City Council - Regular Meeting

The May 18th, 2026 Auburn City Council workshop will be called to order. The first item is an executive session pursuant to one MRSA section 405 sub6F for discussion of a poverty abatement case where the information contained in the records made, maintained or received by a body or agency is confidential by statute. Is there a motion? Motion to move. Moved by councelor Walker, seconded by councelor Duval. Vote will be by show of hands. All those in favor council will be in executive session.

So the council's back in session. Uh the next items uh in the workshop are also executive sessions. There'll be two executive sessions pursuant to one MRSA section 4056D for labor contract negotiations regarding public works and then uh regarding the MSEA labor union. Is there a motion? Motion to move by council Walker. Is there a second? Second. Seconded by council cowan. All those in favor? Council be in executive session.

Right. The May 18th, 2026 Auburn City Council meeting will be called to order. Please join us in the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the stands one nationice for all. Thank you. If we could have the counselors introduce themselves starting with council Gary. Good evening. Belinda Gary, Auburn City Councelor at large.

Good evening. Rachel Randall, uh, ward one. Good evening. Tim Cowan, counselor for W two. Good evening, Matthew Duval, counselor. W three. Good evening, Jeff Harmon, mayor. Good evening, Kelly Butler, counselor for ward four. Good evening, Leroy Walker, councelor, w five. Good evening, Adam Platt, city councelor at large. Good evening. Brennan Edwards, student representative, and Phil Croll, city manager. Thank you. The first item on tonight's agenda is the consent agenda. There's one item, appointments to the Casco Bay Trail Board of Supervisors. Is there a motion? Motion to move

by councelor Walker, seconded by councelor Cowan. Vote will be by show of hands. All those in favor? Seven. Having voted in the affirmative and none in the negative, the motion is adopted. The next item is the approval of the minutes of the May 4th, 2026 regular city council meeting. Are there any errors or corrections? Council Dvall. Uh yeah, item three under new business, the vote tally is 50 and it should be 52. Any other errors or corrections? Is there a motion to approve the minutes as amended? Motion to approve. Moved by Council Walker.

Second. Seconded by councelor Cowan. Vote will be by show of hands. All those in favor? Seven. Having voted in the affirmative and none in the negative, the motion is adopted. The next item uh is communications, presentations, and recognition. Um from the uh city clerk reminding uh residents that June 9th uh will be the main primary and the Auburn school budget validation referendum. Absentee ballots are currently available at city hall and will be available through Thursday, June 4th. And on uh June 9th, all polling places will be open from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Uh the next item is um the National Public Works Week proclamation. I'll read the proclamation. Whereas our public works professionals focus on infrastructure, facilities, and services that are vitally important to our community. And whereas these dedicated professionals rebuild, maintain, and protect our transportation systems, natural resources, parks, fields, cemeteries, public buildings, roadways, and other vital community assets. And whereas it is important for Auburn residents, civic leaders, businesses, and youth to understand and appreciate the critical role public works plays in our everyday lives. And whereas the Auburn Public Works Department remains Maine's first and only nationally accredited public works agency, upholding the highest standards of professional excellence. And whereas the Auburn Public Works Department's highly trained and committed team consistently meets or exceeds best practices while serving our community with pride. And whereas National Public Works Week, sponsored by the American Public Works Association, celebrates the essential contributions of these professionals.

Now, therefore, I, Mayor Jeffrey D. retirement do hereby proclaim May 17th to 23rd, 2026 as National Public Works Week in the city of Auburn. I encourage all residents to join in recognizing and thanking our public works team for their dedication to protecting public health and safety and improving the quality of life for us all. The next item is um uh the monthly program grant update. I don't see Miss Boss here, Mr. Manager.

She's tasked that to me, so I'll take care of that. So, uh, hopefully this report has been helpful for you, council, as you take a look at, uh, all the different grants that we currently have, uh, either awarded or applied for or now that we're reporting out on as a result of receiving the award. Uh we'll, you know, it says on on the uh work worksheet says monthly, but we'll we'll put this out at least quarterly. Um because not a lot changes every month, but when there is something significant, then we'll definitely give an update so that you know of an application that has been submitted and uh we might be waiting for for a response. But hopefully this document's helpful and we'll continue providing you regular updates.

Thank you very much. We'll move on to the first open session of the evening. If there's any items that the uh members of the public would like to address with the council, please approach the podium and provide your name and address. Uh good evening, gentlemen. My name is Gary Tetro. I live on Hazel Street in Auburn. And I had a question about a piece of land 12t wide on Hazel Street in Auburn that a spring runs through. I wanted to know who owned it. I called Eric Cousins and he sent me a tax map. He says, "That's all I have, and this is how we determine who owns the property." Well, in reading the deed for nine Hazel Street, if anybody in the tax office ever bothered to read it, there's 12t of land there that they have the use of, but they don't own it. That has to be where the spring goes through. That's my complaint. There's also a right of way at 11 Hazel Street. If you look at their driveway and it goes up and you look in the back and their garage is built to one side. That's because it's deed. Well, not deed. It's in the Androsken County building. That is a right of way. It also goes down through I want to get the right address. 12 Hazel Street. If you're facing that building on the right hand side is a rightway. When I was a kid, of course, those garages are gone now,

but on the right hand side is where his garages used to be. He couldn't put it in the right away. And who pays in a right away? There's no tax. I mean the Hazel Street, Western Avenue, Minet Avenue, all the streets and avenues in the city of Auburn are rights away. So why would anybody in a tax map pay taxes on a right away? This is all rhetorical. You guys can make up your mind on that as you wish. There's one other thing that uh I had a little bit of a problem with. I was driving with my wife and I was headed to the library in Auburn and I was coming up to this light and it just turned yellow and I may have been 20 ft from it. I wasn't going that fast and I was making a left-hand turn. So I went made my lefthand turn and all of a sudden I get this blue light in back of me pulling me over. He said, "Do you know you made it a you went through a red light?" Not a red light, but a yellow light. Yeah. Well, I never thought it was illegal to go through a yellow light. But then I made a comment to the police officer. I said, "If you're going to stop people, let's get to some of these ones where they just run through a red light." Because it happens to me all the time, especially on four lanes highways where you have a light, you stop, and they go right by you just like the light hasn't changed. And that's another thing that we don't seem to want to address. We did years ago when we sent out all these letters to people that were going through red lights and then some for some reason somebody made a decision, well, we're harassing the public. We shouldn't be doing that. We shouldn't be making them pay tickets or going through red lights. You know, if you want to make people understand what rules are for, you're

going to have stuff like people not having respect for the law and then they're going to think again a second time before they do something else like that, even something even worse than going through a red light. So, we're not we don't have a whole lot of respect from what I can see for the law when it comes to the rules of the road. If you go out Washington Avenue headed towards the main turnpike, that's more like Oxford Plains Speedway. See who can get ahead of who and get up to the turnpike. I can remember and this has happened a couple of times where they have put up cement barricades and brought it down to one lane. Well, you should have seen the traffic slow down. It just makes me wonder if somebody some of these engineers that we keep talking about thinking about what's going on, why don't they have a meeting with people that know what's going on? Of course they know what's going on, the solutions to those kinds of things. Thanks for listening to me. Uh have a great day.

Thank you very much. Is there any other member of the public who'd like to address the council? If so, please approach the podium and provide your name and address. Not seeing any, the open session is closed. We'll move on to unfinished business. The first item is order 4105042026 authorizing the city's general obligation bonds and the principal amount not to exceed 11,200,000 to reconfigure the Auburn Middle School to construct an addition and other renovations and improvements to accommodate grade 6 classrooms and other education space. This will be for a second reading. Is there a motion?

So moved. Moved by council plat. Is there a second? Second. Seconded by councelor Cowan. There's any member of the public who'd like to address the council on this item. Please approach the podium and provide your name and address. Not seeing any public comment will be closed. Discussion by the council. Council ready for the question. The vote will be by roll call. The clerk will call the role. Councelor Cowen. Yes. Councelor Deval? Yes. Councelor Butler? Yes. Councelor Walker, no. Councelor Platts, yes. Councelor Gary, no. Councelor Randall, yes.

Five having voted in the affirmative and two in the negative, the motion is adopted. The next item is order 420542026, authorizing the city's general obligation bonds in the amount of 11,776,000 to finance the city's FY27 capital improvement plan. This will be for second reading. Is there a motion? So moved. Moved by council plat. Is there a second? Second.

Seconded by councelor Cowan. Is any member of the public would like to address the council on this item? Please approach the podium and provide your name and address. Not seeing any. Public comment is closed. Discussion by the council. The council ready for the question. What will be by roll call? The clerk will call the role. Councelor Dval. Yes. Councelor Butler. Yes. Councelor Walker. No. Councelor Plax. Yes. Councelor Gary. No. Councelor Randall. Yes. Councelor Cowen.

Yes. Five. Having voted in the affirmative and two in the negative. The motion is adopted. The next item is resolve 0205 042026. Adopting the 2026 2027 appropriations resolve for the municipal budget. As a reminder to um uh members of the public, uh this is a combined budget, both the city side and the school budget previously uh presented by the school committee and approved by the council. Is there a motion? So moved.

Moved by council plat. Is there a second? Second. Seconded by councelor Dval. Is any member of the public that would like to address the council on this item? Please approach the podium and provide your name and address. Not seeing any. Public comment is closed. Discussion by the council. Council ready for the question. Clerk, uh, excuse me. The vote will be by roll call. The clerk will call the role. Councelor Butler? Yes. Councelor Walker? No. Councelor Platts? Yes. Councelor Gary? No. Councelor Randall? Yes. Councelor Cowan? Yes. Canceler Dval. Yes.

Five. Having voted in the affirmative and two in the negative, the motion is adopted. We'll move on to new business. The first item is ordinance 0905182026 amending chapter 52 traffic and vehicles of the city's code of ordinances regarding parking changes respective to solid waste collection. I I would note for the council and members of the public that um the uh what was previously discussed by the council there was noted um two non-substantive clerical errors in the uh document. Those have been corrected in the packet uh that was circulated for the council. This will be for first reading. Is there a motion?

So moved as amended. It's moved by councelor Cowen. Is there a second? Second. Seconded by councelor Butler. If any member of the public would like to address the council on this item, please approach the podium and provide your name and address. Not seeing any public comment is closed. Discussion by the council. Council council plat. Yeah, just a quick question. So, with some of these additional closures, you know, seeing 6 p.m. to 6 p.m., is that a time frame that we've utilized before with other closures around the city, or is that a new uh mechanism here for clearing the roads?

Mr. Duty, it's it's associated with the solid waste um schedule that they're allowed to put out at 6:00 p.m. the night before. So, it lines up with that. It's all it's new. Yeah. I guess to clarify, have we done this before? Have we told people that they can't park on a street for a 12-h hour period of time other than the permanent, you know, can't park here? Yeah, I think temporary. So, this is just aligning with the ordinance of when you would put your trash out. So, it's consistent that way. But, um, so yeah, there'll be some education that need to take place. It's just trying to gauge how much of a shock this might be for those affected.

Other comments by the council? The council ready for the question? The vote will be by roll call. The clerk will call the role. Councelor Walker, no. Councelor Platt, yes. Councelor Gary, no. Councelor Randall, no. Councelor Cowan, yes. Councelor Duval, yes. Councelor Butler, yes.

For having voted in the affirmative and three in the negative, the motion is adopted. The next item is ordinance 10005182026 amending chapter 44 solid waste of the city's code of ordinances related to solid waste collection services. Is there a motion? So moved. Moved by councelor Dval. Is there a second? Second. Seconded by councelor Cowan. Any member of the public who'd like to address the council on this item, please approach the podium and provide your name and address. Not seeing any. Public comment is closed. Discussion by the council.

Council ready for the question. The vote will be by roll call. The clerk will call the role. Councelor Plattz, yes. Councelor Gary, no. Councelor Randall, no. Councelor Cowan, yes. Councelor Dval, yes. Councelor Butler, yes. Councelor Walker. No. Four. Having voted in the affirmative and three in the negative, the motion is adopted. The next item is order 4905182026 waving the $60 temporary food license fee for the age friendly community committee to hold concessions during the community concerts events in Festival Plaza. Is there a motion? So moved.

Moved by Council Gary. Is there a second? Seconded by Council Walker. If any member of the public would like to address the council on this item, please approach the podium and provide your name and address. Not seeing any public comment will be closed. Discussion by the council. Council ready for the question. Vote will be by show of hands. All those in favor? Opposed? Seven having voted in the affirmative and none in the negative. The motion is adopted. The next item is order 505182026 approving poverty abatement case PA2026001. Is there a motion? Motion.

Second.

That was councelor Randall. Moved by councelor Randall, seconded by councel Walker. The vote will be by show of hands. All those in favor? Seven. Having voted in the affirmative and none in the negative, the motion is adopted. The next item is order 5105182026 regarding a real estate purchase at the intersection of hotel and Maro Road. Um for clarification for the public, this is related to the rebuild of Maro Road. Uh this is the land for the right-hand turn lane from Maro Road on to Hotel Road. Uh there is no additional budgetary impact for this. This is an inind transaction um between uh the owner of the property and the um construction and the project. Is there a motion?

Motion to move. Moved by councelor Walker. Is there a second? Second.

Seconded by councelor Cowan. There's any member of the public who'd like to address the council on this item. Please approach the podium and provide your name and address. Not seeing any public comments. Closed. Discussion by the council. Council ready for the question. Vote will be by show of hands. All those in favor. Seven. Having voted in the affirmative and none in the negative, the motion is adopted. We'll move on to reports. Um the first item I wanted to mention is the uh very successful lobster festival this weekend. Um the staff did an excellent scheduling job. It was sunny, warm, and the falls were flowing quite rapidly. Um it's great job as always by the community engagement team planning the festival with help from a lot of help from public works, um fire and police. So a job well done. I was down there for a couple hours. It was a pretty sizable crowd and it seemed like everyone was having a really great time. Um reminders for those that are interested in the comprehensive planning process. There will be uh comp plan meetings this month on May 19th and on May 26th. Um they're both at 6:00 p.m. here in the council chambers. Uh over the next two meetings, the comp plan committee will be working to finalize the the uh land use characteristic districts and um the policy issues um in the various um content chapters. And then just a scheduling update, uh looking forward now that uh we've completed the budget, um we'll be back to working on policy issues. Um the

council should expect the um draft ordinance for the syringe service program uh in workshop on June 1st and the uh draft ordinance related to mobile home parks in workshop on June 15th. Um that's all I have. Council Gary, nothing at this time. Thank you. Thank you. Councelor Randall, nothing. Thank you. Council Cowan. Uh we have a homelessness committee uh meeting tomorrow from 9:30 to 11 if anyone's interested. It's at 121 Mil Street. So thanks. Councelor Duval. Nothing at this time. Thanks. Thank you. Council Butler. Nothing at this time. Thanks. Councelor Walker. Nothing today.

Council Platt. Uh school committee meeting at 6 p.m. on Wednesday. Uh that's all I've got. Representative Edwards. Um, this is the last week of school for seniors. There's four days left. Graduation on May 30th. Um, community service day was super successful. E kids got to give back and spring sports are still going. Great. Thank you, Mr. Manager.

Thank you, Mayor. Just uh one followup on the lobster lobster festival. Um you'll be getting a report from the communications and engagement committee um department rather uh soon. We know that we probably averaged about 2,000 in attendance, but we'll get some information from our vendors as well as uh data that we track on where people came from, whether they came from out of outside the community or not. So, we'll get that that report to you soon. That's all.

Thank you. We'll move on to the second open session of the evening. If there's any member of the public who would like to address the council on items not on tonight's agenda, please approach the podium and provide your name and address. Not seeing any. The open session is closed. Um there are no executive sessions uh this evening. They were handled earlier in the workshop. Is there a motion to adjurnn? Motion to adjurnn. Moved by councelor Walker. Is there second? Seconded by councelor Randall. All those in favor? The council's adjourned.