MACHIAS — Finance Director Jenny Windsor resigned during a special Washington County Commission meeting Wednesday, a move commissioners and county officials said they deeply regretted.
Windsor, whom commissioners hired in April and who started in the position in June, submitted her letter of resignation effective Dec. 17.
In the letter, dated Oct. 28, she said she was “thankful for the experience I have gained during my time with Washington County and especially for the many people I have had the opportunity to work with and get to know.”
Commissioner David Burns said Windsor, who left her position as chief financial officer at St. Croix Regional Family Health Center in Princeton to take the county role, resigned for personal reasons.
“Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much, Jenny, for the work you’ve done and the work you promised to do from now to December,” Burns said.
The commission then voted to post job advertisements for a finance director and a finance assistant.
Machias Savings Bank required the county to create the finance director position in February as a condition to approve a 2026 tax anticipation note, or TAN, allowing the county to borrow up to $7 million.
The county has borrowed $4 million, repaying most of it. At Wednesday’s meeting, Windsor requested authorization from commissioners to pay off the remaining $1.2 million balance, bringing the account to zero.
Paying off the note will not close the account, and the county will remain eligible to borrow the remaining $3 million by year’s end if needed, Windsor said, noting the zero balance will save the county interest through Dec. 31.
Last year, interest on the 2025 TAN totaled $246,000. So far this year, the county has paid $62,719 in interest — a savings commissioners called “amazing.”
Ben Edwards, vice chairman of the county’s Budget Advisory Committee, noted the turnaround from the audience.
“It is worth remembering where we were this time last year, barely making payroll, completely unsure of how we’re going to pay back a $7 million TAN that is paid off now, a couple months early,” Edwards said.
County Manager Renée Gray said the improved outlook was a result of what the county’s towns have “sacrificed.”
Edwards added that everyone on staff also deserved credit.
“The work that you all have done,” he said, “thank you very much.”
Burns noted there has been “sacrifice by each and every town,” while acknowledging Windsor’s role in restoring the county’s accounting practices and financial health.
Burns said Windsor agreed to stay through Dec. 17 to assist with the 2027 budget, recruit a new finance director and continue work on the county’s audit.
“We’re pretty thin in the finance department right now,” he said, thanking Windsor for her willingness to stay for another seven weeks.
Windsor’s departure comes after Washington County’s Provisional Treasurer Grace Falzarano and Finance Manager Sondra Small resigned in late September, citing a hostile work environment, poor communication within the finance department, and the loss of what they described as a team environment.
Falzarano became provisional treasurer in September 2025 after longtime elected Treasurer Jill Holmes resigned when the county’s budget crisis came into focus.
Falzarano submitted her resignation Sept. 28, though commissioners did not announce it until an Oct. 8 meeting. Her resignation took effect Oct. 9.
Small, who joined the county in 2016 as finance clerk and became finance manager and deputy treasurer in 2025, initially resigned as deputy treasurer in a Sept. 28 letter to commissioners. During the Oct. 8 commission meeting, however, she also resigned as finance manager, effective Oct. 22.
Windsor’s resignation leaves Megan Huffman, the finance clerk who has worked for the county since at least 2023, as the sole employee in the department.
On the advice of legal counsel, commissioners also voted Wednesday to confirm that the 2027 budget estimate notebook presented Sept. 10 to the Budget Advisory Committee is the official draft submitted that day. The estimate represents department head and administration requests with no cuts from the commission.
Last week, commissioners and Budget Advisory Committee members received a letter from lawyer Michael Carey of the law firm Brann & Isaacson, representing the Washington County Sheriff’s Office. Carey contended that commissioners violated state law by forwarding the draft budget to the committee without first voting on their own formal estimate.
On Tuesday, Budget Advisory Committee members reviewed a letter to commissioners from the county’s legal counsel, Jonathan Pottle of Katahdin Law of Bangor. Pottle assured commissioners that they had properly submitted the budget to the committee, but recommended a “confirmatory vote” to ease concerns raised by the advisory committee and the Washington County Sheriff’s Office.
In his letter, Pottle suggested language for a motion to confirm the budget estimate submission. Though commissioners used different wording, Edwards deemed the motion acceptable, and the commission approved it unanimously.
The Sheriff’s Office has also filed a broad Freedom of Access Act, or FOAA, request through lawyer David Joyce. The request seeks all public records sent to, received by or held by Commissioners Burns, Billy Howard and Courtney Hammond; Edwards; and staff members in the treasurer’s office. It also requests all Sheriff’s Office expenditures, personnel records and vehicle data for the 2025, 2026, and 2027 budget cycles.
The request covers patrol and investigative units within the Sheriff’s Office, the Washington County Jail, the Regional Communications Center, and any personnel under the sheriff’s command.
Edwards has since been removed from the request.
Edwards and Budget Advisory Committee members, who were concerned their personal devices would be targeted in the FOAA request, have also dropped their request for the county to provide them with legal counsel.
In other matters Wednesday, commissioners agreed to transfer the administrative assistant at the Sheriff’s Office into the International Brotherhood of Teamsters collective bargaining unit.
They also appointed Danforth Town Manager Ardis Brown as the public sector representative on the Avec Community Action board of directors.
Source: themainemonitor.org
