Madawaska’s suspended town manager will have a public hearing as the town’s Select Board moves toward firing him.
Select Board Chair Renee Deschaine told the Bangor Daily News on Thursday night that David Daigle had requested a hearing — as is his right under Maine law.
The hearing allows for public testimony about the board’s decision to fire Daigle with cause. He has been suspended with pay since Sept. 3 over his handling of funding for a controversial August music festival that overran its budget and cost the town more than $41,000.
A hearing does not prevent the Select Board from firing Daigle. The board can vote to accept a final resolution for his removal at the conclusion of the hearing. It does, however, delay the process to fire him by at least a week and a half.
Select boards are required to hold a hearing between 10 and 30 days after a suspended manager requests one. It’s unclear when Daigle made the request, but Deschaine said that an executive session covering personnel matters during Thursday’s board meeting was intended to set a date for the hearing.
Daigle was one of two lead organizers of Northern Maine Summerfest, a single-day festival that brought a handful of relatively unknown artists to perform on the shores of Long Lake in late August.
The event brought in less than $38,000 in revenue against $90,000 in expenses, according to a financial report the Select Board released last week.
The town still expects to receive $10,500 from event sponsorships, the Select Board has said. Even with that money, Madawaska will have lost $41,812.
The board approved a budget of $75,000 for the festival. It has cited the budget overrun as the primary reason for Daigle’s removal.
“There was a number, and it was exceeded, and that’s a problem,” Deschaine said during a Sept. 15 meeting.
Daigle is facing a dueling controversy from allegations that he used his Facebook account to send unwanted sexually explicit messages and video clips to people, though Deschaine has said the board’s decision was not related to that.
In a post, Daigle claimed his account had been hacked. His Facebook account appears to have since been deleted. Daigle has not responded to requests for comment and did not answer the door when a BDN reporter visited his home last Tuesday.