City Council - Special Meeting

Agenda item number two, executive session with legal counsel to discuss a legal matter in accordance with MRS Title I, Chapter 13, Section 405, Paragraph 6E. Do I have a motion from counsel to enter executive session?

So moved.

Second? Second. All those in favor? Opposed? Yeses carry. So at this point, we'll ask the public to leave the chambers. We will conduct our executive session. When we're complete, we'll come back out of executive session, and we'll take up the next agenda item, which is discussion and potential action on whether to waive privilege and release an investigation report. Thank you.

I love that IT hollers them.

Okay, we are back in regular special meeting. Next on the agenda is discussion and potential action on whether to waive privilege and release an investigation report. Council's been discussing this matter in session. Councilor Halloran?

I would like to speak either before or after. Probably it's fairest to you folks if I speak after you vote.

I think you can speak before we vote, Steve. That's fine. Okay. Yeah, I'd rather that we vote and then we adjourn.

Okay. I would rather give you the chance to vote and then explain, but if you'd prefer I speak before, that's fine.

Yeah, I think we want to have full discussion on the matter before we vote. Okay. Have your discussion.

I will speak last, and then you can vote.

Okay. So as far as this matter goes, it regards a report that was regarding a complaint raised against Councilor Halloran, and we're discussing whether or not to release the report due to the confidential nature. My understanding is that city staff, there's a few members of staff that would like to speak to whether or not we should release the report. If that's the case, I would invite anyone from the city staff that would like to address that.

Thank you. I'll invite Deputy City Manager Sarah Devlin, and I'd like to say a few words as well.

Good evening. I am Sarah Devlin. I'm the Deputy City Manager. I live on Redbridge Road in Ellsworth. Chairman Lyons and members of the City Council, thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak this evening. I do not come before you with any props or theatrics. My comments tonight are grounded in my values, in my strong sense of right and wrong, and my duty to serve this community and the employees of this city. I would like to provide some context and some perspective regarding the events that have brought us here tonight. While concerns surrounding the conduct of Councillor O'Halloran predated my tenure, my personal and professional concerns became significant following an Adaptive Leadership Management Team meeting on April 18, 2025. That meeting occurred shortly after a city council meeting during which Councillor O'Halloran had made accusations of corruption related to wastewater rate setting by staff and dismissed explanations provided by fellow councillors and auditors regarding depreciation in capital assets. While those comments may have occurred in a public setting, their impact was felt directly by staff. At that time, frustration among staff was high and morale was very low. Employees felt discouraged by the repeated accusations and the increasingly hostile interactions. I remember leaving that meeting and going into the city manager's office and saying to him, we cannot unhear what we just heard. We have to do something. As a result of the concern raised by staff, the city manager requested an executive session at the following council meeting in October to discuss the misconduct with the entire council, including Councillor O'Halloran. Unfortunately, Councillor O'Halloran's behavior did not improve. In many ways, it escalated. Over the following months, staff became increasingly uneasy and discouraged. Employees expressed concerns about intimidating interactions, repeated accusations, and communications that felt inappropriate and confrontational, most of which was documented via email or in public meetings. Some employees came into my office visibly upset, frustrated, and uncertain whether the situation would ever improve. By February, after continued incidents and growing concerns, I felt I had a professional and ethical obligation to formally raise these issues with the council chair. I want to be very clear that the city manager had no involvement in the content of the memo that I submitted on February 11th, 2026. I did speak with Mr. Pierce beforehand and shared that I felt compelled to act because the situation was worsening and prior efforts to address the behavior had not been successful. He told me that he supported whatever I felt I needed to do and we did not discuss it any further. So why did I submit this memo? Because I believe the council needed to fully understand the magnitude and duration of what staff was experiencing. Staff was seeking support the city administration alone could not provide after repeated attempts to address the concerns formerly had failed. This is not about politics. This is not about how votes are cast. This is not about freedom of speech. This is about the work environment being created for city employees. And it is our responsibility as leaders to ensure that staff are treated professionally and respectfully. I also want to clarify my intent. My goal was not to prevent Councillor O'Halloran from doing his job. I fully support the role of elected officials in asking tough questions, raising concerns, and holding discussions. with fellow counselors. That is an important part of public service. However, there is a difference between policy oversight and conduct that staff experiences in intimidation, interrogation, or personal targeting. My intent was simply to ask that concerns and disagreements be directed through the appropriate governing channels rather than towards staff members carrying out their professional responsibilities. Unfortunately, much of this process has now been forced into a very public space where portions of the investigation have been selectively characterized in ways that are not accurately reflected the intent or the substance of the concerns raised. I am humbled by the courage staff demonstrated in coming forward under these circumstances, knowing the possibility of retaliation. I was the person who asked council to act because I believe I have a moral, ethical and professional obligation to protect city staff from repeated misconduct and to protect the city itself from potential liability and continued division. I care very deeply about this community. My family also has long standing roots here. My family has a hill named after it on Route 1A, McGowan's Hill. My great-grandfather graduated from high school on Bridge Hill. My husband owns and operates what is believed to be one of the oldest businesses in this city, established in 1882. So when I say that I care deeply about Ellsworth, I truly mean it. I care about my neighbors, my family members who pay taxes here, and the generations of people who have built their lives in this community. And like many residents, I care deeply about the direction that this city is headed and what the future looks like. And now after this process, I also care about what the future looks like for me personally and for the other staff members who are simply trying to do the right thing. Are staff members going to continue to fear retaliation for speaking up? Are people going to feel targeted for simply doing their jobs? Am I going to have my name publicly attacked and displayed on a tractor-trailer truck because I raised legitimate concerns through proper channels? Is Councillor O'Halloran going to take pictures of my home for his unfounded investigations? Those are real concerns now. and I think it's important to acknowledge them honestly. Despite that, I sincerely hope we can move forward, begin to heal, and refocus our attention on the important work the city needs us to do. That is certainly what I'm going to do moving forward. I thank you again for allowing me to speak tonight, and I remain grateful for the opportunity to serve this community, even when doing the right thing is very difficult.

Thank you, Sarah. I think Manager Pierce, would you like to speak?

Yeah, briefly, I think.

First of all, I... Steve, let's let Charlie speak.

Thank you. First of all, thank you, Sarah. Extraordinarily brave of you, not just in this meeting, but throughout this whole process. As you've noted, this is not last month. This is not two months ago. This has been quite longstanding. And I know staff, yourself included, are feeling very stressed right now. And many have come up to me talking about fears of retaliation, fears of their names, and comments in the community on Facebook, which may or may not be true. And to me, that's one of the most difficult parts of this whole thing. And this is sort of different standards for how we handle personnel issues as staff and how they get handled with city counselors. and the kind of gap between the standards we set internally and the standards that get set with these different processes. It has created sort of a chilling environment and I know I can see for staff why. I think this whole thing should have been handled in an executive session to protect city staff in these areas. I don't, you know, it was, I was interviewed as part of this investigation, but I've not seen the investigation report. I was asked frank questions about unprofessional conduct, if I had seen any and what that was, and I gave frank answers. But the idea that this would become kind of a show on YouTube and for others and for staff to continue to feel like if they come forward, not just against Councilor Howlett, any of the counselors here or future counselors, that there's a good process in place to do so that protects staff and protects the council members who may be involved in this. I think in our internal staff processes, we've worked very hard over the last two years. Since I arrived here, there was no performance reviews when I arrived. There was no SMART goals. There was no real performance standards. We've worked really hard on some cultural standards and really high levels of accountability. And when those aren't met, there isn't a very clear process in the personnel ordinance that's step by step by step by step. And with the council, it's a very different process. I have to say I was a little shocked. I heard I was listening for the first time, like members of the community, hearing that apparently there was an an unsanctioned investigation into a city employee that involved taking pictures of their license plates, I didn't even know that was legal. That was news to me. And I don't think that the city manager should be finding out that something like that happened in a public meeting. And apparently, according to what was said by Mr. Halloran, that staff member was publicly Asked about those issues without any warning I believe leave they even have a disagreement with what their answer was like that shouldn't have been in there I was from the last meeting I watched the video that was like to to hear that I'm an employee's license plates were taking pictures up was just And you know this goes back a long time I received I got home at 1215 at night after that council meeting and I received an email from a former staff member and which was eerily similar to all of the issues that we heard in the last meeting and to some of the issues that I spoke about before on staff members feeling afraid of Mr. O'Halloran, feeling afraid of retaliation by him if they were to come forward. And it was extremely concerning to me. so how do we move forward on this i think that's very important i think it's not just whether you release or don't release this information which obviously is what we're here for tonight but i really implore the council to think about its policies and procedures for this moving forward you know the personnel ordinance on the city staff side of things on exactly how these types of Complaints are handled and moving forward, so we don't have to be in this public process again. To protect staff, to protect the counselors, I think is really, really important because we have huge things to do. And this stuff is such a waste of time. It's really important. It's probably the most important how we treat each other, ideally with kindness and respect. And if we're focused on this, we can't get to, we've been working on the budget, and we're net negative two employees to not backfill this year. I still have absolutely everything. I'm doing one last pass of a 500-page budget to cut everything I possibly can. That's really important. Sarah just put together a huge capital improvement plan, which hasn't happened in five or six years, for the next 10 years, and there's $20 million in backlog maintenance on things that need to be addressed. That's the really important things we gotta think about. This potential $30 million village partnership initiative with a nine to one state to city match that we really need to be focused on that can transform the downtown. And there may be good ideas to move forward with, and there may be bad ideas on those to move forward with. And those are hard discussions to have. And those are the things that we really need to focus on and to have a process that doesn't consume this much time and put stress on the staff to this level. And honestly, legal liability for the city to be handled in this way. So I hope in addition to moving forward on whether or not to release or not release the report, that council really needed to consider its own rules here for how to handle these moving forward for any councilor. And that's going to be really important. Thank you.

Thanks, Charlie. Okay, we've heard, is that everyone from staff? So council, we have a question before us of whether or not to waive our privilege and release this report. Councillor Hanlon?

I'd like to respond to some of this. First of all, I'm the monster that these people are talking about. I think probably most people that know me know that I'm not the monster that you're hearing about tonight. And I would like to throw out the fact, again, that we had a secret investigation. I wasn't interviewed because it was secret. I couldn't be interviewed. Then we had an executive session in April that I had no idea about, didn't dare talk whatsoever. Which brings us tonight. I have felt that Mr. and Mrs. Ellsworth paid for this 176 paid investigation.

That does not put me in a good light.

However, doesn't matter. You paid for it, you should get to see it. It's that simple. Had I been interviewed, I would have a little bit different version of this. But I am a proponent of true transparency. Even if it makes me look in a bad light, that's fine. as long as it's truthful. There's a grain of truth in this, okay? Most of it is 100% factual. There's a few twists to it, but very few twists. Most of it is factual. I want this released. Tonight before you, this council wants to release this summary. of this report. I have encouraged everybody to either give you the whole thing or nothing, because if you give this, you're not getting this. You're getting what they want to see, what they want you to see. That's what we're here tonight for. Thank you.

Mr. Pierce?

Yeah, I don't think you're a monster, Steve. I really don't at all. I think you're a highly intelligent person who really cares about, as you know, Mr. and Mrs. Ellsworth. You've done some incredible things, the Karst family included. I think I've got over 100 hours easy on helping you solve that one. And That's not my issue at all, and I don't think it's the issue that staff has either. It's just professional workplace environment stuff. Is it okay to send 150-word email in all caps and 13 exclamation points? Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. That's the determination of the council. Some of the things you mentioned at the meeting on going to city employees' houses and taking pictures of license plates, I don't think you're a monster because of that, but I don't think it's important.

I was standing in State Street doing my job for Mr. and Mrs. Ellsworth, looking to see if, in fact, there was two city vehicles there, which there was not.

Did you inform that employee of the investigation? You ran into them?

I asked your city employee in front of your clerk if he could put that to bed, and he did. Did you tell him you took a picture of his house before you did that? Did you tell me you investigated me?

I didn't investigate you. I'm just trying to figure out the standard here, which is to me really difficult.

I think people have figured out the standard, Charlie.

I think why don't we, rather than getting into a back and forth, let's allow council members to finish. So I'd like to hear from any other council members. Again, what's before us is whether or not we release this report in its entirety or, and I'll just note, in our executive session, with discussion with our HR director and legal counsel, It was their recommendation that we release only a few pages from the report, and I think they gave very good reasons why that is the case. But before I provide any further discussion on that, if there are any other council members that would like to address this issue, please let me know. Now is the time.

I've got to understand that there's federal law and state law that protect workers' rights, whether you're in the public sector or you're in the private sector. Most generally, the public sector is under the most All employees under state law in summary, basically are entitled to a safe work environment, free of any harassment, unwanted advances and hostilities. I take this very seriously. I really do on the other hand. Yeah. You paid for this. You paid for the summary, the investigation, the whole thing. But put yourself in the other side of the coin. If you as an employee, and you was in a hostile work environment, or felt possibly that retribution or anything like that, I should hope that no taxpayers would go and harass the employees. They're trying to do the best job they can with what they've got. Lots of times we kind of question things, okay? It's okay. You question them, bring it to us. I'll definitely bring your concerns before the city manager and the deputy city manager and the rest of the council. But I don't want anybody having to work in a hostile work environment, okay? I don't want anybody getting harassed. I don't want anybody getting accused of whatever, okay? Use your imagination. I don't want to use my imagination because I've been there. So if there's any kind of report that does come out, you got to put yourself in the other people's, the people that are in the employees, all right? They deserve to be protected, all right? So what do we do? You could end up with a totally pile of black paper that's been totally redacted so no one can make any kind of weird assumptions and assume that's a, to me, that's an acronym, okay? Which leads you down to a very, very bad, dark path, all right? The question before us is you deserve to know How much do you deserve to know? What about the workers? What about your rights? What about the workers' rights? This is not an easy deal, okay?

Thank you, Pat. Any other counselors have any comments or counsel right now?

I'd just like to say that this, you paid for it, you get to see it, argument is in fact a logical fallacy. It sounds really good, but it's not true. When you think about all the investigations that are carried out in this country under Title IX, under OSHA, under any number of environmental protection issues or workplace issues or corruption issues, somebody's tax dollar are paying for them. And that doesn't mean that all the information becomes public to whosoever tax dollars paid for it. It's funds that come out for us to follow the only procedure we have to the logical end.

Any other councillors regarding the report?

I just want to say that I would have loved to put this to bed to put the whole thing out, but I take my role to protect the employees here very seriously and I fear for their retaliation against them and so therefore I will be voting for the summary.

Any other councillors? No, it's not a public hearing, but thank you for asking. Councillor M Smith.

Before we vote, and just a single, I will be voting for the current version we have. I want to thank the city employees who came forward. I know reading through the report myself, it was not easy and you could see the courage on that page. by answering frank questions with frank answers. This entire process has not been easy, but doing the right thing is sometimes never easy.

Thank you. Councillor O'Halloran?

I just have a question. If employees were allowed to speak, the public's not?

Correct. It's not a public hearing. These are employees that are part of the report, Steve, and they are entitled to speak on whether or not this report should be released. Well, if there's no other councilor comments, I'll just note that this morning I woke up thinking I was going to come here and vote to release the whole report. I wanted to because I wanted to put this to bed. I wanted to have the whole report out there. People can review it and it says what it says and we move forward. But then I was in tonight's meeting, our HR director just framed it for me in a way. Um, she did an excellent job and the staff, you guys have real incredible person looking out for you. Um, she convinced me that that was a bad idea. And, um, because we need to, as everyone said to here, we need to protect our employees from retaliation from harassment. Um, and so, and that they can feel, um, that they can come forward if there are complaints if there are issues and air them and not fear retaliation. I think by releasing the full report, it would open folks up to retaliation outside this room from the public. There's some real nasty stuff going around Facebook about all this and it's really sad. I know all of us here and I just want to move forward. This has been incredibly stressful. Sleepless nights. But at the end of the day, I think we're all just trying to do the right thing. What's best for the city, protect the city and its staff. And I really hope that we can resolve this issue and move forward. I want to work productively with Councillor Halloran and all council members. I want to work productively with the public. We've got big things to deal with. We've got a budget. We've got taxes. We've got these real tough things and big decisions to make. I would like to be able to do that productively, you know, with civility, and it's okay that we disagree. It's okay that we don't see eye to eye necessarily and everything, but I just hope that we can move forward in a constructive, positive manner, because I know we all care about this community and we want what's best for Ellsworth, and I hope that we can work together doing that. You know, I think to Charlie's point, this process, you know, we followed what was in our code of ethics. And it was, you know, the way that, you know, we conducted an investigation and held meetings with Councilor Halloran. And Councilor Halloran disagrees and, you know, calling this a secret investigation and secret city hall. I disagree. We were following the advice of our counsel. We provided Counselor Halloran opportunities to respond informally and not in the public.

Without an attorney.

We gave you the opportunity to, we would have had further meetings with you, Steve. You could have had your attorney. You're the one that elected to make this public. So here we are. So I think we do need a process where maybe they can't be made public or maybe there's other protections in place so we don't wind up in this position. But we can always move forward. I hope we can all learn from this process. I hope we take it to heart and I hope that we can find a way to just move forward and try to all work towards what's in the best interest of the city of Ellsworth and its residents. So with that, we have the question of what to release. I'd like to make a motion that we release the four-page summary that was provided to us by legal counsel. In addition, the cost, as soon as we're able to, the cost of the report so the public can see what we spent on the report.

Second.

Second. Further discussion?

May I request that you release all of the legal cost as well as the investigation cost and personnel time?

I'm fine releasing all that. Yeah, I think that's fine. So I have motion to second. Any further discussion? Councilor Shea?

Again, like I said, I don't want any retribution against any city employees. You deserve to know some. The summary spells out quite a bit. If you have a problem with it or how I vote, don't go to the city employees or the city manager. You can come talk to me on how I vote. You deserve to know, but you don't need to know who is in, who the employees are.

Thank you, Pat. With that, all those in favor? Opposed? Yays, carry. And with that, do I have a motion for adjournment?

So moved. Second.

All those in favor? So adjourned.