Some councilors excluded from `citizens’ group

A citizens committee established to work for good government in Bangor recently upset the apple cart when it failed to invite all councilors to one of its meetings called to discuss events surrounding Bass Park.

Some of those councilors who were not invited said it was poor public policy to give the appearance of conducting city business behind closed doors.

The Committee for Good Local Government sprang up during last fall’s council elections. It consists of civic and professional leaders and meets regularly on Tuesday mornings.

A number of people were invited to the meeting Tuesday morning in the law offices of Mitchell and Stearns on Franklin Street. The committee has a mailing list of about 45 names. About 18 people showed up, among them Councilors William Cohen, William England and Richard Stone.

According to some of those who attended, the topic was the initiative drive recently started to change the direction the city has taken with Bass Park — negotiations with the Bass Park Associates to privatize the operations of the complex — and the effect of the initiative on those negotiations.

If successful, the initiative drive would place before the City Council an order stating that the city should enter negotiations for the operation of Bass Park with either United Leisure Services or the city staff. In a close vote the council recently voted to enter negotiations with BPA over bids by ULS and the city staff.

If the council defeats the order, the question would be put to a vote.

“This isn’t a personal vendetta,” said Patricia Jenkins, one of the 10 people who started the initiative drive. “We don’t happen to think that Bass Park Associates serves the best interest of the city, recognizing that so far it’s only negotiations.”

The committee talked about what would happen if the initiative drive were to succeed. It appears, Hugh Morrison said, that the ramifications of gathering enough signatures are that negotiations would stop.

“The councilors who attended indicated that they had an interest in what we’re doing,” said John Ballou, an attorney with Mitchell and Stearns and a former chairman of the City Council who heads the Committee for Good Local Government.

Another person who attended the Tuesday meeting saw little difference between it and the meetings that have occurred every Saturday morning for years at Momma Baldacci’s, a restaurant where people from the other end of the political spectrum meet to hash over events of the day.

“We were not talking about council business,” England said. “We were talking about Bass Park, not anything that was coming before the council immediately. We were talking in terms of trying to understand the initiative process, not in terms of what the council would do about it.”

The meeting was an opportunity to solicit comment from residents, said Stone. “I got a notice in the mail,” Stone said. “I went. I didn’t know who was going to be there. I listened more than talked. I don’t see why I should be stopped from gaining input from the citizens.”

Councilors who were not invited view it a little differently.

“I just don’t know what they were hoping to accomplish by having secret meetings, where the public was not invited,” Councilor Patricia Blanchette said. “City government has to be open. I’m just upset by the whole thing.”

Asking some councilors to attend and not asking others only serves to divide the council, said Councilor Jeffrey Sosnaud.

“I think when a councilor finds out there’s been a group of people meeting with certain councilors and not with others, it tends to factionalize the council, and that’s unfortunate,” Sosnaud said.

“My understanding is that one of the concerns of the committee is that council actions could become anti-business,” he said. “I have that concern too. But I would hope that we’re talking about the entire business community and not just certain businesses.”

While not speaking for all the petitioners, Jenkins said she found the actions of the three councilors dismaying.

“I guess my feeling is that certainly private citizens have a right to meet and discuss whatever they want,” she said. “I have a concern when councilors meet with them and it’s not a public meeting. I guess my feeling is that they are city councilors first and members of a group second. And I would hope they know where the public interest lies.”