Council candidate - second in 2 years - cited for violating vacation rental rule
OTHER NEWS: State rep/town councilor Friedmann?
BAR HARBOR, April 13, 2024 - Town Council candidate Nina St. Germain was cited, along with her husband, former Planning Board chair Tom St. Germain, for violating the town’s short-term vacation rental ordinance by operating a rental without a license.
Their property at 8 Eagle Lake Road was among those ensnared last month by the town’s new Granicus artificial intelligence software which catches violators by cross referencing ads on Airbnb and VRBO with addresses of properties without permits.
Code Enforcement Officer Angie Chamberlain stated in an email this week the St. Germains said they will submit a proper application and pay all required fees and fines.
In her letter March 22 to the couple, she wrote, “It has recently come to my attention that you are advertising a dwelling for rent at the above noted address for less than 30 days and as a Short-term Rental without the proper permits or approvals.
“You are hereby ORDERED to take the following actions to correct this violation: Immediately cease advertising and/or renting this dwelling unit for less than 30 days.
“Should the Code Enforcement Officer determine that a second violation of this section has occurred within one year of the first violation, the property owner shall be prohibited from applying for, or obtaining a STR registration, within 12 months of the date of the second notice of violation and may only apply for a registration after payment of a fine of $3,000.”
Luckily for the St. Germains, the infraction occurred in their their primary residence, or classified as VR1, which has much more forgiving penalties so that they were able to keep their business running.
Nina St. Germain was among those who filed necessary papers by the deadline Friday to run for two council seats up for re-election at the annual town elections in June.
She and her husband are developers - along with other investors - of a 44-room hotel on Cottage Street which was approved by the town as a “bed and breakfast” that did not require Planning Board approval.
The project - now called the Pathmaker Hotel - received other favorable treatment from the town, including a permit to pour cement starting at 6 a.m. to the chagrin of a neighbor and an easement to move utility poles so Versant Power may provide better service to the hotel.
Nina St. Germain appeared before the Town Council twice last spring to seek exemptions to the town’s “curb cut” regulations so that the hotel may have a free loading zone for guests.
As chair of the planning board, St. Germain was well versed in the language of the vacation rental ordinance which went to voters in November 2021. He and member Joseph Cough voted against the initiative and did not recuse themselves even though they operated vacation businesses.
St. Germain also prevented member Ruth Eveland, whose husband had a medical episode on night of the vote, from voting on the matter remotely. But with a 2-2 tie, St. Germain could not stop the ordinance from going to the voters, who approved it. Eveland has said since she would have voted for the ordinance had she not been blocked by St. Germain.
A lawsuit by former St. Germain planning board colleague Erica Brooks seeking to overturn the ordinance failed in Maine courts.
Nina St. Germain ‘s consulting company, Bar Harbor Enterprises, did contract work for the town from September 2018 thru March 2021, according to town records.
During that time, BH Enterprises was paid $42,261 – of that $30,000 was a state grant funded specifically for COVID19 consulting and outreach work.
The balance was as a consultant assisting with the Polco online survey platform (marijuana, cruise ships, etc.) before a full-time planner was hired.
In April 2017, St. Germain, as Planning Board chair, voted to approve former town councilor Stephen Coston’s 31-room hotel, Mount Desert Inn, as a “bed and breakfast” despite a legal opinion from town attorney Ed Bearor that the hotel was not a “bed and breakfast,” according to an article by Liz Graves, Bar Harbor’s current town clerk who was then a reporter for the Islander.
The 3-1 vote was upheld by the appeals board in July 2017.
Five years later, St. Germain, while still on the Planning Board, partnered with Coston and builder Brian Shaw to hatch a similar scheme for the 44-room hotel on Cottage Street, which is now under construction.
Tom St. Germain last year represented himself as an agent for the health spa “Destination Health,” which also was caught advertising several apartments without a permit. St. Germain urged the Planning Board to allow Destination Health to operate the apartments as hotel or motel units instead of STRs.
The Eagle Lake house was one of 18 violations detected by the Granicus software, including a second citation of 37 Eden Street owned by Keith Goodrich, who also ran for council last year while under his first citation for illegally advertising an unregistered rental. He received 64 vote last June.
Another owner cited for a second time, Mary Jane Whitney and her brother Paul Coston, may have lost their standing to rent under the severest penalty of the ordinance for non-owner-occupied rentals - a two-year fine of $3,000 and placed at the end of the waiting list which could take years, if not decades, for the town’s STRs to dip below 9 percent of its housing stock which now is above 20 percent.
In an interview, Whitney said she is elderly and was dealing with health challenges when the renewals came up. She said the ordinance is unfair to citizens like her and her brother.
They operate the business under the name Strawberry Hill Inc., which owns 200 Main Street, a building which consists of a business on the ground floor and upstairs apartments renovated for short-term vacation rentals.
But the mailing address of the business is on Rodick Street and there might have been problems with proper delivery of the renewal notices, she said. (As the QSJ may attest, the new mail-forwarding system deployed by USPS has been a nightmare on MDI).
The economic difference between renting as an STR and year-round housing is significant, she said.
Friedmann not ruling out dual representation
BAR HARBOR - State Rep. Gary Friedmann, D-Bar Harbor/Town Councilor Gary Friedmann?
That will be a mouthful.
Friedmann, who this week won endorsement for state rep, is not ruling out holding a state and municipal office at the same time.
Veteran legislators say there is no statute prohibiting such dual roles and there are examples of legislators who do that.
Friedmann won the endorsement of the county Democrats this week to replace Lynne Williams as the House representative of Bar Harbor, Mount Desert, Cranberry Isles and Lamoine.
Williams resigned this month to take a job with the state as an arbitration officer in Augusta. But her seat will not be filled until November, said county chair Laurie Fogelman.
Friedmann, who has served on the Town Council for a decade, is seeking re-election in June.
He said he will decide in November whether to seeks both seats. That is, assuming he wins re-election to the council.
Besides Friedmann and Nina St. Germain, other announced candidates include incumbent Joe Minutolo, who had given mixed messages on his re-election decision, Charles Sidman and former police chief Nate Young, who did well last June falling just short of election.
“As a department head, I had a front row seat to most issues that face this town, specifically, the budget process, for over 22 years,” Young stated in an email. “There has been a 71 percent increase in expenditures over the past 10 budget cycles and that concerns me.”
Minutolo was urged to oppose the candidacy of Sidman, the leader of the citizens movement which successfully defended in court the town’s ordinance capping daily cruise ship visitation at 1,000 passengers. Minutolo is extremely popular as a councilor, having staked out a benign, if not milquetoast, role.
He is often compromised by his personal relationship with Town Planner Michele Gagnon, as her office touches on virtually every incendiary issue in town, from cruise ships to the housing crisis.
FOOTNOTE: They don’t come any more valuable in a municipal operation filled with essential services than the tech ops who keep an office humming from record keeping, to daily transactions such as vehicle registrations and tax collection, to updating a myriad of software products from Powerpoint to email, to managing an outdated, 20-year-old website.
Steve Cornell, the all-purpose tech fixer at 93 Cottage Street, has resigned. His last day will be April 26.
Did the 30-percent man, Town Manager James Smith, do a proper personnel assessment of key employees when he started his job last November with his own 30-percent raise and when he decided recently not to train a replacement for Cornell?
Cornell is the person I call when the live feed of a town council meeting is not working. No doubt he is also the person in the building who fields more calls than anyone else.
After 20 years, Cornell is “retiring” and will work from home for a private company, he said. He’s agreed to assist his successor with sharing institutional knowledge.
Still, if I were the 30-percent man, I’d worry aplenty for all systems to stay green lighted after April 26.
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Planner Max Moreno has resigned after only five months, and the planning department has posted for his replacement. Good luck to replacing Cornell and Moreno in this environment.
TRIBUTE: Barbara Ann Loveland
1940 - 2024
MOUNT DESERT - Barbara Ann Loveland, 83, wife of Allen W. Loveland, Sr., died March 30, 2024, at her home in Dedham. She was born in Philadelphia, PA, on August 31, 1940. She was the daughter of Richard Alma and Florence Thelma (Jones) Hill.
Barbara graduated from Haddon Heights High School, class of 1958. She then attended Glassboro State College in NJ, graduating in 1962. Barbara married her high school sweetheart, Allen W. (Bill) Loveland, Sr. They were married for 62 years. Throughout their marriage they lived in New Jersey, Maine, Alabama, and Georgia. They retired to Dedham, Maine in 2008.
Barbara had a successful career in early childhood education. For the latter part of her career Barbara was the Director of the Child Development Center for “Johnson and Johnson” in Raritan, NJ.
Barbara had a passion for being outside. She loved to garden, both at her home and at the Holbrook House B&B in Bar Harbor. Much of her retirement was spent biking and hiking in Acadia National Park. She went on two extended bike tours in Italy with friends. She was President of the Bar Harbor Garden Club for six years and was a member of Footloose Friends hiking club and a Friends of Acadia volunteer.
She is survived by husband Allen W. Loveland, Sr.; sons Allen W. Loveland, Jr. of Baton Rouge, LA, and Michael A. Loveland of Auckland, New Zealand; daughters Jennifer A. Catha of Charlotte, NC and Michelle A. and husband Eric R. Allvin of Bar Harbor; and grandson Jacob A. Catha.
A celebration of life will be announced in the spring.
In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the Bar Harbor Garden Club Scholarship Fund, P.O. Box 652, Bar Harbor, ME 04609.
Arrangements in the care of Jordan-Fernald, 113 Franklin St., Ellsworth.
Once again, you fail to mention why Young is the FORMER police chief. Much more relevant than your comments on some of the other candidates.
The more things are forbidden, the more popular they become. - Mark Twain