Wiscasset apparently has a choice between laying of an employee, which would cost $72,000 in a lump sum, or continuing to have her work, which would cost just over $30,000 a year.

This latest dilemma for town officials originated about a year ago when selectmen contracted with Tyler Technology to do a town-wide reassessment. After learning that Tyler could update the figures every year for a fixed amount, the selectmen decided to save some money by cutting the amount allocated for assessing.

On November 30 assessor's agent Sue Varney received a layoff notice, effective January 25, because the town has run out of assessing money.

However, according to the union contract, any union members who are laid off get severance pay, which in this contract requires two weeks of pay for every year they have worked.

This week the selectmen and every member of the Budget Committee received a letter from the union (Industrial Union of Marine and Shipbuilding Workers of America, District Lodge 4) spelling out what happens if Varney is laid off.

"I thought it may be beneficial to drop the Wiscasset Selectmen and Budget Committee members a line in order to ensure that you are all aware of the financial costs for the potential layoff of the town's tax assessor, Sue Varney," wrote Joe Flanders, the business representative for the union.

"The taxpayers will be responsible to pay the severance package as spelled out in our collective bargaining agreement," Flanders wrote. He said he asked Varney to compute what she would be owed in her final paycheck, which would be over $62,000.

"There is no wriggling out of paying this sum of money to Sue," Flanders wrote.

In addition, according to the union contract, the town must also pay her more than $10,000 for health, dental, and retirement insurance for four months.

The union maintains that since Varney is the only member of her classification, she is "the only one who can perform the duties that she has historically performed. That work is not limited to assessing taxes." The letter says Flanders will meet with two other members of the union, Town Clerk Sandra Johnson and Treasurer Jim George to come up with a list of these other duties to make sure "any and all of that work ceases the day after she is laid off."

"No one will be permitted to perform the duties that Sue Varney has performed after she is laid off," the letter says. "No one. Not another member of the bargaining unit. Not a volunteer. Not a selectman. Not a subcontractor. No one. The work will cease. If it does not cease, the union will grieve every single instance. If necessary the union will arbitrate any case where anyone performs any of Sue's duties while she is on layoff status. I am confident that any arbitrator will rule that the town cannot lay off the sole member of a classification and then have someone else perform his or her duties."

However, it doesn't end here. Flanders says if a new assessing budget is voted in on June 14, 2008, Varney would have to be called back to work, and if she were laid off again, she would be entitled to another severance package.

"If the townspeople gave her another shortened budget, along the same lines as this year's budget, she would receive another severance package similar in size and scope to the one I have written about earlier in this letter."

"Any sensible person will understand that it makes no economic sense for the taxpayers to pay Varney in excess of $72,000 to lay her off, with all the resultant risks that are involved, rather than keep her employed, performing the duties that only she can, for approximately $30,000. If the town has more than $42,000 that it wants to burn in the parking lot, that may make a nice bonfire, but it makes no sense either politically or economically."

The other tasks which Varney says she does in addition to assessing include maintaining the E911 computer addresses and book, preparing taxpayers' notice lists, reviewing tax bill formats, responding to requests for information from the real estate professionals, appraisers, contractors, media and the public; assisting selectmen with abatement procedures; providing sales analysis information; and a number of "non assessing" duties, including maintenance of confidential personnel files and medical files for all town employees, insurance claims, workers comp claims files, invoicing insurance companies, filing reports to OSHA, and tracking employee sick hours, vacation hours, earned hours, holiday hours and compensation hours.

Varney said this week if she works for another year and four months, she will be eligible to retire at age 55. Besides Varney, Sandra Johnson, and Jim George, the union also includes three Wiscasset Community Center employees, two treatment plant employees and two transfer station employees. The union contract expired June 30, and negotiations have been under way for several months to reach a new contract agreement.

The town also has two other unions - one representing the police department and another representing the highway crew.