FAIRFIELD -- Town councilors are scheduled tonight to confirm the appointment of Lisa McLaughlin of Skowhegan as the town's new economic and community development planner.

The meeting of the council is set for 7 p.m. in the Community Center on Water Street.

The council also is slated to vote on a proposed charter amendment regarding write-in candidate voting and to sign the warrants for June 3 referendum voting for the schools and June 10 for state and municipal voting.

McLaughlin, who previously served as executive director of the Skowhegan Main Street program, actually started working at the Fairfield Town Office last week.

McLaughlin, 46, left the Skowhegan program in April after just over four months.

"Fairfield offered me the position and I accepted -- I had actually been interested in Fairfield a year-and-a-half prior," she said Monday, her first official day on the job.

She moved from the Millinocket area to Skowhegan in December.

On Monday, McLaughlin declined to say too much about her departure from her position there. The town had paid for her move to Skowhegan.

"I don't want to do an interview about Main Street -- I'm not at Main Street anymore, that's behind me and the focus is Fairfield and the economic development position," McLaughlin said. "I wish them the best of luck. I can understand if people may be upset (in Skowhegan). They have a right to feel how they want, but this wasn't a planned thing."

On the amendment to the town charter, Town Clerk Tracey Stevens is proposing to bring local voting practices in line with state standards. The existing ordinance forces ballot clerks to count every write-in vote that is submitted during elections.

Under state election laws, clerks only count write-ins when the person has declared himself or herself to be a write-in candidate, Stevens said.

"The reason is the election clerks don't have to sit around for three hours to count write-in votes," she said Monday. "What we want is people declaring that they are a write-in candidate. Sometimes people write in people who don't want to serve. It's really a money saver."

She said the effort will save time and the cost of running elections.

The June 3 referendum is called districtwide to confirm or "validate" votes cast during the May 27 School Administrative District 49 budget meeting. Voters in Albion, Benton, Clinton and Fairfield will meet on that date to ratify the proposed $23.49 million spending package for the coming year.

Voting June 10 is to be for statewide primaries, state referenda and the local municipal question on the charter change.

Doug Harlow -- 861-9244

dharlow@centralmaine.com