Bar Harbor Council Candidates Speak to Affordable Housing, Budget, Revenue
In-Person Forum Will Be May 29
BAR HARBOR—Six council candidates running for two open seats met in a forum hosted by the League of Women Voters and sponsored by the Mount Desert Islander, Wednesday night. Former councilor Jill Goldthwait moderated the debate. Two Mount Desert Island High School students, Cece Whitehead and Sage Sarton, also moderated one question .
The debate was online via Zoom and Facebook and there will be a link uploaded to YouTube. An in-person forum at the Town Hill Village Improvement Society in Town Hill is scheduled for 6 p.m., May 29. That forum will be moderated by Faith DeAmbrose of the Mount Desert Islander and Carrie Jones of the Bar Harbor Story.
Incumbent Council members Gary Friedmann, who currently serves as the Council vice chair, and Joe Minutolo were joined by candidates Michael Boland, Charles Sidman, Nina St.Germain, and Nathan Young. The election is the second Tuesday in June.
There were no questions from the viewers.
AFFORDABLE HOUSING
Like last year’s forum, candidates were asked about affordable housing. The candidates agreed that more housing was needed, that it should be primarily located where there was town water and sewer.
Friedmann said that the town needs every type of housing and praised the shared accommodations built by the Witham Family LTD on Kebo Street. Young did as well, adding the Witham Family LLC’s other employee housing on site at one of their hotel properties as another example.
“This is a life-long issue for me,” Young said. He grew up in Seal Harbor. He said he was told growing up that he wouldn’t be able to afford to live here.
Affordable housing, he said, is a huge obstacle for the town’s health, and that it also needs the tradespeople to help create the homes for people to live in.
Friedmann said he hopes for opportunities for workers to live without employers buying up houses, which has an impact on neighborhoods.
Sidman agreed about there being a need for more affordable housing and that it should be on town water and sewer. He said he didn’t want to increase environmental problems while working toward housing and therefore the town needed to be careful about zoning changes, and that the town could potentially use its financial power to help finance affordable housing, but shouldn’t subsidize it in the current fiscal climate.
Boland said that the problem isn’t just employer-owned housing, any more than it was just about short-term rentals. That, he said, is a simplification of the problem. Simplifying problems is not how people get to solutions.
“It’s going to go wherever it can,” he said.
St.Germain spoke of how recent data shows that Bar Harbor is getting less attractive to home buys because of its expense and that Ellsworth is now being considered a net absorber. She advocated concentrating development in downtown and larger population centers serviced by water and sewer.
Minutolo also agreed that all types of housing are needed.
“There’s no question about that,” he said. “Even apartments are out of reach for nurses, for teachers…”
He advocated looking at zoning, setbacks, building requirements, incentivizing the types of building the town wants, and disincentivizing the types that it doesn’t want.
BALANCE BETWEEN RESIDENT QUALITY OF LIFE AND LOCAL ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY.
Candidates were also asked about balance between the quality of life and economic opportunity.
Boland said that even deciding what the right balance is, is difficult. What he sees as a need is to be aggressive in coming up with answers and finding the right answers for a majority of people, building consensus.
Sidman said, “We want to maximize the quality of life and that requires a minimum of acceptable economic opportunity.”
For St.Germain, the question is a bit of a polarity that she doesn’t necessarily believe in. “We’re constantly pitting quality of life against business,” she said. “And that might not be the right dichotomy.”
Instead, she advocated shoring up the center, doing things like encouraging less cars, more use of the Island Explorer busses, and helping businesses teach visitors how special the community is. For her, it was not about balance, but alignment.
The economy, Minutolo said, has always been solid in Bar Harbor. He advocated traffic mitigation, more bikeways, pedestrian ways, and public transportation and added that when it comes to tourism, “Putting the toothpaste back in the tube is not a reality.”
When people don’t feel like the town isn’t theirs anymore, it makes him sad.
Young said that Acadia National Park has a management plan for a reason. “We can’t overburden and overcrowd our ecosystem.”
Business owners are all residents, too, who care deeply about the town, he said. At the same time, you can’t disenfranchise those impacted by the larger crowds. He said, “We can’t satisfy the extremes, but I certainly believe we can strike a balance.”
Friedmann said that the park is close to or has exceeded its carrying capacity. As for Bar Harbor?
“We haven’t done anything to reign in the hospitality industry,” he said. He added that he was glad to have put a cap on short-term rentals. “Maybe it’s time to consider a cap to the number of new hospitality units.”
Workers for new hotels, he said, create pressure in neighborhoods for employers to buy up housing.
THE BUDGET (CUTS AND REVENUES)
Council candidates also talked about the town’s budget, which has a proposed approximate 15% increase.
Minutolo said that the lion’s share of this tax increase is due to the school bond that’s coming up. “I was really nervous (about the school bond),” he said. “I actually didn’t support the bond at this point because I saw this coming.”
There’s places where the town can cut a little bit back, he said, but it’s really how the budget is funded. Trimming little things doesn’t really have any great bearing on how much the budget is cut back, he said.
While Boland said that he supported the budget because he was appreciative of everything that people had done to create it, Young said he did not and could not support two years in a row of double digit increases. Though the school bond triggered the increase this year, he said, the municipal budget has consistently trended up more than 70%. He wants a review of all costs centers, speaking about the cost of the police force compared to Ellsworth’s and how the town has to be willing to step away from high costs.
“I know we can do better because I’ve seen it happen,” he said.
Sidman said that Bar Harbor is becoming a more and more expensive town to live in. Schools, infrastructure, and deferred items have made the town incur huge bonds.
“We’re all grownups here. We all run households or businesses. We don’t spend more than we have,” he said.
Friedmann expressed that the municipal budget accounts for less than half of the total budget and that the total budge drivers are capital improvement projects, the high school, school, and county budgets. The Council only has control over the municipal budget.
Growth in visitation drives the police costs, he said. “We have a police force that’s good for a population of 35,000.” That’s because it has to provide for a summer-month population.
“I am concerned about the increase,” St.Germain said. The surge combined with future needs isn’t sustainable, she added. Between legal fees and revenue cuts, the taxpayer is suffering. At the same time the climate is changing and something needs to be done, but with thought to all factors, including fiscal factors.
When it came to revenue and ways to bring in more money, Young said, “We can’t keep raiding the piggybank.” Using the parking meters as an ATM doesn’t come without consequences, he said. He spoke of investigating a tourism impact fee, but he needs to be convinced that the town can get its spending under control. They may be small items, in the budget to pick at, he said, but every little bit helps.
Friedmann and Minutolo and St.Germain all spoke in favor of a local options tax. St.Germain said that she delights in the idea that the health of the businesses tied to the welfare of the community. However, she added, the idea of a local option tax has been sunk multiple times in legislature. She advocated an organized effort up and down the coast.
Boland and Sidman were also in favor of local options taxes. Boland said that he was in favor of it with a cap, advocating not increasing the amount year after year and continually going back to it, likening it to the town’s parking fees. He also mentioned cruise ships, depending on what happens with lawsuits, as a possibility for revenue.
When speaking of local option taxes, Sidman said, “We don’t have control over that. What we do have control over is our expenditures.” He said that by not enforcing the new cruise ship rules this season that this month the Council has foregone a million dollars in fines for excesses in daily disembarkations. He also spoke to the town getting tendering revenue in the future.
REPRESENTATION AND TOWN DIVISIONS
Candidates were asked if they were elected to Council, who would they represent: those who voted for them or the broader community. They were also asked about perceived divisions in the town.
Sidman said that each town councilor is responsible for the welfare and well-being of all the stakeholders. Every town councilor works for the entire town.
Friedmann said that the role of a councilor is to listen hard with an open mind to all the people and then to bring that back to the council with an open mind as well.
Young said that while the town may be divided on a various range of issues, it is also united in recognizing what the problems are.
“You have to listen to all sides,” he said and called for people to show up to yearly town meeting in June. “It’s where it all happens.”
When it comes to being a councilor, he said, “we need to be more attentive to the needs of all of our citizens.”
“I’m representing the whole town,” Boland said, and that the effort needs to be to get out to the other constituencies that you may not always talk to. He said his board experience has helped him balance multiple points of views and often contentious views. “I don’t believe we are as divided as this question suggests we are.”
Vocal minorities, he said, often makes it seem like there is more contention than there truly is. “We’re all really after the same thing: the best community that we can possibly live in.”
St.Germain agreed, saying, “Bar Harbor as a community is way more in alignment than we give ourselves credit for.” For her, it’s about prioritization of issues and collaboration, looking first to the core and Bar Harbor’s primary strengths, which she saw as its natural beauty, economy, and schools. Then, she suggested thinking about how to tie those strengths to the comfort of residents and green initiatives to business success. She suggested thinking bigger about the town’s future. “We’ve been thinking only about what we don’t want it to be.”
Minutolo said, “The biggest thing that you do as a councilor is you have to listen.” He advocated finding balance in the community and that the town can’t forget about people who aren’t involved in tourism and make sure those people can stay in their homes and be comfortable in the community.
Sidman said, “I’m really happy and honored to be here in this crowd of really good people.” He views a town as an ecology and at its center are citizens who live and vote here. “The real role of a town councilor is to act and decide. I don’t think that good intentions and best efforts have so far lead to acceptable results. I don’t think our town is okay.”
FOR MORE INFORMATION
For an article with Council candidate bios and answers to Bar Harbor Story questions, click here. For Warrant Committee candidates, click here.
To watch a replay of the online forum, click here.
If you have a question for a candidate (or all candidates) at our upcoming forum, just send a message or comment below.
Annual Municipal Election
Annual Town Meeting is held on the first and second Tuesdays in June. The first Tuesday is the open town meeting voting on the next fiscal year budget, etc. The second Tuesday is the "secret ballot" election of town councilors, school committee members, MDI School District Trustees, and referendum.
Elections are held in the Municipal Building Auditorium, 3rd floor
93 Cottage St, Bar Harbor.
Polls open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
THIS IS NOT A CORRECTION BUT A CLARIFICATION OF FACT: The U.S. census report states that Bangor, Maine had a population of 31,588 in 2022. According to the Bangor Police Department website, “The police department today has a force of 84 police officers.” Bar Harbor has a force of 15 police officers and a population of approximately 5,100 in 2022.
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