Lewiston Workers (MSEA) Help Defeat Proposal to Eliminate City Health Inspector

PHOTO: MSEA Chapter 5 President Adam Jones speaking at Tuesday's Lewiston City Council meeting.

The Lewiston City Council voted 7-0 on Tuesday to defeat a proposal to eliminate the city’s health inspector position after unionized staff, restaurant owners and others came out strongly opposed to the measure. At the meeting, Council President Scott Harriman said the plan to let the state take over health inspections “sounded like a good idea at the time,” but that after hearing from the public, restaurant owners and staff he reversed his position.

The vote followed months of tensions between Mayor Sheline and city staff with the Maine Service Employees Association (MSEA-SEIU 1989), 95 percent of whom voted no confidence in the mayor after the city fired the city's longtime director of planning and proposed eliminating city’s sanitation inspector Louis Lachance position after he had DaVinci’s Eatery temporarily closed after failing a health inspection due to a cockroach infestation.

At a city council meeting in February, Adam Jones, president of the Local Chapter 5 MSEA, called for Sheline’s impeachment. He said there was a perception by his members that there is a “lack of transparency and accountability” within the mayor position and argued that the mayor favored certain businesses over others.

“Morale is really low," Jones said of his members. "They’re questioning if they can facilitate their jobs to the best of their abilities, or if they’re going to be punished for it.”

Several Lewiston residents spoke out in favor of keeping the health inspection program, which has existed in Lewiston for 64 years. Many pointed out that the state is too short staffed to adequately inspect all of the establishments in the city. Lewiston seafood dealer Paula White praised the sanitation inspector for being “extremely resourceful and helpful” in assisting her comply with health regulations

“I haven’t met an inspector yet that understood [cross contamination] to that level and I think the biggest reason is because this particular inspector owned his own restaurant so he knows the difference between an infraction and a major violation and he’s not going to play political games.”

At the meeting, Jones thanked the Council for doing its “due diligence” and “asking the right questions,” but he also emphasized that “everybody needs to be aware of…is who presented this in the first place.”

“This agreement with the state of Maine and its very existence,” said Jones, “is why that member is able to protect the citizens of this great city and also help the state, which is unfortunately short on resources, take that load off of their shoulders.”