Updated: Town Strips Chamber of Wayfinding Funds
Attendees pass slightly revised budget at three-hour town meeting
BAR HARBOR—About 175 Bar Harbor town voters and more than a dozen others gathered on a dreary Tuesday night for town meeting at the Conners Emerson gymnasium. The meeting focused on the municipal and school budgets with the main controversy focusing around the Bar Harbor Chamber of Commerce’s wayfinding funds, which were discussed during Article R of the warrant.
MODERATOR
Attorney Stephen Wagner was elected moderator for the meeting. All comments, questions, statements were to be addressed through him and directed to him. Wagner stated that the meeting would be governed by the Maine Moderators Manual unless there was any objection. There was not. Those attending also voted to allow non-residents to speak.
BUDGET ARTICLES
Prior to the meeting, the Superintending School Committee, Town Council, and Warrant Committee all unanimously recommended the adoption of all the education articles.
Those school articles detailed in the warrant images below all passed unanimously with no discussion except for Article M, which passed with a hand count of 170 in favor, 2 opposed, and Article N, which passed with with a hand count of 158 in favor, 13 opposed.
ARTICLE R AND THE CHAMBER
Also prior to the meeting, the Town Council and Warrant Committee had both unanimously recommended adoption of all articles, without deviation, except for Article R, which was recommended to be adopted. However, the Warrant Committee had a difference of an additional $17,400 in its recommendation.
This article was, according to Warrant Committee Chair Seth Libby, the only point of contention “for lack of a better word” and that contention centered around the line item for the Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber had requested $60,000 during the months-long budget process to fund the wayfinder service, which assists visitors with making their way through downtown Bar Harbor. That money isn’t raised by property tax but by cruise ship fees.
The original motion was the Warrant Committee’s recommendation to raise $23,663,878, fully funding that $60,000.
Councilor Jill Goldthwait moved to decrease that amount by $17,400 to $23,646,478, which was the Council’s original recommendation. The Council budget had the wayfinding line funded at $42,600. Goldthwait said the Council worked as hard as it could to keep the budget as low as it could. Each amendment had to be by written ballot.
A visibly moved Stephanie Clement spoke first and she stressed that she was speaking as a resident not representing her employer or any of the three boards she sits on, one of which is the Bar Harbor Chamber of Commerce. Clement said that the wayfinding amount given from the town to the Chamber had been cut during the pandemic but the request of $60,000 was for the pre-pandemic funding of 2019. During that time, 3.5 million visitors came to Acadia National Park, which she said is the only way to judge visitation numbers. Last year, there was a 12% increase to 3.9 million.
"We are likely to see visitation 10% higher than the pre-pandemic peak” this year, she said, requesting that the Chamber be funded at that same funding level as before the pandemic. The funding had decreased during COVID-19 because of a decrease in visitors on cruise ships.
But now, she said, “The visitors have found us. They are going to continue to come.”
This vote tonight is not about how the town feels about tourism in general. It’s about how the town takes care of visitors, she said.
Nina Barufaldi St. Germain, former Chamber president, spoke next, echoing Clement’s statements. “I’m a strong supporter of the chamber and the community work that they do.” St. Germain said that other cooperating agencies have seen dramatic increases in town funding for the work that they do, specifically mentioning the Jesup Memorial Library and YMCA, which were both funded via ARPA funds this year. Those funds did not have to go through the town meeting process The YMCA and library are not considered cooperating agencies in the town budget, however, but have a special category in the budget.
Outgoing Councilor Jill Goldthwait said that her feeling was that cooperating agencies all combined came to a number similar to the total of the Chamber’s wayfinder request. The library’s request was for $119,000 for employee benefits. The Y’s $50,000 request was for help with its operating expenses. The cooperating agencies requests are below.
Cara Ryan said that $60,000 is not the total amount that the town gives the Chamber of Commerce. It doesn’t include Fourth of July Celebration, holiday decorations, or Seaside Cinema support.
Everal Eaton, new executive director of the Bar Harbor Chamber of Commerce said that the Chamber’s visitor booth and visitor center sees 103,000 visitors. Another 1.5 million visit the website. He added that a 2007 study showcased the point of having wayfinding services in the town from a public safety perspective.
Another woman spoke in support of the town council budget and said she was baffled by the need for wayfinding services because she didn’t know anyone who didn’t have a smart phone or google maps or why the service would be needed.
A handwritten vote showed 140 in favor of the Town Council levels with 36 opposed. That amendment to the motion passed.
However, Ryan motioned for another amendment to Article R, saying that she was doing so in light of a recent decision of the Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber has recently joined the Association to Protect and Preserve Local Livelihoods (APPLL). This connection was first written about by Lincoln Millstein’s Quietside Journal on May 28.
APPLL has sued the town over the cruise ship disembarkation limitations voted in last November. The lawsuit is ongoing with an expected decision this summer. The Chamber has publicly stated in multiple news sources that though it joined the nonprofit association, it was reviewing the membership quarterly and that its membership was not in support of the lawsuit but in the “Bar Harbor Welcomes All” campaign.
Ryan’s motion was to remove the $42,600 that remained in the budget to support the Chamber’s wayfinding fees, which would mean zero funding for that service.
“If we needed harder proof at how the town and the Chamber are working at cross purposes, we just got it,” she said. “The Chamber told us loud and clear where their priorities are.”
“I find it all deeply insulting and I know I’m not alone,” she said. She added that funding the Chamber no longer makes sense for Bar Harbor.
She said that there were better options to spend cruise ship money than to spend it on wayfinding services, spending it on the Chamber would be to “feed the thing that bites us.”
She said that the Chamber has been over-promoting tourism.
“I find it all deeply insulting and I know I’m not alone,” she said.
She also suggested in the future potentially taking away the money that goes to the Chamber to support the July Fourth festivities and Seaside Cinemas and holiday decorations, but since those events benefit locals that it might be better to leave the funding intact for now and look toward potentially changing the town’s involvement in those events in the future.
Ryan’s motion to amend Article R removed all funding to the Chamber of Commerce’s wayfinding services to make a new budget amount in Article R of $23,603,878.
The motion brought to the forefront whether a motion on the floor should be specific to a particular line item?
Tim Pease, acting town attorney for the town meeting, said that in the town charter, the town meeting has the authority to adopt the overall amount of the budget, but it’s up to the Town Council itself as to how that gets spent.
“They are here tonight and they are listening to you, and I’m certain they will take that into account,” Pease said.
Later in the discussion, Laura Berry asked for a procedural clarification about the process about what what the budget amendments’ process would be if people approve line item budget amendments, the upcoming election and that the fiscal year ends in less than a month. She asked for them to describe the process in which any budget amendments voted on during the town meeting would be implemented.
Councilor Matthew Hochman said the budget would be voted in tonight. There is very little time between now and next Tuesday when the council is elected. He believes that changes to the proposed budget would be taken care of rather expeditiously by the next council.
Bo Greene said that she believed it is imperative that the Town Council really does listen to why people are in support of reducing the wayfinding services.
“It’s imperative with regard to that particular issue that the Town Council really does listen to why people are in support—if that turns out to be—of reducing this. It’s hard to be a town member, town person, and I know this isn’t directly about cruise ships but we made ourselves really clear and we’re not seeing that happen and regardless why? That’s hard as a citizen to have worked hard to make your voice heard and I just want to implore you that if you hear these voice really really do what we say we want to have done,” Greene said. “In regard to this particular issue it is crystal clear that the Chamber of Commerce is literally in cahoots with APPLL and that is gigantically problematic.”
Anna Durand agreed, saying that the taxpayers should not give money to groups that are suing the town. APPLL’s new slogan and its supporting words about race, sexuality and gender, she said, equates cruise ship passengers with historically marginalized groups and is misappropriating social justice movements.
“No cruise ship passengers had to risk their lives in the fight for their civil rights to disembark at a tourist destination. No cruise ship passenger has faced police dogs, water cannons, forced relocation, abusive boarding schools, bombs and bomb threats or discrimination in housing and civic participation because they arrived somewhere on a cruise ship,” Durand said.
Clement spoke again, saying, “I would never participate in an organization that’s totally about profit.” Instead, she said it’s about supporting a vibrant business community and that things aren’t always polarities.
Chamber Board President and Council candidate Gary “Bo” Jennings, said that the Chamber’s intent was to support the memorandum of agreement with cruise ship lines that the Town Council had negotiated and the Bar Harbor Welcomes All campaign, which is what APPLL represents. He said, “The important work of the Chamber staff needs to continue in this town.”
Nick Miller appealed for compromise as the town and Chamber moved forward. He hoped that people would think about why the issue is so intense and said that though he believed the town has overshot its capacity that there are ways through this. “It’s all about compromise,” he said.
Ryan’s motion passed 128-49.
The motion for Article R then became to raise and appropriate $23,603,878. It passed unanimously.
There was no debate for Article S.
ARTICLE T
Article T passed 127-20 to raise the tax levy. During the discussion, Council candidate Charles Sidman said that it wasn’t obligatory for those attending town meeting to pass the article and if town taxpayers are unsatisfied with the budget that they can vote against it.
If that had happened, the budget would have had to have been hammered out during town meeting and reduced by $681,990 or the next council would have had to work with department heads to reduce the budget by that amount and then have a special town meeting to vote in the new budget.
Councilors Goldthwait asked how the town would make decisions until then. Councilors Gary Friedmann, Erin Cough, and Hochman all spoke to the time the Council, Warrant Committee and department heads had spent whittling $1.2 million out of the original proposed budget.
Articles U through X all passed with no debate and no discussion.
PROPERTY SALE
Article Q of the town warrant passed unanimously, allowing the town to sell a small piece of land adjacent to the Black Friar Inn to its owners who had been leasing it from the town for five years. The sale was for $51,695.00. The property is on Summer Street.
UPCOMING ELECTION
The election of town officers and ballot articles is on June 13, Tuesday at the Bar Harbor Municipal Building on the third floor. Polls are open from 8 a.m to 8 p.m. The fate of several land use ordinance amendments and the school construction bond will also be decided at the ballot.
The Bar Harbor Story has profiles of all the Town Council candidates in their own words here. And the Warrant Committee candidates here.
Disclosure: Shaun Farrar, who is my husband, is running for Warrant Committee.
Photos taken by Carrie Jones and Shaun Farrar
This story has been updated to include The Quietside Journal’s role in breaking the Chamber and APPLL connection and links for more information. Apologies for not including them last night, my brain was tired after working all day and then covering the meeting.
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
For the Quietside Journal's story about the APPLL and Chamber connection, click here.
This meeting may end up being on Town Hall Streams that site is here.
Town budget articles are here.