Do the Hopkinses really face 'financial ruin' if campground moratorium passes?
Bar Harbor council tackles cruise ships, fire inspections, planning board issues
TREMONT, Oct. 9, 2021 - “Financial ruin.”
Those were the words used by Becky Hopkins this week on the future for her son and daughter-in-law if the town votes Nov. 2 for a moratorium on campground applications, which would include the Hopkins’s glamping resort Acadia Wilderness Lodge. You may watch her starting at 30 minutes into Monday’s hearing.
Becky Hopkins is not a shrinking violet. She’s a real estate agent.
But her claims often leave people shaking their heads, or questioning their veracity.
Example: She continued to insist that the idea for a campground came from the previous code enforcement officer.
QSJ interviewed that person, John Larson, who is now the CEO in Southwest Harbor. He denied that he recommended a campground as Becky Hopkins said.
On to “financial ruin.”
The CEO of Acadia Wilderness Lodge is Kenya Hopkins, by all accounts a brilliant over-achiever.
She attended Michigan State University and received a degree in mechanical engineering as well as an MBA, graduating summa cum laude. “After graduation, Bell worked as an engineer for General Motors,” according to Wikipedia.
I was told that she is the CEO of AWL by her husband James Hopkins in our only conversation months ago. (He doesn’t return my calls anymore.) James Hopkins then was working as a property manager for a large estate, he said.
Kenya also earned a nursing certificate in April which she posted on Facebook.
Property management and nursing are extremely desirable skills on MDI, especially for those who do not require subsidized housing.
Kenya Hopkins is the former Kenya Bell, a beauty contestant who was a semi-finalist for Miss USA in 2001. She was married to NBA player Charlie Bell, who made about $20 million in his professional career. She starred in the TV series, “Basketball Wives,” until the marriage came to a halt in 2012.
Here is what TMZ reported about her multi-million-dollar divorce settlement:
“After all the back and forth ... a judgment was filed on August 27. Here's how it breaks down:
“Kids: Charlie has to shell out $1,000/month in child support, but they'll share custody of their two daughters. Neither party has to cough up spousal support.
“Homes: Kenya scored the marital home in Michigan, along with the home bought for her parents. Charlie gets the condo in Vegas and the home he bought his parents.
“Money: Kenya was awarded $780,000 cash from Charlie's savings ... leaving him with $656,000. She also gets half of the $670,000 from another account.
“Here's where Kenya wins big: she gets HALF OF EVERYTHING from the following: Charlie's NBA 401k plan, his NBA retirement plan, his NBA pension, NBA welfare plan and NBA supplement benefit plan.”
At the select board hearing Monday when Becky Hopkins made her impassioned speech about how her son and Kenya Hopkins face “financial ruin,” it was pointed out to her that they already own an existing campground which by next season should be a robust business. The Terramor Resort in Bar Harbor is renting at $300 a night a tent for a four-night minimum. The 11 yurts being built by the Hopkins on Kelleytown Road should easily gross seven figures in revenue.
James and Kenyon Hopkins lists this house in Miami as their home in public records. Zillow says it’s worth $845,000. It’s unclear whether they own or rent the property.
Lastly, at Monday night’s select board hearing on the proposed 43-acre, 55-yurt glamping resort, Becky Hopkins displayed two letters on a poster board saying they contained threats to her children and grandchildren.
QSJ found two letters with language referencing the family in the Planning Board file. Both came from residents of Seal Cove:
Letter 1: “In deference to the Hopkins family I would have serious concerns about their happiness and comfort, and that of their children living in a community that is overwhelmingly opposed to the proposal, if their true intent is to better the quiet side as they have publicly stated.
“Would it not be better to construct affordable housing or cluster housing which would be an enormous contribution to the needs of the community and surroundings while still providing them with income. They would be true heroes, highly respected and admired, not to mention the satisfaction they would derive by satisfying their own stated goal of helping the community?”
Letter 2:
“The locals definitely do not want it and I am concerned that the applicant will not find goodwill toward them or their children if they proceed with this project.”
The writer of the letter told QSJ she is shocked that it is being interpreted as a threat because her concern for the family was “sincere and heartfelt.”
Becky Hopkins did not return voicemails from QSJ left on her work and home phones. The Planning Board’s continuation of the application will be Tuesday at 5 on Zoom,
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/8998577726?pwd=WHpZODhObDVSUHU1NGJ2eXFpaDJMUT09
Meeting ID: 899 857 7726
Passcode: Tremont
Bar Harbor seeks to extend fire, safety inspections to all rental dwellings
BAR HARBOR, Oct. 9. 2021 - The Town Council took a major step this week toward requiring fire inspections of all rental dwellings and not just vacation rentals. It was part of an extraordinarily busy agenda and marked the return of member Gary Friedmann from his two-month trip out West.
It voted unanimously Tuesday to create a task force which will develop a “rental registration program” similar to one which requires landlords of rentals under 30 days to pay a $250 fee to ensure the dwelling complies with fire and safety codes.
The task force was proposed in a memo by Code Enforcement Officer Angela Chamberlain, Town Planner Michele Gagnon and Fire Chief Matthew Bartlett, after a fire heavily damaged a house Aug. 1 in a densely populated section of town, where 15 persons escaped injury as they were at work.
QSJ reported Aug. 21 that the house was owned by hotelier David Witham who was in violation of code with more than five persons in one dwelling. They were employees of Bar Harbor Inn.
Neighbors on First South Street and nearby complained that there were numerous illegal workforce housing units and that they were fire hazards.
“Seasonal employee housing should be subject to the same registration, fire and safety inspections required of vacation rentals,” Wrote Sharon Knopp, Enoch Albert, Mary and Phil Galperin, in an Aug. 10 letter to the Islander.
“We think it’s beyond time that the town addressed this issue. Only then can the town gather reliable data and work to understand the public safety and other consequences of having more of these houses in our residential neighborhoods.”
The three town officials said Bar Harbor only responds only when there is a complaint about fire and safety issues. A new program would ensure widespread compliance. Chamberlain said she believes a program may be established which would not be onerous to landlords.
She cited a fire in Portland in 2014 which was previously reported by QSJ with six fatalities in a house without smoke detectors and where a back exit was blocked.
“Multiple studies have found that a substantial number of dangerous code violations go undetected by communities without a registration program. Registries take the burden of complaining about safety issues off tenants who often fear that speaking up will cause your landlords to retaliate,” the memo stated.
Chamberlain told QSJ she would like the task force to include the three officials who wrote the memo, two landlords each of year-round rentals, vacation rentals, two residents and a representative of the Housing Authority. “But it’s not my decision,” she said.
Council member Matt Hochman said, “I’ve lived in apartments in town that in no way should have been rented out … if we can get this done moving forward, I think it’s a no-brainer myself.”
Ocean Properties register for 74 vacation rentals
Ocean Properties, the largest owner of hotels on MDI, has applied for 74 vacation rental registrations, some if not all for its employee housing units.
They were signed by Eben Salvatore, manager of Bar Harbor properties, who did not return an email from QSJ seeking details. Salvatore is also chairman of the town council’s cruise ship committee.
The properties, under the subsidiary LLCs of the parent company, include:
- 5 Andrew Austin Way (2 units), 6 and 7 Andrew Austin Way, 25 Federal Street (7), 525 Eden Street (2), 25 West Street Extension (16), 123 Cottage Street (3), 111 West Street, 96 West Street, 84 West Street (2), 59 Spring Street, 8 Ocean Drive, 35 West Street (3), 66 Mount Desert Street (25).
QSJ would have asked Salvatore how many of the units are currently used as worker housing, or whether this company is simply adding another use to increase the value of the holdings.
“One cannot be offering former worker housing for non-transferable weekly rentals and claim they are being put back into the affordable housing mix. That was the alleged primary benefit of creating Shared Accommodations and Employee Living Quarters in 2020,” said Arthur J. Greif, the attorney who is appealing the expansion of worker housing at Acadia Apartments at 25 West Street Extension on behalf of a neighbor.
“The way to create affordable housing is to heavily regulate, with high fees included, all weekly rentals owned by non-residents and use those fees to subsidize affordable housing.”
Vacation rentals soon to exceed 25 percent of housing stock
With the addition of the 74 applications from Ocean Properties, Bar Harbor now has 105 pending applications. The town is close to achieving the dubious distinction of having more than a quarter of its housing stock being vacation rentals if the 105 pending applications are approved. The town has about 2,750 residential dwellings. As of Wednesday the code enforcement officer reported 109 new registrations this year and 495 renewals in addition to the pending applications. That adds up to 709 vacation rentals.
The proposed amendment to the Land Use Ordinance facing voters Nov. 2 would freeze applications for vacation rentals and disallow an owner from transferring a VR registration until the percentage of VRs falls under 10 percent of the housing stock.
Chamberlain said if the amendment is approved Nov. 2, the effective date would be Dec. 2 and any application not approved by then will be invalidated. She could not say for certain whether the 105 pending applications will all be approved. Most applications are not approved the first time because the landlord did not prepare the dwelling correctly, she said.
Hospital’s pending sale of motel irks councilman
Town Councilman Gary Friedmann was on a roll this week. Having returned from his two-month leave out West, he was ready to slay some dragons.
So why not start at the top?
At the very end of a three-hour meeting, Friedmann expressed annoyance at MDI Hospital’s recent decision to sell its motel property on Main Street which it had been using as offices.
“I was somewhat taken aback by this news because I felt that the town/hospital relationship should be more collaborative where if the hospital’s got an asset that might be valuable to the town for affordable housing, they might work with the town and Island Housing Trust, for example, or potential developers of affordable housing that would be able to to make that a real win-win situation for us rather than just going to the highest bidder which is probably another hotel.”
“That’s probably the last thing we need in Bar Harbor right now,” he added. The hospital is taking bids until Oct. 15.
In a statement it said, “After careful consideration, MD I Hospital’s Board of Trustees approved moving forward with the sale of the former motel at 315 Main Street to provide initial funding for our ongoing facilities planning efforts which include critical renovations to our Emergency Department and upgrades to our campus infrastructure.
“MDI Hospital is acutely aware of the need for affordable housing on MDI. It is an ongoing and multi-layered challenge, and one we will continue to explore in our planning efforts. Our hope for this downtown commercial asset, currently utilized as office space, was to see it back on the town’s tax rolls to help reduce the property tax burden for residents. All offers are welcome and will be carefully considered.”
Planning board out of control, “has a mind of its own’; supermajority requirement in question
What is the genesis of the supermajority requirement of town voters should the Planning Board oppose the amendment to the land use ordinance capping vacation rentals? Town Council members debated this question this week as the question of the Nov. 2 vote remains in limbo.
Warrant Committee member Cara Ryan thinks she has the answer, and the solution.
In a letter to the council, she wrote that she was directed by the town manager Cornell Knight to “Municipal Code § 125-9 E,” which states:
“If the Planning Board recommends a proposed amendment, such amendment may be adopted by a majority vote at a duly constituted Town Meeting. If the Planning Board does not recommend a proposed amendment, such amendment may be adopted only by a two-thirds majority vote at a duly constituted Town Meeting.”
“I asked further whether & how it might be changed and was told it's within the Council's power to amend such items in the Code,” Ryan wrote.
“I'd like to suggest, as you review the PB's mission/duties/powers/numbers, that you seriously consider whether this power is appropriate. In our current situation, it could literally mean that the vote of 2 PB members will cancel out hundreds of citizen votes and, as I see it, block progress on our housing problem.
“If you find there's good reason to retain this power with the Planning Board, perhaps you could review and more forcefully insist on our Conflict-of-Interest policy, also in our Municipal Code and yet somehow regularly ignored. These issues intersect regularly and are troubling if not infuriating.”
“I don't have a personal ax to grind on this issue or frankly any other. I'm most concerned about how situations like this seriously discourage our citizens from engagement in local government--they, fairly, wonder why they should bother.”
By QSJ’s reading (QSJ is not a lawyer) of the code indicates a supermajority will be required because the PB did not recommend approval.
The Town Council will need to invoke conflict of interest statutes to void the votes by two planning board members.
Nina St. Germain, whose husband, Tom St. Germain, is chairman of the Planning Board, owns two vacation rental homes. Last month he used his authority to ensure the measure to cap vacation rentals would not be approved by his board. He made sure a member who was absent could not vote on the matter remotely. He was joined by Joseph Cough, a board member who also owns a vacation rental.
And Cough is the husband of town council member Erin Cough. The Coughs are a triple threat. Their son sits on the Warrant Committee and did his best to try and defeat the VR cap.
Chapter 123 of the Maine statute on conduct by municipal officials is clear. If you have a “direct or indirect pecuniary interest in a question,” you must disclose it and abstain from voting on it. Neither St. Germain nor Cough abstained, making their votes voidable by Maine law. Also, at no time has Erin Cough abstained from actions and discussions about capping VRs.
QSJ has reported that St. Germain, who owns the Jack Russell Steakhouse, is proposing to build a 40-room hotel on Cottage Street as a sitting chair of the Planning Board by skirting around zoning regulations, a tactic he approved for someone who is now a business partner.
Tired of the PB shenanigans the council voted unanimously to conduct a public hearing Nov. 16 on the question of adding two members to the planning board to dilute the influence of the rogue members. Member Gary Friedmann said the panning board “has a mind of its own” and must be checked.
EDITORIAL: Bar Harbor’s Doomsday machine
BAR HARBOR - The beginning of the Town Council meeting this week was like the scene out of “Dr. Strangelove” when Peter Sellers uttered the line, “Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here. It’s the War Room.”
This town is a Shakespearian comedy with over-the-top avarice disguised as comity and plenty of unintended dark humor and consequences.
Only in Bar Harbor would a purported champion of social equity be the wife of the most ethically challenged member of a town board, as the couple has publicly and consistently opposed the effort to claw back vacation rentals to house working class residents. (See above)
What is more basic and fairer than to ensure equitable housing? And what’s more destructive than to drive out year-round residents to bow at the altar of tourism.
Two years ago council members began to receive copious emails from year-round residents getting booted out of their rented homes because the owners could extract a week’s worth of rent in just one night on Airbnb.com.
As previously reported, this town is about to hit the dubious mark of having a quarter of its housing stock as vacation rentals.
Let that number sink in a bit while we digress.
Nina St. Germain, wife of PB chair Tom St. Germain, was in front of the council Tuesday to advise members on developing strategies for social equity for historically disenfranchised groups. She had been asked by the council to collate strategies from other municipalities.
After her presentation, member Gary Friedmann, who returned from a two-month leave, said he was appalled by bigoted statements made by an individual at the previous council meeting which he viewed online.
Friedmann pointed out the individual by name, Sean Sweeney of 59 Ledgelawn Avenue and proposed a sweeping resolution condemning such behavior which was approved unanimously. You may view Sweeney’s appearance here starting at 1:55:36. Sweeney is a notorious contributor to a page on Facebook which, as Friedmann correctly observed, is filled with racist, caustic and bullying comments. Two candidates for the most recent town council race are members of this cohort. QSJ called Sweeney for comment but did not get a reply.
Friedmann wanted to legislate a remedy. He proposed an “executive session” with the town attorney to discuss taking legal action against those who flame town employees on social media. In other words he proposed using the citizens’ money to sue the citizens and potentially journalists like QSJ.
Perhaps Friedmann breathed a little too much smoky air out West. I have a copy of the United States Constitution I’d like him to lend him.
He said, “ I think these people need to know that we’re serious about this … to do everything in our power to protect our employees and each other from this kind of unacceptable behavior that’s that’s gotten back to the point where it’s it’s verging on violence in language and possibly physical violence what we’re what we’re seeing on social media now.”
The town is engaged in several very contentious initiatives - cruise ships, affordable housing, etc. They foment extreme reactions from those affected who take to various channels to state their grievances. That’s called democracy.
But Friedmann took a step beyond protecting employees when he said, “and each other,” including himself, other elected council members and board members.
Sorry Gary, but that’s not how the law works.
Even Donald Trump did not use taxpayer money to sue critics and the press. He and Sarah Palin waited until they left office to sue the New York Times.
QSJ has significant libel protection, but that’s not the point. Friedmann’s clumsy reach would give all the targets of my investigations a free ticket to sue me, on the taxpayer’s dime.
It’s one thing to expel Sweeney from a council meeting. But to regulate his comments on Facebook? Who is going to do that? And how much will it cost taxpayers? Sweeney is riled up about his taxes. He’s using abusive language to make his point. Friedmann is going to use taxpayer money to stop that on Facebook?
I wrote an email to Friedmann and he replied, “You're not the one I'm concerned about Lincoln. Social media harassment and threats against the Town Planner are out of bounds.”
Gary is great council member. But sometimes he’s too interested in sound bites than sound reasoning.
Town Planner Michele Gagnon did not want to comment when I called her about this.
But I have a feeling that she is someone who is capable of taking care of herself. She and I are two immigrants who have dealt with the Sean Sweeneys of a socially sheltered space too frequently. We know how to take a punch from these guys.
At the end of Doctor Strangelove, the B-52 piloted by Slim Pickens makes it through the Russian defense, igniting the Doomsday machine, and kills us all.
Dear Gary, appreciate the gesture, but please don’t kill us all.
The conflict provision of Chapter 123 of the Maine statute that you refer to ("If you have a “direct or indirect pecuniary interest in a question,” you must disclose it and abstain from voting on it") obviously does not apply to a vote on vacation rental regulations that applies to the entire population of the town. Anyone owning a residence is affected by the ordinance, whether they now do vacation rentals or not, has an indirect financial interest. By this logic, no one could vote on a zoning ordinance that changes what uses could be made of properties in general.