Ex-Ellsworth councilor trades boardroom for broadcasting

ELLSWORTH – Former City Councilor Gary Fortier sometimes makes surprise appearances at municipal meetings in Ellsworth, but usually not for long.

Last month, Fortier twice walked into an appeals board meeting, once to deliver requested photocopies to Ellsworth City Manager Tim King and again to provide a bottle of water to an attorney who was losing his voice. Each time, Fortier vanished from the council chambers as quickly as he appeared, knowing he had helped someone in need and had to be elsewhere.

Where Fortier had to be was back in the control room down the hall so he could resume watching the meeting on closed-circuit television and recording it for a later cable television broadcast.

Fortier, an electrician by trade, served on the City Council for nine years before he decided not to seek re-election in 2001. Last fall, as the city installed television equipment at City Hall and began broadcasting meetings on the local cable access channel, Fortier volunteered his time to help get the meetings out on the airwaves.

Fortier – who said he intended to spend more time with his family when he left his council position – said Sunday he is at City Hall less often than he used to be. If the city trains more volunteers to run the equipment, he’ll be able to spend even less time there.

Trained volunteers can sign a monthly list of meetings they are willing to broadcast, he said.

“Of course, my name is the only one on it right now,” Fortier said.

Only regularly scheduled City Council and school board meetings are broadcast now on local cable Channel 7, according to Fortier, but the goal is to broadcast all of Ellsworth’s public municipal meetings. With additional equipment, the city could automatically rebroadcast recorded meetings and broadcast live from other locations in Ellsworth.

“There have been a couple of people who have told me the only reason they got cable was for those meetings,” Fortier said. No one has told him the broadcasts are not worthwhile.

According to King, Fortier has been “invaluable” in getting city meetings on the air.

“He’s been very enthusiastic about participating,” King said Sunday. Because Fortier is well known at City Hall, city officials trust him to do a professional job, according to the city manager.

Fortier’s familiarity with people at City Hall also enables him to joke around a bit in his new role – something he admits not all volunteers are able to do. He once left the broadcast room and popped his head into council chambers, while a meeting was in progress, to do a mock five-second countdown for going back on the air.

“I enjoy it,” Fortier said. “There is a trust there that some of the [other] volunteers will have to develop.”