Bar Harbor taxpayers beware! Town Council in a prodigious spending mood

BAR HARBOR, Dec. 24, 2024 - The Town Council assumed the role of a dime store Santa Tuesday night and promised a raft of gifts - from a $30 million marina to mere stocking stuffers like half a million for the library and $282,000 back-up generator for public works and fire department.

Councilors made old-fashion stump speeches strategically calendared for the season of profligacy.

Citizen activist Charles Sidman provided some adult supervision at the end of the meeting to remind councilors that all the “wonderful” projects they lauded have price tags.

“I think it's a mistake to handle every item separately. Everybody's enthusiastic about every item. But where does it all come together and get totaled up? And where do we ask how much the taxpayers can afford?

Taxpayers are just starting to feel the effect of a $43 million upgrade of the water and sewer infrastructure. Next year a $58 million bond for a new school will kick in.

“Sometimes you can't do everything you want to do or as fast as you might like to. There's a sense of reality. There's only so many tax dollars out there,” Sidman cautioned.

That ran against the genial sensibility of council chair Val Peacock, who applauded virtually every request and thanked all comers. In the proposal to triple funding for the library, she actually was a named member of the “study” group seeking her own approval. More on that below.

$30 million marina

The council approved a motion accepting a report from GEI Consultants for a marina master plan, containing the wishes of every water-borne constituency the last five years, from kayakers to the Nova Scotia ferry. But how many residents will be direct beneficiaries?

GEI did not rank the importance of each component.

For instance, it proposed an all-tides boat launch. Councilor Matt Hochman said some local fishermen have said they would never use it. Does it make sense to build a launch for a declining population of lobster fishers in Bar Harbor which already is half the size of the fleet in Southwest Harbor and Bass Harbor?

Similarly, Bay Ferries in Canada has had a spotty history with its CAT service to Bar Harbor and Portland. The service was suspended for three years from 2019. There has been steady opposition to its subsidy by the Nova Scotia government. What long-term guarantee would Bar Harbor have to ensure its investment in a new ferry pier?

The master plan calls for cruise ship tenders to dock, but that could be moot if a federal judge upholds a local ordinance slapping a 1,000-passenger cap to disembark in Bar Harbor.

Councilor Joe Minutolo welcomed the proposal for a much needed fueling facility as there are none in Frenchman Bay. But you don’t need $30 million for a fuel pump.

These were just some of the untidy entrails of a master plan which presumably will be sorted out at future council meetings. But don’t bet on it.

Councilor Gary Friedmann asked for a business plan, including potential revenue sources. Town Manager James Smith said there is much to do before a final proposal.

(Maybe the council should just hire hotelier Tom St. Germain and Ocean Properties VP Eben Salvatore to oversee the project. At least then it would be profitable.)

Jesup Library’s well-oiled lobbying for more town dollars

If nothing else, Jesup Memorial Library knows how to play the insiders game in Bar Harbor.

It chummed the political water even before approaching the council with its request to triple municipal funding starting in two years.

It had already sought advice from two council members, including the council chair and the former chair of the Comprehensive Plan task force, and the chair of the Warrant Committee. Council Chair Val Peacock is a named member of the study group which helped form the proposal to the council. That did not stop her from introducing the request to increase taxpayer’s spending from $160,000 to $515,000 a year. (It received an extra $120,000 from the American Rescue Plan for this year).

Jesup wants to reach 50 percent subsidy of its expenses - up from 38 percent - by the town, citing other towns with comparable or higher support. But many of the libraries named as comps have other obligations, such as schools and wider regional service.

Peacock declared her conflict but then did not recuse herself.

Recusal means that the member in conflict declares his or her conflict or appearance of conflict and then physically leaves the proceeding so not to leave any doubt as to staining the process.

“Recusal” is not a word in the Bar Harbor lexicon. All books with that words have been banned from the Jesup Library :).

At least councilor Kyle Shank owned up after Peacock called him out as another advisor to the library. But Shank said he was not an actual named member of the study group like Peacock.

“My advice was really just about how to present data in a way that is useful to decision-makers. For example: rather than present just the number of books circulated, it can be more useful to put it in human terms and put that number in a per-capita format, etc. etc. I didn't advise on anything related to strategy, finances, programs, etc. - just data visualization and interpretation,” he stated in an email to the QSJ.

Fair enough, but it was still advice to help an applicant seeking taxpayer’s money while working both sides of the fence.

(Sometimes, I feel like I landed on a planet which plays by different rules.)

Shank stated in an email,

“I believe it would be appropriate to let the Council decide if there's a conflict of interests that would require recusal. Normally, I'd just recuse myself if I thought there was sufficient reason to do so - but I think this one is ambiguous enough to want to get everyone's opinion on it before doing so. Either way, that conversation will be happening during whichever budget workshop we have when our cooperating agencies come up.”

Call me a Strict Constructionist. But if you’re helping one side asking for money, should you be on the other side deciding its outcome?

At the meeting Tuesday, however, Shank poured it on, going off on how the rich communities are able to support their libraries with better endowments, citing Northeast Harbor.

“I actually think a very interesting exercise would be looking at the funding per capita versus the gap per capita to see where do wealthy people live, right, like Northeast Harbor?”

Municipal support in Northeast Harbor “is a joke,” Shank said, “but that's because they have a much larger endowment.” (He later joked that Bar Harbor should “invade” Northeast Harbor).

Shank’s remarks begged the question of why Bar Harbor was able to raise $14 million to build a new addition but has not achieved similar results with its permanent endowment.

Amy Wisehart, NEH librarian, said she has been instructed not to disclose its endowment. But public filings show NEH library has about $11 million in net assets.

SWH library’s endowment is about $5 million, I was told. Is Southwest Harbor one of the “rich towns” as characterized by Shank?

Jesup librarian Matt Delaney did not return my email requesting a call to discuss finances.

At a minimum, the town should ask how Jesup plans to increase its endowment so not to get a total free ride from taxpayers.

More to the point, no one on the council asked about actual performance of the library.

Why does the Jesup have the highest number of employees on the island and the fewest hours? It is closed Sunday and Monday and open only 41 hours a week, compared with 51 hours for both Northeast Harbor and Southwest Harbor.

As I reported on Nov. 25, Jesup is simply a poor performer. Southwest Harbor is recognized as a national leader among small town libraries. By every measure on the Maine State library data base, Bar Harbor leaves much to be desired. How does a town with three times the population of Mount Desert and Southwest Harbor have fewer visitors?

Data from State of Maine 2022 annual report on public libraries

Erich Reed, librarian in Southwest Harbor, said he plans to ask his town to fund 15 percent of his cost. It was at 11 percent, $60,000, for 2023. SWH’s revenue breakdown is: 41 percent donations, 36 percent endowment draw, 11 percent town contribution, 7 percent fundraising events, and 2 percent program revenue  (decimals make up the missing two percent).

Except for the pandemic-ravaged year of 2020, SWH and NEH out performed the Jesup over the last five years, according to state data. How come?

(I am a regular contributor to SWH library and the Jesup.)

Approval of back-up power blasted by Sidman, Friedmann

The council did take one formal vote Tuesday night - to approve a $282,000 request from Fire Chief Matt Bartlett and Public Works Director Bethany Leavitt for emergency back-up power and to replace a fuel tank - despite Friedmann’s request to delay the vote for more clarification.

Citizen Sidman later wrote in an email to the QSJ and Carrie Jones of the Bar Harbor Story that the vote was “Yet another example of empire-building and non-transparency by our town government, the cost of which falls as ever on the taxpayers’ collapsing shoulders!  Let us rethink this last-minute holiday gift to the PW department.  (And kudos to Councilor Friedmann for intelligently resisting!)

“The generator part of this bill ($87K or $136K, apart from $146K for the replacement fuel tank)) is grossly overstated, and unwisely and prematurely accepted by the Council. 

“A 100-amp commercial self-starting generator (Generac, for example) lists for $6K on the internet, and by the agreement of everyone I have talked to would power the necessary fuel pump in a power outage. 

“So the bulk of the ‘generator’ authorization is for the unjustified pipe dreams of powering an alternate EOC (emergency operations center), additional conference and comfort facilities, etc., that even the Town Manager thinks unwise at the Public Works site.”

Friedmann’s was the lone nay vote in a 5-1 approval.

Bartlett said the fuel pump was knocked out during a recent power outage vehicles could not refuel. The town pump is the only source of fuel on the island?

FOOTNOTE: This is a town which can’t even repair a popular wading pool. The Islander reported the Glen Mary pool will be closed in 2024 for the third year. Can the town truly support a $30 million marina, with a desperate need for a new police station and a potential $26 million addition at the high school in its headlights? The new Jesup library addition required the taking of two year-round homes. How many affordable housing can the town support each year for $515,000?

Can Higgins Pit solar project be salvaged?

How did the town come to mismanage a project which was to be a proud beacon of municipal action against a “climate emergency?”

Tuesday night, the councilors finally shared with the public the ugly details of the Higgins Pit solar array project, but only after the QSJ filed a complaint under Maine’s Freedom of Access Act to open the public discussion.

Since the firing of Laura Berry in February as the town’s sustainability coordinator, the project has become a stepchild. Every department with oversight bears the responsibility for its current condition of being on life support.

No wonder the new town manager wanted to keep it from the public eye when he assigned the matter to a secret executive session Nov. 17. It took 31 days before the town finally relented to my request and disclosed partial details of the project which was vetted publicly Tuesday.

But the discussion left more questions than answers.

How did the town under-budget the cost of connecting the solar arrays to the Versant power grid by $623,000?

The town manager punted on the question to Finance Director Sarah Gilbert, who replied in an email:

“The Town could not reasonably expect any of our advisors to know with great specificity the type or quantity of infrastructure upgrades that would end up being required as part of the interconnection project.

“The reason for this is they simply are not privy to that level of infrastructure detail, as it is confidential. In fact the systems impact study itself is confidential, and we are unable to release those component specific upgrades or their associated costs.”

Okay, but how did the town not know that the construction vendor it selected was not qualified for a federal program which has a 30 percent discount benefit?

Why did the town pursue a 1.34 megawatt project when anything above 1 MW required an 18-month study on large projects consuming more power from the grid?

How did the town not know that there were strict DEP guardrails in place for nearby wetlands before an access road to the pit can be built?

Having signed the agreement last week to receive much needed subsidies for the project, it now has two years to get the project up and running.

Before then, it must negotiate easements with nearby residents to assure them the wetlands will stay intact.

It needs to negotiate an acceptable connecting fee with Versant to lower the $1.1 million price tag.

It will need to reconfigure the true cost of the project and go back to ask voters to approve the overage.

Gary Friedmann was the councilor who asked most of the questions Tuesday night of the project consultants as he was its champion since coming up with the idea of using Higgins Pit, a 40-acre brownfield on less populated Rt. 3, for the purpose of a solar array which would power every municipal building in town.

Voters loved the idea and approved a $4.34 million bond by almost 80 percent in November 2022.

Two months later, Kevin Sutherland was let go as town manager. A week later his newest hires, communications director Maya Caines and sustainability coordinator Berry were also let go.

Sensing the town did not have the wherewithal to oversee such a complicated project, Gilbert, who was interim manager, turned to Chris Byers of Branch Renewable Energy to work with project manager A Climate to Thrive.

Byers has a history in Bar Harbor. He represented a foreign-owned company which clear cut 10 acres of forest in Town Hill in 2022 to build a commercial solar farm to the dismay of naturalists and neighbors, including Code Enforcement Officer Angela Chamberlain and Fire Chief Bartlett, both of whom appeared before the Planning Board to oppose it.

Gilbert was asked who recommended Byers for the current engagement?

“Michele Gagnon” came the answer, the planning director and Chamberlain’s boss.

Why is the planning director recommending consultants who appear in front her board for town work?

It gets even muddier.

On Nov. 1, just days before the statewide referendum on the proposed public takeover of Maine’s two power companies, Byers penned a counter-intuitive commentary in the Bangor Daily News attacking the proposed citizens initiative, which was the brainchild of Gary Friedmann, among others.

The juxtaposition gave the commentary enormous authority because it came from an executive of the solar industry, which has been the loudest critic of the power companies for their lackadaisical attitude toward solar connections to the grid.

Under the provocative headline, “I’m a Maine solar developer, and I’m voting ‘No’ on Pine Tree Power,” Byers went on to write,

“I understand that some Mainers are angry and frustrated with CMP and Versant, and as a solar developer I understand better than most that at times the companies can be difficult to work with. At the same time, there has been a lot of improvement in their capabilities not only from a staffing perspective, but also a process one, where they are able to gain experience just like the rest of us in our own day to day jobs.”

Nothing in Bar Harbor municipal government is ever clean and straight-forward. Entanglements have become normalized, so there always seems to be a back story behind every story.

Tuesday night, Friedmann challenged Byers’s revenue and expense assumptions for the Higgins Pit project, saying they created too conservative of a projection for the project’s success.

The Higgins Pit project is a bird on gossamer wings which may never fly. That would be a shame. But does the town possess the resolve to make it happen?

A total of $1,044,651 has already been paid to vendors, consultants and bondholders. It would messy to unwind those commitments, not to mention giving the town another black eye.

If you believe BH can add 600 units of new housing, raise your hand!

The Islander reporter who wrote the Dec. 18 article, “Bar Harbor's housing goals may be unrealistic,” attends more municipal meetings in person than any other journalist. I certainly am willing to cut him some slack on how he interprets the sense of a meeting.

But not planner Michele Gagnon, who said the article took things “out of context.”

She was replying to Councilor Maya Caines’s question about the article.

Gagnon then went on to admit twice she did not actually read the article. Gagnon herself has cast doubt, including the very meeting at which she and Caines were talking, that the town faces conflicting challenges between the density needed and residents who oppose high density.

She also has said the town may have to allow higher buildings to achieve its goal.

That certainly supports the conclusion the town’s housing goals may be unrealistic in my understanding of the English language. But forgive Gagnon and me. We are transplants for whom English was not our native tongue.

But how do you challenge an article if you haven’t even read it?

How any town administrator could do his/her job without having consumed every page of the local paper the minute it’s available each week should worry every citizen.