Windham Town Council elects Maxfield as council chair

By Ed Pierce

With two incumbent councilors, Bill Reiner and David Nadeau, sworn in to serve at the start of Tuesday night’s Windham Town Council meeting, councilors elected a new chairperson, leadership team and made committee assignments for the coming year.

Councilor Jarrod Maxfield
has been elected to serve
as chair of the Windham
Town Council for the
coming year. He has
represented Windham's
North District on the
council since 2016.
FILE PHOTO   

Councilor Jarrod Maxfield was elected as the new Windham Town Council chair, succeeding Mark Morrison in that position. The council also nominated and elected Bill Reiner to serve as the council’s vice-chair and David Nadeau as the council’s parliamentarian.

Maxfield has lived in Windham since 2011 and owns a computer technology business. He has represented Windham’s North District since 2016.

The council also chose Nadeau to serve on the Finance Committee along with Councilors Reiner and Nicholas Kalogerakis. Elected to serve on the Appointments Committee for the coming year are Councilors John Henry, Reiner and Morrison.

Kalogerakis, who represents Windham’s South District, will join Maxfield in continuing to serve as the council’s delegates to the Windham Economic Development Corporation Board of Directors.

Councilor Brett Jones, who represents Windham’s East District, was elected as the council’s representative to the Natural Resources Advisory Committee and as the council’s representative to the Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee.

Council members Maxfield, Nadeau, and Henry were elected to serve on the Ordinance Committee.

Councilors Nadeau, Maxfield and Henry were chosen to serve on the Ordinance Committee, while Morrison was elected as the council’s lone representative to the Substance Prevention Grant Committee.

Reiner will serve as the council’s representative on the Energy Advisory Committee, while Maxfield will represent the town as Windham’s delegate to the Greater Portland Council of Governments General Assembly (GPCGGA). Assistant Windham Town Manager Bob Burns was appointed by the council as Alternate Delegate to the GPCGGA.

Burns was appointed by councilors to be Windham’s delegate to the ecoMaine Board of Directors. Council Nadeau will be the town’s Alternate Delegate to that board.

During the council meeting, councilors discussed adopting amended rules about how to handle a tie vote. Windham Town Manager Barry Tibbetts suggested that the council follow Planning Board rules where if a vote is tied as a result of an absence, the issue carries over to the next meeting when hopefully all seven council members will be there.

A question arose about what would happen if a councilor were to abstain from voting resulting in a tie vote. Tibbetts said the amended rules would be that the issue would be carried over to the next meeting if it was tied and if a councilor abstained again then the motion or issue would fail.

The councilors voted to table a vote about the amended rules until the next meeting.

In another action, the Windham Town Council appointed Brian Morin as Windham’s Public Works Director. Morin has spent the past three months as the town’s interim Public Works Director and formerly served as Windham’s Facilities and Grounds Director.

Morin said he was grateful for the appointment and for the support shown to him by the council, the town manager and residents in the community. <