Board of Selectmen Meeting, March 14, 2005
MEETING OF THE BOARD OF SELECTMEN
TOWN OF MOUNT DESERT, MAINE
Monday, March 14, 2005
A meeting of the Board of Selectmen was held this date in the Meeting Room at the Somesville Fire Station, Somesville, Maine.
Those present included: Chairman Rick Savage: Selectmen Kathy Branch, Ernest Coombs, Patrick Smallidge, Jeffrey Smith; Town Manager Michael MacDonald; Public Works Director Tony Smith; Assessor John Brushwein, Harbor Master Shawn Murphy, Finance Director Brent Hamor, Recording Secretary Ellen Kappes and members of the public.
Call to order.
Chairman Savage called the meeting to order at 6:30 p.m.
Minutes
A. Approval of minutes of Regular Meeting of February 22, 2005 and organizational meeting March 8, 2005.
MOTION: Selectman Smith moved to approve the minutes of the Regular Meeting of February 22, 2005 and the organizational meeting of March 8, 2005 as presented, seconded by Selectman Smallidge. The vote was unanimous in favor.
III. Appointments and Communications
A.~~~~~~Accept with regret resignation of Mark Brodeur from Marine Management Committee. No action required.
B.~~~~~~Approve appointment to Marine Management Committee, two vacancies, applicants Edward “Ted” Bromage and James Bright.
MOTION: Selectman Coombs moved to approve the above appointments, seconded by Selectman Smith. The vote was unanimous in favor.
C.~~~~~~Confirm appointment of Jedediah Philpot as part-time Police Patrol Officer, effective March 15, 2005 at hourly rate of $11.00/hr.
MOTION: Selectman Smallidge moved to confirm the above appointment, seconded by Selectman Smith. The vote was unanimous in favor.
D.~~~~~~Acknowledge receipt of Assessor and Fire Department Monthly reports; Planning Board minutes for meeting of January 24, 2005.
Chairman Savage extended thanks from the Board to the Fire Department for the work they did in the recent tragic fire in Somesville. Town Manager MacDonald will write a letter of thanks to the Fire Department.
E.~~~~~~Acknowledge receipt of Olver Associates Weekly Construction Summary for Seal Harbor Wastewater Treatment Plant Upgrade for week ending February 18, 2005, February 25, 2005, and March 4, 2005
Public Works Director Smith said the work is winding down. The major clean up can be started. Within reason, the project is on schedule.
IV. Selectmen Reports
1. Selectman Smallidge said someone had asked him who was responsible for the street lights because some were out. Town Manager MacDonald said the Town is. Chairman Savage thought patrol officers could notice which ones are not working.
2. Selectman Smallidge said an Otter Creek citizen complained about plow trucks driving on new sidewalks. Public Works Director Smith said the matter is being taken care of.
3. Selectman Smith said people had told him they are pleased with the friendly manner in which the refuse collectors are doing their job. Responding to Chairman Savage, Public Works Director Smith said Acadia Disposal District has noticed an increase in recycling.
V. Old Business
Chairman Savage asked the other Board members to bring any topics that need to be discussed to the next meeting or to a meeting early in the season.
Responding to Town Manager MacDonald, Board members said they wanted to maintain the current schedule of alternating meetings between different villages.
VI. New Business
A.~~~~~~Approve Liquor License for Acadia Corp. d/b/a Jordan Pond House.
B.~~~~~~Approve Liquor License for Journey’s End Inc. d/b/a Docksider.
C.~~~~~~Approve Liquor License for Stanley Enterprises Inc. d/b/a Abel’s Lobster Pound.
D.~~~~~~Approve Liquor License for WinterSpring Inc. d/b/a Colonel’s Restaurant
MOTION: Selectman Smith moved to approve the above four renewals for liquor licenses, seconded by Selectman Coombs. The vote was 4 to 0, with one abstention by Selectman Branch
who had recused herself for Colonel’s Restaurant. The motion carried.
VII. General Issues
1. Jim Robinson said he and other people had a difficult time hearing what was said at the recent Town Meeting. He suggested repeating next year what had been done at a previous Town Meeting when microphones were available and taken to people by students. He thought it would be a good idea to involve high school students. Ted Bromage seconded Mr. Robinson’s comments. Anne Funderbunk asked for steps to be taken to see that the suggestion is carried out. Selectman Coombs recalled that the same discussion had taken place last year and suggested contacting the school. Chairman Savage said the microphones could become part of the standard set up procedure done by the school for Town Meetings.
VII. Other Business
A. Respond to LD 1052, “An Act To Require Municipalities to Institute Sewer Service Charges,” legislation submitted by Senator Damon at request of Mount Desert citizens.
Town Manager MacDonald explained the above proposed legislation, asking if the Board wanted to send a delegation to testify at the public hearing in Augusta for it.
Mr. Bromage said a notice in last week’s Bangor Daily News indicated the above bill would be heard on Wednesday, March 23 at 1:00pm. Another bill, LD 1051, about studying water district fees for fire support will be discussed then too.
Public Works Director Smith spoke of a recent survey showing that, of the 132 responding communities in Maine, only 4 of them pay for sewer systems through taxes.
Mrs. Funderbunk asked how the bill came to be submitted. After the all the work of the Waste Water Study Committee (WWSC) last year, she thought the issue had been put to bed.
Mr. Robinson said he had spoken to Rep. Ted Koffman that day, telling him the issue had been contentious. Rep. Koffman asked him to explain to the Board that Senator Dennis Damon had asked him to sign as a co-signer. He did so as a favor to Senator Damon. When Mr. Robinson called Senator Damon’s office, he learned from Nina Fisher that only two citizens, Gerard Haradan and George Peckham, from this Town had requested the bill. She said that no one had bothered to check with the community first. Mr. Robinson said that the bill completely reverses what the Town had voted on. None of the other three co-sponsors of the bill had been approached by their constituents asking for the bill.
Selectman Smallidge had also talked to Rep. Koffman that day and understood his support was simply a courtesy.
Selectman Branch thought in view of the work of the WWSC it would be a sin and shameful for this Town on behalf of two citizens to have an act of legislation that would possibly create a hardship for other municipalities.
Mr. Peckham thought it was a sin that those on septic systems have been discriminated against and exploited for 30 years. He understood that any citizen has the right to contact a legislator requesting a new bill.
Selectman Smallidge read a statement explaining his opposition to supporting the bill. If the bill passes it will destroy taxpayers’ rights of self-determination and local control. If the Board were to endorse it, they would clearly signal a lack of value on a committee’s participation and a lack of respect for the voters of the Town.
Jim Bright said when the committee reached its compromise they stated that it was a stop gap measure. He thought at least three of the Selectmen were in favor of a sewer user fee or at least saw it coming. He suggested working with the State.
Charlie Pugh thought this is the wrong way at the wrong time to deal with a problem like this. As a member of the WWSC, he presented their solution last year, saying it was not a unanimous decision and that no one thought it would be the ultimate one. The Rural Waste Water Treatment Support Program (RWWTSP) was a way to deal with it in a way that would be acceptable to a majority of people in Town and also to bring the Town together, creating an atmosphere for people in all villages to work together in a constructive way. The subject of how a town deals with funding its services and dealing with property taxes is very complex and not one that should be addressed one issue at a time. User fees have a major impact on lots of areas in the Town, such as the difficulty of retaining year-round residents. He said years ago he had favored a sewer user fee on principle but today the economics have changed dramatically. Today the sewer costs are between 16 to 17% of the Town budget and
about 20% of the amount funded by taxation. If you pull that – roughly $two million - out of the town budget, it would have to be made up and could cost every property owner on sewers about an average $2,000 per year, substantially higher that most towns would charge. Would you leave 2/3 of the cost in the budget, he asked. He repeated that this was the wrong time and the wrong way to deal with it and that he did not like the idea of going to the legislature asking it to force something on the community. He was surprised that veteran legislators would even think of doing such a thing without having first made themselves well aware of the issues of the particular town involved and without contacting the elected and appointed leadership of that town.
Mr. Peckham thought someone could sue the Town over the discrimination in and the illegality of the present system of the RWWTSP.
Mr. Robinson said the program involved a grant, not a rebate of taxes, and was partly intended to keep septic systems operating properly to avoid pollution.
Bob Smallidge thought the timing of the bill was poor but was concerned about dropping it because he was not sure if it would ever be possible to get back to the legislature. He spoke about the weakness of the RWWTSP in that some people are afraid of having to get a new septic system if theirs were inspected by the Town.
Mr. Haradan said the Board and the Townspeople over the years have put down the off-sewer people time after time. He thought the Board had three choices – to fight it, to embrace it, or work with it and get the best out of it. He thought they should choose the latter, saying the Board would not look very good in the eyes of the rest of the state, up there pleading a loss of local control so that they could not put down the off-sewer people any more. It is a bill. There will be hearings and it will be voted on.
Chairman Savage said it is a tragedy that the Town let itself get in this position. The idea that the sewers should be a totally funded municipal operation for a minority of the users was railroaded onto the Town at a time when the cost was minimal because of so much federal funding. The inequity was so unbelievable but the votes were never there to change it. He applauded the WWSC for putting the RWWTSP together. It is an imperfect system but is such a change from what the Town had had. He did not like the original system applied because it palmed the cost of sewers off onto everybody without any recognition of the extraordinary costs of those on their own septic system.
Mr. Bright spoke in favor of a sewer user fee and reminded Selectmen that they had the authority to set one. He suggested setting up a system like the Water Company’s.
Selectman Smallidge said the voters of the Town had the ultimate say. Under this bill both Selectmen’s rights and voters’ rights would be exterminated. He thought it would be a disservice to the Town and to the WWSC not to give the RWWTSP a chance to work. If it were only given a year, who would ever serve on a committee, especially on an issue such as that, he asked.
He thought the Board should respect the opinion of the voters.
Mr. Bromage who had been on the WWSC said what they came up with acknowledged that what had gone on before had been unequal. That to him was a big step. He thought the Town should continue to work with it.
Chairman Savage said if the legislation is not written correctly, it could cause problems. This legislation is no favor to the town. It doesn’t give the Town the leeway that it needs. He preferred to live with the current system rather than being mandated by the state. It would be impossible to fund sewers from the users. That’s too much money to be raised by that one sector of the Town, he said.
Chairman Savage and Public Works Director Smith spoke about work that will need to be done on the Somesville plant in the near future.
Mr. Bright urged Selectmen to use their right to set a fee before they lose the right.
Selectman Coombs said the Board needed to go to the hearing and not support the bill.
Mrs. Funderbunk urged Selectmen to give the WWTSP a chance to work.
Mr. Haradan said the bill would go through the process and could be amended. He thought the Board should go to Augusta with some reasonable arguments and come away with a win. He and Mr. Peckham did not write the last sentence in the bill. He said this bill is a last resort and that Selectmen should have seen it coming. They had not exercised the right to set a fee.
Selectman Smallidge recommended defeat of the bill.
Chairman Savage said he had opposed the status quo for many years but was not happy with the legislation as it was written. He wished that it had come before the Town sooner.
Selectman Smith said in the past Selectmen chose not to set sewer user fees themselves and took the issue to the voters because the fees were a major shift in philosophy. He supported the work of the WWSC with its compromise measure. This is a plan that was 20 to 30 in the making. To shift in the next week does not make sense. The Town has it within itself to work with what it has, refine it, perfect it and bring it up again. He did not think it should be brought up at the legislative level. As written, he could not support the basic premise of the bill.
MOTION: Chairman Savage moved to support and endorse LD 1052 as presented, seconded by Selectman Smallidge. The vote was 1 to 4. Chairman Savage voted in favor of the motion. Selectmen Branch, Coombs, Smallidge and Smith voted against it. The motion was defeated.
Discussion followed about how the vote that the Town of Mount Desert is not in favor of the bill as written should be conveyed to Senator Damon. Selectman Smith said he was not in favor of the all inclusive part of the bill. Chairman Savage said he would rather see the bill refined before it is presented. Selectman Branch thought it was important to deliver the message in person. She did not think it was a well written bill. She had a problem with two citizens in the Town speaking for all the residents in it and was concerned with creating a hardship for other communities without sewer user fees.
Assessor Brushwein thought if Selectmen have taken a vote to oppose the LD, then that is what they should present to the legislature. Unless they were prepared now to propose some amendment to that LD, they should just submit their opposition. They could state as a reason for that opposition the fact that voters in 2004 enacted an ordinance addressing this particular issue and leave it at that.
Selectmen Branch, Coombs and Smallidge agreed to go to Augusta with Town Manager MacDonald to testify at the hearing.
Mr. Peckham said he had tried to convince the Board in previous years to exercise their authority to set sewer user fees and if necessary to go to the legislature to get any legal questions straightened out. He indicated that the evening’s vote told him it would have been useless to approach the Board again.
Town Manager MacDonald agreed to write a draft of a statement for the Board’s review.
IX. Treasurer’s Warrants
Approve Treasurer’s Warrants #24 for $86,754.23, #26 for $127,998.23, #SB-43 for $3,116.49 and #27 for $373.50. Signed as presented.
X. Executive Session
None requested
At 8:10 pm, Selectman Smith moved to adjourn the meeting, seconded by Selectman Smallidge. The vote was unanimous in favor
Respectfully submitted,
Jeffrey Smith
Secretary
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The next regularly scheduled meeting is Monday, March 21 at 6:30 P.M. in the Meeting Room, Town Office, Northeast Harbor.
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