Who Needs a Bat When You Can Use Building Code Enforcement to Beat People into Submission
Jen Norris and Ernie & Edith RobichaudEditor's Note: If you click on the blue words, it will take you to the Sun Journal articles that back up the article.
The first time I ever laid eyes on Brian O'Keefe was the night I witnessed the hearing at the Rumford Board of Selectmen meeting on 9/18/08 regarding his supposed "dangerous" building at 14 Prospect Avenue. The discussion struck home with me given the issue was something that I had been passionate about for a couple of years. Ernest Robichaud and I on many occasions had been trying to address the inconsistency and unfairness of the enforcement of code in Rumford. I spoke out once again in defense of Brian O'Keefe and out of sheer urgency to reiterate the points that Ernie and I had been pressing for months.
I had noticed throughout the years that Code Enforcement was used as a political tool to take people out when they bucked the then "iron fisted" Board of Selectmen. Meanwhile, others were overlooked. I was also quietly concerned that given the age of the buildings in Rumford that using the standards set forth in the International Building Code as they were updated was going to give the powers that be all the power they would need to ensure they had the upper hand in the end.
In 2005, shortly after Steve Eldridge was hired as Rumford Town Manager, Fire Chief John Woulfe successfully lobbied the citizenry using his concern for the safety of our tenants as his way to get the law passed at an Annual Town Meeting. The majority of those 125 people who were present voted by a show of hands in favor of the new code.
According to the Sun Journal, after the town leaders were questioned by local resident, Seth Carey, about the excessive expenditures for the Police Department ($902,000) and Fire Department ($946,000), Fire Chief John Woulfe responded by saying, "many factors other than population figure into the Fire Department's needs, such as older building construction, many vacant buildings and a high percentage of older residents. All these help boost the annual budget."
The 2005 budget also included an additional $19,000 for a Code Enforcement Officer. The passage of the Building Codes concerned me because I knew that it could be used to ensure job security for the Fire Department and force any building owner in the Town of Rumford right into foreclosure and bankruptcy because the Town now had the law they needed to beat people into submission.
According to the Sun Journal, in response to Chief Woulfe's "high percentage of older residents" argument used to justify his budget, a local resident, Willard Shurtleff, stated, ""I've watched this over the years. There are a lot of people on pensions. There's no way this can keep going," he said. "You keep rubber-stamping." Eldridge stood firm that the budgets would remain the same until the surrounding towns regionalized, another effort that has failed miserably over the years.
Around this same time, for those of you who were in the know, we heard Steve Eldridge talk about how he wanted to tear down buildings on Waldo, Cumberland, and Falmouth to make way for a new Waldo Street Business District because the potential for growth in the downtown Congress Street area was limited at best due to the geography of the "island". Eldridge also talked about building "low-income" housing far away in the woods and providing public transportation for those same people to go from their low-income housing in the woods to downtown Rumford where they could go grocery shopping and run other errands.
By the grace of God, these and other outlandish schemes caught up with Eldridge who was hell bent on making a name for himself and using whatever means necessary to get there. He fit in well with the iron-fisted Board of Selectmen at the time and had all his players in all the right places to make things happen. According to the Sun Journal, one group of supporters, the River Valley Growth Council, i.e. Rosie Bradley, states, [Steve's policies] "positioned the River Valley for great things to come, especially with the town leaders we had in place." But, he didn't take one thing into consideration: our community members dig their heals in and fight for what Hugh Chisholm and our founding fathers wanted for our little town here in Maine. They believed wholeheartedly then and now in the original Town Charter created to ensure there were checks and balances in our government.
As a result of these and other foolish ideas conjured up by the powers that be in the Town of Rumford municipal, elected, and appointed positions, the community began to take notice of the direction they were headed. And, the community stood up and fought for their democratic rights to free speech and the power to assemble because not only were the things that were being proposed a blatant assault on those who did not agree with their direction for our town but they were far too costly. All of this came at a time when our tax base was decreasing, our population was decreasing, and our real estate values were stagnant. We simply could not afford to help Steve Eldridge build his resume so that he could appear to be a success to outsiders.
In the meantime, the Concerned Citizens for Fiscal Responsibility (CCFR) popped up on the scene. The original members included people like Seth Carey, Mark Belanger, Frank DiConzo, Ron Theriault, and others who joined the fight to stop this path of destruction. I, too, later joined this group after getting illegally squeezed out of the running for the position of Town Manager after Eldridge left. You see, Vice Chairman Lovejoy and Chairman Rinaldo chose citizens from the community (their friends) and allowed them to vote for their choice of Town Manager usurping the three Board of Selectmen who were in favor of interviewing me a second time. But, if it wasn't for the efforts of the CCFR and some of the other fine, upstanding citizens who had the community's best interests in mind, we wouldn't be where we are today.
Thankfully, because of their dogged pursuits to call out those who were side stepping both the local and state laws, they were able to find a way to push Eldridge out when he refused to move to the Town of Rumford, which was required by Town Charter at that time. And, thankfully to two-thirds of our voting citizens, they voted not to change the Charter on his behalf.
His twenty-two supporters ensured that he left with a parting gift which was $69,000 plus $5,000 in legal fees. What was Fire Chief John Woulfe's response to his departure: According to the Sun Journal, Woulfe stated "he hopes Eldridge's departure won't upset the mission of the Fire Department and the level of service." Remember, this is the same guy who with the support of Eldridge pushed for the adoption of the International Building Code standards and the 2003 Uniform Fire Code and Life Safety Code editions.
Thanks to the efforts of the CCFR, after observing what was happening to our town, Mark Belanger was voted in and the Chairman of the Board, Jim Thibodeau was voted off the island in 2006. A couple years later in June 2007 after Eldridge's departure, Jolene Lovejoy, the Vice Chairman of the Board was voted off the island and replaced with Frank DiConzo. Jim Rinaldo, the Chairman of the Board at the time, chose not to run again. The three-two vote swayed in the favor of the people of the community and the newspaper campaigns began.
Unfortunately, Thibodeau, Lovejoy, Rinaldo, and their twenty supporters still had all the existing connections to the media outlets within our community given their past positions and were protected by the powers that be at the Sun Journal who to this day refuses to reveal their sources. Hence, another reason the Rumford Reporter was established and I volunteered to start taping all the Selectmen's meetings to ensure that the community was apprised of what was really going on. And the sound quality of the tapings was improved rather than distorted like tapings of the past. Distorted audio, how convenient?
The next thing we know, John DiConzo, owner of DiConzo's Restaurante and uncle of Frank DiConzo, is experiencing a Code Enforcement beat down started by Chief John Woulfe and carried out by his Gestapo buddies at the Fire Department after his quick departure. This business is also the home of the Candlestick Lounge, a strip club providing adult entertainment a couple of nights a week. This, too, was an issue that Eldridge and his supporters were looking to halt through the use of zoning ordinances initially. The zoning ordinances were defeated by the Rumford Board of Selectmen but the new code enforcement laws accomplished the end result anyways. How convenient.
In September 2008, the Town of Rumford gets John DiConzo for propane tanks that are in an enclosure near the Lowell Street back entrance. State law mandates that they be located at least 10 feet from the back entrance door. According to the Sun Journal, "DiConzo said he decided not to invest an estimated $25,000 to meet required state building code regulations needed to get the licenses." Who in Rumford could afford to invest $25,000 in a building that is either upside down on a mortgage or doesn't have enough equity to pay for one code violation?
Brian O'Keefe was one of Chief John Woulfe's latest victims. Like John DiConzo, O'Keefe was getting beat down by the overzealous building code laws that could be used on all 243 multi-family apartment buildings in this town. His situation started in July 2007 while Woulfe was still on board and was picked up in March 2008 by Code Enforcement Officer Rick Kent after Woulfe left the Town of Rumford. All the electronic and voice communications between Woulfe and O'Keefe were gone and it was easy to make it appear that O'Keefe never followed up on anything, when in fact he did.
