed to divulge information regarding specifics of the case, documents released earlier this week by Windham Town Manager Tony Plante confirm that Denbow, a 29-year veteran of the police department, has been temporarily suspended and could face discipline for his role in an investigation of Tracy.

According to Plante, Lt. David DeGruchy of the Windham Police Department is currently conducting an internal investigation of Denbow. As of now, questions as to when Denbow performed his background check of Tracy, whether that investigation was conducted using a computer at the police department, and why he conducted the investigation are issues all expected to be resolved in DeGruchy’s review.

DeGruchy will present his findings to Police Chief Rick Lewsen, who will determine Denbow’s discipline, if any.

Lewsen declined to speak about the internal investigation, but did say DeGruchy will “start with the victim and then spread out to witnesses.”

He declined to speak about possible discipline saying, “I have to sit in judgment on this. It wouldn’t be fair to Mike (Denbow), the town or Chairman Tracy to say anything before the investigation is complete.”