CLINTON -- Town officials have added a new face to meetings of the Board of Selectmen -- a uniformed police officer, sidearm and all.

And not everyone is thrilled with the idea.

"It's for the protection of the public," Clinton Town Manager Jim Rhodes said. "He sits so he has a full view of the room -- the doors and entry points. And there's no window behind him so nobody can shoot him in the back of the head."

Rhodes said he conferred with Police Chief Charles Runnels on the idea before implementing it.

Jeffrey Towne, chairman of the Board of Selectmen, responded favorably to the idea in an e-mail to Rhodes.

"The (Board of Selectmen) appreciates the presence of law enforcement at our meetings," Towne wrote.

Rhodes said there have been occasions in Clinton during which the presence of a police officer would have defused a potentially difficult situation.

"There have been some incidents at selectmen's meetings over the last year," the town manager said. "The police chief and I have discussed this -- do you remember what happened out in Missouri?"

Rhodes said a city hall shooting in Kirkwood, Mo., in February "put an idea" in his head to install a police officer at the twice-monthly meetings.

In that incident, a gunman, irked over parking tickets, stormed a city council meeting, killing two police officers, three city councilors and critically injuring the mayor before being shot to death himself.

Rhodes said he called for a police officer to be at meetings on occasion in the past when he was manager for the city of Hallowell.

He said the move in Hallowell was based on information he received from the community that "someone may need to be there" to provide protection to the public during city council meetings.

"Thankfully, the situation never arose, but there were indications that the situation could arise," he said.

Rhodes was manager in Hallowell from 2002-06.

Police Chief Charles Runnels said with three full-time officers and eight reserve officers, the idea is to overlap schedules so that one officer can be at the selectmen's meeting and another can be on the road patrolling.

"We felt that having security at the meetings was a good idea. There have been some incidents around the country, where board meetings, most notably the one in Missouri, were shot up by a disgruntled citizen -- that can happen anywhere," Runnels said. "We thought it would be a good investment of an officer's time ... to be at the meetings to protect the public, obviously the board and anybody else that is in the room."

So far, meetings have lasted only about an hour.

"We try to get continuous overlaps and get continuous coverage," Runnels said.

Runnels said if there never is an incident, then the plan has served its purpose. If there is an incident, there is the officer on duty to address it.

During the March 25 selectmen's meeting, Clinton Patrol Officer Jeff Belanger was on duty for his third selectmen's meeting.

He was stationed -- back to the wall -- next to Deputy Town Clerk Shirley Bailey, who sat next to Rhodes.

During that meeting, resident Raejean Dorr, who attends many selectmen's meetings, said she objected to the presence of a uniformed police officer.

"Are we that dangerous?" Dorr asked during the public comments portion of the meeting. "It's kind of influencing to have him setting there. I feel I must be a villain or something around here -- it makes me a little nervous."

Selectman Randy Clark said a resident came to a meeting "loaded" last year and the board had to ask him to leave. Contentious issues in Clinton, including, most recently, discussion over library accounts and the purchase of a new highway department truck, have left officials feeling threatened, Rhodes said, adding he personally has not been threatened.

Rhodes and Runnels said the cost to the town for each hour a police officer is on duty amounts to $14.45 of regular-time pay. Any overtime accumulated would depend on the officer's shift for the entire week.

Anything beyond 40 hours is considered overtime, they said.

"If he's working beyond his normal shift, he would be paid one or two hours of overtime," Runnels said.

Doug Harlow -- 861-9244

dharlow@centralmaine.com