Cruise Ship Committee Looks Like It Might Be Sinking
Town Council moves committee's disbanding to public hearing
BAR HARBOR—After a majority of its members indicated that they are in favor of dissolving the town’s Cruise Ship Committee, the Town Council has scheduled a public hearing about disbanding the committee for its September 5 meeting. This is the next step required prior to the change.
The committee was put on pause in January after the town became embroiled in a lawsuit defending the new changes to the town’s cruise ship disembarkation policy. Those changes were voted in by a majority of town voters in November 2023. Those changes to reduce daily disembarkations to 1,000 or less a day have not begun because of that same suit, which went to trial in July.
Prior to that, the town used memorandums of agreement (MOAs) to control the number of cruise ships that visit. Last night, Council Chair Valerie Peacock said that Bar Harbor is one of only four places in the world that do so.
According to Peacock, in January, after the council went into litigation, the council had to review how the committee could operate due to the conflict of interest in some members who were involved in the lawsuit against the town. The committee has not met since then.
“We’ve left this committee out here hanging,” she said.
The lawsuit directly involves the company of one of its members, Eben Salvatore, who works at Ocean Properties. Salvatore is also a member of the Association to Protect People’s Livelihoods (APPLL), a nonprofit that is the lawsuit’s main party.
“It doesn’t mean we can’t reform a committee or think about it more later on,” Peacock said. Other councilors seemed in favor of Councilor Kyle Shank’s idea to form a committee that looked at tourism management in a more holistic manner.
The cruise ship committee was formed to make the increasing visitation from cruise ships more smooth for the town, Vice Chair Friedmann said. “That’s why it was formulated to have so many representatives from the industry.”
“I don’t think that’s needed any longer,” Friedmann said because they’ve perfected the operations side and also “It’s seen by the citizens as being biased toward the cruise ship industry, which it is.” He also said the committee members repeatedly elected a chair with an interest in cruise ships.
The Cruise Ship Committee began in 2010 after the town had a task force. The Chamber of Commerce under the direction of Chris Fogg also had a cruise ship committee.
The council actually added the “cruise ship working knowledge” seat in 2017. Back then, Councilor Friedmann is quoted in the Mount Desert Islander as saying, "“I think the Cruise Ship Committee has been formulated to bring expertise from the maritime and cruise ship industry to give the town the best information possible on how to accommodate cruise ships.”
Also, back in 2017, the council changed the rep from “fishing industry” to “maritime industry.” Back in 2015, the council appointed James Collier (an attorney, not a fishing industry professional) to that seat because no members of the fishing community had applied for months.
A Rob Levin article, also from the Islander, discusses the work of the original task force in the early 2010s when it recommended passenger fees which go to the town, a second drop-off for busses, and eliminating the two-ship-per-day-only rule. That task force was meant to be a two-year group.
The original cruise ship committee had nine members and also was meant to have a yearly review of those same fees, operations, and similar items. Also, within the committee’s membership is a “resource group” that included non-voting members.
Currently the advisory committee requires 17 members and specified that its members would be:
One Town Councilor
Harbormaster
Deputy Clerk (not currently listed on members list)
Police Chief
Maritime industry representative
Two downtown business representatives
Two residents at large
One Bar Harbor Chamber of Commerce representative
One representative from Cruise Maine
One member with “working knowledge of the cruise ship industry in the State of Maine”
One shore excursion company (that works with cruise ships) representative
One taxi tour industry (that works with cruise ships) representative
One representative of an entity that receives cruise ship tenders
One representative of the scientific community (currently vacant)
One Acadia National Park representative
An advisory committee means that it makes recommendations to the Town Council rather than takes actions. Other committees also have just advisory roles. This advisory capacity is unlike the Planning Board, Design Review Board, and Appeals Board, which do have the authority to make decisions. The five-member Parks and Recreation Committee also has a representative of the MDI YMCA as a designated seat. That member does not need to be a Bar Harbor resident.
Councilor Matthew Hochman said, “The cruise ship committee is seen in a different light than it actually is in a lot of cases.”
He said in the past the committee was about building up the cruise ship industry, but when you attend meetings, there is a lot of discussion about easing traffic concerns and making the process smoother. Hochman said he would prefer to see more citizen representation on the committee and to have it fundamentally restructured rather than disbanded.
Hochman thought the committee could continue to be a tool to advise the council about the day-to-day things regarding how the season went and how to make things easier for the limited disembarkation process if the town wins the lawsuit.
“There was a lot of good (that came) out of that committee, as well as the bad,” he said. He also pointed to the committee’s work right before the COVID-19 pandemic. A lot of the changes in 2019 have had a good effect on easing things, he said. He is more in favor of a fundamental restructure of the committee. Hochman said that if they are willing to work it toward a tourism management committee, he would be comfortable with that. He said a more holistic approach to understand tourism in general is something he would support.
Shank said that the cruise ship committee is the only one that has specific seats for specific industry representatives. He said he doesn’t believe that they should build lobbying organizations into the town code.
Councilor Earl Brechlin said he agreed with Friedmann’s assessment, “It became a tool to drive an agenda that runs counter to what the citizens in this community want and expect.” He believes that by dissolving the committee, they head in the right direction and give themselves time to see how to restructure it.
“It’s time to hit reset. I think it’s time to clean this thing up,” Councilor Joe Minutolo said.
Councilor Maya Caines agreed with disbanding the committee and would like to revisit all the committees and their structures with a look to redundancy of committees.
“The committee was doing what it was designed to do. It was working within the policy set by the town,” Peacock said. “I want to be careful not to vilify everyone on the committee.” People worked hard on it, she said.
Friedmann said he agreed with respecting the committee’s work, but there were times that the committee took stands in opposition of the council. He said they were seen by the citizens as working against the town. “This sends a strong message that this council is moving on.”
Brechlin said that there were a lot of people who worked on the committee who were not at cross purposes to the community.
“The cruise ship committee has never raised passenger caps.” Hochman said. The committee didn’t accept the reservations either, he said. Instead, he said, increased levels in cruise ship visitation occurred via the organic reservation process. The committee is not solely responsible for the town’s current level of visitation.
Shank said he’s interested in the public hearing and who comes out to tell us what they feel about the issue.
The item to potentially disband the committee was under “unfinished” business. The council unanimously voted to hold a public hearing about the potential amendment that would end the committee. After that, the council may (or may not) vote to disband the committee.
This story was updated to fix a typo.
