Selectmen's hours have nearly doubled

Ben Thompson ... averaging $1,176 a month

Paul Philbrick ... averaging $1,149 a month

Royce Heath ... averaging $768

LEBANON - The hours selectmen work have nearly doubled from a sampling taken in April 2013, but the board's chairman, Ben Thompson, said longstanding issues unaddressed by previous boards are to blame as those issues have now "blown up in our faces" and demand more time from present board members.

He said those issues have been "unravelling for several years" and now "require much more time than we could foresee."

The Lebanon Voice looked at timeslips from July through November and found that when compared to timeslips from a similar timeframe in 2012, the average salary paid had gone from about $550 per month during the tenure of Robert Frizzell, Jason Cole and Karen Gerrish, to an average $1,030 with Thompson, Paul Philbrick and Royce Heath.

Thompson and Philbrick account for the lion's share of the increase with Thompson averaging $1,176 a month this summer and fall, and Philbrick taking home $1,149. Heath's take is decidedly lower, at an average of $768 per month.

Still, Heath's average selectmen's pay is more than Cole's $700 average for the months sampled in 2012, which was the highest of the previous board.

Both Thompson and Philbrick defended their hours worked.

In a prepared statement Philbrick said, "I cannot compare my work hours to previous selectmen, I do not know what they were involved with during their time in office. I have tried to account for my hours with a description of what I had been doing during the time recorded on the timeslip."

Thompson said major undertakings taken under his administration include updating contractor paperwork and insurance to make it comply with Department of Labor standards, ongoing Fire and Rescue department issues and spending more time on property assessments.

He also said much more review is being done as far as payroll and accounts payable than had previous boards and that all these things take time.

If Philbrick and Thompson continue working at their present pace, they'll each earn about $14,000 this fiscal year, which runs from July 1 to June 30.

Selectmen pointed out that residents can peruse meeting minutes to see what they're doing on a particular day. Timeslips on file also show a greater effort by selectmen to account for their hours worked than previous boards.

There are no "misc" hours as Frizzell often noted on his timeslips.

Between July and December, Thompson worked an average of 98 hours a month, Philbrick 96 and Heath 64. Selectmen are paid $12 an hour.