New Chairs for the Council Chambers Same Chairs for the Council
Applicants for boards and committees needed!
BAR HARBOR—The Bar Harbor Town Council had new chairs and staff tables greeting them at their June 12 organizational meeting where the newly configured council unanimously voted to keep Valerie Peacock in the chair position and Maya Caines as vice chair.
Councilors Earl Brechlin and Randell Sprague returned to the council after Tuesday’s election. Steven Boucher and David Kief joined them.
After swearing in all of the councilors, Town Clerk Liz Graves began the Bar Harbor Town Council’s reorganization meeting with an unofficial round of nominations for the upcoming year’s positions of chair and vice chair.
Councilor Earl Brechlin said, “I’d like to see Val do it.”
After some reaffirming words to this effect and nobody else expressing interest, Graves started to move onto the vice chair position when Peacock asked if she could say something first.
“I appreciate your putting me up there, and I appreciate the privilege of being able to do this. It’s not an easy thing to do, but I think it’s a really important thing to do so I appreciate your trust and willingness to let me do it and continue to do it,” Peacock said and then spoke a bit about process and how she is open to change if anyone has any suggestions.
Graves asked who might want to be vice chair and Councilor Sprague said “I think Maya has been doing a great job.”
The official nomination and voting process then took place with Brechlin nominating Peacock for chair. That nomination was seconded and Peacock was unanimously voted into the council chair position again.
Brechlin then nominated Caines as vice chair and once that was seconded, Caines was unanimously voted into the vice chair position for the second year in a row.
APPOINTMENTS COMMITTEE
Three councilors are picked to be on the town’s appointments committee each year. This committee goes through committee, task force, and board applications, makes a suggestion, and then brings that suggestion to the entire town council for a person to be nominated to that task force, board, or committee.
According to Graves, the appointments committee policy says that the term on the appointments committee is one year and a councilor may serve a maximum of two one-year terms before being required to take a break from the committee. The period of time mandated to be off the committee before serving again is three years.
Councilors Caines and Brechlin both just completed their second one-year terms and therefore are no longer eligible to be on the committee for three years.
Both Councilors Joe Minutolo and Peacock were eligible to be on the committee, as well as the two newly elected councilors Kief and Boucher, and newly reelected councilor Sprague.
Peacock said, “I am just going to say that I don’t want to be on it just because it’s too … there’s … this (being council chair) is enough. I don’t feel that I can do it all.”
In the end, Boucher, Sprague, and Kief volunteered and were unanimously voted onto the committee.
TASK FORCE ON THE CLIMATE EMERGENCY COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE
Before his departure from the council, Gary Friedmann was the council representative to the task force on the climate emergency. Since he left the council and moved on to being a state representative, Peacock has been filling that role. Peacock said that she was happy to continue to be the council representative unless someone else had an interest in doing it.
“I feel like it’s kind of a good spot for me to be in right now,” Peacock said as they try to figure out how to help that committee work with the council.
Peacock was unanimously voted to stay in that position
COUNCILOR COMMENTS
The vast majority of the councilor comments were either “welcome aboards” or expressions of thanks for being elected and “please bear with me while I learn the ropes.”
Council Chair Peacock and Town Manager James Smith both took the opportunity to provide some guidance and advice to the new councilors.
Councilor Caines said, “There is a lot going on in the world right now and my heart feels very heavy and I think that this, here, town government is really an opportunity for us to come together as a community and show that love and kindness that we are not seeing right now. So, I am really excited to continue the work that we are doing.”
During councilor comments at the end of the Bar Harbor Town Council’s reorganization meeting on June 12, Peacock also spoke about the town’s ethics ordinance and told the new councilors that they should ensure that they are clear on that ordinance.
Disclosing conflicts, she said, “is the best policy, and the best approach is to just say, ‘I think I have a conflict’ and let the board work out whether we think you do or not. We take a vote on that and it’s much cleaner and fairer for us to vote on that in the moment than it is for us afterwards when a vote has been made without a conflict being declared.”
While this advice from the council chair is always pertinent, it could come into play soon with the council potentially moving forward with new policies and regulations regarding vacation rentals and three current councilors being owners of vacation rental properties.
The next regular Bar Harbor Town Council meeting is scheduled for June 18.
Applications Due June 30 for Boards and Committees
Via the Town of Bar Harbor
The Bar Harbor Town Council will make annual appointments to the following boards and committees at its July 15 meeting. The council makes appointments according to its appointment policy.
If you are interested in serving on one of the following boards, please fill out, sign and return the boards and committees spplication to the town clerk's office. If you are already a member and seek re-appointment, please use the update form. Applications are accepted until the membership is full, except the (re) appointments annually in July.
The enabling ordinance for most committees is viewable at: “Municipal Code, Chapter 31, Boards and Committees.”
Submit completed application or update form to the town clerk’s office by 5 p.m. on Monday, June 30.
Contact the town clerk at 288-4098 with any questions.
Board Vacancies
Appeals Board
One member with term expiring July 2027
Two members with terms expiring July 2028
Board of Assessment Review
One member with term expiring July 2026
One member with term expiring July 2028
Conservation Commission
Two members with terms expiring July 2028
Design Review Board
Two members with terms expiring July 2028
Harbor Committee
One member with term expiring July 2026
Three members with terms expiring July 2028
Marine Resources Committee
Two members with terms expiring July 2028
Parks & Recreation Committee
One YMCA Representative with term expiring July 2028
Planning Board
Two members with terms expiring July 2028
Task Force on the Climate Emergency
Three members with terms expiring July 2028
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