GORHAM – After all the recent hullabaloo about election signs in Gorham, the Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices in Augusta on Monday fined Town Councilor Matthew Robinson $25 for violating a state election law.

Robinson was involved with the controversial OUI signs that opposed School Committee candidate Suzanne Phillips. She had pleaded guilty to operating under the influence in 2012 when she was a town councilor.

At issue was whether the disclosure on the signs met legal requirements, and the ethics commission on Monday ruled the disclosure language was insufficient.

“My violation was lack of verbiage on a sign,” Robinson said on Tuesday. “They knew I didn’t try to break any rules.”

Meanwhile, a Gorham political party leader has called for Robinson to resign from the Town Council.

The campaign signs opposing Phillips read, “No Phillips, arrested for OUI, convicted of OUI.” The disclosure on the signs read, “Paid for by keep our kids safe from drunk drivers.”

Jonathan Wayne, executive director of the ethics commission, said in an email on Monday the commission assessed Robinson a penalty of $25 for violating the election law (21-A MRSA Section 1014(2-A)).

According to that law, a disclosure is required to include the name and address of those who made or financed the signs and whether the signs were or were not authorized by a candidate.

Robinson attended Monday’s ethics commission meeting in Augusta.

“I paid on the spot,” he said.

The maximum fine assessed Robinson could have been $200. Phillips did not attend Monday’s ethics commission meeting.

“The penalty was up to the commission,” Phillips responded, when asked for comment by email.

The signs stirred some public indignation in Gorham, and the ethics commission’s action drew some local fire.

“He was found guilty. I disagree that the commission determined he was likely unaware of the disclosure requirement,” Jim Means, chairman of the Gorham Republican Town Committee, wrote in an email on Tuesday to the American Journal. “He has run for office and had signs made with the proper disclosures, so this does not meet the straight-face test.”

Phillips on Nov. 1 filed a complaint with the commission about disclosure on the signs opposing her School Committee candidacy. Phillips did not seek re-election to the council this month when her three-year term expired.

Robinson said he had believed the signs had met First Amendment rights.

“I didn’t know proper procedure to put up signs,” Robinson said.

He said he filed an independent expenditure report on Nov. 7 for the signs after being advised to do so by a commission staff member. The report indicated the signs cost $138.

Then, the ethics commission staff determined that Robinson’s expenditure report was filed two weeks late and levied a $19.46 fine. Robinson said he paid that fine online.

The operating-under-the-influence issue has been a contentious Gorham Town Council topic for more than two years and has spilled over onto postings on Facebook. Phillips said this week that she had repeatedly apologized publicly to the community.

But, the issue flared up again this year when another town councilor, Ben Hartwell, pleaded guilty to operating under the influence.

“I don’t want people to lose focus of the real issue,” Robinson said on Tuesday, referring to the operating-under-the-influence convictions of Phillips and Hartwell.

“After tediously preaching to fellow councilors and to the public for three years about councilors staying within laws, he broke one,” Means wrote, “If you are going to talk the talk then you must walk the walk.”

Means called for Robinson to step down from the Gorham Town Council.

“The only right thing for Councilor Robinson to do now is to resign,” Means wrote.