York Town News
Longtime CEO resigns due to health concerns
By Jennifer L. Saunders
YORK - Senior Managing Code Enforcement Officer Mark Badger has resigned from his post at Town Hall after more than month of battling high blood pressure.Town Manager Rob Yandow confirmed Badger's decision Monday morning, following about a month of rumors circulating around Town Hall that Badger would not be returning to the Code Enforcement Office after taking leave for medical reasons late in June.
Reached at home on Tuesday, Badger spoke fondly of his time in York, and confirmed that his decision was made for health reasons as the stressful nature of the job does not lend itself to battling high blood pressure.
"It was a good move for me," Badger said of his illness. "I didn't realize how bad I was getting."
Badger said that his nature is to work hard, so he blamed some of his symptoms on job stress and the amount of time necessary to prepare for Code Enforcement Office cases and other job duties, not realizing the seriousness of his condition at first.
"It was getting harder and harder to stay focused and get things done," he said of the weeks before he learned of his condition. "It was a little scary, and after talking through the medical, I realized it was time for a change."
Badger's resignation, both Badger and Yandow stressed, is for health reasons and is not a result of the actions being taken at Town Hall to meet the recommendations for improvement drafted by the Code Enforcement Review Committee or through Yandow's in-house review of the office after coming on board as the town's administrator last November.
"I think that Mark has done a very good job under difficult conditions," Yandow said Monday. "Certainly we will miss his experience and institutional memory."
Badger will not be back at Town Hall in his public capacity at the Code Enforcement Office, Yandow said Monday, but will work with Code Enforcement Officer Tim DeCoteau and other members of the office's part-time and permanent staff to review his cases so that they can be handled properly upon his departure.
Badger's tenure with the town goes back just shy of 17 years, to the fall of 1989.
Badger said he leaves with no negative feelings, and has really appreciated his time working for the town of York and with the staff at Town Hall. At this point, he said, he is taking a break and deciding what to do next. Options include returning to his prior work as a builder.
"I put everything I had into that position. I think I made a lot of good improvements. My only regret is there were some other things to finish."
The summer months have been a difficult time logistically for the Code Enforcement Office, Yandow acknowledged, as both Badger and Tom James, who conducts the majority of code inspections for the department, have been out due to health concerns.
Prior to this year, the Code Enforcement Office had labored under a cloud of suspicion prompting the Board of Selectmen's creation of the Code Enforcement Review Committee, formed late in 2004.
The selectmen created that committee in response to allegations by a number of residents against the office, charging inadequate enforcement.
From the outset, Badger said he would be happy to work with the committee to address those perceptions and assess any issues of concern.
"I think it took a lot out of me and I didn't realize it was coming," Badger said of his diagnosis and the past months of added stress in an already stressful job. "As bad as it was, we came through it. We gained. … It was a pleasure working with everybody."
Ultimately, the review committee found there was no evidence of the corruption in the office that had been alleged by a handful of local property owners.
Instead, the committee recommended increased resources, personnel and other ways to improve the office.
Yandow took over the post of town manager just around the time the review committee had drafted its recommendations to the Board of Selectmen for ways to improve the office.
In the months that followed, he worked on such initiatives as weekly meetings with the Code Enforcement Office staff and a revision of the department's website and supported recommendations for additional staff at the office.
Funding to fulfill the recommendation for an additional shoreland officer was approved by the voters in May.
Currently, Yandow said, he is beginning the hiring process to replace Badger and to fill the shoreland protection officer as an addition to the office.
In the meantime, temporary personnel have been hired to assist at the office while James remains on leave.
"We've got good guidelines to go forward, we've got a good staff," Badger said. "Somebody with new energy in that position, I think, will be good for the town as well."
And what will Badger's next step be?
"I'll very likely go back to using my hands," he said.
