Council, APPLL members trade appeals for compromise in BH cruise ship ordinance

BAR HARBOR - The imbroglio over cruise ship visitation took on an entirely new dimension Tuesday night when lawyers who are suing the town over its ordinance to limit passenger visitation hijacked the Town Council meeting and turned it into a courtroom.

Vice chair Gary Friedmann finally halted their arguments, but not before the lawyers from Eaton Peabody and three of their clients chewed up 40 minutes of public comment time and extended an already long meeting to 11:15 p.m.

“I don’t think I want to listen to this any more. I feel like you’re lecturing us and giving us legalistic arguments … I feel like you’re in a courtroom trying to make a case,” Friedmann told lawyer Andy Hamilton.

Hamilton was in the midst of delivering a 12-point reprisal on all the legal points his firm presented but failed to persuade U.S. District Judge Lance Walker, who ruled March 6 that citizens could cap cruise ship visitation.

The QSJ asked Town Manager James Smith why Eaton Peabody was given such an unusual amount of time when most public comments are cut off after three minutes, especially as the parties are legal combatants. He did not reply.

The video may be viewed starting at 3:21. Watch Friedmann’s increasing irritation at 4.18.

Friedmann told Hamilton, “It’s almost 11 O’clock at night and you’re lecturing us and denigrating our chair.”

Friedmann was referring to Hamilton’s comment to chair Val Peacock in which he said, “You're an amazing negotiator, but I think this may be a bridge too far for even you, because we're starting with an ordinance that's defective as to what it does to property rights - land use ordinances affect property rights.”

Hamilton said he was not denigrating Peacock, but as is common with Hamilton, it’s often difficult to discern whether his faint praises are sarcasm.

Almost in the next breath, Hamilton said his clients would never adhere to any rule-making on the cruise ship ordinance no matter what the council did.

The council was in the process of reviewing two proposed codes - one to regulate ships in the harbor and the other to limit the number of passengers who may disembark to 1,000 a day. The ordinance adopted overwhelming by voters on Nov. 8, 2022 posed a $100 fine per passenger over the limit.

Hamilton said, “We're just not going to tolerate it. We're going to be a brick wall on this disembarkation ordinance.”

Friedmann was not having any of Hamilton’s histrionics on purloined council’s time.

At the end of the meeting he said, “I thought that the lecture, courtroom style, that we got from Andy Hamilton tonight was over the top. And I don't think we need to be subjected to that. And I think both Tim (Woodcock) and Andy were making legal arguments that were settled in federal court … I did not appreciate being lectured in that way, by those two, and their presumption to get up to the microphone when they felt like it instead of when they were recognized by the chair.”

The banter came at the end of a four hour, 15-minute council meeting during which Friedmann said if the Association to Preserve and Protect Local Livelihoods, the plaintiffs suing the town, wanted to have a serious dialog, it should be to negotiate a settlement which would “recognize that the voters have spoken loud and clear that they want a reduction in cruise ship visitation, that that significant reduction has to happen.”

The APPLL lawyers and plaintiffs sent mixed messages about their goal which revealed conflicting interests among themselves.

The president of the APPLL board, restaurateur Kristi Bond, was much more conciliatory than Hamilton.

She told the council, “Working together to make the situation work for everyone is definitely on our agenda and we hope it's on yours as well.”

APPLL board member Shawn Porter, who owns gift shops with her husband, said, “We've had our store for 33 years. For 32 years, we were able to plan staff and buy inventory with an idea of what our season would look like. And now we can't do that. We gave up one of our three locations that was very dependent on cruise ship traffic. We've not ordered from companies that we normally would because the product was mostly appealing to the cruise ship crowd.

“I know my business and now the APPLL group has always been willing and happy to work on a solution that not only works for the business community but for all Bar Harbor and its residents. Decades of work should not be undone in two years.”

But the APPLL plaintiffs do not share the same economics. A reduced cruise ship schedule would affect the restaurants and gift shops but not kill their businesses. They still have land-based tourists.

The tender business operated by Ocean Properties - the only one in Bar Harbor - is 100 percent dependent on the volume of passengers being transported from the ships to the dock.

But OP also owns the restaurants closest to where the passengers disembark which draw a strong lunch business from the passengers.

So what would a compromise look like?

Several council members - Joe Minutolo and Friedmann - have indicated previous support for one proposal articulated by Val Peacock back when she was a freshman council member in the summer of 2021. It called for a maximum of 2,100 passengers per day during the peak cruise ship months of September and October.

That plan was gaining considerable traction until Kevin Sutherland was hired as town manager in January 2022. Sutherland hired a maritime lawyer who put a chill on discussions when he opined that the town was subject to international maritime laws which could supersede local rule.

Now that a federal judge has thrown out that argument, the council suddenly has all the leverage.

If adopted, the Peacock Plan would bring cruise ship visitation volume back to around 2017 when only three ships held more passengers which would have been disallowed.

TRIBUTE: Richard A. "Dick" Broom

1947 - 2024

BAR HARBOR - Dick Broom was my friend, and I am very sorry to have to post this.

We had a mutually respectful relationship even though we occasionally competed. I think I read every story he ever wrote in the Islander.

The following is the obit from Jordan Fernald Funeral Home but a longer and better version appears in the Islander.

Richard Alston Broom, 76, died at home on May 6, 2024, with his beloved wife by his side. He was born December 4, 1947, in Asheville, North Carolina, the son of Alston and Mildred (Miller) Bloom.

Dick went to the university of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he received his BA in Journalism and Radio, TV, and Film. He married his wife, Sharon H.(Hagie) Broom on June 26, 1971. He worked as a reporter for The Mount Desert Islander in Bar Harbor.

His favorite activities were reading mysteries, watching football on TV, and taking his golden retriever, Lizzie on outings. He also wrote two crime novels, “Death Once Removed” and “The Gandhi Lodge”.

He is survived by his wife Sharon; and many dear friends who lived his sense of humor. He was predeceased by his parents.

Services will be announced later.

Those who desire may make contributions in Dick’s memory to the Hancock SPCA, 141 Bar Harbor Rd., Trenton, 04605 or the Acadia Wildlife Center, 49 Black Dog Road, Bar Harbor, 04609.

Condolences may be expressed at www.jordanfernald.com