WATERVILLE -- City councilors will get paid for attending budget workshops.

Tuesday the council voted 5-2 to override a mayoral veto that had blocked the payment.

The controversy began last month when councilors voted to designate budget workshops on April 22 and 29 and May 13 and 27 as special council meetings.

The designation allowed them to be paid $50 per meeting -- the same amount paid to attend regular council meetings, held twice a month.

Four councilors approved the request, one opposed it and two abstained.

But Mayor Paul R. LePage vetoed the action April 23. The City Charter, he said, did not intend budget workshops to be official business meetings and attendance was voluntary.

He also cited difficult financial times as a reason councilors should not be paid. Attendance is a public service, he said.

A majority of councilors disagreed.

Stephen Aucoin, D-Ward 7, said historically, people have been elected to office who could afford to serve and poorer residents should be encouraged to run for office knowing they will be compensated.

"If poor people can not serve because of that small lack of money, then we do them and ourselves an injustice," he said.

Councilor John O'Donnell, D-Ward 5, said he and others do not agree attendance at budget workshops is voluntary.

Aucoin, O'Donnell, councilors Dana W. Sennett, D-Ward 4, Charles "Fred" Stubbert, D-Ward 1, and Henry Beck, D-Ward 2, voted to override the mayor's veto.

Councilors Rosemary Winslow, D-Ward 3, and Thomas R. W. Longstaff, D-Ward 6, voted against overriding.

City Solicitor William Lee noted after the April 23 veto that the first council vote on budget workshops would have been invalid, despite a veto. The charter requires five or more councilors to approve setting special council meetings and the vote April 15 was 4-1-2, he said.

Wednesday, Lee said the five votes Tuesday resolved any questions and charter requirements were met. "While the format is not ideal, I don't think that it's fatal to it," Lee said.

In other matters Tuesday, councilors voted unanimously to award a $65,950 contract to Pike Industries, Inc., of Fairfield to do a shim and pavement project on Grove Street. Grove Street is a state aid road, meaning the state is responsible for major construction and repair and the city is responsible for yearly maintenance, including snow plowing.

LePage said the city will be doing what it has done on other city roads that the state is responsible for fixing -- taking taxpayer money to do the work.

Amy Calder -- 861-9247

acalder@centralmaine.com