What Does Sanctuary Status Really Mean for Local Towns?
Mount Desert Salary Survey Poses Potential Increase, Other Selectboard News
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MOUNT DESERT—Worries about sanctuary cities have been brought up at both Bar Harbor and Mount Desert town meetings recently, with the latest questions about police response coming during the Mount Desert Selectboard meeting, December 2.
“The town voted that we are a sanctuary community. What’s our plan?” Selectboard Member Martha Dudman asked.
Bar Harbor and Mount Desert Police Chief David Kerns had sent a memo explaining that “the police department remains dedicated to its mission of upholding public safety while respecting constitutional rights. In accordance with our legal responsibilities, we enforce state and local laws within our jurisdiction. Matters related to federal immigration enforcement fall under the purview of federal agencies, and we are not authorized to act in that capacity. This clear division of responsibilities has long been part of our approach, ensuring adherence to our legal obligations and protecting the constitutional rights of all individuals.”
Kerns reiterated those statements at Mount Desert’s selectboard meeting.
In the last week of November, Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey and Rep. Mana Abdi (D-Lewiston) met with approximately 30 leaders of Maine’s immigrant communities to discuss fears and worries about President-elect Donald Trump’s immigration policies. Similar concerns had been cited during public comment at a Bar Harbor Town Council meeting earlier in the same month.
“The Sanctuary Community Resolution reflects our shared commitment to fairness, inclusivity, and respect for all individuals. These values continue to guide our efforts in fostering a safe and welcoming community,” Kerns wrote.
In 2017, after a citizens’ petition, Mount Desert voters declared 101-59 that the town would be a “sanctuary community.” The non-binding resolution hoped to “protect the independence of our local law enforcement by refusing to require police or town employees to serve as enforcers of federal immigration law.”
It was the first town in Maine to do so.
That same year, Bar Harbor residents voted 351-62 to support declaring that town a sanctuary community.
CNN defines a sanctuary city as “a broad term applied to jurisdictions that have policies in place designed to limit cooperation with or involvement in federal immigration enforcement actions. Cities, counties, and some states have a range of informal policies as well as actual laws that qualify as ‘sanctuary’ positions.
“Most of the policies center around not cooperating with federal law enforcement on immigration policies. Many of the largest cities in the country have forms of such policies.”
During public comment at a Bar Harbor Town Council meeting in November, Bar Harbor resident and Appeals Board Chair Anna Durand worried about the potential deportation of immigrants under the upcoming Trump presidency and how Bar Harbor will react.
“I hope you will think ahead to the coming executive orders that will try to ban sanctuary communities like ours,” Durand said.
At the Mount Desert meeting this week, Kerns asked what specific concerns had been brought up.
“I’ve had several people ask me, ‘What’s the deal?’” Dudman said.
There was a rumor last summer, she said, that someone was sending Mount Desert a busload of citizens. Since the town voted that it is a sanctuary community, she asked what the town’s plan was.
“It really falls back to the state,” Kerns said.
When the resolutions were proposed, the Maine Municipal Association told Lunt that the resolutions do not have legal force. This is because the charter for the town doesn’t allow the town officers or voters via town meeting the ability change how laws are enforced.
The Mount Desert resolution called “to ensure all visitors and residents of Mount Desert may live free of harassment or arrest by restricting town and law enforcement personnel from asking personal identity questions relating to country or origin, legal residence status, gender identity, race, religion or sexual orientation unless this information is required in the investigation of a serious/violent crime….” It also calls for law enforcement officers to not detail people “solely on the basis of a civil immigration detainer.”
WHAT HAPPENS IF PEOPLE COME?
Also during the Mount Desert Selectboard meeting, when asked about what a community like Mount Desert might do if a group of people arrived (or were sent) looking for housing and resources, Kerns said that this wouldn’t be handled at the local level.
Hancock County Emergency Management Director Andrew Sankey agreed with Kerns’ assessment that it would be handled at a state level for the region.
“There are no tangible resources at the county level to provide services to individuals,” Sankey said on Tuesday.
Instead, if there was a sudden influx of people heading to Mount Desert or Bar Harbor, they would likely come in via the airport in Trenton and would be taken care of by the state. The Maine CDC and Department of Health and Human Services would be handling that, Sankey said.
“They are the party responsible for the seasonal agricultural workers who come into Washington and Hancock County,” he said.
Because of that responsibility, the agencies have links to language services and children’s services that local towns and county agencies don’t have.
In September 2022, Mount Desert Town Manager Durlin Lunt received an email from Maine Rising, which is based in Southern Maine, Sankey said. The email indicated concern that there could be an influx of people into Maine communities that had declared themselves sanctuary communities.
“The community must be prepared to take many many migrants,” the email stressed.
There has been no influx.
While Mount Desert and Bar Harbor are sanctuary communities, Ellsworth is not. The city has only had one quick ask that was not followed up on, according to former City Manager Glenn Moshier last January. He had said that Ellsworth’s general assistance resources are currently “maxed out.”
That’s due to Washington County needs and the needs of people who are staying at the warming center and people who are living in tents and vehicles in area parking lots, he explained. Ellsworth also has various boarding house style housing for people receiving general assistance from the city or funds from the state.
“The situation in Ellsworth is pretty significant considering what we have,” for assistance or aid, Moshier had said and any additional need would be very taxing. “We haven’t really seen an influx of true migrants, and if we did, it would probably be problematic for us.”
Taking care of an influx of people new to an area requires homes and social services. Bar Harbor currently has a need for more homes as discussed during its comprehensive plan process and earlier. Mount Desert and the rest of Mount Desert Island towns have also discussed at the League of Towns level a need for more homes.
OTHER BUSINESS
SALARIES
In other business, the selectboard members discussed a salary review, which Lunt said shouldn’t have a large budgetary impact and was a 7% increase overall.
“Our last comprehensive survey was done during the summer of 2017. After seven and a half years, our prior scales were far below those of the communities, we must compete with to attract and maintain a skilled municipal workforce,” Lunt wrote in a November 27 memo to the selectboard.
Salary studies should be done every three years according to best practice said the town’s human resources consultant Zach Harris. He compared the salaries of multiple communities, including Bar Harbor. The goal is to bring Mount Desert salaries to the 95th percentile compared to other communities.
“A lot of those top line numbers are coming directly from your neighbors from the town of Bar Harbor,” Harris said of the higher salaries.
Belfast, Ellsworth, Lewiston, Portland, South Portland, Waterville, Bar Harbor, Kittery, Ogunquit, Old Orchard, and York responded to Harris’ query about non-union staff salaries.
The proposal includes increasing the town’s finance director and the fire chief’s salary from just under $98,000 to just below $133,00, the town manager from approximately $109,000 to $140,000.
“In anticipation of the requested increases, I began budgeting more aggressively for many of our salary and benefits lines last year. As a result, the total benefits and salary lines across the departments for FY 26 are increased by 7%,” Lunt wrote. “For FY 25, I requested a total of $6,045,995 for salaries and benefits; for FY 26 I will be requesting $6,482,863, a difference of $436,868, or seven percent. Fifty-five percent of the seven percent increase is attributable to salary increases, while forty-five percent is due to increases in benefits.”
The town’s capital improvement plan funding is proposed to decrease by $497,608.12 for FY 26, which is a decrease of 29.15%. That provides an offset to the salary and benefits increase, Lunt said.
LOOKING AT THE LUZO COMMITTEE
A general ordinance review committee? Only looking at smaller land use issues? Only looking at things related to the land use ordinance itself? Those were some of the questions posed by the town’s LUZO Committee as it determined its purpose.
Only two members attended a recent meeting to discuss that purpose.
“We’re not the committee that initiates,” Chair Gail Marshall said at the meeting. “It’s a committee. Not a board.”
In a memo to the selectboard, Marshall wrote, “We elected to limit the scope of the committee to work on ordinances that would fall within the purview of the planning board. (That is why when I use the term “land use” in the statement I don’t capitalize those words and thereby confuse it with matters pertaining to only the LUZO.)
“There is the larger issue of other ordinances and we think the selectboard should decide how to handle those.
“There has been a history of the board asking the LUZO committee to tackle other issues on an ad hoc basis.
“And there is some sentiment to make it a more comprehensive ordinance review committee to eliminate ambiguity about the role of the committee and its work priorities, and to be able to have a forum in which to address evolving ordinance needs of the town.
“That raises a host of other questions that would need to be addressed, including having a more robust committee composition and having a schedule that allows for more meetings. As it stands now, we’ve got nine meetings total in a year. It didn’t seem possible to get people to more.”
One selectboard member suggested changing the name to be more reflective of the work that the committee would be doing. A change might be something like Ordinance Review and Development Committee.
Marshall suggested Land Use Advisory Committee as a name, but again stressed that it wouldn’t be on the town’s land use ordinance itself.
The board accepted the statement of purpose as presented.
TOWN PARTY AND TOWN OFFICE CLOSURES
The town office will be closed on December 13 at 2 p.m. for a Town of Mount Desert Holiday party. The town office will close on December 20 at 3 p.m. for a reception for a long-term employee who is leaving her position at the town.
NEW BOOTS
There is a memorandum of understanding between the Town of Mount Desert and Teamsters Local 340 to increase the purchase price limits on safety toe footwear to $225 for standard boots and $150 for slush boots
Boot replacements occur approximately every nine months.
PARK PASSES
Due to a new third-party selling policy for Acadia National Park passes, the town did not have discounted passes available at the town office this year. That policy requires third-parties (such as a town or a chamber of commerce) to sell passes all year in order to participate in the discounted program that occurs in December.
However, the selectboard was in favor of participating and this should be remedied for next year.
Note: We’ve held this story an extra day because we’ve reached out to Albert May of Maine DHHS about sanctuary policies for the region. Mr. May has not responded yet. If he does, we’ll update the story.
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