York County Commissioners Approve Hires, Insurance Change, Recovery Center Update

[0:05] Chair/Presiding Commissioner: Sir, please ride the suit flag, please. Welcome to the County Commission's meeting of October 7th, 2026. First item, public comments on any items. Anybody from the audience? Come on up, Susan. [0:44] Commissioner: I was just wanting to know how the Recovery Center is coming along. [0:48] EMA/Emergency Management Director: Sure, yeah, happy to give an update. We'll go to other questions and then I can come back to that if anyone else, anyone else. Great, okay, so it doesn't look like anything, so yeah, quick update. Everything is going along quite nicely. Anybody that wants a tour, we are moving to a set in standard time for tours on a weekly basis to try to maintain some continuity with what we're doing over there and kind of staying out of the out of the contractor's hair. That being said, everything is going well. The flooring is in what I'll call the area closest to the road, the majority of the flooring. The paint is up. They're really moving it to the finishing stages of the particular building. And at this point, knock on wood, it's really slated to be completed by December 10th. And so we are working pretty hard with our medical staff to get the detox going. Going, the licensing paperwork is going in. The main care provider network, the main care provider paperwork is being done. We're in communication with all the necessary state agencies. They've been down looking at a fire marshal's been down looking at it, so everything is progressing. So for anybody that again wants to go take a look, let me know, get you in, but it's actually progressing quite nicely and coming a long way. They're going to be starting the rest of the outside work if you haven't had a chance to go by, go by. All the trailers are gone. Everything's moved. They're going to be starting the last of the landscaping work. I believe next week they're supposed to start that. Final paving, all that kind of stuff. [2:28] Chair/Presiding Commissioner: I hope everybody saw the article on the paper the other day about the swimming that was at the rehab center. [2:34] EMA/Emergency Management Director: Yes. Yep. Yep. So anyway, yeah. It's coming along quite nicely. [2:43] Chair/Presiding Commissioner: Item two, to prove the man's of the following meetings. [2:51] Commissioner: I have one correction on the minutes. Page one is down around line 44 or 43. Does Commissioner Andrews move to approve the minutes as amended? And Commissioner Andrews seconded the motion. I think I probably moved them as amended. And other than that, they're fine. I'll move we approve the minutes of the commissioner's meeting of September 2nd, 2026, September 16th, yeah, 16th, 2026, as amended. I'll second. Move by Commissioner Clark, second. [3:33] Chair/Presiding Commissioner: By Commissioner Andrews to approve the minutes of September 16th, 2026. Any other questions? All in favor? One abstain. [Commissioner: So two abstain.] I am three to approve the treasurer's warrants. [3:58] Commissioner: We'll approve the warrants dated September 16th, 2026 in the amount of $2,385,503.35. [4:09] Chair/Presiding Commissioner: Cents. Second. Moved by Commissioner Clark, seconded by Commissioner Andrews to approve the warrants on September 16, 2026. Any questions? None. All in favor? Unanimous. Will we approve [4:22] Commissioner: the warrants dated September 23, 2026, the amount of $990,264.80. Second. Moved by Commissioner [4:33] Chair/Presiding Commissioner: Clark, seconded by Commissioner Andrews to approve the warrant on September 23, 2026. Any questions? None. All in favor? Unanimous. [4:42] Commissioner: We'll approve the warrants dated September 30th, 2026 in the amount of $482,438.40. [4:51] Chair/Presiding Commissioner: Second. Moved by Commissioner Andrews, I mean Commissioner Clark, seconded by Commissioner Andrews to approve the warrants of September 30th, 2026. Any questions? None. All in favor? Unanimous. Item four, do you have any reports for the county commissioners? Any reports from the conventions or anything? No, I'll notify everybody on this board that I won't be here for a couple of weeks. Item five, new VISTAs. [5:28] EMA/Emergency Management Director: Thank you, Mr. Chair and Linda. We have a series of hirings and I think a transfer tonight as well. We'll have Linda come up and go through that with you. Yes, [5:37] HR Director Linda: the first is a transfer, Jason Cody, transferring from Reserve D.A.R. one to full-time logistics coordinator within the emergency management agency. I'm seeking a date of transfer of October 13th, 2026. He's got over 20 years of experience in various emergency operations. He's a current member of the York County EMA special teams including the UAS, the ERC team and emergency dispatch. [6:07] Commissioner: What is a DAR? [6:10] EMA/Emergency Management Director: Disaster Assistance Responder. Okay, thank you. [6:15] Commissioner: Will we approve the transfer of Jason Cody from the position of DAR-1 to the position of full-time logistics coordinator in the EMA office with an effective date of hire of October 13, 2026? Second. Moved by Commissioner Clark, seconded by [6:31] Chair/Presiding Commissioner: Commissioner Andrews to approve the transfer of Jason Cody as of October 13, 2026. Any questions? [6:37] HR Director Linda: None. All in favor? Unanimous. Thank you. Next up is a new hire, Sadiq Nevins, full-time corrections with the York County Sheriff's Office seeking a date of hire of October 13, 2026. He resides in Sanford, Maine and is a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps. [6:56] Commissioner: Move to approve the hire of Sadiq Nevins, in the position of a full-time corrections officer in the Sheriff's Office. Effective date of hire of October 13th, [7:06] Chair/Presiding Commissioner: Moved by Commissioner Clark, seconded by Commissioner Andrews to approve the hiring of Sagi Nevins as of October 13th, 2026. Any questions? None? All in favor? [7:18] HR Director Linda: Unanimous. Thank you. Next up is Hunter Cormier, Reserve DAR-3 with York County EMA with a date of hire of October 13th, 2026. He lives in Lyman, Maine, and he's currently a student at Massabesic High School. [7:34] Commissioner: Move we approve the hire of Hunter Cormier in the position of reserve D.A.R. 3 in the Emergency Management Agency with an effective date of hire of October 13th, 2026. Second. [7:46] Chair/Presiding Commissioner: Move by Commissioner Clark, second by Commissioner Andrews to approve the hiring of Hunter Cormier year is of October 13th, 2026. Any questions? All in favor? Unanimous. Thank you. Next up is a [8:01] HR Director Linda: transfer, Rosario Cordoglio. That's it, that's it, Cordoglio. Transferring from full-time court security to full-time corrections at the York County Sheriff's Office. There is a change in a date. I'm going to be seeking a date of transfer of October 19th, 2026. He resides in Socco, Maine. Originally hired in 2016 as a corrections officer, he moved, then came back in January of 2026 as a court security officer. We asked him to kind of hold off for a week as we need some coverage the court security for next week, so he's gonna, that's why there's a change in the date. [8:45] Commissioner: I move we approve the transfer of Rosario Cordoglio from the position of full-time court security officer two to the position of full-time corrections officer in the sheriff's office with an effective date of October 19th, 2026. Second. Moved by Commissioner Clark, [9:03] Chair/Presiding Commissioner: seconded by Commissioner Andrews to approve the transfer of Rosario Cordoglio as of October 19th, 2026. Any questions? [9:13] Commissioner: Commissioner Ring. Was he probationary? Is he still probationary as the court security? No, that was [9:20] HR Director Linda: six months and that ended in July. In July? [9:24] Chair/Presiding Commissioner: Mm-hmm. Any other questions? None. All in favor? Against? Four and one against. Okay. Thank you. [9:34] HR Director Linda: The next up is a new hire, Aaron Stacey, full-time major of administration with the york county sheriff's office seeking a date of hire of october 19th 2026 mr stacy resides in kittery maine he has 25 years with the portsmouth new hampshire police department currently been with the main state police since 2025 and he as well as a veteran of the u.s marine i'll [9:58] Commissioner: Move we approve the hiring of Aaron Stacy in the position of full-time major of administration in the sheriff's office with an effective date of hire October 19th 2026. Second. [10:08] Chair/Presiding Commissioner: Moved by Commissioner Clark, seconded by Commissioner Andrews to approve the hiring of Aaron Stacey as of October 19, 2026. Any questions? Then all in favor? Unanimous. That concludes the new hires. [10:21] EMA/Emergency Management Director: Thank you, Linda. Commissioners, moving on. Medical and Behavioral Health Division Health Insurance Policy Review and Possible Approval. You may recall when we first established the medical and behavioral health division we gave this to you this was an outline of the benefits and so we're proposing one change to that tonight and that is on this piece of paper that has the yellow added this is what you were given this one back in probably May or June and this is what we're proposing to add in short or we're looking to provide a certain level of benefits for what we'll call part-time employees that are at least working 20 hours or more per week. This one affects really 20 to 29 hours per week. What we're finding as we search out some new providers for this division that was created is we're finding that a lot of the folks that we're looking to hire are, one, looking for benefits, and this seems to be a customary approach for a lot of folks in the medical field. We've obtained personnel manuals from a lot of the major healthcare providers in the state of Maine, and this approach kind of mirrors the fact that they are also provided part-time health insurance. So we're proposing for people that are working between 20 and 29 hours that they be eligible to obtain health insurance should they so choose to, but that they do pay what I'll call an additional 35% towards their contribution. So you can see, you know, a generic breakdown. So if a full-time employee pays $100 per week for health insurance coverage, they would be paying $135. So they'll be eligible for the same basic plan, but they'll just be paying more based on their percentile employment. Any questions? Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm assuming that's also in line with how we handle other part-time employees with the county or no? Yeah, no. Other part-time employees. Linda, are you able to come up and help me on that one? Don't we give limited benefits under the union contracts? That's not something that the, no, I don't. Yeah, but no one else. [12:43] HR Director Linda: The only benefit that part-time employees receive is through the retirement, through Maine PERS. Right, because that's it. We allow them to participate in Mission Squared, which is also the retirement. But as far as health insurance or anything like that, they do not. [12:56] EMA/Emergency Management Director: This is different. So this is only be for this particular division and no one else. Okay. [13:02] Commissioner: Any other questions? Well, I just, I'm just wondering, this isn't part of the counties. [13:11] EMA/Emergency Management Director: No, this is for if they're employed within this division. Within this division. Yes. Only the integrated medical and behavioral health division. [13:19] Commissioner: So our insurance wouldn't pick this up? What do you mean? Add them to our existing. Oh, no,. [13:25] EMA/Emergency Management Director: It's all one big county policy. [13:27] Commissioner: Oh, okay. This is just a separate division. [13:29] EMA/Emergency Management Director: It's not a separate. What we're just saying is we're only adding a new benefit that for part-time employees within this division are eligible for a health insurance, but at a greater rate than that of a full-time. That's all we're saying. And for what it's worth, this is probably only going to affect, what, three people maybe? Three or less. Three or less. And again, this is an effort to bring in the requisite number of providers that we're going to be needing over at the recovery center. Yeah, okay, thank you. Any other questions? Yes, because this is new. Yeah, this is not what you agreed to prior. Yeah, and no, we haven't hired anybody under this yet, so yeah, we anticipate probably doing so in another month and a half. [14:21] Commissioner: Will we approve the amendments to the insurance eligibility for part-time employees for the integrated medical and behavioral health division? [14:34] Chair/Presiding Commissioner: I second. Moved by Commissioner Clark, seconded by Commissioner Andrews to approve the medical and behavioral health division health insurance policy. Any questions? None. All in favor? [14:45] EMA/Emergency Management Director: Unanimous. Much. Now, Linda has also been working on with HR kind of a more of a comprehensive manual that once we get that done, we're going to share that with you so that you can then see what this looks like of, you know, how it translates to what we give the employees when they show up. It's actually a pretty good document. And so once this modification is made, we'll get that out so you can take a look. It just explains things out a little bit. [15:11] HR Director Linda: Yeah. It gives examples for the employees when they come on board to make better choices. [15:15] EMA/Emergency Management Director: So we'll share that with you. The next up is the Spear of America. From time to time, I know I've discussed with each of you here, we're going to expand what we're doing. Traditionally, we get the nominations from the cities and towns, and then we have a ceremony in November. Remember, what we're suggesting here tonight is that each commissioner have an opportunity within each of their districts to nominate an individual. Several commissioners have come forward and said they have someone. I believe one or two of you have already given us someone to nominate. The nomination is by the commissioner within that district. And so what we're stating to the commissioners that haven't done this, no pressure. If you don't want to, that's fine. Could be last minute for some of you. That's fine as well. But if you have someone or somebody or an organization within your district that you want to nominate as what we would call the York County Government Spirit of America Award, you each have an opportunity to do so. We just ask that you get us the name fairly quick because we are getting into the situation where we need to provide plaques and get those done. And we also need an opportunity to notify the individual who would rely upon you to help facilitate that communication at this point in time as well. So this doesn't need to be an agenda thing. You don't need to nominate. What we're proposing is that you can just honestly as a commissioner within your current realm of authority tell us who you want to nominate, and we'll bring that name, we'll put it on a list, and then you can help award that on the night of the thing. I don't because we're doing a broken out by district. I don't think this needs to be a all in favor. It's your district, so if you have someone, please let us know, and our preference is really as soon as possible. Some of you have already told us, and so we appreciate that, but if you have anybody, let us know. And so this will be the first step as we talk about kind of the future expansion of this program as well. Any questions? [17:20] Commissioner: I think this is great, thank you for doing this. [17:24] EMA/Emergency Management Director: One individual per district, correct? Yeah, one individual per, you know, again if you want to do more or an organ make sure no there's a lot of quality there are and this is my recommendation commissioners yeah but here's the thing this is your ceremony if you want to do 10 go ahead that's fine it just comes down to a logistics issue for us if you do 10 i'll go [17:53] Commissioner: Take a snack. Okay, we'll take a five minute break. Just asking, thank you. So you can do like a [17:59] EMA/Emergency Management Director: a person, an organization, similar to what's been done in the past for others. Sounds good. Thank you. Okay. Yeah. So please, again, get that to us and communicate that to Patty. The next step, we are hoping that you would agree to the scheduling of a property tax abatement denial in the town of Limington for November 4th, 2026. If that is something you are willing to do, then please make a motion for that so we can formally notify the parties. [18:29] Commissioner: Move to schedule a property tax abatement denial appeal for our meeting of November 4th, 2026. [18:39] Chair/Presiding Commissioner: Moved by Commissioner Clark, seconded by Commissioner Andrews to approve the scheduled hearing of property tax abatement. [18:47] EMA/Emergency Management Director: Any questions? I have one. [18:50] Chair/Presiding Commissioner: I'm not sure if I'll be recovered yet. Yeah. So, it's one of those. All in favor? [18:58] Commissioner: Unanimous. And [19:03] EMA/Emergency Management Director: the last item of new business is attached in your packet. You all have a copy of a MOU with the First County Foundation. Happy to answer any questions you might have. However, I'm going to go back and remind the board, in a prior iteration, you may recall you already approved in a an agreement with the First Responders Foundation, probably at this point a couple years ago, and so it obviously took a different turn, and it's the First County Foundation. So this is a mirror image essentially. Yes, the attorney did look at it, said yeah, it's fine, there's nothing to change. The only thing that's been changed is the First County Foundation and the EIN, the employee identification number. So I'm asking for approval on that, and that just kind of sets forth the terms and conditions for how the money works going back and forth between the two entities. Will we approve [20:00] Commissioner: Approve the memorandum of understanding between the County of New York and the First County Foundation and authorize the County Manager to sign it. [20:10] Chair/Presiding Commissioner: Moved by Commissioner Clark, seconded by Commissioner Ambrose to approve the MOU. [20:14] Commissioner: Any questions? All in favor? Oh, I have a question. What was it? I was just wondering, do we know how much has been collected so far in total? Yeah, I can get that. [20:27] EMA/Emergency Management Director: We actually have unofficially another $25,000 from last week that is going to be actually, I don't see any issues what would stop it, but our first bequest, which would actually, now they're having conversations about like an endowment to creation of that. So that's another one. So I can get that for you. Off the top of my head, I asked the same question last week. Cash on hand, I want to say, was about $220. And that excludes all of the other commitments that have been made that will be coming in, you [21:03] Commissioner: know, on a yearly basis. Do we actually are the fine finances done through our? No, that their [21:11] EMA/Emergency Management Director: foundation is separate. They're separate. They have their separate 501c3. They will have to do as they grow, you know. It's interesting, so the conversation has been, you know, a couple years ago, boy, this is great, look what we're going to do. Now we're having some of the other conversations, not necessarily me, but it's being asked what, you know, what's the county's involvement, which really is largely none at this point in time other than what you have here, and that is now the conversations are saying, oh, boy, okay, we need to start pulling as the foundation together. What is our budget going to be? How much are we going to do for, you know, advertising and website development of it and all of that kind of stuff? So those are the good conversations to have, but we don't have a direct say in what they do. It's it's really largely at arm's length from the county. So but [22:01] Commissioner: if we asked for financial information, oh, we can get it. That's all in here. If we ask, they provide. [22:06] EMA/Emergency Management Director: okay yep all right all right yep and that 's right in here we have every right to and if we ask they shall okay thank you yep yeah any other questions none all in favor unanimous okay six old business i have no old business but i do have a last minute executive session that i need to talk with you about and that would be 4056a okay let me i expect no decisions to come [22:33] Chair/Presiding Commissioner: of that. First I'll have the public comments. Public comments on anybody in the audience, zoom? No? Okay, [22:47] EMA/Emergency Management Director: and so again, it'd be executive session 4056a, personnel matter, executive session under [22:57] Commissioner: one MRSA section 4056a to discuss the personnel matter. [23:07] Chair/Presiding Commissioner: Moved by Commissioner Clark, seconded by Commissioner Andrews, to go to executive session. All in favor? Unanimous. [23:28] EMA/Emergency Management Director: You're live. [23:30] Commissioner: Will we come out of executive session? [23:32] Chair/Presiding Commissioner: Second. Moved by Commissioner Clark, seconded by Commissioner Andrews, to go to executive session. All in favor? Unanimous. [Commissioner: No,, no.] Next item, I guess it's adjourned. Second. Commissioner Clark second by the witness adjourn all favor or forgot to ask you any questions. [23:57] Commissioner: Don't ask any questions. [24:02] Chair/Presiding Commissioner: She copied my bank.