The town of Boothbay hasn’t received a response from former Town Manager James Chaousis regarding a May 28 letter requesting payment for alleged personal expenses charged to municipal accounts.

An audit discovered two charges that appear to be “personal, not business related,” according to town officials.

The letter was written by Selectmen’s Chairman Dale Harmon. The town alleges Chaousis is responsible for two unauthorized municipal charges. The first is $4,388.11 in cell phone charges. The town pays for 11 municipal employees’ cell phones and service. The audit discovered two additional lines were added to the town manager’s cell phone account in August 2011.

The audit discovered the cell phones were for Chaousis’ wife and daughter.

The selectmen are also seeking reimbursement for a Sept. 6, 2011 purchase. The selectmen allege Chaousis improperly charged $709.80 to the town’s business Visa card at Dead River Co., an oil supplier.

Selectman Steve Lewis wasn’t surprised the town hadn’t received a response.

“It’s only been a week. And the letter did give him 30 days to respond,” Lewis said at the June 10 meeting.

On June 3, Chaousis said he received the letter, but due to a busy work schedule hadn’t paid much attention to it. He agreed there had been co-mingling of personal and business expenses during his tenure as town manager. Prior to the letter being sent, Chaousis told current Town Manager Dan Bryer he would reimburse the town for any personal charges billed to the town. 

Chaousis also said that the town owes him for services charged to his personal credit card. He said the town’s 365 Office System Web-based email, purchased last November, was charged to his credit card. According to Chaousis, the town no longer had a line of credit, so he charged the system to his personal account.

“I did it to get the town the best deal available,” Chaousis said. “We’ve never settled up on that or any other expenses I paid for. But I’m not worried about it.”

During the June 10 selectmen’s meeting, Bryer said he had changed the email system’s billing over to the town. The selectmen are willing to reimburse Chaousis for those charges.

“If he wants to produce a bill, we will absolutely pay him,” Harmon said.

All five selectmen were unaware the town wasn’t paying for the email system.

“We have an email account and we haven’t been paying for it. So that leads me to believe somebody else paid for it. But before we do reimburse him, I’d like to first see a bill,” Lewis said.

Bryer said it would be difficult to confirm who paid for the email service without Chaousis’ cooperation. Bryer doubted the firm would provide information about an individual’s account without the person’s permission.

Chaousis left Boothbay to accept a new position as Rockland’s city manager beginning March 2.