ALFRED, Maine — David R. Burns resigned his selectmen’s seat by telephone to the other two members of the Board of Selectmen Tuesday in the wake of findings that he violated eight state election finance laws in his successful bid for state representative.
Burns is one year into his third selectman’s term. His resignation will become effective at the end of the 2012 town meeting, which is set for March 31, avoiding the necessity of holding a special town meeting, selectmen said.
Burns briefly referred to his state-level troubles as he spoke to Selectman Glen “Doc” Dochtermann and Selectmen Chairman John Sylvester by speakerphone Tuesday evening.
“Sometimes things happen unintentionally that look intentional,” Burns said. “We have to move on, fix things and make it right.”
Burns’ continued tenure on the Board of Selectmen, in the wake of the findings, elicited a “significant” number of telephone calls, questions and comments to selectmen and staff at Alfred Town Hall, said Sylvester, calling into question the integrity of the Board.
The three selectmen spoke about the situation over two meetings, one in open session Jan. 3, and a second in a closed-door session Jan. 13, and Burns made an offer to resign.
“Doc and I have talked about your offer. We appreciate it and thank you for yet again putting the town first, and we’re of a mind to accept it,” said Sylvester. “It breaks our hearts, David.”
Sylvester said the three members of the board had worked well together and that the situation saddened him.
“Our philosophies and approach to things are very much different, but we found a way in every significant instance to put the town first and come together to make decisions that are in the best interests of the town,” Sylvester said. “That is the tragedy of this.”
“David will be missed,” said Dochtermann. “He was a strong selectman.”
“We were able to move the town forward,” said Burns by telephone. He said he would continue to be involved in the town in some capacity.
Burns was elected to the Maine House of Representatives for a term that began in January 2011, representing District 138, including Alfred, Limerick, Shapleigh and Newfield.
In November, he was found by the state ethics commission to have violated eight Maine election laws, including falsifying records, misusing Maine Clean Election Act funds, illegally mingling MCEA funds with personal funds, making false statements, using funds not related to his campaign, misreporting expenditures, using campaign funds for his personal use and using MCEA funds to pay for goods received prior to his certification as a MCEA candidate.
Ethics commission chairman Walter McKee, during the November hearing, called Burns’ actions “mind-boggling.”
“I certainly have never seen anything at this level in terms of severity,” said McKee at the hearing.
As well as finding Burns guilty of violating campaign finance laws, the ethics commission referred the matter to the attorney general’s office for possible prosecution.
His resignation means there will be two selectmen’s position on the March 30 ballot. Sylvester is seeking to be re-elected to a three-year term, and there will be an opening for the two years remaining on Burns’ term.
Nomination papers for the two-year selectman’s term will be available Thursday, said Town Clerk Andrew Bors. Nomination papers for the other election slots — the three-year selectman’s term, an RSU 57 director, road commissioner and trustees of Parsons Memorial Library — have been available for some time. All must be turned in to the town clerk’s office by Feb. 14.
While he is resigning his selectman’s seat, it appears Burns has no plans to do the same at the State House — while talking with selectmen by phone Tuesday he referred to legislative meetings scheduled in the coming weeks.
If he was found guilty by the ethics commission then he should be GONE. This is what is WRONG with this whole country’s political process. This guy is nothing but a bully politician.
That pretty much describes republicans in general, state and federal.
Did you miss the headline at the top of the page about DEMOCRAT Paul Violette?
What are you talking about? He’s a Republican.
Actually I googled him and it said he is a former Democrat politician. My bad!
I was unaware that Violette was a democrat or even a politician
for that matter.
What difference does it make which party a “dirty politician” belongs to? I don’t care if it is a “dirty republican” in the case of Burns, or a “dirty democrat” in the case of Violette, or a “dirty cop” in the case of Penobscot County Sheriff Glenn Ross. If they are “dirty” they need to go. No if’s and’s or but’s.
I think the article was about republican David R. Burns, representing House District 138, Alfred. I find no mention of any Paul Violette whatsoever in the article. You sound confused.
Or do you remember the vote stuffing John Martin?
i’m a life long dem, but i would be happy to provide a list of the miscreant Dems in recent history.
face it. slime comes in red and blue and rides a donkey or an elephant. no difference.
i might be way off base, but i think the reason elected officials don’t automatically lose their seats in these instances is to protect the voters choice. the extreme case would be that an innocent politician might be falsely accused and prosecuted for political purposes, effectively bypassing the voters’ choice.
in this case, the system work. the ethics committee found him guilty, referred the case to the AG and the man has resigned.
Dear BDN I would like to apoligize for thinking this guy was a democrat because his party affiliation was not mentioned in the story, and I figured the BDN was just being biased towards the democrats. Having said that I still think the “unclean” election fund is a scam that forces taxpayers to fund the overbloated campaigns of hack politicians on both sides of the political debate. Although no democrat has ever abused this system ;) STOP STEALING FROM TAXPAYERS!
Didn’t you get the memo? You’re supposed to steal AFTER you’re in office…
He was honing his skills prior to taking office ’cause he wanted to be as skilled as the big boys, you know, like Nutting.
It’s in the manual. You don’t get the manual until you are sworn in . . .
The Heritage fund sends it out for free, courtesy of the Koch brothers.
Clean Election Act funds=political subsidies. Government should not be subsidizing any business, especially politicians!
Tell that to everyone who writes their PAC donations off of their taxes.
if the Clean Elections Act did not exist, only rich people could run for office.
Clean Election funds help to assure that our representatives represent us.
Given that the article fails to mention what party Mr. Burns belongs to, one can safely assume he is a dimocrat. Were he a Republican the letters GOP would be mentioned in every sentance in the article. Yet more impartiality on the behalf of the BDN.
Hate to break this to you, but Rep. Burns is a Republican. How does that crow taste?
Hell of the thing is, I have the same suspicion.
? he’s a republican from alfred.
Don’t know the guy, never heard of him before this SNAFU. Read through the article two or three times, looking for the (D) or (R). Did not find one. They usually say. And the BDN does have bias.
it took exactly 30 seconds to google ‘david burns maine’ to find out if he was R or D. why not do that instead of suspecting…?
ps. the ‘BDN is biased’ comment comes off like ignorance of how the media works with a side of sour grapes.
All “media” is biased, one way or another. It’s human nature. I think I’ll continue to remember that, even if I happen to agree with the slant . . .
and my younger brother, if you all have questions, i’ll give you facts. it’s is the least i can do to try and salvage some of my grandparants reputation, they were good people, dems, not that that makes a differance in this case, party has nothing to do with it. he’s an opportunist.
Wrong. Mr. Burns is a typical republican.
Next…….
Wrong… he ran as and was elected as a Republican. I would think that you would have checked it out before you made your comment. It also appears your spell checker is off . Have a nice day.
Was there an apology that I missed or are you like all the other Republicans, just make believe
the mistake never happened. The GOP really should get there stuff together.
Although it is more fun this way. Let us all know how the crow tastes.
Certified ethically brain dead. Apparently feels not an impediment to continuing in house of representatives.
That condition affects a lot of republicans in general.
Believe me I hold no brief for the current mutation of the G.O.P. but this condition is apt to strike across party lines and is known to prey on all known nodes of humanity.
“Sometimes things happen unintentionally that look intentional,” Burns said.
translation: bad liar
how do you unintentionlly fabricate 3 false doc’s dragging family and well known townfolk into it, and imply that the non-existant signs were stolen by his political rival. it doesn’t end there….he is heavy, and he’s my brother.
Okay, he’s resigning as Selectman, but retaining his seat in the Legislature…..so shouldn’t there be a D or an R after his name somewhere in this article?
it is an R
Hey hows a guy suppose to win any seat in our goverment if he actually follows the clean election rule book ? LOL. Sounds to me like he has the qualifications to be in the house , senate or any other political seat he chooses, right next to all the other crooks !
and to think at my jobplace you can get fired for wearing a pair of company issued gloves or safety glasses home….
… darn, wrong Rep. David Burns :(
and did you notice how they protected his political party by not mentioning it in this article or did I miss it?????????? I have never seen an article where the political party isn’t mentioned.
The article seems to leave out the fact that he is a Republican. Thought I’d mention that, for clarity.