Will Bar Harbor voters resist bite of the APPLL, and return its paradise lost?

Corrected version

“Awake, arise or be forever fallen … " John Milton, 1667

BAR HARBOR, June 3, 2023 - Voters of Bar Harbor, “Who’s your daddy?”

For about two decades, a few dozen businesses within a square mile of the Village Green have owned this town, influencing policy to their self interest at the expense of the average homeowner who had to take counter measures like lawsuits and ballot initiatives to stanch the damage.

Now comes a defining moment like no other in Bar Harbor’s modern history.

Will citizens elect a council which protects their interest on a daily basis and not just spasmodically?

This new council will for the first time in almost a decade hire a town manager who was not shepherded by the same law firm suing the town over its cruise ship ordinance. (See correction below)

“While business, even tourist business, is vital to Bar Harbor, it’s not ultimately who we are,” former warrant committee member Cara Ryan wrote in the Islander this week. “We’re more than that, and to survive, let alone grow the way we want to, we have to shed the tendency to give too much away to business at the expense of community.”

The municipal election on June 13 is actually a simple, binary decision.

If you believe Bar Harbor should stay the course and continue to bow at the altar of the cruise ship/tourism industry, then the choice is clear: Return incumbents Val Peacock and Erin Cough, and elect Earl Brechlin and Kyle Shank.

If you believe the town needs to stem and perhaps even reverse the entreaties of the likes of the Association to Preserve and Protect Local Livelihoods, then you should elect some resilient souls whose independence will allow for such a possibility.

There are at least three such persons on the ballots.

They are not typical of the candidates who normally seek office in Bar Harbor.

They have not been vetted by the Chamber of Commerce. They are not seeking to enrich a select few trinket shops, restaurants and hotels at the expense of the rest of the town.

But they are an acquired taste - like this journal.

Charles Sidman has certainly earned the right to sit on the council, having successfully ushered three ballot initiatives to become law, including the 2019 ordinance requiring voting members of town boards and committees to be residents and, of course, the pivotal and overwhelming 2022 ballot win (1,780-1,273) to cap cruise ship visitors at 1,000 a day as opposed to 5,500.

He then led the defense of the ordinance against the lawsuit by APPLL, with the Town Council parked in the breakdown lane as he and APPLL went toe-to-toe in federal court. (See correction below)

When asked by Carrie Jones of the Bar Harbor Story for ideas to boost revenues, Sidman did not pull punches. He went right after the monopoly cruise ship tender business owned by Ocean Properties:

“Immediate possibilities for local consideration and implementation include resuming town tendering and docking operations from cruise ships (that we gave away in an uncompensated backroom deal over a decade ago, and that would have largely paid for our huge deferred maintenance bill of today) …”

He added, “town fees that keep up with inflation, living within our means in terms of personnel positions and pay raises, greater contributions from our worthy tax exempt institutions, having business that put extra stress on our town pay a fairer share, etc. “

Nate Young, the phenom who became police chief at Age 29 and built the modern police force, is another such independent soul with whom I have had my share of disquieting phone conversations. Unlike the current police chief, Young’s impulses were unfiltered. That he might have pissed off Ocean Properties when he proposed the town allow its own pier to service cruise ship tenders did not seem to enter into his calculus when he proposed it in 2012.

He was the only candidate who questioned the town’s explosive growth in spending the last decade with this spreadsheet. They all lead to one culprit: Increased cost to serve the tourism industry.

How else do you explain a $919,000 police budget in FY 2014 and a proposed $1.6 million in FY2024? And like the question asked by Sidman, are the businesses responsible for this paying their fair share?

Young wants to enact a “green fee” similar to the one in Hawaii, which is exacting a $50 charge for every visitor.

Maya Caines is asking similar questions.

The former town communications director got caught in a political vice grip after her boss, Town Manager Kevin Sutherland was let go. That ended her six month tenure as a town employee.

But during her time, Caines learned much about town operations.

She represents a constituency grossly under-represented in town: Young people who serve us, cannot afford to live here but has aspirations of calling this paradise home. Also, she is of mixed race - her father is African American. Talk about lack of representation in Bar Harbor.

In one conversation, Maya Caines talked about the parking fees as an easy revenue generator. What is the price elasticity of each meter? Is it $10, $20 an hour? Will they pay more? Maya Caines wants to find out.

Brechlin, as the longtime editor of the Islander, also gave it its quiescent voice - a “don’t ask, don’t tell” sensibility. Apart from my friend Dick Broom, the Islander has been a complicit witness to the destruction of the Village of Bar Harbor. I take no comfort in writing this. But Dear Reader, ask yourself why this town now has two news bloggers who fill the gap - myself and the indefatigable Carrie Jones.

And when was the last time the Islander sought information through Maine’s Freedom of Access Act, a reporter’s best friend?

Invoking FOAA was how the QSJ was able to obtain records showing that former Town Manager Kevin Sutherland authorized 36 cruise ships to be added to the 2024 season last Nov. 7, one day before 1,780 citizens voted in the cap of visitors at 1,000 a day.

It was how I was able to disclose that the Town Council gave Sutherland a golden handshake to get him to agree to resign - after only 13 months on the job.

Journalism is not stenography. And simply recording meetings and events without asking impolite questions is a disgrace to the profession.

Brechlin was editor during the most profitable years of the Islander, when virtually every business on the island was an advertiser. He now sits on boards and committees with some of them, including the former Planning Board chairman who is building the 44-room “bed and breakfast” on Cottage Street and restaurant owner Tom Testa, who is suing the town as a board member of APPLL. They, along with former council chair Jeff Dobbs, are board members of the historical society, of which Erin Cough is director.

All you need to know about Kyle Shank is that Matt Hochman, the biggest backer of cruise ships and tourism on the council, was one of his earliest supporters when Shank announced he was running for council.

Shank said he voted against the Sidman petition.

Shortly after, he was endorsed by Jennifer Cough, sho ran unsuccessfully as cruise ship acolyte for town council two years ago and has since declared on social media that she is a member of APPLL.

My reporting on Val Peacock and Cough the last two years have been exhaustive.

At least Erin Cough is unvarnished - a business person with no apologies for her flirtations with ethical boundaries.

Val Peacock is different.

She is typical of many who seek local office but are uncomfortable with wielding power, unlike their business counterparts. They get swamped. They seek compromise. In the end they succumb.

Peacock was the biggest champion of Town Manager Kevin Sutherland. There were times in 2022 when it was unclear who was the boss, Sutherland or Peacock, the council chair.

Together, they defied the wishes of 58 percent of the electorate. Under Peacock, the town became an instrument of APPLL, which on May 12 cited the town’s not enforcing the new ordinance as a defense of why it refused to disclose its members and their finances in its lawsuit against the town. (see next article)

“APPLL is not required to divulge all persons and entities would paid dues; and, objecting further APPLL is seeking a declaratory judgment as to the Ordinance's constitutionality and injunctive relief and is not seeking damages; and, objecting further, the Town of Bar Harbor has agreed not to enforce the Ordinance until such time as the Ordinance's validity, as challenged in this action, has been adjudicated and, therefore, APPLL is not at risk of incurring damages before such adjudication; and, objecting further, this interrogatory is not reasonably calculated to lead the discovery of admissible evidence; and, objecting further, this interrogatory is overbroad, burdensome, and, oppressive.”

The body politic of the council - its group dynamic - is an important element of local government.

The council was a very different body in the summer of 2021 when Peacock led the charge to articulate a cruise ship cap of 2,500 passengers a day. She brought Jeff Dobbs, Cough and Hochman along for the ride.

Then, that August, Town Manager Cornell Knight announced his retirement, and Eaton Peabody’s search practice, which found Knight in 2014, recommended Kevin Sutherland, whose contract as city administrator in Saco was not renewed. (Knight is now on the staff at Eaton Peabody and recently was named interim town manager in Farmington, Maine.)

Sutherland left a trail of lawsuits in Saco, including one which cost the town $100,000 to settle after the state’s Human Right Commission agreed with the complainant. The Bar Harbor council members either didn’t do their own due diligence, or if they did, ignored Sutherland’s history.

Sutherland immediately put a chill on any thoughts of a 2,500-passenger cap and instead began to devise a much more generous allotment of 4,000 cruise ship passengers a day.

Even that was challenged by local businesses which began rattling saber about a lawsuit as early as August 2022, three months before citizens would take up the Sidman petition.

On Aug. 10, 2022, Bo Jennings, writing as general manager of the Side Street Cafe, sent this email in which he warned Sutherland that any diminution of cruise ship visits would result in a lawsuit. Jennings is now president of the Chamber of Commerce, which recently joined APPLL.

For two decades, the Town Council has given inordinate voice to businesses which, all together, make up only a third of the tax base. Residents make up most of it. Bar Harbor has a substantial non-profit sector - College of the Atlantic, Jackson Labs. They are big year-round employers but also pay very little in taxes.

Some readers of my newsletter are of the opinion that Bar Harbor deserves what it gets, because it votes in tourism friendly representatives year after year. What did they expect when they voted in a Warrant Committee member who ended up suing the town?

But the truth is more nuanced.

Not all businesses in Bar Harbor are of the APPLL ilk.

Greg and Julie Veilleux, owners of Window Panes. Anna Durand and Ralph McDonnell, who run Acacia House Inn. Council member Joe Minutolo, who owns Bar Harbor Bicycle Shop. David Witham, whose family runs Bar Harbor Inn and other hotels.

These business owners have all spoken out against the uncontrolled growth of tourism. Witham is building a dormitory to house his seasonal workers because too many year-round residents are getting squeezed out by businesses gobbling up the housing stock for only half the year. Minutolo laments the “it’s never enough” appetite of the tourism trade of which he is a reluctant participant.

But it’s was rare for folks with Minutolo’s views to run for office in this town.

Until this year.

For the first time in a generation, voters have a true choice to make. Will they seize it?

CORRECTION AND CLARIFICATION: In an earlier version, the funding of the citizens defense against the APPLL lawsuit was incorrectly reported. The are more than 200 individuals who have donated to the legal fund on GoFundme.com. Sidman and his wife have contributed to less than 10 percent of the total.

Judge to decide whether to force APPLL to disclose membership, finances

BAR HARBOR - The citizens intervenor in the cruise ship lawsuit asked a federal judge this week to order APPLL, the plaintiff business group suing to overturn the town’s visitation cap, to disclose its full membership and financial information.

“Defendant-Intervenor Charles Sidman respectfully submits this motion to compel disclosure of Plaintiffs Association to Preserve and Protect Local Livelihoods (APPLL)’s members and compel Plaintiffs to produce financial documents,” Sidman’s lawyers stated in a motion filed on Wednesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Karen Frink Wolf.

“Relatedly, Plaintiffs have refused, on relevancy grounds, to produce financial records.”

Sidman’s lawyers stated that it was APPLL which first stated in its original lawsuit that, “The exclusion of cruise vessels from the port of Bar Harbor will also cause immediate, substantial, and deleterious economic disruption to the businesses of APPLL’s members.

“Plaintiffs cannot allege that its members are ‘severely damaged,’ but refuse to identify its members and refuse to produce evidence of how they will be harmed.” Thus, “Plaintiffs’ members [and financial records] are of consequence in this case because [Plaintiffs] made them so.”

“In order to withhold member lists, an organization must make ‘a colorable claim that their First Amendment rights of free association are threatened by harassment that might follow disclosure,’ “ the lawyers wrote. “APPLL has not alleged threats to their First Amendment rights nor that its members would be subject to harassment if membership is disclosed.”

APPLL is claiming that because the lawsuit is not seeking damages, its membership and financial documents are not relevant.

But Sidman’s lawyers pointed out that the original suit stated that “APPLL Members’ businesses and the other Plaintiffs’ businesses, which include barge work, tendering, restaurants, tour businesses, retail businesses, and Coast Guard-approved related facilities, will be severely damaged by the Initiated Ordinance and its implementation will harm the ability of their employees to earn a living.”

Tremont meeting to focus on impact of rising sea

TREMONT - The Town is holding a “community resilience event” Sunday June 4 from 12-2 p.m. at the school, featuring a potluck, music, activities for kids and the chance to share feedback on a vision for a resilient Tremont.

In case of rain, the event will be in the Harvey Kelley Meeting Room at the Tremont Town Office building. This is the second in a series of events that seek to collect community input on the creation of a Community Resilience Plan for the town of Tremont. 

Tremont was identified by the Natural Resources Council of Maine as one of the 20 towns in Maine most threatened by sea level rise, with the Tremont consolidated school, volunteer fire department, and much of the town’s infrastructure vulnerable to damages. The development of the Community Resilience Plan is a result of the community’s desire to plan, prepare and adapt to these changes.

A Climate to Thrive is supporting the town of Tremont with organizing the event and developing the Community Resilience Plan, funded through the Town’s participation in the Community Resilience Partnership. 

In addition to the June 4 event, several other feedback options are available to help inform the Community Resilience Plan: 

• A virtual bulletin board, through which you can share quick thoughts and interact with others’ ideas and comments (if you are having difficulties using the virtual bulletin board, email brianna@aclimatetothrive.org).

• An online survey, useful for providing more in-depth answers.

• One-on-one conversations: reach out to brianna@aclimatetothrive.org to set up an alternate time to connect. 

Former Portland mayor: Susan Collins is working very hard to put Trump back in the White House.

Ethan Strimling, former state senator and mayor of Portland, wrote:

“Despite pretending to distance herself from Trump, Collins is quietly doing the bidding of MAGA Republicans by opening the door to the one avenue that guarantees Trump a second term: putting a conservative Democrat on a third party presidential ticket. https://mainebeacon.com/opinion-susan-collins-wants-to-send-trump-back-to-the-white-house/?fbclid=IwAR1aMv2VIO1-x7ugNM4aJB7cZxyHQDMSinM4upRJQDUw7AVPI6etO4e34ZI

“If you haven’t seen it, Beacon recently reported that Collins is an honorary co-chair of “No Labels,” a billionaire-funded dark money group that is working to create a third party ticket for U.S. President/Vice President that will include a Democrat and a Republican. Collins has been co-chair since 2017 and has been helping them raise money by going to events and speaking on their behalf.”

From the New Republic: Who Is Leonard Leo’s Mysterious Dark Money King?

America needs to know who Barre Seid is, what kind of country he wants, and just how massive an impact his $1.6 billion gift can have on our political discourse.

https://newrepublic.com/article/172480/barre-seid-leonard-leo-dark-money-king

Photos of new inside space at Common Good Soup Kitchen in Southwest Harbor

SOUTHWEST HARBOR - A gift from the Witham Hotel Charitable Fund helped the Common Good Soup Kitchen expand and remodel its inside space to serve weekly suppers during the winter.

The outside will still be the primary area for live music and the famous popovers, served Wednesday-Sunday 7:30 a.m to 11:30 a.m. The Common Good Band plays every Sunday from 9 to 11 a.m.

TRIBUTE: Bessie A. Rich Wass

BERNARD - Bessie A. Rich Wass, 91, known best as Betty or Bet, passed away peacefully, May 11, 2023, at home in Richtown (Bernard) with loved ones by her side, after a brief illness. She was born November 30, 1931, to Leslie G. and Elsie M. (Harper) Rich in the home in which she would spend her entire 91 years of life living in.

Bet attended schools in Bernard and Southwest Harbor. After finishing school, she went to work at a sardine factory, where she ultimately met her husband, Willard R. “Bill” Wass. Following the birth of their son, Bet became a fulltime homemaker and a dedicated wife and mother.

She was very meticulous on keeping her home and yard in immaculate shape. Rumor has it she cleaned the top of her kitchen stove so much, she wore the enamel right off it. Even until the end of life, Bet could always be found mowing, raking, and trimming the lawn, trimming the hedges and shrubs, and fine tuning the numerous rock walls she had built over the years or just giving attention to anything in need of care. She enjoyed doing carpentry, cooking, knitting, crafts, even splitting firewood on the woodspliter and sewing, especially the hats she and her sister Lill collaborated on which received many compliments on over the years. But best of all, Bet loved her gardening, from the starting of seedlings in her house in April until the last vegetables were harvested and put away for the year. She took great pride in her rock garden of flowers next to the driveway to welcome her visitors. Bet especially loved animals, whether they were her own dogs and cats or the deer she fed for many years in her yard.

Bet is survived by her son, Willard Dean Wass; nieces and nephews, Doug Hodgdon (Renee), Betty Archilles (Barry), Laura Dillon (Charlie), Leslie Rich (Ellen), Hazel Rich; and her pride and joys, her cats, Kipper and Sadie. She was predeceased by her parents; husband, Bill; brother, Leslie Neal Rich and wife Charlotte; sister, Lillian (Rich) Hodgdon and husband Frank; nephews, Gary Hodgdon and Frank “Dinky” Hodgdon.

A special thanks to Doug, Renee, Marlene Walker, Laura Danforth, Dr. Baxter and the staff at the SW Harbor Medical Center.

A celebration of life service will be held later this summer for anyone wishing to attend.

In lieu of flowers, those who wish to make a donation in Bet’s memory may make them to the SPCA of Hancock County, 141 Bar Harbor Road, Trenton 04605

Arrangements by Jordan-Fernald, 1139 Main St. Mount Desert

Condolences may be expressed at www.jordanfernald.com