Sweetall v. Town of Blue Hill

661 A.2d 159, 1995 Me. LEXIS 137
CourtSupreme Judicial Court of Maine
DecidedJuly 3, 1995
StatusPublished

This text of 661 A.2d 159 (Sweetall v. Town of Blue Hill) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Judicial Court of Maine primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sweetall v. Town of Blue Hill, 661 A.2d 159, 1995 Me. LEXIS 137 (Me. 1995).

Opinion

CLIFFORD, Justice.

Robert V. and Blanche M. Sweetall appeal from the judgments entered in the Superior Court (Hancock County, Browne, A.R.J. & Kravchuk, J.) in favor of the Town of Blue Hill, the Board of Selectmen, and its Code Enforcement Officer, defendants in three separate actions brought by the Sweetalls. The Sweetalls appeal from the court’s refusal to declare null and void actions taken at a special town meeting, the court’s denial of a temporary restraining order to prohibit the Town from holding that meeting, and the court’s dismissal of their original administrative appeal because of mootness. Finding no eiTor, we affirm the judgments.

The Sweetalls initiated the first court action involved in this appeal (CV-92-38) in 1992, when, pursuant to M.R.Civ.P. 80B, they appealed from the Blue Hill Board of Appeals affirmance of a Planning Board decision that it had no jurisdiction to interfere in the construction of a road or driveway near the Sweetalls’ property. The Sweetalls relied on the 1989 Blue Hill “Revised Site Plan and Subdivision Ordinance” in opposing the construction of the roadway, and later became involved against efforts to repeal that ordinance. The Sweetalls wanted the decision on the repeal of the 1989 ordinance to be by referendum vote, not by vote at a town meeting. The Superior Court decision (Kravchuk, J.) succinctly summarizes the actions that followed:

On July 24,1992, Mr. Sweetall presented the Blue Hill Selectmen with a petition, signed by 177 voters, which contained two referendum questions relating to that ordinance. The petition was signed by duly qualified voters of the Town of Blue Hill in a number greater than 10% of the votes cast in the town in the prior gubernatorial elections and thus was in compliance with 30-A M.R.S.A. Sec. 2528(5).
The referendum questions sought to have the voters determine whether the 1989 ordinance should be repealed or revised prior to the March, 1993, next annual town meeting, when a secret ballot referendum would be held. The second referendum question sought to insure that the ordinance could be revised or repealed by secret ballot.
The Selectmen of the Town of Blue Hill called a special town meeting for October 30, 1992, and placed an article on the warrant to repeal the 1989 ordinance. On October 15, 1992, the Plaintiffs filed with [the Superior Court] CV-92-162 wherein they sought to enjoin the Town from considering repeal of the 1989 amendment prior to holding the referendum vote pursuant to their petition. The Plaintiffs’ request for a Temporary Restraining Order was denied [by the Superior Court {Broume, AE./.) ] and the meeting was held as scheduled on October 30, 1992.
The October 30th special Town meeting warrant did not contain the articles requested by the petition. However, the minutes of the meeting reflect that the 1989 ordinance was repealed by written vote pursuant to Article 6 of the warrant. The Town of Blue Hill next participated in the November, 1992, State and Federal elections, using a secret ballot electronic voting system. Although various State referendum issues were on the November ballot, the Town did not place the articles in Plaintiffs’ referendum on any ballot.
On November 20,1992 following the October Town Meeting and the November elections, the Plaintiffs filed CV-92-184, an action seeking relief pursuant to Rule 80B, Me. Rules of Civil Procedure, and for declaratory judgment wherein the [plaintiffs] [162]*162sought to have the actions of the October 30th Town Meeting declared void.
The Selectmen of the Town of Blue Hill did not put the articles in the Petition on a referendum until the annual Town meeting in March, 1993. At that time a majority of voters voted “YES” to the question of whether the 1989 ordinance should be repealed prior to the 1993 annual meeting and “NO” to the question of whether the 1989 ordinance could be repealed only by secret ballot, as opposed to written ballot immediately following public discussion at a Town Meeting. The vote essentially ratified the action taken at the October 30th Town Meeting wherein the 1989 ordinance had been repealed by written ballot.

The Superior Court denied the Sweetalls’ motion for a trial on the facts pursuant to M.R.Civ.P. 80B(d) because it found that the parties’ stipulations presented an adequate factual record. The court held that the town meeting in Blue Hill on October 30, 1992, at which the 1989 ordinance was repealed, and the action on the Sweetalls’ petition at the March 1993 town meeting, did not violate the Sweetalls’ constitutional or statutory rights. The court dismissed for mootness the Swee-talls’ first action, CV-92-38, the original Rule 80B appeal from the 1992 decision of the Blue Hill Board of Appeals; and it found that because the ordinance in question was validly repealed by the voters of Blue Hill, there was no reason to interpret the prior provisions of the ordinance as requested by the Sweetalls, and no need to remand to the Board of Appeals for written findings of fact. This appeal followed.

I.

The Sweetalls contend that the selectmen violated the provisions of 30-A M.R.S.A. § 2528(5) (Pamph.1994) governing the direct initiative and referendum process, and their constitutional right to vote. They also contend that the selectmen should have requested the Secretary of State, pursuant to 21-A M.R.S.A. § 604-A (1993), to include the articles in the petition on the ballots in the November 1992 federal and state election. They also argue that by calling for a special town meeting on October 30,1992 to consider measures competing with the measures proposed by the plaintiffs, the selectmen circumvented the initiative and referendum process provided for in Maine’s Constitution and in section 2528(5).

30-A M.R.S.A. § 2528 governs how a town votes on municipal referenda elections. Section 2528(5) reads in pertinent part:

5. Referenda questions. By order of the municipal officers or on the written petition of a number of voters equal to at least 10% of the number of votes cast in the town at the last gubernatorial election, but in no case less than 10, the municipal officers shall have a particular article placed on the next ballot printed or shall call a special town meeting for its consideration.

(Emphasis added.) Section 2528(5) places discretion in the municipal officers as to whether an initiated question be placed on a printed ballot, or dealt with at a special town meeting. Common sense dictates that the “next ballot printed” be construed to mean the next municipal ballot. Although municipal officers may request that the Secretary of State print a municipal referendum question on the state ballot, the Secretary has discretion whether to include it. See 21-A M.R.S.A. § 604^A (“[T]he Secretary of State may make suitable arrangement for the printing of candidate, referendum and municipal election ballots on a single paper ballot or ballot card used in conjunction with electronic voting systems ... [and] may only allow such a combination if he finds that it is in the interest of the election process and that it will not contribute to voter confusion or unreasonable administrative difficulties.”) Accordingly, the municipal officers acted within their discretion in declining to request that the referendum questions be placed on the state ballot.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Bird v. Town of Old Orchard Beach
426 A.2d 370 (Supreme Judicial Court of Maine, 1981)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
661 A.2d 159, 1995 Me. LEXIS 137, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sweetall-v-town-of-blue-hill-me-1995.