News

Ex-Manager, Town Attorney in Town Office on Saturday
By Elizabeth Prata

Gray--Ex-Manager Mitch Berkowitz, who is disagreeing with the nature of his exit package and has informed the Council Chair that the Chair will be hearing from his lawyers, was talking with Town Attorney Bill Dale Saturday, inside Town Offices.

Driving by, Vice Chair Andy Upham broke up the meeting about 12:30. He said the two were inside town offices, talking behind the glass partition in the office interior, and did not notice him until he banged on the door.
Mr. Dale told Mr. Upham that he was there to research a Pennell issue.

The Council Chair and Vice Chair were surprised that Mr. Dale was conducting research on Pennell, since Mr Dale had informed Chair Foster last week that it's just a waiting game now. The discovery period for lodging information to the court had passed months ago and the town is waiting for a decision from the judge, to be rendered momentarily. "I was surprised to hear that was the nature of his visit to Town office," Mr Foster said. "I talked with him a week ago and asked for an update. He said it was only a waiting game and nothing more was to be done."

Chair Gary Foster was not informed that Mr Dale was to do research inside town office. He has told Mr Dale several times that work on behalf of the town needs to be authorized by him, the Chair. Mr Foster also wondered why Mr Dale was in town office on a Saturday, and not a regular weekday. "That makes no sense to me. There was no staff there, no one supervising." The town's personnel files, all its other files, and the town vault are housed in Town Offices.

Mr. Dale and his helper were let into the building at 8 a.m. via the Maintenance Department, previously authorized by acting Manager Donna Hill. Maintenance arrived at 8 a.m. with a key to let in the lawyers. No one is sure when Mr. Berkowitz arrived but his vehicle was there for about half an hour.

Mr. Foster also was concerned that the conversation Mr. Dale was having with the town's ex-employee and potential litigant was appropriate. "It is inappropriate at best for our counsel to be socializing with a potential litigant." Mr. Foster said. "Mr. Berkowitz had turned in his keys and cell phone, and is no longer an employee of the town," Mr. Foster said.

Mr. Berkowitz told Mr. Upham that he was driving by had spotted Mr. Dale's car and stopped in to chat. Mr. Berkowitz left when asked. Mr. Berkowitz replied to an e-mail query, saying, "Yes, as I had seen Bill's car at the Town Offices I quickly stopped in to share with him the news of my appointment to the position of Town Manager for Bridgton. We talked about the Bridgton community in that short span of five minutes or so. I then left."
Mr. Dale said, "My law partner Sally Daggett and I arrived at the Town offices on Saturday morning, April 8 at approx. 8:10 a.m.. We were supposed to meet the building's super., Ed Milose, there at 8 a.m. to let us in, but were a few minutes late."

"Sally and I were there from approx. 8:10 am until approx 2 to 2:30 pm. We were researching and photocopying old town meeting records from the vault as relate to the pending civil litigation over the Pennell building."

Mr. Dale said he and the manager spoke for about 10 minutes. "He stopped by unexpectedly. It never occurred to me not to talk to him."

"I had made arrangements earlier in the week with Donna Hill, the office manager for the last 15/20 years, to go in on a Saturday so we could look at the old books and reports and photocopy the same more easily without getting in everybody's way. It never occurred to me to ask anyone other than Donna about going in on my day off to look at old records."