York Town News
Selectman withholds explanation, rips media
By Steve Rasche and Jennifer L. Saunders
YORK - Selectman Len Dorrian has responded to last week's reports about conflicting homestead exemptions and voter registration in Maine and Massachusetts by condemning news reports as "sloppy reporting at best, malicious at worst."Dorrian returned to the Board of Selectmen's meeting on Monday, April 9, and requested to share a public statement during the time usually reserved for Chairman David Marshall's report on town business.
Reading from a prepared statement, Dorrian said he is in the process of reviewing all the actions he took in changing residences in 2001 from York to Boston, and then, in 2005, from Boston back to York. Dorrian said that if he discovers any additional actions are necessary, he will act accordingly and make those actions public.
However, his statement that he would keep the public informed as to his efforts to research the facts and take any actions necessary appears to be contradicted by statements from the City of Boston Assessor's Office.
Specifically, when contacted for comment Tuesday morning, a spokesman from that office stated that just last Friday, April 6, two days after the matter was first reported in this paper, the residential exemptions for Dorrian's Boston property were cancelled at the taxpayer's request.
The spokesman also verified that the taxpayer made a refund payment to the city in the amount of $1,525.05 - the exact amount reported last Wednesday, April 4, as having been received as a residential exemption by Dorrian for 2007.
The spokesman further confirmed that this amount was equal to the residential exemption that had been received by the taxpayer for the tax year of 2007, and that the payment was accepted by the city of Boston specifically as a refund by the taxpayer of that residential exemption.
In his comments to the public at Monday night's meeting, Dorrian made no mention of either the cancellation or the refund payments.
Dorrian's response to a question from the audience Monday night also appeared to be at odds with the cancellation and refund actions taken last Friday in Boston.
Jack MacDonald of York Harbor, who had served on the York Property Tax Task Force back in 2004 with Dorrian, at a time when Dorrian has since confirmed he was a legal resident of Boston and voting in that city, asked Dorrian whether he had received homestead exemption reimbursements for two properties at the same time. Dorrian declined to comment.
"I'm not going to answer any questions until I've had a chance to look into all the facts," he said. "I just as a general rule am not going to do that. I just got back today after being away, so I haven't even seen the article in the paper form so I am not going to answer anything until I have a chance to look over the facts."
Dorrian instead reserved the bulk of his comments for criticism of the media, specifically The Independent. Dorrian said he has been unfairly targeted due to having differing views with the newspaper.
"I have spent the better part of my professional life serving the public interest. I embrace public service not for personal financial gain but from a sense of duty and responsibility," Dorrian said at Monday's meeting. "To suggest that I profited from any omissions I inadvertently committed when changing legal residences is ridiculous. In fact, I do not seek reimbursements for administrative costs that are associated with my duties on the select board."
He went on to say, "I understand the risks of being a public figure, one subject to targeted negative and often inaccurate reporting. … I believe the media should serve the public interest as I have done, and afford those of us who become targets a reasonable opportunity to gather and present facts. The type of reporting of The Independent may sell newspapers, but it does not serve the best interest of the voters of York."
Dorrian told the public that he will be running for reelection in May.
"Do I intend to stand for reelection to the select board? Yes, because I am proud of what this select board, as a team, has done these past two years," he said Monday.
Town Clerk Mary-Anne Szeniawski confirmed last week that Dorrian's name would be included on the May ballot as he had previously filed his nomination papers to seek another term on the board. Szeniawski could not comment specifically on issues of the Boston and York residential exemptions, but said that her office had received sufficient documentation from Dorrian to support his voter registration in York.
Based on Maine statute, Dorrian's name could not be removed from the ballot unless he provided a notarized statement requesting that to be done prior to the printing of absentee ballots, she explained.
