BANGOR – Responding to concerns from a citizens group, a city councilor plans to introduce an order imposing term limits for school committee members.

Members of Bangor Citizens for Responsible Municipal Government have no problem with the direction of the school committee or with what the school department is doing; they “just want to see some new blood … and give new people the opportunity to run,” Councilor Dan Tremble said this week.

He plans on broaching the idea during the July 30 meeting of the Strategic Issues Committee. Councilors will decide then whether to hold a public hearing on Aug. 6. At that meeting they’ll vote on sending the issue out to referendum in November.

“The idea seems like a fairly reasonable request,” said Tremble, who has been asked by other residents about term limits for the school committee.

“The [city] council has term limits, [state] representatives have term limits; I just thought it was an issue of fairness,” said Tremble, contending that name recognition could keep new candidates from garnering votes.

But some school committee members had a different take. They pointed out that term limits could deter candidates from running for office.

“The best term limit is the ballot box,” said Sue Carlisle.

“If someone wants to elect someone, they will. If they don’t, they’ll vote against them. Why make people get off a successful board?” said Carlisle, who has been a school committee member since 1990.

“In light of redevelopment efforts, it’s counterproductive for the council to downgrade our efforts to make sure that Bangor remains one of the best, if not the best, public school systems in the state,” she said.

Although the issue has surfaced before – councilors brought it up once in 1989 and again in 1994 – efforts to impose term limits for school committee members have fallen by the wayside. For their part, city councilors have been restricted to two three-year terms since 1976.

A 17-year member of the school committee, Chairman Martha Newman said the status quo is working just fine.

“If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it,” she said, pointing out that Bangor schools have seen “enormous improvements over the last 14 years.”

Long-term members play an important role, according to Newman.

“We need a core of people who have institutional memory and experience, or you’ll be trying things that don’t work over and over and over again,” she said.

There may be more to the issue than meets the eye, according to Newman.

People have suggested that the school committee’s stance against the controversial methadone clinic last year could be the impetus for the term limit discussion, she said.

“Many people have told me that it is related,” Newman said.

School department documents show that when then-Mayor Michael Aube asked for a position statement on the proposed clinic, the school committee cited a number of concerns.

Members worried that the program would result in greater numbers of adolescents with addiction problems and would compromise the safe, secure and academic environment in the public schools, they said in a written memo dated Oct. 30, 2000.

Taxes will increase because of the demand for law enforcement and other municipal services associated with managing persistent addiction and property crime, members said.

But on Thursday, Tremble adamantly denied that his proposal has anything to do with past disagreements.

“The timing is unfortunate – it looks like it’s tied to the methadone thing – but I’m the one to put it forward, and for me this has nothing to do with the methadone clinic,” said the councilor.

Members of the Bangor Citizens for Responsible Municipal Government also negated any connection with the clinic.

Term limits for the school committee has been on the group’s agenda since it was created four years ago, according to Arthur Tilley.

“There’s nothing personal; the people on the council and board are all good people,” he said. “But when you talk with the people around the city, most are in favor of this limitation.”

The group, which has about 90 to 100 members, has advocated for a number of city issues, including electing city councilors on a district basis.

Meanwhile, Councilor Nichi Farnham liked the idea of putting the issue before voters.

A referendum would be a “healthy thing,” said Farnham, who has been asked by a number of residents why the school committee has no term limits.

“It’s a question that’s OK to be asked,” she said. “And I’ve never had a good answer.”

But Newman believes a referendum would be divisive.

“I think referendum questions should be saved for topics of substance,” she said. “The question we need to look at here isn’t the length of terms, but are the schools excellent. If they weren’t, that would be worth going to the ballot box over.

“This isn’t something that we should consider at the moment,” Newman said. “Bangor has too many other things to do.”