Will new members bring comity to combative Harbor Committee in SWH?

SOUTHWEST HARBOR, April 21, 2025 - The town’s unruly Harbor Committee is getting a makeover. Tuesday night, the select board is expected to appoint four new members to replace some who repeatedly ignored the town’s Code of Conduct.

In taking action, the board is hoping to prevent the exodus of another harbormaster, the fifth person to hold the job in four years.

After years of unrelenting, combative behavior, the Harbor Committee, dominated by fishermen, finally drew the attention of the town’s relatively new town manager, Karen Reddersen, in February.

The latest flare-up at a Harbor Committee meeting Feb. 3 apparently was the last straw.

That’s when a majority of the committee ganged up on Harbormaster Rob Leavitt, who had been in his job for only seven months. Leavitt was accused by several members of deliberately hiding an engineering report from them, even though he said he sent a copy to committee chair Nicholas Madeira.

The meeting left Leavitt shaken, he confided to some colleagues. He told them he was evaluating his options.

The select board scheduled three consecutive executive sessions March 6 to discuss the code of conduct with committee members Corey Pettegrow, Don Sullivan and Madeira. When no one showed up, the board rescheduled.

Since then Madeira and Sullivan have opted not to seek reappointment. Pettegrow’s name was removed from the town’s list of members with no explanation.

Board secretary Michael Brzezowski, who along with Anne Napier were the only two members with no direct or indirect connection to the fishing industry, has also decided not to seek reappointment.

Five candidates have applied for four appointments. They are:

• Former Select Board chair and Warrant Committee member Lydia Goetze.

• Former Select Board, Warrant Committee and Planning Board member Ryan Donahue, a recreational boater familiar with the local waters.

• Ronald Musetti, lobsterman and wholesale dealer who keeps a boat at Dysart’s Marina in the harbor.

• Jonathan Dow, lifelong employee at Hinckley Yachts and recreational boat owner.

• Christopher Clark, lobsterman and boat builder.

Charlotte Gill, owner of the Legendary Charlotte’s Lobster Pound and member of the Planning Board, withdrew her application today stating she was overbooked on commitments.

The applicants give the Select Board an opportunity to diversify the committee, which has been dominated by fisherman and dealers. Recreational boaters and non-fishing commercials operators have not had much representation.

Southwest Harbor is the state’s seventh busiest fishing port.

But it also has a a world-renown boat builder in Hinckley Yachts, the largest commercial marina in Downeast in Dysart’s, MDI Community Sailing Center with 40 boats, ferries from Cranberry Isles and other islands, cruising vessels which rank among the world’s most elite and a Coast Guard station.

Over the last five years, it had been without a full-time harbormaster for as long a period as when it had one.

Jesse Gilley lasted only four months when he left in June 2021 to captain a commercial barge. That summer the town operated without a harbormaster during the busiest time of the year. A good chunk of the following summer also did not have a full-time harbormaster.

In the interim, Oliver Curry recorded the longest tenure - 10 months from August 2021 to June 2022, before leaving in a disagreement over his work schedule.

By August 2022, chaos reigned, prompting Madeira to characterize the working waterfront as “complete mayhem.”

Jarrod Kushla was hired with great expectation.

Having served 20 years in the Coast Guard - the last post as the commander of the Southwest Harbor Station - Kushla possessed both maritime experience and law enforcement chops.

Kushla was a strict practitioner of chain of command. He reported to the town manager, not to the Harbor Committee. Like others, it didn’t take him long to size up the situation.

He started full-time in October 2023 and immediately began to joust with Madeira’s committee which took offense at Kushla’s absences at their monthly meetings. The committee refused to accept Kushla’s written reports as adequate communication.

By April, Kushla was history by his own making.

Rob Leavitt said he was fully aware of the circumstances here when he left Boothbay Harbor, where he was harbormaster, to look for a place to live for him and his wife.

In July 2024, the town welcomed its fifth harbormaster in four years starting from when Adam Thurston left to take a more sane role as deputy harbormaster in Northeast Harbor.

Apart from the code of conduct, the select board must address a standing conflict of interest issue as the committee is heavily skewed to representing only fishermen. Representation by other user groups collapsed when non-fishing members resigned because they felt abused in meetings.

Member Corey Pettegrow regularly told non-native members to “go back” to where they came from.

The Harbor Committee is composed of seven to 12 members appointed by the select board for 3-year terms.

Its mission as stated on the town’s website:

“The Harbor Committee deals with issues relating to the management of the Harbor, including review of applications regarding Harbor related projects, work on the Harbor Mooring Plan, recommendations to the Board of Selectmen and Planning Board on Harbor related activities, review of the condition and suitability of the town's three docks, development of requests for repair and changes to those docks, recommendations for mooring fees, and review of applications for leasing of town dock space.”