Brilliant investigative reporting into the well fortified Fortress of the Unholy Trifecta of the BH Town Government, Big Cruise, and The OPiAPPLL! Thanks to your unflagging pursuit of the truth behind the appalling legal expenses past and future , it is now proven that the BH Town Government is wheeling and dealing with Big Cruise and OPi APPLL and doing their collective best to hide their collaboration and legal fees from the good citizens of Bar Harbor.
Yes, a municipality has the legal right to have confidential executive sessions with their attorney. But, to hide the legal costs of their attorney’s bills ( and in this scenario, attorneys ‘, a crowd of 12 attorneys chasing these legal fees around for a small Town of 5,000?), is clearly not OK. The public, the voters have a right to know how their hard earned property taxes are spent.
And, the year round residents know how devastating it is to vote in a 1,000 pax cap, be ignored by their government in enforcement of the cap, then have to live through the nightmare of their government colluding with the cruise ship industry and APPLL to doom the 1,000 pax cap, and now having to foot the hefty legal bills out of their property taxes, again and again.
I wonder if the Town of Bar Harbor is really a democracy or just an oligarchy of wealthy self serving corporations.
Donna I hate to leave a good question unanswered: It's an oligarchy of wealthy corporations and their sycophants battling to catch whatever crumbs fall off the corporate table.
Winston, maybe these oligarchic crumb eaters should revisit the Hansel and Gretel fairy tale: unfortunately, the bread crumbs, the markers for their escape route, were eaten by the birds, and they had to come up with a new game plan to survive. They did, and survived very well. So, maybe the oligarchs can come up with some new business plans if the 1,000 pax cap is not viable from their perspective.
Donna I must admit that the image of Charles Sidman, Lincoln Millsteen, Jim O'Connell, and others supporting the 1,000 pax limit rushing around gobbling up breadcrumbs made my day. Better yet, I'm guessing it ruined the days of the pro cruise ship crowd! As to those intent upon destroying what's left of the once lovely village of Bar Harbor I'll quote Marie Antoinette, "Let Them Eat Cake!"* *cake is the burnt dough splatter coating the roofs of old time bread ovens
ThankYou Lincoln Millstein and ThankYou Donna Karlson - for spelling it all out. In each appalling new detail. Again. And again.
Bar Harbor town managers and town councilors continually use their offices (and our tax dollars) to service the kleptocrats among us. They impoverish the town to enrich its worst elements. And yes, our town managers and town councilors ignore our votes and do all they can to override them
But ... I don't want to ignore our civil servants who serve our town well and defend our rights. Most importantly in this situation, thanks to Liz Graves and her colleagues, we know our elections are run fairly and our votes are counted accurately. That matters.
Thank you, Lincoln, for the run-down on your difficulties getting an accurate accounting of Bar Harbor’s legal costs involving the cruise ship cap. We have experienced similar problems in our efforts to get a similar figure from the Belfast city government for the legal costs involving the Nordic Aquafarms proposal to put a 900,000 sq. ft. salmon-raising factory on the Little River reservoir. We are six — nearly seven — years into the Nordic “saga” and we still do not know the full legal cost of the City’s support for the Nordic proposal. Please continue the good work you are doing! More sunshine is badly needed.
This is totally bad for all taxpsyers. Who do these councilor think they are?? ... It is time for NEW LEADERSHIP in Bar Harbor...... the fox is guarding the Hen house....
The list is long and time is short. FIRE.... FIRE... FIRE. CITIZENS SPEAK OUT.
Thank you, Lin, for the clarification of my term Town Government in my comment: I agree. There are many hard working, professional , ethical members of Town staff. They do their jobs well and keep the lights on and the streets clear and are always helpful to the public and visitors. I should have specifically said the Town Manager and the Town Council all of whom I like personally and appreciate their volunteerism. They just need to remember most of us want BH to be a democracy and to listen to year round residents and respect the majority’s voice and votes.
Wow, thanks for all the investigation. Unbelievable all the ties between the law firms and the town's push to cruise ship happy contracts. I think it was a total fail the training on conflicts of interest, other than wink wink, don't worry about it. That's a bunch of bunk.
We the Citizens of Bar Harbor voted for a daily limit on cruise ship visitors. The Town Government attempted, and continues to attempt, to ignore and circumvent the will of the voters. This is not democracy at work.
But what should we expect, living in the US, where our leadership is determined by the vote of an electoral college, which is in no way a democratic representation of We the People of US?
Brilliant investigative reporting into the well fortified Fortress of the Unholy Trifecta of the BH Town Government, Big Cruise, and The OPiAPPLL! Thanks to your unflagging pursuit of the truth behind the appalling legal expenses past and future , it is now proven that the BH Town Government is wheeling and dealing with Big Cruise and OPi APPLL and doing their collective best to hide their collaboration and legal fees from the good citizens of Bar Harbor.
Yes, a municipality has the legal right to have confidential executive sessions with their attorney. But, to hide the legal costs of their attorney’s bills ( and in this scenario, attorneys ‘, a crowd of 12 attorneys chasing these legal fees around for a small Town of 5,000?), is clearly not OK. The public, the voters have a right to know how their hard earned property taxes are spent.
And, the year round residents know how devastating it is to vote in a 1,000 pax cap, be ignored by their government in enforcement of the cap, then have to live through the nightmare of their government colluding with the cruise ship industry and APPLL to doom the 1,000 pax cap, and now having to foot the hefty legal bills out of their property taxes, again and again.
I wonder if the Town of Bar Harbor is really a democracy or just an oligarchy of wealthy self serving corporations.
Donna I hate to leave a good question unanswered: It's an oligarchy of wealthy corporations and their sycophants battling to catch whatever crumbs fall off the corporate table.
Winston, maybe these oligarchic crumb eaters should revisit the Hansel and Gretel fairy tale: unfortunately, the bread crumbs, the markers for their escape route, were eaten by the birds, and they had to come up with a new game plan to survive. They did, and survived very well. So, maybe the oligarchs can come up with some new business plans if the 1,000 pax cap is not viable from their perspective.
Donna I must admit that the image of Charles Sidman, Lincoln Millsteen, Jim O'Connell, and others supporting the 1,000 pax limit rushing around gobbling up breadcrumbs made my day. Better yet, I'm guessing it ruined the days of the pro cruise ship crowd! As to those intent upon destroying what's left of the once lovely village of Bar Harbor I'll quote Marie Antoinette, "Let Them Eat Cake!"* *cake is the burnt dough splatter coating the roofs of old time bread ovens
ThankYou Lincoln Millstein and ThankYou Donna Karlson - for spelling it all out. In each appalling new detail. Again. And again.
Bar Harbor town managers and town councilors continually use their offices (and our tax dollars) to service the kleptocrats among us. They impoverish the town to enrich its worst elements. And yes, our town managers and town councilors ignore our votes and do all they can to override them
But ... I don't want to ignore our civil servants who serve our town well and defend our rights. Most importantly in this situation, thanks to Liz Graves and her colleagues, we know our elections are run fairly and our votes are counted accurately. That matters.
Thank you, Lincoln, for the run-down on your difficulties getting an accurate accounting of Bar Harbor’s legal costs involving the cruise ship cap. We have experienced similar problems in our efforts to get a similar figure from the Belfast city government for the legal costs involving the Nordic Aquafarms proposal to put a 900,000 sq. ft. salmon-raising factory on the Little River reservoir. We are six — nearly seven — years into the Nordic “saga” and we still do not know the full legal cost of the City’s support for the Nordic proposal. Please continue the good work you are doing! More sunshine is badly needed.
This is totally bad for all taxpsyers. Who do these councilor think they are?? ... It is time for NEW LEADERSHIP in Bar Harbor...... the fox is guarding the Hen house....
The list is long and time is short. FIRE.... FIRE... FIRE. CITIZENS SPEAK OUT.
Thank you, Lin, for the clarification of my term Town Government in my comment: I agree. There are many hard working, professional , ethical members of Town staff. They do their jobs well and keep the lights on and the streets clear and are always helpful to the public and visitors. I should have specifically said the Town Manager and the Town Council all of whom I like personally and appreciate their volunteerism. They just need to remember most of us want BH to be a democracy and to listen to year round residents and respect the majority’s voice and votes.
Wow! Thank you for your continued diligence in reporting on this deeply disturbing violation of the townspeople's trust by our own Town officials.
Wow, thanks for all the investigation. Unbelievable all the ties between the law firms and the town's push to cruise ship happy contracts. I think it was a total fail the training on conflicts of interest, other than wink wink, don't worry about it. That's a bunch of bunk.
We the Citizens of Bar Harbor voted for a daily limit on cruise ship visitors. The Town Government attempted, and continues to attempt, to ignore and circumvent the will of the voters. This is not democracy at work.
But what should we expect, living in the US, where our leadership is determined by the vote of an electoral college, which is in no way a democratic representation of We the People of US?
residents should start suing Kristi Bond and her APPLL cohorts to recoup some of our legal costs.