Absences by city councilor prompt criticism in Bangor

BANGOR – When a 4-4 City Council vote earlier this month killed a try to place school committee term limits on the ballot, one question remained: How would vacationing Councilor Michael Crowley’s vote have tipped the balance?

While it appears the term limits try would have been defeated anyway, the absence prompted some grumbling among some of the measure’s supporters and a harsh rebuke from one former city councilor.

“If you can’t devote the time and schedule the rest of your life and your vacations around the council, you shouldn’t run for office,” Hal Wheeler, who served on the council from 1983 to 1986, said Thursday. “People deserve to be fully represented except in a real emergency.”

On the council, both Joe Baldacci and Dan Tremble have attended all 16 meetings so far this year. Frank Farrington, new to the board after a March special election, has attended all 12 meetings since that time.

Gerry Palmer, Judy Vardamis and Mayor John Rohman have each missed just one meeting. Nichi Farnham has missed two. Pat Blanchette, doubling as a member of the Maine House of Representatives, has missed three.

Crowley, who has missed five – or 31 percent – of the 16 council meetings so far this year and eight of nine Strategic Issues Committee meetings, said he has wrestled with balancing his responsibilities on the council with his position in the Eastern Maine Healthcare administration and his personal life.

“Any meeting I miss is too many,” said Crowley, who attributed his absences to either ill health, work commitments or trips out of town. “I certainly don’t miss council meetings cavalierly.

“I’m doing the best I can in trying to represent the entire community, and all you can ask someone to do is the best they can,” he continued. “When that isn’t good enough, I’m very receptive to an open discussion, and I’m not adamant that I’m here do or die.”

The nine-member council meets twice each month. In addition, there are weekly committee meetings, occasional public appearances, as well as daily responses to the hordes of mail, e-mail and telephone calls.

A city ordinance requires councilors to attend regularly scheduled meetings unless they are sick, out of town or are excused by a council vote. There are no provisions that allow a councilor to vote by proxy or absentee.

With the substantial time commitment expected from councilors – who are paid $400 a year -Blanchette said she believed Wheeler’s criticism was unfounded and his expectations unrealistic.

“I don’t care what position you hold, what office you hold, everybody – especially those who almost volunteer their time to serve the public – deserve vacation time with their families,” said Blanchette, who is considering another run for the council in addition to her upcoming session as a state lawmaker. “I don’t feel I’m behind the eight ball at all.”

While Wheeler said he discouraged Blanchette from trying to balance her duties in Bangor and Augusta, Blanchette said should she decide to run, it would be the voters who would have the final say.

“The people elected us, and the people will unelect us,” said Blanchette, who missed three meetings while the Legislature was in double session last spring. “If they don’t think I’ve been an effective councilor missing three meetings, they won’t put me in, and that’s a message I’ll receive.”

Tremble, too, defended those who were forced to miss an occasional council meeting, although he conceded that five absences “seemed like a lot.” The first-term councilor did stress, however, the importance of attending committee meetings, where issues are discussed and consensus is built.

“That’s where the work is done,” said Tremble.

According to minutes from the council’s five major committees, Palmer has attended 95 percent of his committee meetings, Farnham, 93 percent; Farrington, 89 percent; Tremble and Rohman, 88 percent; Baldacci, 80 percent; Vardamis, 68 percent; Crowley, 50 percent; and Blanchette, 37 percent.

When a councilor expects to miss a committee meeting, another councilor might be asked to stand in, a factor not reflected in the percentages.