CITIZEN INQUIRY, COMPLAINT, CONCERN OR SUGGESTON
All Town Officials, employees and citizen volunteers to the best of their abilities should respond to Citizen inquiries, complaints and concerns. If they are unable to respond to the citizen then they should report the matter to the Town Office.
They are directed to respond to each Citizen’s inquiries, complaints and concerns, as soon as possible. This is exclusive of emergency services such as, Fire and Ambulance which shall receive immediate attention from the agency asked to respond.
Also, suggestions about how the Town could improve operations should be reported to the Town Office or Town Manager. They should be give the Citizens a courteous and timely response. If they are unable to give a Citizen an immediate response, then he or she should advise a Citizen when the Citizen should expect to receive a contact from an appropriate Town Official or employee.
If the matter is not taken care of at the time of first contact, they should collect and report the minimum information: the date, time, name of concerned person, the nature of the inquiry, complaint, concern or suggestion and how the Town Office or appropriate person can or should contact the Citizen. The initial response to each matter will either be in the form of a phone call or personal contact. Any required follow up response shall be in the form of personal contact phone call or a letter.
It is customary to reply to an oral request orally; and to reply to a written request in writing unless the Citizen asks for a response in a special way. All written inquiries, concerns, complaints and suggestions will be filed for future reference for at least one year. A Citizen may complete a specially designed “Complaint Form”, original form will be submitted to the Town Manager for review and possible further follow up.
The file containing the completed forms will be open to the public. The exception will be forms listing complaints and concerns of a confidential nature Then Citizens who are not satisfied with the Town Managers handling of their matter may ask for their “Complaint Form” and file to be submitted to the Town at their next regularly scheduled meeting.
Town Council will consider the matter and may suggest, request or direct the Town Manager to make an alternate response. If the Citizen has raised a matter that is the responsibility of the State of Maine or a United States Federal Office, then the Citizen should be advised how to contact the appropriate State or Federal Official or Office.
They should be advised that if they unable to obtain assistance from a State or Federal contact and continue to have difficulty that they may return a call to the Town Office for additional contacts and that they may obtain better contacts by calling their State Senator or local Representative for State matters or their US Senators or Congressional Representative.
Their names and contact information should be offered in such cases. For example if a Citizen wishes to obtain an official response regarding the maintenance, except snow plowing, of Airport Rd, Cove Road, Back Winterport Rd, Lebanon Rd West of Coles Corner Rd or Stream Rd West of Airport Rd, the Citizen should be referred to the Rockland District Office of the Maine Department of Transportation.
“COMPLAINT FORM”
The CONTACT form may be used by Citizens for multiple purposes and may be used to direct any kind of communication to any official or employee listed in the Contact Us link.