The Boothbay Region Refuse Disposal District (BRRDD) trustees voted Feb. 12 to remove Chuck Cunningham of Boothbay as vice chairman, following a bylaw amendment. Cunningham was not there.  

The amendment said an elected officer may be removed from their position by majority vote if it is found that the officer is “not performing their duties in an ethical manner, not acting in the best interest of the Board and its constituents, or causing undue hardship on the Board or staff,” according to a meeting handout. This only removes an officer from their position, not from the board.  

This action follows a Feb. 11 Boothbay selectmen’s meeting where Cunningham, who is also selectboard chair, challenged BRRDD Operations Manager William Johnson's formula calculations, which are used to assign each town's contribution to the district's annual budget.  

As reported in the Register, Cunningham alleged the formula didn't use 2020 census data, as required by law. Johnson is still in his first year as manager and confirmed that he used Google numbers. Cunningham also claimed that old figures were used to calculate construction debris and municipal solid waste, but that municipal sales tax calculations and property valuation numbers were correct.

In the motion for Cunningham’s removal, the board alleged that Cunningham “intentionally withheld information that would have allowed for the correct budgetary requests to be made.” Instead, the decision to bring up the matter during the selectmen’s meeting complicated the request and caused “unnecessary speculation” to be placed on BRRDD’s board and staff.  

“This behavior ... is very disappointing to see from someone who should know the negative and inflammatory consequences of his actions,” per the motion.

The board voted 4-1 for removal, with Amy Harkins of Southport abstaining. Harkins was then asked to serve as vice chairman until the end of the annual 2025-26 term in July. She agreed.  

Cunningham told the Register that, other than the budget approved at the December BRRDD meeting, he had not seen the information until it was provided to the Boothbay selectmen. He said the selectmen received the information about a week before the Feb. 11 meeting, and he believes he looked at it a couple of days before the meeting. 

"If I had been given this information earlier, as has been practice in the past, I'm sure I would have noticed the errors, and these could have been discussed at the January BRRDD meeting, which had been canceled." 

When asked why he had not brought up the matter to BRRDD before the selectboard meeting, Cunningham said, "I wish I could have, but you don't discuss stuff like this outside of public meetings." 

In other action, the board unanimously approved raising the disposal fee for construction, demolition and bulky waste from 9 cents per pound to 13 cents to remain competitive with surrounding areas.  

Trustees also approved a $1,271,600 fiscal year 2026-27 budget for Giles Rubbish, which will take effect in July. This is a $255,600 increase from the budgeted $1,016,000 for fiscal year 2024-25. BRRDD did not approve a budget last year (hence the 2025-26 gap) due to poor management in the past, said Johnson in a post-meeting interview.

He explained that the budget that goes before the towns must be voted on within a certain timeframe, as it involves taxpayer money. The Giles Rubbish budget is not beholden in the same way, as it is self-sustaining and does not rely on public funds, but BRRDD still likes to use a budget, he said.

“When I took over as interim manager, I asked (the board) if they knew that we were running on no budget. They didn't realize that they hadn't voted on it ... (and) there was none (we could find).”

In other business, Johnson raised concerns with trustees about five months' worth of blank fuel bills recently received from Boothbay, totaling about $72,000. The bills only had estimated totals with no line items.  

“I don't feel comfortable paying a bill with no documentation,” he said. The board agreed and decided to have Johnson hold off on payment until documentation supporting the bills was provided.