Resident seeks apology from council chairman

BANGOR – A Randolph Drive resident is demanding a public apology from the City Council’s chairman after the chairman attempted Monday to put a time limit on comments from the public.

Councilor Dan Tremble, chairman of the nine-member council, said he would respond in writing to Charles Birkel’s concerns during and after the meeting, but he did not intend to make a public apology.

Birkel’s concerns will be explored by the council’s government operations committee, chaired by Councilor Richard Greene, when it meets in two weeks.

Tremble also said he and the rest of the council welcomed public comment and provided a variety of means for engaging residents, including letters, e-mail, telephone numbers and the city’s Web site, to name a few.

The episode at issue followed a series of council activities that began at 5 p.m., including a workshop with representatives of Penn National Gaming, the company poised to take over the Bangor Raceway racino from the project’s original developer, Shawn Scott.

The Penn National officials’ flight into Bangor, however, ran late. Consequently, the council’s regular meeting, scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m., did not get under way until closer to 8 p.m.

As the council’s regular meeting began, Tremble announced that public comments would be limited to two minutes per speaker.

That did not sit well with Birkel, an avid City Hall watcher who’s been involved in a number of community initiatives over the years, including a successful referendum effort to increase stipends for city councilors.

Birkel is concerned about the pervasive misuse of the term “mayor,” as it is applied to the council chairman. Though the title has been used in a ceremonial way for decades, Birkel believes it should be eliminated as a matter of honesty and integrity because the city actually has a city manager-council form of government.

Birkel also wanted city officials to consider replacing the podium for the public’s use with a table and chairs, to help make communication with the council less intimidating.

Despite Tremble’s pointed reminders that his allotted time was elapsing, Birkel finished reading aloud the two-page written statement he said he’d timed at between three and four minutes while rehearsing it before the meeting.

“In more than 25 years of interaction between our City Council, city staff and myself I have never been so embarrassed and treated with such disrespect and rudeness as done by Councilor Dan Tremble, for no apparent reason other than attempting to block my concerns, liberties and rights as a Bangor citizen by his rude behavior,” Birkel wrote in an e-mail to city councilors.

“He has shown me by his demonstrated disrespect and rude behavior toward me, a Bangor citizen, that he does not possess the ability, intellect, integrity and maturity necessary to be the chairman of the City Council of Bangor, the third largest city in the state of Maine,” Birkel wrote.

Another resident who wanted to address the council that night never got the chance. Ken Buckley said Tremble failed to recognize him.

Buckley wanted to air his views on the state’s handling of the racino issue. According to the statement he prepared but never delivered, Buckley is dissatisfied with the conduct of Gov. John Baldacci, whom he wrote “is doing everything in his power as governor to scuttle the racino project with a bill that would cripple profits for a host city and operator.” He also took issue with some city councilors, specifically those who “have made it their business to attack” Scott and Councilor David Nealley, who was employed by Scott.