SPECIAL REPORT: How Charleston, S.C., ousted Carnival from using it as a 'home port'

OTHER NEWS: Bar Harbor's town manager's steep learning curve; Don Cote moves out

BAR HARBOR, Oct. 15, 2023 - Richard Gergel will never be a household name in Maine, but in 2013 he unwittingly triggered a chain of events which led to the ouster of the largest cruise ship company in the world from continuing to use Charleston, S.C. as a “home port.”

The Associated Press reported that would result in a decline of 80 percent in cruise ship passenger traffic in the city when Carnival is forced to vacate after the 2024 season.

Gergel is a United States District Court judge in South Carolina, the bloodiest of Red States for which government is a four-letter word.

Ten years ago, to the surprise of preservationist groups, Gergel voided a federal permit issued for a proposed $35 million cruise ship terminal in Charleston, ruling the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers failed to fully examine the potential impact of the project.

Gergel handed a key victory to environmental and preservation groups at a time when they needed a key victory. They had been arguing for several years to no avail that the increase in cruise ship traffic could threaten Charleston's nationally recognized historic district.

Gergel’s decision gave oxygen to what became a decade-long battle in which a band of local organizations finally succeeded in preventing Carnival Cruise Lines, the world’s largest, from using this city as a home port for its itinerary to the Bahamas.

Instead of fighting the matter in the courts, Carnival chose to move to Norfolk, Virginia. Cruise ships may continue to dock at Charleston, but only for brief, same-day port-of-call stops.

It was the biggest victory by a municipality to control its own governance - home rule - over the predatory cruise ship industry in the United States.

Two years before his ruling, multiple local organizations banded together to create the Charleston Community for Cruise Control (C4) with a shared a common goal: Make sure the cruise ship industry doesn’t destroy the community.

Nothing like C4 exits in Bar Harbor.

Cruise ship revenue is a pittance in Charleston, one of the largest cargo ports in the East Coast. Its bespoke, artisanal eateries on Market Street cater to a markedly different clientele than the hordes in Bar Harbor looking for a bucket of steamers.

Charleston also has a population of 150,000, which would make it the fifth largest city in New England.

The cruise ships docked at a pier near downtown, where the acrid smell and soot of the emissions from the smoke stacks permeated historic sections like Ansonborough, unlike the distant anchorage in Bar Harbor where a prevailing southwest wind blows the polluted emissions north toward Lamoine and Hancock.

It was a “David versus Goliath” battle, said Carrie Agnew, the Princeton-educated activist who became the principal voice for C4, consisting of Charlestowne Neighborhood Association, Coastal Conservation League, Historic Ansonborough Neighborhood Association, Historic Charleston Foundation, Preservation Society of Charleston, South Carolina Environmental Law Project and Southern Environmental Law Center.

The preservation sensibility runs deep in Charleston, one of oldest communities in the nation which was spared destruction during the Civil War. Charleston is a huge tourism destination, but the town protects its Colonial heritage with vigor.

Agnew roused citizens to drive almost three hours to the capital Columbia every time there was a hearing in a lawsuit - she did that for more than 12 years.

In 2019, 50 Charlestonians packed the court room in front of the state Supreme Court, which was hearing yet another challenge brought by C4.

“A lot of it is having people feel invested, having people feel like it matters when they show up.

“We said you don't need to talk, just show up and we're all gonna have this sticker on and make our presence.”

One judge said, “I'm looking out and I'm seeing all of these people here,” Agnew recalled. “It was such validation and I think it made everyone who made the effort to get on that bus on that nasty rainy day to drive from Charleston to Columbia feel like they actually did something that mattered.

“We spent a lot of time in court. We had three different court cases, and so many thanks to our to our brilliant attorneys who all were doing work pro bono because they believe in the environment. They believed in the impacts on historic preservation.

“We had the National Historic Preservation Society writing letters. We had the World Monuments Fund holding its annual symposium about the cruise industry here at Charleston. It was all about cruise impacts on small communities.”

The fund released this study as part of its conference in 2013.

Agnew recalled attending a City Council meeting to consider an ordinance to prohibit smoking in public parks.

“So I got up and I congratulated them. Then I said it's just too bad that the city is unwilling to really come out against this giant smokestack that sits right against our city that puts out these carcinogenic fumes that go for 300 miles and you can have your windows closed, your doors closed. You can't get away from it.”

The real power here was vested in the state ports authority which in 2010 sought to build a commercial terminal for the visiting cruise ships.

After many lawsuits in both federal and state courts, the state finally withdrew the plan and its permit for Carnival after the 2024 season.

“We wore them down and we kept their feet to the fire,” Agnew said. “We kept the pressure on. We were always there.”

Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg said the decision by the authority will improve the quality of life in his city.

“We’re grateful to the port for taking this critically important step, and we look forward to continuing to work with (State Ports Authority) to make Union Pier a beautiful and vibrant part of the city of Charleston,” Tecklenburg said.

After that deal is finished, the Ports Authority said it will continue to follow a voluntary limit of no more than 104 cruise ship visits a year, and no stops by ships that carry more than 3,500 passengers.

Bar Harbor has little of the same communal spiritual fire.

Instead, the opposition here to cruise ships has been the realm of a handful of citizens. The electorate has been satisfied to sit on the sidelines and watch the political sausage being made.

But when asked, they have voted overwhelmingly to protect their shrinking share of life in Bar Harbor as residents - in 2019 when they rejected extending the town pier to host bigger ships, in 2021 when two thirds responded to a townwide survey saying cruise ships were a detriment to the town’s reputation and in 2022 when they voted to place the 1,000 daily visitation cap on cruise ships.

United States District Court Judge Lance Walker in Bangor has a similar question as to whether Bar Harbor has a right to “home rule.”

Local restaurants, hotels and the monopolistic operator of the passenger ferry service from the cruise ships sued the town in 2022 to reverse the passenger cap. They argued the town’s home-rule may not supercede the rights to “interstate commerce” even though none of them is engaged in interstate commerce except to serve up a plate or two of fried clams and boiled lobsters to all comers including most of their customers who come by land.

A three-day trial was held in Bangor in July. The decision will rely heavily on written briefs being filed by the plaintiffs, the town attorney and attorneys for the citizen petitioner who led he 2022 referendum approving the cap.

Bar Harbor’s Hail Mary pass for a new manager

BAR HARBOR, Oct. 14, 2023 - The Town Council was probably thrilled they had a warm body with a pulse who would consider a suicide mission that members were willing to overlook some obvious questions.

After all, this is not a buyer’s market for city administrators.

“We’re excited to have found a manager with so much experience working in Maine municipal government,” Council Chair Val Peacock said in a press release this week which was distributed by Town Manager Cornell Knight only to the safe confines of the Islander and not to Bar Harbor Story nor to the Quietside Journal.

In announcing the appointment of James Smith, assistant city manager in Brewer as the new town manager, Peacock stated, “Brewer’s proximity means that James has spent time in Bar Harbor and Acadia and has some understanding of our strengths and our challenges.”

The 47.5 miles of roadway between the two towns do not adequately represent their difference. Brewer is often described as the southern sister city to Bangor, two mill towns on the Penobscot River which never recovered from their peak economic times.

Tourism, the bedrock of Bar Harbor, is not a significant economic factor in Brewer. Bar Harbor generates 7 times the revenue for food and accommodation sales.

Twelve years ago, Smith left the secure confines of Brewer for the town manager job in Rockland, Maine, a town more like Bar Harbor with its coastal village and tourism sensibility, although it does not have Acadia National Park.

Smith resigned after 20 months to return to Brewer.

Some, like the then town attorney, was a thorn in his side, said former Rockland mayor Larry Pritchett. “What I would say broadly is I think there was a history of some staff people actively undermining the city manager.”

“It was at least as much if not more about what was going on in Rockland than it was about James Smith,” said Pritchett, who added that he was well aware that Smith’s two daughters missed their friends in Brewer and that weighed on him.

But if he didn’t have the stomach for dust-ups in Rockland, how will he handle the trench warfare in Bar Harbor? Kevin Sutherland thought he could. But he flamed out in just 13 months.

So the question is whether Smith has the skills to tackle all its arachnid branches - administrator, politician, crisis manager, team leader, fiscal overlord, liaison to a national park and sphincter muscle for all incoming detritus, which, in Bar Harbor, is profound.

Why would anyone want this, let alone a bureaucrat ensconced in his quiet life in Brewer which pays him a handsome $102,060? The budgeted amount in Bar Harbor’s for the town manager is $127,722. But will Smith move to Bar Harbor? If not, can he do the job properly? Will he be happy commuting from Brewer which is now a three-hour roundtrip?

Smith refused two requests for answers to these questions.

(He has told some council members that he plans to commute before committing to moving closer. Bar Harbor’s median price for a home is twice that of Brewer.)

Smith was quoted in the Islander as saying, “Bar Harbor is a great community that has a lot of opportunities and a lot of challenges.

“It’s going to be a lot of listening and a lot of getting to know people and understanding what the challenges are.”

So let’s start with the basics beyond the canned sound bites.

Bar Harbor is one of the most politically progressive communities on the planet. It gave Joe Biden 74.9 percent of its vote versus 22.5 percent for Donald Trump.

For the last five year, the voters have supported every single initiative - for building a new school, better sewer and water infrastructure and initiatives to cap short-term vacation rentals and cruise ship visitation.

Brewer, on the other hand, is a predominately blue-collar community which supported Trump over Biden 48.7 to 48 percent in an election where Maine delivered a landslide to Biden 53.1 to 44 percent.

Bar Harbor is home to Jackson Labs, College of the Atlantic, MDI Bio Labs and Friends of Acadia, including of some of the wealthiest influencers in the Northeast. How prepared is James Smith to connect with this cohort? What experience as an assistant city manager in Brewer prepared him for this task?

Bar Harbor residents are much better educated - 53.4 percent have a bachelor’s degree, compared with 29.3 percent in Brewer, according to the most recent census.

After Smith’s listening tour, how will he fend off the persistent influence of the commercial interest of the tourism sector?

Bar Harbor’s 21st century may be divided into three epochs:

• The rise of Councilman Paul Paradis’s over-arching influence over the commercialization of the town, giving Ocean Properties LLC, the largest hotel and cruise ship-related business, an outsized presence, including dominance of the town’s biggest asset - its waterfront.

• The hiring of Town Manager Cornell Knight as a recommendation of OP’s law firm Eaton Peabody which helped help solidify OP’s influence.

• The failed passing of the torch to Kevin Sutherland, another Eaton Peabody product.

No doubt Cornell Knight, who is back as the interim town manager, has Smith’s ear as he did with Kevin Sutherland, who told people his job was to “professionalize the town” and manage its amateurish Town Council.

It didn’t take long for Sutherland to learn who controlled the monopoly board before embarking on the Kevin road show.

The only thing he missed was a tour bus, although his RV had plenty of hospitable hosts who gave him free parking.

The town made multiple mistakes with Sutherland. Council chair Peacock, with virtually no executive experience, acted at times like Sutherland was the boss and not the other way around. (That practice predated Sutherland.)

Eben Salvatore, the local operations chief for Ocean Properties, was given prominent roles, chairing two committees - parking and cruise ships - even though he was not a resident of Bar Harbor. That’s how things went under Knight and chair Paul Paradis for most of the last decade.

Council member Maya Caines described the cruise ship committee as “corrupt” before the council last month ended its existence.

By the end of his first contractual year, Sutherland had lost the confidence of most council members. But the council didn’t pull the plug until 23 days into Sutherland’s second year, allowing the probationary period to lapse. That oversight cost taxpayers a $68,000 severance payment.

Perhaps the coup de grace was Sutherland Jan. 5, 2022 performance captured on video and reported by the QSJ in which he gave the cruise ship committee the road map into the town’s strategy recommended by attorneys defending the town and then disclosed other ways the town could be sued, all in front of Salvatore, a named plaintiff in the lawsuit against the town.

(At no time during the meeting did councilor Matt Hochman, a cruise ship committee member, interrupt Sutherland’s comments.)

James will not have much of a honeymoon.

He is scheduled to start just before Thanksgiving.

Around that time, U.S. District Court Judge Lance Walker is scheduled to render his opinion on the lawsuit against the town brought by Ocean Properties and restaurants near the West Street dock owned by OP where the passengers disembark.

The fallout from that decision will rock the town either way, and Smith will have plenty of learning to do before then. He also will be thrust immediately into the town’s latest effort to unpack the impact of tourism on residents and Bar Harbor’s carrying capacity to handle such volumes.

He will need to tap into the institutional knowledge held by stakeholders. With whom James Smith spends most of his time will be the single biggest factor in shaping his management of the town.

Has Smith talked to Dana Reed, who did the job for 27 years?

Reed was among the dozen or so Salisbury Cove residents who spoke in front of the council last month to protest the unlicensed amplification of live music at a lobster pound near their homes.

The growth of outdoor, amplified music is an example of how the town has favored business interest over that of residents, Reed said.

“During COVID, they loosened the restrictions, and probably reasonably given that all the restaurants needed to move outdoors,” Reed said. “But now that the restrictions are no longer there, it's my position that they need to to do away with that ability to do outside music.

“The reason they prohibited the outdoor entertainment was because the sound doesn't stop at the property lines.

“It's very disturbing to the neighbors, and it really goes into the character of the community. What kind of community do you want? Do you want one that's very disturbing to everybody? That's great for tourism, but not a good place to live."

“And I think many of the residents, justifiably so, feel that it's gone too far and that residents need to be a priority. And I think the council got the message on that.

“Well, they should have gotten that message on cruise ships. They’ve gotten that message on the vacation rentals. It's it's really important to take care of your local residents.”

Reed was reminded that the tourism growth went into uncharted territory when he was town manager.

“Well, I was here for 27 years, almost three decades, right? Things changed a lot during that time.

The growth really accelerated “towards the end of my tenure, and of course I've been gone, what, nine years now?” Reed said.

“I like the trend that is shifting back in favor the residents.”

But Reed does not like the trend of how folks “have become so much more confrontational.

“Used to be able to hold a conversation. Now it's us against them constantly. And there's no middle ground, no negotiation.

“There’s going to be growth,” Reed said. But it has to be compatible.

“You just have to take care of the local residents. They're the voters. And if you don't take care of them, there's gonna be pushback.”

Propublica: Leonard Leo’s infamous party in Northeast Harbor night before Roe was overturned

NORTHEAST HARBOR - Several readers urged me to re-publish the article on an event last June 23 at Leonard Leo’s home at 46 South Shore Road where many federal judges attended a party he hosted.

“The judges were in Maine for a weeklong, all-expenses-paid conference hosted by George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School, a hub for steeping young lawyers, judges and state attorneys general in a free-market, anti-regulation agenda. The leaders of the law school were at the party, and they also were indebted to Leo. He had secured the Scalia family’s blessing and brokered $30 million in donations to rename the school. It is home to the C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State, named after the George H.W. Bush White House counsel who died this May. Gray was at Leo’s party, too. (A spokesperson for GMU confirmed the details of the week’s events.)”

Here is the entire article from ProPublica.

Also, here is the NPR series which was a partnership between ProPublica and “On the Media:

LISTEN· 51:34PLAYLIST

UPDATE: Don Cote moves out

MOUNT DESERT - The 93-year-old local legend Don Cote voluntarily moved out of his near Long Pond and is living temporarily at Smuggler’s Den Campgrounds in Southwest Harbor, a family member said.

The family said he will move to an apartment over the winter and has applied for housing at the Ridge Apartments next to the town office building.

The QSJ reported Sept. 12 that Cote was being evicted from his home.