Peacock Remains Council Chair
Friedmann becomes vice chair
BAR HARBOR—The new Bar Harbor Town Council organized itself Wednesday evening, just one day after incumbent Val Peacock and newcomers Earl Brechlin, Maya Caines, and Kyle Shank were elected in a crowded couple of races for three three-year terms and one two-year term. Brechlin is filling the two-year term seat. The meeting was not broadcast on Town Hall Streams, but was open to the public.
The council unanimously elected Valerie Peacock as chair and Gary Friedmann as vice chair. Friedmann replaces Matthew Hochman as vice chair. Hochman had filled the role for many years. Peacock was chair for the last fiscal year and reelected to a three-year term with 723 votes. Caines received 847. Shank received 798.
The two nominated each other for their roles. There were no seconds, nor are they needed in the nominating process. Both were unanimously elected. There was no discussion. All the votes throughout the meeting were unanimous.
Town Clerk Liz Graves was back from leave to swear in the new council and call the organizational meeting to order. Everyone was sworn in while seated in the audience area of the chamber, and took their oath of office, as all councilors in Bar Harbor do every year.
After Peacock and Friedmann were voted into their positions, councilors picked their seats. After the chair and vice chair were seated, the seats were chosen by order of seniority, which was Hochman, Joe Minutolo, Brechlin, Caines, and Shank.
The council also filled the following committee appointments.
All were unanimous.
Appointments Committee – Hochman, Caines, Brechlin
Cruise Ship Committee – Hochman
Parking Solutions Task Force - Minutolo
Task Force on the Climate Emergency – Friedmann
Joint (School) Budget Advisory Committee – Shank
Mount Desert/Bar Harbor Joint Police Chief Sharing (group) – Caines
During the Cruise Ship Committee discussion, Caines said that she knew it was a contentious committee and asked if the council needed more time for conversation before appointing anyone. Hochman said he’d be happy to continue on the committee unless anyone else had strong feelings about joining. During the “council comments” portion of the agenda, Caines requested that a discussion about the committee be on a future agenda.
According to Peacock the ad hoc Joint (School) Budget Advisory Committee hasn’t met in years. Friedmann said it was intended to provide a liaison between the council and the school. Council representatives would meet with the Conners Emerson principal and members of the school committee, he said, to try to make the budget process less confrontational, which he said it had been in the past. He said that since he believed the relationship between the boards was less contentious now, the Council could consider dropping it.
Hochman said that committee was important especially with the school construction and bond approval. Shank agreed and volunteered.
Friedmann said the Mount Desert/Bar Harbor Joint Police Chief Sharing group usually meets when the chief’s contract with Mount Desert is up for renewal. That is a three-year contract which was just renewed on January 1, 2023. Hochman said if something unexpected happened, then it would be helpful to have a council representative in place. Caines volunteered.
Graves said that she’d delete the word “chief” from the minutes because the police departments now share more than the chief.
COUNCIL COMMENTS
Peacock said that though it was a pretty big year for councilors last year full of important and hard work, that she’s excited about doing the future work with the council. She said she hopes that they can set a tone of collaboration and cooperation even when they don’t agree so that they can move forward.
The rules of order, she mentioned, is the council policy that manages how they run the meetings. She then gave an explanation of how to get things on the agenda, how “new business” works and is meant to not be a place where council usually takes action, but where new topics (or business) comes up and people can see what they are doing and have a chance to respond to it.
In other councilor comments, council members expressed their thanks to past councilors and staff, saying they looked forward to working together. Hochman requested a future discussion about quorum policy since there are often not enough members on town boards, committees, and task forces to do official business. Peacock urged people who ran for elected positions and weren’t elected to volunteer for town boards and committees where there are multiple vacancies. Brechlin vacated his seat on the Planning Board now that he is on the Council. Shank has stepped down as chair of the Comprehensive Planning Committee, but will remain on the committee as a citizen participant, not as a council representative. Hochman is also a citizen participant in the Parking Solutions Task Force. Graves said that they plan to post about committee and board vacancies soon.
Friedmann asked for an update about the Higgins Pit solar array. He and Peacock also asked councilors not to “reply all” to emails and he reminded that all emails can be requested via the Freedom of Information Access Act.
Peacock mentioned that the Council is currently in the midst of two big items: a town manager search and a lawsuit about cruise ships.
The Council meets on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. for an executive session about the town manager search. That meeting will be at the Bar Harbor Municipal Building in Council Chambers. Its next regular meeting is June 20 at 6:30 p.m. at the same location.
