In 2009, Eliot voters approved an agreement with Eliot Commons. The Town paid every year for fifteen years. Then it stopped, declared the matter closed in a letter, and is now spending public money on lawyers. We searched sixty posted Select Board meetings. There is no vote on any of it.
Every fact on this page links to a document the Town of Eliot posted or produced itself. Read them. Check us.
Tap to play. About 8 minutes. Sound on. If it stalls, give it a moment; it keeps loading while you watch.
Eight minutes. How the agreement started, what got built, what the Town approved in 2013, what its own spreadsheet says, and the vote that never happened. Told by Fred Forsley.
On-screen documents are the Town's, unaltered except for cropping and highlights.
A TIF is simple. When a property is improved and its taxes go up, the Town agrees to send most of the new tax money back to the owner, for a set number of years, to pay for the improvements. Eliot voters approved one for Eliot Commons in 2009.
At a Special Town Meeting on February 11, 2009, voters approved the Eliot Commons TIF district. The State approved it March 31, 2009. The Town and Sea Dog Realty signed the Credit Enhancement Agreement on January 28, 2010: 95% of the new tax revenue goes back to the developer to reimburse project costs.
Source: Town Meeting return and agreement in the Town's own records reply, pages 11–43 and 169–173 · S3
The original plan listed a hotel. In July 2013 the Planning Board was told the site was in the TIF district and approved 38 units of senior housing, 4 to 0. Two days later the Board of Selectmen voted 4 to 0 to move sewer capacity from the hotel to the housing. The written decision says: “The applicant agrees to forego construction of the hotel.” The Residences at Eliot Commons were built.
Source: the Town's own 42-page bundle, pages 22–23, 29 and 37 · S1
Payments were made from fiscal 2010 through fiscal 2024. The last one was July 2024. In 2025 the Town's own calculation sheet still worked out the 95% share owed for fiscal 2026. No check came.
Source: Town Manager's letter of Jan. 21, 2026 (S1 p.3); FY2026 calculation sheet (S3 p.191); Town e-mails of July 18, 2024 (S3 p.196)
On January 21, 2026 the Town Manager, Michael J. Sullivan, signed a letter calling it the Town's “final decision”: the Town said it had overpaid and owed nothing more. The letter is copied to the Select Board. No Select Board vote precedes it in the posted minutes. The spreadsheet the Town posted alongside it says: “I could not find actual payment amounts.”
Source: S1 pp.1–5; assessor spreadsheet, S2 pp.1–2
We read every posted Select Board minutes file from January 2024 through August 2026. There is no motion or vote to suspend the payments, to issue the “final decision,” or to pay lawyers to fight the case. On May 28, 2026 the item “Town Manager Legal Authorization” ends: “No motion was made and no vote taken.” Eliot's Charter says the Select Board “shall act as a unit by formal vote in authorized meetings.”
Source: Select Board minutes, May 28, 2026, p.3 · S9; Eliot Town Charter §2.7
Tap any page to read it. Every one is on the Town's website or in the records the Town sent us. We added nothing.
Exhibit 1 · 2013Read the page“…that allotment to come from the 6,000 gallons that has already been set aside for the hotel. VOTE 4-0 Chair concurs”
The board was told Sea Dog “would develop the senior housing and would not develop the hotel.” The Town knew about the change, and acted on it.
Board of Selectmen minutes, July 18, 2013 · eliotme.gov, Town bundle p.29
Exhibit 2 · 2013Read the page“The applicant agrees to forego construction of the hotel and use 4,500 of the previously allocated 6,000 GPD…”
Signed for the Planning Board chairman and copied to the tax assessor, the code officer and the Business Development Committee.
Notice of Decision, Aug. 20, 2013 · eliotme.gov, Town bundle p.37
Exhibit 3 · 2026Read the page“These figures were made using yearly TIF sheets, I could not find actual payment amounts, so pulled from commitment books.”
The same spreadsheet gives two different “overpayment” totals on two sheets, and neither matches the figure in the Town Manager's letters.
Assessor Spreadsheets, posted May 19, 2026 · eliotme.gov, pp.1–2
Exhibit 4 · 2026Read the page“Town Manager Legal Authorization… No motion was made and no vote taken. All members agreed.”
This is the only item in sixty meetings that touches who decides legal matters. It is not a vote. Two earlier executive sessions “to engage legal counsel” ended without returning to public session.
Select Board minutes, May 28, 2026 · eliotme.gov, p.3
Exhibit 5 · 2010Read the page“…the Town shall not suspend or discontinue any payment hereunder or terminate this Agreement for any cause, other than by court order…”
In fairness: the sentence opens “Subject to compliance with the terms and conditions of this Agreement.” The Town will argue those words. We think the 2013 votes answer them. A court has not decided.
Credit Enhancement Agreement §3.4 · Town's records reply, p.27
Exhibit 6 · 2026Read the page“Michael J. Sullivan, Town of Eliot, Manager” · cc: Eliot Select Board
The Town Manager was appointed by the Select Board on October 28, 2021. The payments continued for three years after that, then stopped. The letter that ended them carries one signature.
Town Manager letter, Jan. 21, 2026 · eliotme.gov, Town bundle pp.1–5
That new tax value is what the agreement was for. By the Town's own fiscal 2026 calculation sheet:
The same sheet computes “95% of total to be paid to Sea Dog Realty LLC: $95,258.76.” It was never paid. Town's records reply, p.191
The Town says it overpaid. Its own documents give three different answers for how much it paid at all:
And three different “overpayment” figures: about $200,000 in the letters, $654,259.59 on one sheet, $596,921.21 on the next. Assessor Spreadsheets, eliotme.gov
Whatever you think of this dispute, the second part should be easy to agree on. Starting, defending or settling a lawsuit with your money is a decision the Select Board should make by roll-call vote, where you can see it.
“Shall the Town require a public roll-call vote of the Select Board before the Town starts, defends or settles any lawsuit, and require a public report of the Town's legal fees at least every three months?”
How it gets on the ballot. Under Eliot's Charter (§2.13), an Eliot resident asks the Select Board in writing to put the article on the warrant. If the Board refuses, a petition signed by about 390 registered Eliot voters requires it. We are aiming for 500. The petition must be led by Eliot residents. The online pledge below is how we find each other.
Signing the pledge says you support putting the question to a vote. It is not the legal petition. Paper signatures from registered Eliot voters are what the Town Clerk counts, and we will bring the petition to you.
Your information stays with the campaign. We will not sell it or share it. We will use it to tell you when and where to sign, and when the Select Board takes this up.
Pledges go to the campaign, not to the Town. Nothing on this page is legal advice.
Every source we rely on, linked to where it lives. The Town's files open on the Town's own website. Our full evidence brief lists the page for every quote.
You should hear the Town's argument from us, not just ours. Here it is, from the Town's own letters.
The case is Sea Dog Realty LLC v. Town of Eliot, in the Maine Business and Consumer Court. A judge has not decided the merits. Where we quote the Town's letters, we quote them as written; the full letters are in document S1 above.
This site is paid for by Sea Dog Realty LLC, which owns Eliot Commons at 28 Levesque Drive, and by its owner, Fred Forsley. We are the plaintiff in the lawsuit. We have an interest in how this ends.
That is exactly why every claim here points at the Town's own paper. You should not take our word for it. You should not have to take the Town's either.
Fred invested about six million dollars at Eliot Commons because the Town gave its word. He is not an Eliot voter. The people who can put this question on the ballot are.