East Millinocket’s Select Board chair, town administrator and grant manager abruptly announced their resignations during Tuesday’s Select Board meeting.
Select Board Chair Clint Linscott and grant manager Leslie Anderson resigned from their positions on Tuesday. Town Administrator Denise Gibbs had previously sent her resignation to the Select Board on Jan. 30.
During Tuesday’s meeting, Linscott said Selectman Mike Michaud, a former congressman and Democratic gubernatorial candidate, had pushed him and roughly a dozen other town employees out of their roles over the past two years.
Gibbs agreed with Linscott in her resignation.
“I’m not going into specifics, but there’s issues between him and I,” Gibbs said about the former representative.
Anderson did not attend the meeting. The board made no decision on Tuesday about when the grant manager and town administrator positions would be posted or filled.
East Millinocket’s local government is now peppered with vacancies because of what Gibbs called “a sustained pattern of governance interference, micromanagement, and inappropriate involvement by members of the Select Board in day-to-day administration” in her resignation letter.
The resignations come during a time when the town is attempting to revitalize the area that was once home to the Great Northern Paper Co. mill. The 1,400-acre site, which shut down in 2008, has received multiple grants and possible reuse prospects in the five years the town has owned it, including a $300 million data center, but nothing has come to fruition yet.
Michaud has been securing grants and funding for the former mill site but has not been documenting how the funding has been used, Linscott said. Michaud’s determination to revitalize the mill site has pushed town officials out of their jobs, Linscott said, which led him to submit his resignation from the Select Board Tuesday night.
“We’ve had turnover after turnover in that office. People have come and talked to me and talked to a former co-chair. It’s all on you, Mike. All of it,” Linscott said.
Linscott said Michaud has bullied and harassed people, leading them to quit their positions. Roughly a dozen people have resigned from town positions since 2022, Linscott said, with multiple citing Michaud as a reason why.
Michaud said all of the funding, money or information about the grants or contracts at the mill site are accounted for and properly filed in the town office.
His determination and questioning of the town’s funding, actions and responsibilities have been labeled as harassment, he said.
“We have a responsibility to do our work, and unfortunately, some people think us doing our work is harassment versus us questioning things,” Michaud said.
Michaud was censured on Sept. 2, 2025, by three of his fellow board members, who said he had publicly undermined the town administrator and staff, interfered in personnel matters, made inappropriate direct contacts with employees and outside parties regarding personnel matters, and made public comments and actions that contributed to a hostile work environment, according to meeting minutes.
Gibbs did not name Michaud in her resignation letter, but said that Select Board members had overstepped their roles on the board.
“Over an extended period, I have experienced repeated improper interference in operational decision-making, personnel administration, and staff direction, including actions that undermine chain of command and the professional independence necessary to carry out the Town Administrator’s responsibilities,” Gibbs said, reading her resignation letter.
East Millinocket runs on a select-board government structure. This system of government gives little authority to the town administrator and puts every decision in the hands of the elected board members or the voters during town meetings, according to the Maine Municipal Association.
In her resignation letter, Gibbs cited a 2025 meeting in which board members said they had to approve her actions for the recreation department.
Gibbs told the board she would “implement Board policy within lawful governance boundaries and through appropriate administrative procedures and chain-of-command,” but was accused of insubordination and told that changes would be made to her role and authority, she wrote.
Board member Greg Hale, who couldn’t attend the meeting, wrote in a letter read by Michaud that there was no wrongdoing by any board member.
“I personally feel that the board has shown great restraint in interfering with the daily function of the town administrator and has allowed the position to function appropriately as it was designed to do so under the direction of the Select Board,” Hale wrote.
Linscott stopped Michaud from reading a section of the letter where Hale wrote that the town administrator had been insubordinate, saying that criticizing a town employee goes against the town’s policy, Linscott said.
Multiple residents spoke in support of Linscott and Gibbs’ work for the town.
Board Member Charles Theriault Sr. briefly said he supports the work Linscott has done.
The fourth board member in attendance, Dan Byron, questioned twice why Linscott was resigning.
“I never knew you as a quitter,” Byron said following Linscott’s resignation.
There was no formal vote to accept any of the resignations.
