City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everyone. I'd like to call this meeting to order, please. First, I'd like to just make a note that the captioning is not being captured right now due to the off-schedule normal meeting. As such, it should resume. I apologize for that. Item two is adjustments to the agenda.

Public hearing.

Just the one on the update on the movie.

That's 6J. 6J.

I'm confused. That was just a public hearing of both their mobile vending unit. And then we're going into regular meetings.

Well, the way we put this together is that we started out saying we'll move it back to five, but then we said we had a bunch of public hearings and we were just going to blast through because we expected it to take all night.

Well, I don't know if I expected that, but I just didn't want the public hearing to end in ten minutes and then we had to sit here for 50 minutes waiting for the council meeting. That didn't make any sense to me. I think we could go through the public hearing and then go into our regular council meeting. Ella, I forgot the date. Second? July? Or second week?

They said the second or third weekend of July. That hasn't been narrowed down yet. Okay. They asked if you could consider it. Okay.

Thank you. You're welcome. Do I have a motion to that effect?

I'll make that motion. I'll second it.

Moved and seconded. Any further discussion on the motion? Hearing none, roll call, please, Sarah.

Councillor Dana Cummings? Yes. Councillor Stephens? Yes. Councillor Seelig? Yes. Councillor Boone?

Yes. Any further adjustments to the agenda?

When we pass budget, that takes several motions, but I chose not to break them out into separate motions. I'll be very clear about them at that point.

I agree. And before I go into the item three, public hearings, I would like to just announce that we have a new person at our table, Tahereh. Wow, forgive me, I'm the last one, girl. I don't know it.

Aronson.

Aronson. She is our new Park Town City Clerk right now. Probably soon to be our full city clerk. Welcome aboard.

Can't hear you back here. Is the PA up?

Probably not, or I'm not speaking loud enough. Is that any better out?

Is that any better?

I can't hear you. Can you hear me? Okay. We'll try to get it as loud over there as we can. As you can tell, the room, it feeds back very quickly.

Sorry about that, Al. Hopefully it's a little bit better. All right. We are on item three, public hearings. 3A is street vendor ordinance. Anybody from the public like to speak either for or against? Al?

We've been going through this since, I think, December.

I asked for permission from the city if it's okay to build it and then put it next to my house for my 14-year-old son. And they had to get in touch with Ella. And they did. And they said, yeah, as long as you get letters from the neighbors surrounding you. And then it goes in front of the council meeting. They said, don't I need the application? And they said after it goes to the council meeting, they approve it, then you can get the letter. But it's been going month after month after month after month, and the different drafts. I think last month, Brian said he had to get the draft together for this month. But if you look at the draft, last month was May, the draft is April. So we had it a month before, so there goes another two months. But like I told my son today, This is probably not going to work. It's not going to happen. They're fighting us every day. Already it's seven, eight months. It's putting us past 4th of July. It takes two weeks to get started. I said we'll probably either sell it or move it to a different town because it doesn't seem like the city wants to fight it like it's another big business coming in here. They should be fighting it. They should be fighting the AI the same keeps on going on and on and on different ones do i they put this out i put that up okay do it at the statute okay maybe that'll work not not parking at the statue i can't believe it i moved here four years ago to have a better life for my son but i don't see anything better over here with the community for the kids yeah even a community center for the kids it's not a senior center and you guys are playing poker down there at night, but there's nothing for the kids. The parks and recreation, what's the budget for that? Pretty much, what can I put it? It's pitiful what's happening over here, and what should have been or could have been an easy thing, because I got the okay in the beginning, turned into a total nightmare, and I feel bad because my son, LLC together, we got the state inspection together, got everything together, worked on the trailer all winter for nothing. That's why he didn't show up today. He was kind of upset when I told him. So I figured I'd put it out there. I see it as the lost cause, the fighting, and how it's been time after time. And then I look at the addendum. There's no way that anybody would do a trailer or a food truck in this town because if you look at the fines, $2,500 a day, plus attorney's fees, plus paid for professional witness and the whole thing. Why would somebody get a license and sign this and it's at the discretion of the city manager? Yeah. I don't really have nice words for the city manager or the council because I see all the stuff that goes on. But when it came to a kid, I figured they'd look at it a little different. I know people call me after the last council meeting and say, bring it down to Perry, bring it down to Calis. You don't have to do nothing. We want to see a kid do good. A lot of people want to see a kid Yeah, so not with the council, not with the city manager. They turned it into a, like I said, a disaster. When I was talking to somebody earlier, I told them, I said, I moved here for my sons. We got away from the big population that everything's good, but I try to do this, and he's a go-getter. You know, he does different things, makes money and stuff like that. Best personality, but... I said, maybe we'll have to try to do it someplace else. So I'm kind of finished with it. Do what you want to do with it. You made it into a big, a whole big thing for seven, eight months. And my son's the one that got it the worst.

Anybody else from the public like to speak for or against the street vendor ordinance? Seeing none, I'll close the public hearing. 3B, new victuals license application for 6-17-26, submitted by Alan Skinner for Williams Pizza, doing business as Golding Steer LLC for a pizza food trailer. Anybody in the public like to speak for or against that? Seeing none, I'll close that public hearing. 3C, new liquor, new license application, catering permit, yield hookers, file number 151603, special events, 2026, airport community day, June 20th, 2026. Anybody like to speak for or against that?

explanation, so I need clarification.

Please come to the microphone and state your name, please, so that people know who they're hearing.

I'm Todd Buster. Thank you. And I'm Neil Hooker.

Thank you.

We're asking for a one-day catering permit. We filed it through the state liquor licensing board. We just need city approval, I guess since it is on city property, and our proposal is for a beer and wine option for attendees to communicate.

Thank you, Todd. Anybody else from the audience like to speak either for or against? Seeing none, I'd like to close that public hearing. 3D, amendment application to an existing on-premises beer and wine license, RES 25-115002 for Horn Run Brewing at 75 Water Street. This is Horn Run Brewing.

And we just wanted to change our liquor license to include spirits. We're not going to change any operation hours or anything like that. We just want to be able to add another option just to make sure we're full service for competing with everybody else, basically. The only hour change that we're considering is opening up earlier on Saturday and Sunday for a Bloody Mary bar. But as far as the closing times, it's still about 10 p.m. We don't anticipate any really change in the pace of business or anything, so we keep it pretty in control.

Thank you, Lisa. Anybody else from the audience like to speak either for or against? Seeing none, close the public hearing. 3E, new liquor, new license application, Eastport Chamber of Commerce, file number 151973, civic special event, salmon and seafood festival. Anybody like to speak either for or against that? Seeing none, I'll close that public hearing. 3F, renewal of on-premise liquor license for beer, wine, spirits, HAL, Antolin Limited slash cruise ship, file number 155946. Anybody like to speak for or against that? Yes, Al.

Rhonda posted on Facebook that the picture license was from 5 o'clock in the morning. I can only apologize for the confusion, but I can't change the meeting time.

And technically we're in a public hearing right at this moment. Anybody like to speak on or against the renewal of the on-premise liquor license? Seeing none, I'll close that public hearing. Last public hearing is G, the fiscal 2027 budget. Anybody like to speak for or against that item?

questions? Is there going to be a presentation on it?

Could we state our name first? Oh, Deborah Gillespie, 7 Shackford Street.

Sorry about that. I had not prepared a presentation. We were in workshop last month. I'm certainly willing to give a summary when we come to time to take action.

Okay. I have a question. When was the last tax commitment made available to the residents? on the government website for E-Sport, which looks lovely, by the way. I like the updates. I see it still as 2023. Is it available in-house?

You can certainly request it. I don't think we know. I'm sorry, I know it's a broken record, but lots of change and everything else. I didn't realize it was posted there. So we certainly have it. We can post the historical ones now that we know about that. But any previous tax commitment, you can come in and request.

Okay. And then I know that out of the capital budget, it's my understanding that it's going to be a re-evaluation of the taxes, correct?

At some point, we need to fund that.

Right. Is that going to take place this year? I mean, there was money allocated, correct?

Yeah.

Have you hired someone?

We are seeking someone right now. It's very hard to get in line. Our assessor just went to tax school. All the large firms are right now maxed out, and they really have no incentive to come out here because they have to put someone out here. So we are looking to other communities and seeing if we can get some names directly and put an RFP out. We're on it, but it's going to take some time. And there's no guarantee once we hire them that they'll be available clear, it's not about re-evaluating taxes or re-evaluation. It doesn't change the overall taxation. It updates the value of the property citywide so that taxation is fair and equitable.

Do we have some idea of when the last one was done?

I want to say 2018. Do you remember, Ella?

I can't remember her last name. Her first name was Brenda, did it spell it? Brenda Gold.

Brenda Gold, that's correct.

Brenda Gold, yes, okay. And then my other question, and I think I brought this up before, is the sewer cost, making that more equitable, is it too late to do anything about that once the budget passes in the summer months?

I would be happy to have a conversation.

What do you mean by equitable debt?

Well, in the summer, people water their gardens, maybe water their lawn, et cetera, and it doesn't use the sewer, right? But they're charged based on water usage, and there are ways to do that. A lot of communities do it a lot differently. So I would like to sit down.

I certainly want to talk about that. Of course, making that decision is on you guys.

Right, because that... would be helpful to a lot of citizens of this community. The increase in taxes is really going to be a burden for a lot of people.

Thank you.

Anybody else? Comments, questions, concerns on fiscal year 2027 budget?

Alan Skinner, 6th Stevens F. Was the budget ever made available to the public with the line items and everything for the budget?

Yes. Every budget meeting is open to the public. Every budget meeting is open to the public. You can come in there and get a copy of the budget any time. You can look at it.

I called the city the other day to ask, and they said they didn't have one, so I didn't know what to do. So you have to go to the budget committee meeting to get the...

No, they're open to the public. We've been, three months, I'm going to say at least three months, Al, each week they were meeting. I attended two of them.

Yeah, but I'm not saying meeting at that budget workshop meeting. I'm saying, is it made available to the people that don't go to the budget workshop meeting?

Yes, you could go into City Hall and request a copy of it.

Yeah, I did the other day.

Oh, I thought you said you called.

I called.

Oh.

I'm not sure who you spoke to.

It is available Al. I'm sorry that you didn't get it. I'm sorry you did not get it. But it is available.

Do we have a copy here? Sorry? Do we have a copy here?

So you guys have detailed copies. I just produced what

Well, I think that's just the... It's not the line item. It's not broken out into the... That's what was published in the paper, Al. Any further comments on the fiscal year 2027 budget? Hi there. I'm Bernie.

I live in Eastport. My question for the next year's budget, how much of our budget is going to provide police and public work service for the cruise ships this year. Last year, I understand it was $8,000, but the city didn't take in any money from the cruise ships. Is that going to change this year, or are we still going to be paying out of our taxes for these ships to come?

I don't believe, I've never heard the figure of $8,000. And sometimes, much like tonight, we're meeting in the Port Authority building. It's kind of a trade-off. So if the police works an hour, we don't pay them for this use of this building. Right, that's what my question is.

My question is what percentage of the budget next year is being allocated to provide coverage for the cruise ships? None, as far as I know. None? None as far as I know.

Yes, as far as I know.

How much is the city taking in from this cruise industry?

The city of Eastport is not taking in anything. So also $0? Yes.

Again, for clarification, $2,600 was the number we came up with last year.

For the whole year?

For the whole year. And you built the port, didn't you? We did, we both did.

We're taking in $2,600.

I'm sorry, let me, my apologies. The amount, so last year we went through the exercise of saying, now what extra might we have put out for cruise ships? I spoke with, and we've discussed this several times in this meeting, but I'm going to have to do it again. We determined that there was minimal public works. They had to do the garbage cans one extra time. and there was some additional police coverage, which we calculated at $2,600, and we did bill the report for that amount.

So Ben Gore Daily reported it was eight, and they quoted you right?

They misquoted me. If you would give me, I would love it if you could point me to that, and I will correct them.

I certainly will. What I do have is the FOA that I requested from you last year about how much we were spending, and you said you didn't know, and I never actually got a reply on that, but you also did say that... At the time, there was no document to reply with. So we're not going to spend any of our tax money on cruises this year, but we're also not taking... I'm sorry, we're taking in $0, but we'll be spending $2,600. Is that...

But it was billed to the port and reimbursed for the police coverage.

Was it reimbursed last year? Yes. Okay. So this year we can expect no tax money going to cruises, but we can also expect nothing back, just clarity. Okay.

Probably a fair statement. Definitely no money is going to them. I don't know about if we'll receive revenue. I can't speak to that.

Thank you. Further questions on fiscal year 2027 budget? Seeing none, I'll close that public hearing. We're on item four, action on public hearings. 4A is street vendor ordinance.

Is Michael Morse here?

He is not.

Specifically one of the things that Alan brought up... and Mike also mentioned it in his comments, was the fine piece. When I went back to our original, it only said $100, but now it's up to $2,500. $100 to $2,500 per violation per day. How did that get added in?

I don't remember, but you can change it.

That does seem kind of stupid.

I believe it's done.

City may order that the permit holder abate any violations, pay a penalty between $100 and $2,500 per violation per day, and pay the court costs, attorneys, and expert witness fees. Right.

And all that's proceeded by May. So I can't tell you exactly where it came from, but the intention is to give the city more discretion if a violation is needed. But there's no requirement to impose anything. That's what's May. If it was shall, we'd be in terms of your purpose at this point is to modify this, to accept it as it is or modify it as you see fit.

So this is for any time, it's not just special occasions. Right, this is for any mobile vending unit.

Right, the distinction was, the distinction is that special events, there's no charge for it. And the intention there was as currently written, so maybe to Alan's point, part of the problem here, it's not that the city was trying to stand in the way. The city had an ordinance that was already in the way, arguably. My attempt here, and I will point out, although I keep saying my, this is not anything I'm advocating or going to bring forward. Council has not chosen to bring forward their own text. So I provided it for you. The intention, as written, Arguably, one could have complained that a food truck at the 4th of July required a victualer's license and an additional license and should have come before a council in advance. So we don't operate that way.

But the old policy said if it was a special event, they didn't have to.

Uh-uh. Not on the motor vehicle policy. No, the vendor policy, which is street vendors, people who sell stuff in the street on a table, did not need a license. That language was not in the ordinance. And while I hate to be legally picky about this, that's exactly what ordinances are on this legally picky text. So that's why I changed it here with the understanding that we wanted to operate more like we actually do. Now, you could, again, your choice. If you decide that for special events you don't want any licensing, that's fine. I mean, it's counsel's choice what to do here. Counsel can repeal the whole thing and it can be anyone can put a foot through a truck any way they want to. You can also ban them all. I am providing this text because it was trying to make it so it was working with what we've got, but it's on you guys to figure out how you want it to work.

Personally, I want to make sure that they are safe in operation. like we don't want people not being able to operate or have their propane blow up or something?

I guess there is one issue. So we do have comments that were provided by Michael Morrison in advance, so he did not come to the hearing that was there. I do want to point out the one thing that was a point of contention over the last couple of months was about operating outside of a B1, B2 zone. The text I provided to you gave you an option that might permit that. planning board that the council does not have that discretion that that would be a change of use in any but a B1B2 zone I can't speak to whether that's accurate or not but I wanted to raise that issue because that was something that was in contention is he here?

he is not here

you should have had that as well. It was like 8.2, .3 point something. Yeah.

The operation of restaurants, food banks are, in his opinion, only permitted in the B-1, B-2 over they go.

But you'd consider a food truck a restaurant.

I'm not here to advocate for opposition. That's not my place. But I did want to point out, because I had added that as an option, and that was specifically raised as an answer.

I actually like a lot of his additions or his corrections, reading over it. the penalty you said you were going to physically describe where they could park in the public areas rather than providing that.

Yes, I thought I had written some text for you. Yeah, the map has always been confusing. And so rather than playing a map, my recommended amendment would be to replace the map with the text. The city property generally available to vendors is located in the city lot on Washington Street behind the post office and the city lot on If I may, I think the way you would, if you're hoping to act on this tonight, I think you would essentially want to be introducing amendments at this point to change text as you want to. And once you've got it and the case is all happy, then you can vote it up or down.

but he had it in the same thing. The city council may, at his discretion, permit vendors in other locations after holding a public hearing, which is basically what we talked about.

I believe, I think the way he marked that, he didn't add that, he just highlighted that, I believe.

Oh, this is in the bio-indexes?

That's what he's saying, yeah. Yes, that paragraph he's put in red was in the original.

but I still like it that way. So again, I would say if we pass this, if we are keeping that highlighted paragraph on page two, the city council may at its discretion permit vendors at other locations Should we at this point in the ordinance put in restrictions to other areas like time and take out and that stuff or leave it at the vote like probationary period to see if there's a problem with it? Because full disclosure, I live on Stevens Avenue. I am right across the street from Allen. It would not bother me at certain hours. It would totally bother me at other hours. If it started at 8 o'clock, I might be irritated in the summer when I can sleep in. But if we don't put a restriction on if the council hears it, then each council has to determine that at that point. and then deal with the Board of Appeals, because it's a food trucker restaurant.

I'm not sure whether you would classify a food trucker restaurant, nor do I think that the restaurant title should be in the vendor ordinance. A restaurant is a restaurant. More so. And they have different requirements that they have to be licensed and zoned in certain areas. I think more of what I'm hearing is if If the ordinance is passed and you want to have it in a residential area, you have to basically prove the four different points of undue hardship. I can't see how we're going to get anywhere near those.

That's if you assume that fits for the mobile vending unit.

In a residential setting.

Mm-hmm.

If you have the mobile vending unit in the B1, B2 district, it's a mute point because we're not in a residential district. We're in a business district. So it doesn't even apply unless you're adding in there residential. And I don't think that that's the council's job to... dictate where a vending unit can go I think that that's more zoning and I think it that's where it should lie I'm a council I'm not a zoning board member I don't know the laws on the zones I don't know what can happen in zone two versus zone three I have no idea I'll be honest with you I've had some reservations about this before. As I mentioned before, when Al had approached us a month or two ago, having it in a neighborhood district, I realized you could have a public hearing, invite all your neighbors, but once you open that door, the next person has that same opportunity, and you really can't deny them that. Even if the neighbors all said, we don't want it. It's too bad. You're allowing it in one part. You have to allow it in all parts. That's my take on it. I'm not against a young man trying to make a dollar. I'm not against that. I was that young man one day. I'm more for allowing it to happen, but allow it to happen in the right place. That's all I'm for. I'm not trying to disqualify you, and I'm sorry, Al, that this council and this manager has... took your trust away from you. I apologize for that. I think we're only trying to do this right. And if that's wrong, then it's wrong.

If they wouldn't have told me in the beginning that I can't do it before I've done it, you know what I mean?

I know, but I didn't hear that. That never came before my table. You called City Hall. You didn't come to the council and ask. There's a difference.

I did come to the council after they told me.

After, yes, and after it was built and what your plans were then, but It doesn't change the facts, Al, and I'm sorry.

Well, the fact that stores that were in this town include yours and stuff, but whatever it is, it is.

Yes, it is. Nonetheless, that's my take. I'm sorry if I'm not on the popularity side. I'm okay. And I do take some... The Eastport Chamber of Commerce has also weighed in on this. They have a lot of businesses downtown. Listening to the last Port Authority meeting, the Chamber came because they were quite concerned with the food trucks on the pier taken away from the downtown businesses. So we're trying to find a happy medium here. And if we've got to get there, I think we can. But we've got to work together. We can't work apart. That doesn't make it happen.

And I think I generated more taxes. No, and that was not what I was saying. That was not what I was saying. So...

I'm not sure whether council would like to make any kind of amendment to this ordinance or whether we'd like to just continue with the current ordinance or would like to change anything.

We suspended the ordinance. We're currently not enforcing it because it would put me in a position if I actually tried to enforce it, I'd be breaking the 4th of July. I'm not doing that.

I thought, should we table it until after the 4th at least?

So continue without a mobile vending unit ordinance. So table till the August meeting?

Yeah, August meeting.

July meeting, the 7th. I mean, it's obviously your call. The longer we go with this, you put me in a more and more awkward situation. I'll just give you what ifs, right, because that's kind of my concern. The what if is a So if that happens and you're prepared to deal with that at that point, that's fine. I would just ask, we've been at this for a while, to Alan's point, the draft does say 7 April, we brought it up then, we talked about it, to make changes and talk to me so we can get this together. Either that, or frankly, the easiest thing for me, I don't want to get anyone to think they don't like food trucks, but the easiest thing for me would be to replace the existing ordinance which says that food trucks in the city of Eastport are banned except they're inspecialized. At present, we have nobody in town who's coming in to do that. It's not what we've done in the past. It seems a little drastic, but it's easy for me to enforce Sorry, I'm thinking... Or I understand what you said. Maybe say it slower. That is probably what... And you know what? I'm also... I'm running out of bathroom. I said the easiest thing for me to enforce would be to not have food trucks permitted except during special events. That covers about 95% of our food truck activity. So I'm not anti-food truck. But currently we're in a situation where we're not very... where it's unclear what I should be doing with respect to... food trucks during special events? The current ones on the books? Well, no, during a special event, we would permit them during special events, and we would not require anything of them. That's how we have operated in practice for 20 years.

Trusting that each festival would care of the requirements for each food truck. Right.

not really advocating for that. I'm just trying to put more options out there for you. But that would be the easiest thing to...

I do not mind this ordinance the way that it is. I have a problem with so few places that it can operate. Personally.

Again, I will propose options. This is not a recommendation. So we could certainly walk through these few changes that we if we agree with them here, amend it that way. you can certainly either choose to pass it in that form, you can turn around and amend it again, but unless you know of other locations you want to permit that,

That's why the public hearing, some places are going to be more amenable to having it put in than others. And I don't think it would open up everyone, because if everyone in the neighborhood disagrees with it, there's your answer. But if everyone in the neighborhood is fine with it, there's your answer.

It might be worth talking with, the reason I keep bringing up Michael, of course, is he was involved with the current workers. So I do not know what discussions were had or how those locations were identified or other locations were ruled out. It might be good to have that history.

so colleen you made a motion to table until july yes and can you ask michael to be there i can ask i will second the tabling until july Again, I just don't like restricting the places where it can be. That's my personal vision.

Further discussion on the motion? Roll call, please, Sarah.

Councillor Dana Cummings? Yes.

4B, new victuals license application for 6-17-26 submitted by Alan Skinner for Williams Pizza doing business as Golden Steel LLC for a pizza food trailer.

I move to accept.

Do I have a second?

I'll second that.

I move and second it. Any further discussion on the motion? Hearing none, roll call, please, Sarah.

Councillor Dana Cummings? Yes.

Councillor Stephens? Yes.

Councillor Seeley? Yes. Councillor Boone?

Yes. 4C, new license application catering permit, yield hookers, file number 151603, special event, 2026, airport community day, June 20th, 2026. I have a question.

Is it Todd? Todd, yes. Hi. So you have a liquor license that you can take out there, or how does that work?

It's a catering license we give. It's a $10... It's similar to what we're looking at Salmon Festival. It's the same sort of license. It's just for this event. I think it's a slightly different form because they do hold a liquor license already, but this gives them permission to hold a one-day event off their premises. And this has been part of the planning for the community day going back a couple months.

And you're requested to join? We work, yes.

And we have to submit a plan for... keep the miners from moving or whatever. So that was all done through the portal and then it comes, since it was on city property, then it was forwarded to this process.

Thank you. Okay. I move to accept. I'll second.

We move to second it. Any further discussion on the motion? Hearing none, roll call please, sir.

Councillor Dana Cummings.

Yes.

4D, amendment application to an existing on-premise beer and wine license, RES 25-115-002 for Horn Run Brewing at 75 Water Street.

I move to accept. I second.

One of you got it. Take your pick. Any further discussion on the motion? Hearing none, roll call, please, Sarah.

Councilor Dana Cummings? Yes. Councilor Stephens? Yes. Councilor Seelings? Yes. Councilor Boone?

Yes. 4E, new license application, Eastport Chamber of Commerce, file number 151973, civic special event, Salmon and Seafood Festival.

So the Salmon Federation itself is asking for this? I move to accept. I'll second.

Been moved and seconded. Any further discussion on the motion? Hearing none, roll call, please, sir.

Councillor Dana Cummings? Yes. Councillor Stephens? Yes. Councillor Seeley? Yes. Councillor Boone? Yes.

4F, renewal of an on-premise liquor license for beer, wine, and spirits. HAL Antillion Limited, file number 155946. Cruise ship?

I move to accept. I second.

Moved and seconded. Any further discussion on the motion? Hearing none, roll call, please, Sarah.

Councillor Dana Cummings? Yes. Councillor Stephens? Yes. Councillor Seeley? Yes. Councillor Boone?

Yes. Item 4G, fiscal year 2027 budget. I don't.

Up to you guys. You ask me the questions you want. I do have two adjustments I need to speak about, and I've spoken with the budget committee about this earlier today. Hopefully this will be less exciting than the last two years. First one, I need to ask that we... thousand dollars half of that is my error when we were in the budget process and I was putting together what the audit cost was because the audit line has been something of a mystery you may recall our previous auditors and we didn't have a fixed price on it so I did not pick up that we had also needed to do the federal single audit which is a separate process that's specific to time of that one. And they have raised their price by another $6,000. So it's a total of, I'm sorry, $14,000. So it's $7,700. There's no way to avoid this cost. It's a quadrupling of expense since 2018, 2019. The only expense that's gone through the roof. But as you know, just finding auditors has been a crisis since COVID. And what we're seeing now is we're getting the auditors, but they're that will add $16,000. In addition, and this is a confusing one, so I'll try to make it as clear as I can. The state issues an opinion each year about how much the valuations on your books for a house differ from their actual market value. And ours have been getting further and further out of whack. You are supposed to be within 5% to 7%, ideally. 90% is usually considered. You better start thinking about stuff. 70%, the state can come in and yell at you. We were at 56% last year. We were at 46% this year. which means, according to the state, the average value of a house on the books, so for example, I'll use my house as an example. Mine is valued in the 90s, I believe. The state is saying, no, your house is almost certainly worth more in the lower 200s. And this is important to the state because all of the tax exemptions and programs that they fund are based on valuation. And I'll use homestead as the example here. Your homestead valuation, the state says we will pay the tax on the first $25,000 of value on your house. It's actually 70% of that, but we'll keep it simple. We'll pay that. Now, if my house is valued at $90,000, that $25,000 is almost a third of the value, a third of my taxes are going to be paid, between a quarter and a third of my taxes. uh-uh, we're not supposed to pay that much. We're supposed to pay 25,000 of the actual value of our house. We should be paying the first 25,000 on a house that's valued at 210. So more like 10 or 11%. And the way they do that is by applying the ratio. I'm going into this very long description because having to make the change to the ratio means that the amount I can budget for in revenue for Homestead Exemption and the other tax programs also goes down. So those two changes together add about $25,000 to the amount needed for taxation. That means to keep our overlay at a reasonable number, Budgeted to come in at $38,000. I'm letting it drop to $30,000. I really don't want it to go lower than that. Overlay, if nothing else, has to cover abatements, and we wrote about half of that in abatements this year, so I wanted to keep it there. It means that at this point, our target mill rate is $32.82, which is an increase of 7.98%. And what we passed before was at $30.60, which was So when we get done talking that, the amounts, I put my memo in the wrong place. I'll find it in a second.

There's no place else we can take this from than Attica, Texas.

25. You were in the workshop, Rhonda. What do we... I really can't. It's my belief we don't have staff to cut. If anything, we're understaffed. I could easily justify at least a half-time and maybe a full-time position at Public Works. I'm probably going to be understaffed by a half or full position in City Hall as we train up new treasurer, new clerk, and everything else that's wrong to me. We can talk about it where we like. The one place you can cut it from and not cause any pain... is capital, right? I have increased the amount we send to capital by $12,000 this year. We have in the last, at least since I've been here and a few years before that, put $98,000 in capital reserves here, capital projects. And we'll talk about capital projects in a second. We haven't done a lot of them, but I'm getting revved up to do them. We can cut that money out of there. It will not affect the operation of any department. And it will keep us at that lower number. So that's something you can do. The municipal expenses only rose 1.42%. If we add this 14,000 in there, it's going to be a little bit more like 2.6. School is up 7.28%. County tax is up 27%, 27.5%, a combination of the county tax rate going up to 18% and our valuation this year going up quite a bit. That also damaged us on revenue sharing. Our state revenues are declining by almost $50,000 from what was published there. It would be somewhat more than that after I got these other adjustments. So it's a challenging environment. At this point, 36%. against almost $360,000 overall rising. And I only can control the municipal side. It's a challenging environment. I don't like bringing in numbers like this either. For the purposes... Not that I really want, so I can give you the form of emotions you want.

where you went over to the capitol by the time you took that email. We got a bunch of emails today.

Stay with it.

So quickly, if you decide what you want to do, I'll do

by adding the numbers, the additional amount that you needed to add, what was that doing to the percentage of the budgeting, to the taxation? It was raising the mill rate to what?

So if we simply take the two things I just told you, that additional amount, that will make the total rise in taxation, which as published was $330,306 to $355,000. would be $4,221,150, and what was published was $4,156,955. Now, I will continue to caution us. We are still finishing up personal property and business tax changes. This is the first year I've really understood it. Now that I've understood it, I find it confusing. The problem is, to know what your mill rate is, you have to know what your expenses and revenues are. But your revenues change, the revenues from the state change based on your mill rate. Because homestead exemption is calculated by taking the value of your house, multiplying it by the mill rate, and then in this case, multiplying it by the ratio to reduce it. I think we're very close though. It's possible by the time we get done with our commitment in July that the mill rate might be a penny higher or lower.

And if we put the rise and take it out of capital, it takes the increased taxes to 7.1? Let me get that.

Give me a second to make sure I actually get that correct. So the increase in taxation is going from 330, 306, 89, and then 355, 700, to... So the increase in taxation is $25,393.13. And we subtract that from 110. Capital line becomes, whoops, I went the wrong direction. Sorry, folks. 110, 25, 393.13 minus 84,606.87 cents.

But what does it take, the increased tax? And then you would be back to what was published. Which was 7.

Which was a rise of $330,000, $330, $306.89 for taxation of $4,195,757. And this keeps the mill rate at three point, our estimated mill rate at 3.26%, which is a 7.26% rise. I mean, again, to maybe just be even clearer, our net expenses, in other words, which is our total expenses minus our total revenues, has gone up 9.19%. We reduced our overlay in the published version by almost $20,000, so that brought it down to 8.5%. The mill rate is only going up 7.26% because we have added valuation in our estimation. We have somewhat greater tax base, so the mill rate keeps it down. So, I'm just trying to save the numbers as many different ways as I can to be as transparent as possible about what we're looking at.

So you want all these separate?

No. We typically have historically, and I went back a decade to make sure, in the memo that looks like this, I've given you the language we've used in the past. And we have typically used, it will be motion two here actually, it says, to approve the fiscal year 2027 budget as amended containing X amount of expenses, of which X amount is for education, resulting in taxation of Z. When you tell me what you want to do, I'll give you the specific numbers that go in each of those slots.

for the school part of the budget, that at the workshop we approved draft three, but somewhere I saw like draft five.

Which brought it back. So at the school workshop, and actually this is a good point, although I know we have it later on in the agenda, it's arguably we should maybe accept the school. But if we accept the budget now, we're stuck. We should probably accept the school work before then. Draft five, that 7.28, I forget what they came in. They came in at eight something, if I remember right, at the workshop. Missy, you don't remember, do you? Did you remember what draft four came in at? The one that we came to the workshop? It was like 8% or 9%? No, it was draft three that we approved. Right, but that's what they came in with. And we said, no, no, no, we want to go back to draft three, which is 7.28%, and that was what draft five did. So that's the amount that is in this budget. The amount that's in this budget represents a 7.28% increase in education.

And that's what was posted in the paper? Yep. Can I just motion that we pass that? You have to have all this?

So, your call, of course. You don't have to add to the auditing line. I will guarantee you we will exceed it next year.

But you can take it from capital.

If that's what you wish to do, I guess I would like to ask for, so we will amend the budget by increasing the audit line by $14,000 to bring it to $35,000. And that we will decrease, I just wrote those numbers down on another piece of paper, to decrease the capital line by $25,393.13 to $84,606.87. You getting that over there, Ellen? Now I have to move. Resulting in a budget containing... $7,253,344.30. Whoops, okay, this is... You're killing me, Brian. You're killing me too. Because this is where things are a pain in the butt because of the change in... So we're taking the expense, but we are reducing that expense amount by 25,393.184. So that's going to be 7241.951.24, of which... Okay. I'm going to say this all the way through from the beginning, one more time. adding $14,000 to the audit line and subtracting $25,393.13 from the capital line gives us a budget containing $7,241,951.24, of which $4,155,962 resulting in taxation of $4,195,757.18. What's the final one? $4,195,757.18. That's what was published. That number is what was published. 754?

757. $4,195,757.18.

That would be the motion.

So you need the motion to approve fiscal year 2027 budget as amended to contain $7,241,951.24 of which $4,155,962 is for education for a taxation of $4,195,754.18. 757 and we're there. 757.

She didn't want you to repeat that. Motion on the floor. Is there any further discussion on the motion? These are a lot of taxation numbers, and I'll be very honest with you. Soon we're going to come up with this very shortly, I think, on this agenda. Sewer rates are going up again as well. This is becoming more and more harder for individuals on fixed incomes to survive, to live in Eastport. I'm doing the best I can. So this certainly isn't an easy decision for me. I did not attend all of the budget meetings, but I did attend some. The Budget Committee did an outstanding job working on this budget, trying to hold everything that they could together, and I appreciate that. That's not an easy job. Unfortunately, a lot of... citizens didn't participate, which I would have thought they would have because that's the one that really hurts the most. I mean, the taxpayer. I felt somewhat disappointed, I think. As the times get tougher, we're probably going to see the rooms get larger. There's no two ways around it. But... Having said that, that's my take on it. Any further discussion on the motion? Roll call, please, Sarah.

Councillor Dana-Covings?

Yes.

Councillor Stephens?

Yes. Councillor Seeley? Yes. Councillor Boone?

Yes.

So with respect to sewer, we have typically had, so sewer is a separate budget. I would like to, we don't, so there will need to be a, so sewer is rising, there's not much control we have over it. I can't change the price of sodium hypochlorite. I mean, that's not to say I have not had any time to, like, are there efficiencies that can be done with, like, utilities in the building or something? I don't know. I mean, I haven't had no time to do that, so I don't want to close the door on the possibility that we could find some savings in sewer. That's not happening this fiscal year. At this point, I'm looking at a 3.3% increase, but we, in the past few years, have only made that increase effective in October, and we've actually passed it. I'd like to go over a couple more things on this. It won't cause us any trouble if we hold the sewer budget for another meeting. I'd just as soon bring that to you then. But, saying out loud, it looks like a 3.3% increase. I will point out, you can correct me if I'm wrong on this, Ella, I've never seen a requirement need for that itself. I do have a couple of other sort of house cleaning financial motions I'd like to propose to you right now. They do not affect taxation. The first one is I'd like a motion to modify the motion from December concerning the county TAN payment authorizing us to take the entire $323,130.12 At the time, I was uncertain, but we've had more audits come in. Kami and I and Rita sat down. We feel that we are in good shape on unassigned funds, and I don't want to cripple us on capital.

So the capital numbers that you gave us, is that assuming that we've made this motion?

Yes, it was.

So I'll make the motion to amend. Oh, do I need numbers?

The motion would be to reallocate the December County TAN payment of $323,130.12 entirely from unassigned funds. $323,130.12. Entirely from unassigned funds.

I've got so many papers I don't know where they're supposed to give us. I move to reallocate the December county tax payment of $323,130.12 entirely from unassigned funds and not capital.

Second that.

There's a motion on the floor. Any further discussion on the motion? Only to clarify, it's not a tax payment. It's a tax anticipation. It's a tax anticipation, no payment to the counties.

It's money we've already said we're going to pay. It's already been said.

It's already been made and actually the existing budget reflects a 44,000 somewhat overpayment. We only had to pay about a certain amount. Although we're paying a full amount of county tax, we have a little bit helping us this year from that. But it's just about how we account for it. Right.

for the discussion on the motion. Hearing none, roll call please, Sarah.

Councillor Dana Cummings? Yes. Councillor Stephens? Yes. Councillor Seeley? Yes.

This next one, I hate to call this a carryover, but it's kind of what this is. The state gives us local roads and projects funds, LRAP funds, that are intended for road repair and other uses related to the roads. It has to be spent within two years and only on those purposes. We have $22,304 of LRAP that came in this year that we haven't spent yet. So what I like to ask is ask you to transfer that $22,304 representing unspent fiscal year LRAP funds to the capital fund assigning them to road repair. This is, again, mostly an accounting issue for us. This is how we know that we're keeping track of it correctly. And yes, the capital numbers assume you've made that motion.

I motion to transfer $22,304 representing unspent fiscal year 26 LRAP funds to the capital fund assigning them to road repair. I second that motion.

Moved and seconded. Any further discussion on the motion?

You're quick with the seconds. Where are you on the first?

Hearing none, roll call please, Sarah.

Councillor Danny Cummings? Yes. Councillor Stephens? Yes. Councillor Seeley? Yes. Councillor Boone?

Yes.

I have one more thing to bring up to you here. You do have, it's not an official capital plan. It was a memo on what I was hoping to do with capital this year. Each of these projects will need approval from you going forward. But just so the audience knows, I believe we're looking at almost $600,000 in capital right now. That's helped out quite a bit by the cell tower easement we approved at the last meeting. Of that, I'm anticipating $120,000 now for the sidewalk project. That's a little bit high. We had talked $100,000 before, but it's going to take longer to do, which means the project management will be here longer. I don't think we're going to go that high, but I'm making that estimate just in case. And the Van Ness generator match has already been agreed upon.

We'll have to finish that, but we do not have to talk about that again. To an ass generator?

Yeah, once that's done. That's a CDS grant, so this is that thing that's been awarded, but we actually have to apply for it to get our award, and it's a whole federal thing. So it's probably going to take some time, but I work with, Oliver does most of the heavy lifting there for us. At the next meeting, I'm going to make a specific proposal about City of Aldous and Interior, I hope, but I'm estimating 90 grand there to do that. I'm not requesting the 27,000 for the senior citizens, not Wood. We are in good shape. 95% of the way into the year, we're going to be able to cover that there. But I did want to see if I could get you to, I don't know if we need specific approval for this or not, but we do want to do $60,000 worth of roads. That's not a lot of road, but it's for Water Street in front of the Fisherman's Statue where the scene keeps opening up and everything. Exactly how far down we go, we're not sure yet, but at least to where there's a new pageant, maybe all the way where there's no sidewalk, which is just the driveway there. There's also a low spot on High Street where we're digging up. A similar thing on the corner of 3rd. And Howie and I looked at a bigger project where we're going to read out no road. It's falling apart, particularly up on the top. I mean, it's possible. And again, we're following it all up. So we can get that done for $60,000. I don't know how the council has done this before, if you've specifically approved road projects like that, or if it's sufficient that I've notified you that that's our plan. but we want to make sure we get in line with the paper.

Last year we talked about it, and there was some disagreement on which roads, but then it was whatever you would have.

And to be fair, we could pick 20 other roads and do that as well. This was our best guess right now. You should be getting a proper five-year capital plan in November or December, which would include at least the beginnings of a full road. We won't have a full road inventory, but we should have almost critical things like that. So if council is comfortable simply being notified, you've been notified. If council wants a motion, I invite you to make one.

Would you be more comfortable with a motion?

I would say a comfortable motion approving $60,000 from capital for road work. I think that's as much detail I need if you're okay with it.

I'll make the motion to... appropriate $60,000 from the capital fund for road work for this year. Seconded.

Further discussion on the motion? Hearing none, roll call, please, Sarah.

Councilor Dana Cummings? Yes. Councilor Stephens? Yes. Councilor Seeley?

Yes. Councilor Newton? Yes.

Announced it. Thank you.

Thank you.

We are on item five, public forum. Anybody from the public like to speak? Good evening.

Good evening. My name is Karen Ray and I'm a citizen of Eastport and I live at 1 High Street. I'm here tonight because I've offered myself for consideration for the open city council seat. And because I have the microphone, I'm going to take a minute to thank everyone who has served the City of Eastport both in elected office and in support roles because it truly makes a difference and I know that public service is not easy. I also want to thank the audience and everybody watching via Zoom because public participation makes a difference. I've sat at the board table and I've made the difficult decisions and I've also sat in the audience as a taxpayer and wondered if anybody was listening. So that's where I'm coming from and I put myself forward to be considered. I have presented all the counselors with an informal petition with 160 signatures of Eastport citizens who are recommending that you consider my appointment. And one thing that I'm proud of in this 160 games is the diversity of the people represented, because it's people that I know are not going to agree with me on every vote that I take, but I think that they understand that I would be open and listen to their opinions. And so that's the diversity .

And the first thing we're gonna do is get a new bathroom. That's up to the floor. That's not the city. So I thank you for your consideration.

Thank you, Karen. For the public comments?

My name is Deborah Gillespie from 7 Shackford Street and I understand that we have a lot of qualified people that are looking to help out the council. And I did put my name forward as well. And I'm here for several reasons. I care deeply about Eastport. I ran for the city council. Got over 200 votes and there were five of us running that year, two of which are sitting on the board now and are doing a lovely job. The community has become my home, and I want to contribute in a meaningful way, especially now when a lot of residents are feeling uncertain. When I walk around and talk to everybody, I hear some frustration, and we all feel it as well. You know, you take a lot of frustration at some of these meetings, and it's to be commended. And I respect the weight that that places on all of you. Throughout my career, I've stepped into difficult situations where emotions were high and the path forward wasn't always clear. Not easy. I've learned how to bring steadiness and structure president of the Maine State Nurses Association for four years president of the elderly committee and council in the state of Maine as well and I served on many other boards and have a good understanding of how you operate and the rules I've hired and evaluated staff written policies and procedures that I think would be helpful knowledge for town city office there's a lot to always be done as it relates to HR job descriptions and evaluations I've managed over hundreds of staff 24 7 so and multi-million dollar budgets with transparency and discipline I've served on many conflict resolution situations and have had is facing some real challenges now and you all know what they are the rising taxes it's not easy to tell people you got to pay more to do what we're doing you know a deep dive and granularity in the budget is coming to the forefront now that we've had a little bit of steadiness in the city manager's position Concerns about the underwater data center. Everybody knows my position on that. I've been here and spoke to it. I've written an op-ed for the local newspaper. The conditions of our streets, 60,000, I'm happy. Woo, whatever gets done is gonna be good. The strain on our schools. I mean, that's an area of big concern for parents. And the increasing sewer cost. And of course, we've had a lot of talk about the airport and what changes are we really gonna make and support as a community. These issues affect our families, our businesses, and the long-term health of our community. They deserve thoughtful, informed, and transparent decision-making. What my experience has taught me is simple. You lead best when you listen first.

You stay calm, you stay fair,

you serve i'm not here with any personal or business agenda i'm here because i believe eastport deserves steady responsible leadership leadership that respects process values accountability and keeps the community's best interest at the center of every decision thank you thank you

Additional public comments?

Hi there, I'm Brady. I live in Eastport. I have two comments to make. One, I was part of the petitioners committee and met a lot of you at the primary polls. We were collecting petitions to ban the AI data center. It was a wildly popular petition. By lunchtime, we had doubled the amount of signatures we needed to get it on the ballot. We submitted those signatures on Monday, and I cannot for the life of me, despite lots of phone calls and lots of emails, get an answer from anybody at City Hall about when you are going to move on those petitions. State law requires within 60 days of the November ballot that a public hearing be held on the proposed ordinances. My question is, when are you going to schedule that?

I'll be honest with you. I need to look at the charter to see what that says about the petitioners bringing that post to the council.

That's what it says. It says that we need 10% of the previous electorate vote. That would be 71 signatures. We submitted over 150 on Monday.

Okay, I haven't received that yet. And first of all, I believe city clerk would have to verify those signatures.

I'm still certifying. My understanding is that they're getting sent to Augusta.

Our legal counsel said that's not necessary. No, that's not Augusta.

That comes to here when we certify. So when can we expect that to happen? The legal counsel on our end said that should take around 48 hours. It's been a couple days now.

I would assume by July 7th. By July 8th. We should have it. Council should at least have it. I don't know whether we're going to need a special meeting to... You do.

State law requires that you have a public hearing on proposed ordinances. It has to happen within 60 days.

I believe our charter supersedes that. You're roughly correct. We've looked over the charter in some detail. But if you're looking at the town, we're a city. Am I correct on this, Dennis? Yeah, so that's why we have a charter. But let me say what the situation is, because I think it's going to work out well for you. My understanding is once it's certified, we have to go through the ordinance procedure as discussed in Article 2, which involves the posting of a public hearing, and then at that point after the public hearing, the council decides whether they wish to take action or not. in action, it can go to an election not less than 45 days after that.

So if the council doesn't take action on petitions, that means it doesn't make it on ballot, correct?

Correct. But I think, I mean, we can talk about what the charter says. I would imagine, actually, I'm not going to talk to it.

Is the council going to take action on petitions?

We're going to see the petition first. We haven't seen it.

I haven't seen it. I haven't had it.

Oh, you did. I'll shut up. That's a great idea.

My second question is in regards, again, to my public comment during the fourth board hearing. Does anyone want to correct what was said, that we had zero dollars, that we spent zero dollars of tax money on cruises last year? I'll give you the chance now to correct yourselves if you want to. No? Okay. So I ran outside. I went out there. And I pulled up the audio record from the meeting. It was in October of 2025. Council Moran, who was a counselor at the time, went into great detail and called it very expensive, was his words. This is very expensive to provide, for the city to provide coverage. So he was going into great detail. I can play it for you right now if you do not believe me.

With all due respect, we did go back

After Council Moran went into detail about how expensive it is for the city to support these cruises, Billy and Brian, you both committed to, as Port Authority board members, requesting this year that the Port Authority start paying the city per cruise. Has that happened?

No.

So we're going to be almost tripling the number of cruises. The year before last, it was about 25,000 people came. This year, it's going to be about 55. Next year, it's close to 300,000 people hurrying to come into Eastport. And the city isn't making a dime off of it?

The city of Eastport's not making a dime, no. The residents, the community is.

So what is the reason that last year you didn't? Last year you committed to, first of all, it did cost the city money. My understanding from the record I have, again, I'll play it right now, is that the money that the city and taxpayers paid to the cruise industry, to cover for the cruise industry, was taken, Brian, out of your discretionary fund. That's about, you have about $5,000 is the cap that you can spend without having to go through a public vote.

I offer us no payment.

Okay, well. Any one of you had the opportunity to correct Councillor Moran when he was talking about how expensive this cruise industry is for us. Billy, you sit on the Port Authority. You made the commitment last year to get a cut of the $3 a head per person that the Port Authority collects.

Correct.

And you didn't do that? I did not. Why?

Because... Because I sit on two boards. I sit on the Eastport City Council and I also sit on the Eastport Port Authority Board. I could easily charge the Port Authority for everything we need to charge them for. And the Port Authority could easily charge the city for everything it needs to charge for. So we do not have the staff to break down every nickel that is spent on everything in this city. We need to work together as a city to make this happen. We are working together. We are working together. The City of Eastport and the Port Authority is working together.

Yes.

The city of Eastport is working with the Port Authority to encourage tourism into this city. That's how we're doing it.

That's not my question. My question is, what is this tourism doing?

I'm not going to be able to satisfy your question. I'm not answering it. Let's leave it at that then.

Thank you.

Any further comments from the public?

Hi, my name is Sue Ellen Hendricks. I live here in Eastport on Prince Avenue. I asked several times the city manager when the letter that was addressed to Mr. Wilson regarding the AI data center was going to be posted. I asked him several times via email, three or four times. He refused to answer me. Don't know why. Maybe he can't go on the record, I'm not sure. It was a polite conversation, so I'm not sure why he can't answer my questions. I see that it was eventually posted on the 16th of June on the Eastport City website. The letter is just a cut and paste, probably a two minute letter that Ella Cowell had to do, even though it was the city council president and the city manager who said that they were going to send this letter. That's what was said at the last meeting we had in May. So I want to know why this letter is only signed by a city clerk and it's not signed by any council member or the city manager. I think you're not taking this seriously. If you think this is just a box check, you're wrong because you're stewards of this gem here in Eastport. and you take it like it's nothing. You can't even answer an email. Very pathetic. And the fact that no one with any authority wants to put their name behind this letter is, again, very pathetic. Very weak. No backbone in this. Why don't you care about these get his money instead of letting people from private equity firms rob us blind. So that's all I have to say. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

There's a comment from the public. Seeing none, I'll close public hearing. This is a public open forum. We're on to item six, new business. 6A, resignation of Councillor Dave Maring, submitted on 5-14-2026.

Do we have to accept the resignation?

We should. Or we can vote not to accept it.

I was going to say, vote not to accept it.

Leads to seat vacant. at least not present anyway.

It's kind of vacant no matter whether you accept it or not.

I motion to accept his resignation. I'll second it.

We'll move to second it. Any further discussion on the motion? I would only like to thank Councillor Moran for his service. I truly enjoyed working with David. David had a lot of experience and knowledge from his different tours of councilmen. So I have to see you go. Nonetheless, any further discussion on the motion? Hearing none, roll call please, Sarah.

Councilor Hanna-Cummings? Yes.

Councilor Stephens?

Regretfully, yes.

Councilor Seelig?

Yes. Councilor Boone?

Yes.

6B, appointment to fill Councilor Morang's unexpired term from 5-14-2026 through 12-31-2026.

I motion to appoint Karen Ray to fill the unexpired term.

I'll second it.

Moved and seconded. Any further discussion on the motion?

Are we sure we even have all the people that want to? I mean, people just assume that they put in their name. Granted, the charter gives us no indication of how to do this. We could have put 1,200 names in a hat and drawn one. But there's a difference between knowing that a seat is open and going through a process of... And I don't know. We have three very well-qualified people who put in their name.

Thank you. Councillor Stephen is correct. Councillor... Ms. Karen Ray has put in her name. Ms. Deborah Gillespie has put in her name. Victoria Gaines has put in her name.

Did we get something official from Victoria? Because I only got something from Denver. I haven't received anything yet.

Well, maybe she did.

Do you know when it was submitted? I only heard through the grapevine that her name was on the list.

I believe she retracted.

Oh, okay. She works with Cindy, doesn't she?

Yes. She does right now. And it was on that basis that she did not submit her name.

I've only had one other person indicate that they would perhaps consider putting the name in if we advertised. Quite honestly, they didn't feel comfortable just submitting names because they didn't know what we were going to do. And it's always, I mean, it's been my past experience that a counselor can resign right up to the last minute because it's happened twice to me.

Resign or rescind.

They resigned and then rescind. So you really can't really do anything until you actually have a motion to accept the resignation and it passes. But nonetheless, we are here, and it is the council's authority and duty to appoint a council person unless we would like to venture down that path and spend some more money that we really don't have on a special election. I would rather not do that. That's me.

But just like to say that they're both qualified. They have a lot to offer with Karen. I know she's already been a select person. She's gone through the main municipal training that's required for our city council members. And I think, you know, for six months that I'd like to see somebody that has already taken that course.

Further discussion on the motion? Hearing none, roll call, please, Sarah.

Councillor Dana Cummings? Yes. Councillor Stephens?

Yes.

Councillor Seeley? Yes. Councillor Boone?

Yes. Welcome.

Thank you, I think.

I'm not sure whether she has to get one in.

I'll have that ready for her tomorrow.

Can she sit up here with us? I think we've done that in the past.

I believe Dennis, I would give it to you as a motion and a vote.

You can have it, please.

Karen, I guess there's a request that you sit at the table, although you can't vote, but you'll get a good feeling at the table anyway.

Can I talk?

No, I'm just kidding.

This is your official spot.

I don't know about official, but welcome aboard.

Thank you, sir.

Yes. All right. I guess you can follow along. I guess you've got an agenda. Yeah, all right.

There's an envelope right there by AJ. That's an extra packet.

Oh, so you can have that? Yeah, they can see, so that's yours. Awesome. Thank you. Thank you, Alan. We are on 6C, council approval, set interest rate, fiscal year 2027, real estate taxes per state cannot exceed 7%.

Is this something we do every year?

Yes, you have to. I don't think we have a lot of choice with the state. You can go less, but you can't go more. I think we tried that one time. We got caught. Do I have a motion?

I'll make that motion. That's 7%.

Any further discussion on the motion? Hearing none, roll call, please, Sarah.

Councillor Dana Cummings? Yes. Councillor Stephens? Yes. Councillor Seeley? Yes. Councillor Boone?

Yes. 6D, Council approval to set the date of interest on the fiscal 2027 year real estate taxes to commence on 11-1-2026.

When are they going to be mailed out? Do we know? I make a motion to set the date for interest for the fiscal year 2027 on November 1st, 2026. I'll second it. I move to second it.

Any further discussion on the motion? Hearing none. Roll call, please, Sarah.

Councilor Dana Cummings? Yeah.

6E, authorize tax collector to accept real estate tax prepayments for fiscal year 2028, 0% interest.

We really need to make this motion?

Yeah, we have to authorize to allow her to accept them in advance. And we have typically never paid interest on it. If we did, we would have had to budget for it. Right? Because that money has to come from somewhere if you pay interest, so that's why it stays at 0. But this permits

Make the motion to authorize the tax collector to accept real estate tax prepayment for fiscal year 2028 with 0% interest. Seconded.

Moved and seconded. Any further discussion on the motion? Hearing none, roll call, please, Sarah.

Councillor Dana Cummings? Yes. Councillor Stephens? Yes. Councillor Seelig? Yes. Councillor Boone?

Yes. 6f appoint tahara tahara it's going to be a while harrison close as city clerk tax collector register of voters b b agent and moses ifw agent and any other title we can give her second Any further discussion on the motion?

I have a question. So what about training? How are you going to handle it?

We are right on top of it. She just sent me a list of trainings going through June, July, and August. And she's been, you can speak to it, Elle. She's been writing them. Of course, she's got a course in elections already. And we've got her on all the stuff in the front window. as we go on, because she still has all this knowledge that you can't write down or get anywhere else. But we're getting her on her formal training, and how did it end work?

I appreciate you doing it. I know that's a big commitment. You can go on to it. Thank you.

I think I had a motion and a second. Any further discussion on the motion? Hearing none, roll call, please, Sarah.

Councillor Danny Cummings. Yes. Councillor Stephens. Yes. Councillor Seeley. Yes. Councillor Boone.

Yes. 6G approved Tahereh Arishun as the bank signatory held of the First Bank and the Bangor Savings Bank.

I'll make that motion.

I'll second it. Moved and seconded. Any further discussion on the motion? Two months.

And you're giving her a signatory already?

Yes. She has to do her job.

And she is bonded. She has to be bonded. I don't know who you're asking that, but...

It's under the standard liability. It's faithful duty. Yeah.

Any further discussion on the motion? Hearing none, roll call, please, Sarah.

Councilor Dana-Covings? Yes. Councilor Stephens?

Yes. Councilor Seeley?

Yes.

Councilor Boone?

Yes. 6H, Eastport School Department, 2026-2027, expenditure, articles 1 through 18.

So we haven't done this in the past, but we were supposed to, and in a perfect world, we probably should have done this before we approved the budget. The charter specifies that the council only dictates the local amount that is contributed, that $2,111,000, whatever it was that was in your budget there. However, the state requires that these warrant articles be submitted from every town and city. So just to make clear what's going on here, so you've got a bunch of warrant articles that the superintendent's office has put out. So we're just asking, this is the time to officially accept the school committee's vote. So by doing that, the state gets the numbers they want. This goes into their database, and they expect to see it. And you satisfy the charters.

So at this point, it's almost moot.

It's moot. I almost brought it up when we were doing budget. Things are confusing enough, right? Last thing you need to do is pull something out from the agenda.

So do we have to go through this 1 through 18?

I would say articles 1 through 18 as presented.

There may be one of them that requires a separate page.

In writing.

I don't know which one it is. May I recommend we approve on through it, we make the motion here, and if we need a separate vote, we'll have to pick it up at the next meeting. Any more trouble, given that we never voted this in the past? Do you know which one it is?

I think it's the one that exceeds the EPS formula. So it's giving permission to spend more than the state says you should.

Oh, so yes, it will be, it's either Article 13 or Article 14, I believe. I believe Article 13 is basic services. So you could approve everything except Article 13, and then you do a separate vote on Article 14, which approves the additional local match. You guys have it in front of you. I don't right now. Is that the right one? So it actually may be easier to approve Article 14 than approve all the other ones, or whatever.

Do articles 1 through 12, then 13 and 14, just to make sure, because I'm not sure which one it is.

Well, 14 has an explanation under the additional local funds of those locally raised funds over and above the city's contribution.

So we approve 1 through 13. 15 through 18. That would be the first one.

Do I have a 14 person in the remaining? Either way, still get it done.

Make a motion to approve the expenditure articles. No, expenditure article 14 for education. Seconded.

Moved and seconded. Any further discussion on the motion? Hearing none, we'll call, please, Sarah.

Councillor Dana Cummings? Yes. Councillor Stephens? Yes. Councillor Seeley? Yes. Councillor Boone?

Yes.

I make a motion to accept the remainder of the articles 1 through 13 and 15 through 18. Seconded.

Moved and seconded. Any further discussion on the motion? Hearing none, roll call please, Sarah.

Yes. Yes.

Yes. Sixth, I, bill of sale to grant, sell, convey, transfer to Burson Power a utility line of four poles.

Yes. This was four poles on the airport that were going out to the new taxiway. We technically own them right now. We don't particularly want to. The person owns them. They maintain them and are responsible for them going forward, so we just need to

Make a motion to, what did we say, approve a bill of sale to grant, convey, transfer to Versant Power Utility Line of four poles at the airport. I second it.

Moved and seconded. Any further discussion on the motion? Hearing none, we'll call, please, Sarah.

Councilor Dana Cummings? Yes. Councilor Stephens?

Yes. Councilor Seeley?

Yes.

Councilor Boone? Yes. 6J, Moonlight Movies, August 1, Luca rated PG, September 5, Jaws rated PG, and the second or third week of July, some other movie. Charade. Charade. Yeah, there you go. Thank you.

Did they ever submit proposals? For payment?

I have not seen anything. When they send it, we'll be ready for it.

Okay. Yeah. I make that motion. Second it.

Moved and seconded. Any further discussion on the motion? Hearing none, roll call, please, Sarah.

Councillor Dana Cummings?

Yes. Councillor Stephens? Yes.

Councillor Seeley? Yes.

Councillor Boone?

Yes. 6K, approval of realtor bid policy.

So this is a slight change. I'm not presenting you a policy. As I've been kicking this around for months, kind of like the food truck thing, I've been trying to come up with a process that you can follow year on year and do everything else. I've just decided after looking at the complications and then talking with Rebecca Callis, among other places, that what I would like to do, I've written a letter that I've had you look at here, that I will... based on my request for participation in sale of city property. I'm going to basically send it to every real estate agent broker that advertises in the quality ties, plus we'll put an ad in the quality ties saying it's available. And then based on the proposal, based on the proposals, make a choice about how to go forward.

And this is just for the first batch that we have.

Well, we have five properties, four are taxed, four are taxed for closed, one is the old senior center. So we have one that's clear out there. And just having talked with agents, I can't, you know, does somebody want all five? Do people only want a few of them? What do we want? I do say to people, That's what we're going to find out. But I think this is the best thing. The worst thing that will happen will be what we did with the RFPI. They get no responses or have a lot of confusion. And we'll clear it up again then. I just feel we've got to step forward and ask people, do you want to be part of this? And then figure out how we'll do it. And then once we've done it with these properties, maybe we then write a policy saying, going forward, this is how the city does it.

And for the foreclosed properties, we only get what the family owes, and the rest goes to them.

Right, plus anything, you know, for example, we've done some cleanup of properties and whatnot, and I've been asking Calvin to make sure we track that. Any expenditure we make on the property, plus anything that's owed with interest comes to us. And then everything else we give to the owner, if we can locate them. So I don't think I, unless you guys, if you're comfortable with this, I don't think I can make a motion to this effect.

6L, minutes of previous meetings, 5-13-26.

Make a motion to approve the minutes. Second.

Moved and seconded. Any further discussion on the motion? Hearing none, we'll call, please, Sarah.

Councillor Dana Cummings. Abstain.

6M, amendment to the Eastport Municipal Courtesy Car Policy.

This is essentially a favor to Victoria, who, as she took over the job, took out this policy and was just driven crazy by the duplications of things that were there. There is no change in substance. There is just a deletion of a bunch of additional text. I said, well, we could probably just go ahead and do that, but it's a policy. We should go through it, so I ask that we please.

And they would realize we had such a policy.

Yeah, yeah. And actually, let me touch on something just more broadly. One thing we're not doing very well in the city all the way now, because it's never been done, is training on city-specific upgrades. Questions of ordinances and what they say and which ones exist and everything. You guys don't know. I mean, if you go and look at the website, you might go out there. I just want to say we're aware of that. I'm hoping once we get past the worst part of the summer, that's some of the stuff I'm hoping to approve at City Hall. And then you guys will be probably brought into our training system so that we can have you at least.

I make a motion to accept the amendments to the Eastport Municipal Courtesy Car Policy. Seconded.

Moved and seconded. Any further discussion on the motion? Hearing none, roll call, please, Sarah.

Councillor Dana Cummings? Yes. Councillor Stephens? Yes.

Councillor Seeley? Yes. Councillor Goodwin?

Yes. 6N, the city manager's report.

You have a number of reports from the departments. I'll point out, I've been drawing attention to the police report. Police calls went up, not hugely, but by another four last month, from 89 to 93. We covered a little less than 95%, so that continues to go well. Which version have I been turning to? Yes, we are 95, almost 96% of the way through the year. We are at 90% of the spend rate. We've had some end-of-year revenue that is coming our way. But we'll have some end-of-year expenses as well. I think we're good. Good enough that I didn't ask for $27,000 to offset the senior plan. Now, we obviously have expenses in departments that are a little bit over. The admin is over on auditing and legal, for example. But that's been offset in other places. I have instructed staff. Part of the reason we're doing well is that we're actually under-expended on payroll reports. And that's because of absences and people, jobs not being filled and whatnot. I believe, knock wood, that this year we're going to go into it, go into the year fully staffed and remain that. So we will keep a closer eye on how our expenditures go. Especially since, although I know nobody was happy with the budget we just passed, it is right at the edge. There's very little room for error in that budget. You have the picture of our primary bank balance. That should be reassuring. It's staying right where it was. It ticked up, but that's because of the cell phone tower easement payment. I will point out, if we expend all the capital I'm talking about expending, you'll see that balance. Overall, the message is finances are right where we expected them to be, and I'm much relieved. We had a good election. Thank you very much to Ella. Last election she did for us, but to everybody else who helped, we had a great crowd out there. It came off without a hitch. Public Works had cleaned out everything, and then it all rained again, so we've got dirt in the street again. They'll clean up in

What was the total that voted in that last election? We used to get a different kind of report.

It was like 424. I didn't put a copy of the election results in.

It's separate, but you used to do like one sheet with a total.

Everybody's name on it and everything, yeah. How many they got.

It should have been broken down that way.

I probably could have added them both up, but I just was curious because we used to get it.

It looks like 421. I might have missed some.

Well, there were three auxiliaries that have to be added to that.

Did we have a lot of absentee voters? Not quite a few. I think there was 103 requests.

That's what we got. Three or four that didn't come back.

How many?

Three or four that did not come back. I believe it was one that was One other one was not signed on the envelope. We did try and cure it, giving them the opportunity to come in and sign or take it to them. Unfortunately, that person had a sickness and did not want

All right, 6-0. Wow, near the end, 6-0. Council liaison updates and issues.

Not an update, but it was requested that we announce in the open meeting that on July 24th, 25th, is the Down East Relay Race. Starts in Ellsworth, ends in Eastport. The runners start arriving in town between 10 and 10.30. We probably need 600 extra people in town that day.

All right. This is a bittersweet moment. This is Ella's last council meeting. Ella's leaving us the end of this month. I don't know how many years we had together, but I know in 91 when I first ran for council, Ella was working City Hall. That's 35. Do the math real quick. I think she was there before me, so I think she's probably closer to 40-ish. How long was she still with us? Yes, yes she was. Your departure last year left us in some uncomfortable times, may I say. I apologize. No, that has nothing to do with you. But I was reminiscing about some of the earlier days when Brian was doing roll calls and how much fun it was. And then I think the other... You didn't let Billy vote a couple of times. No. And the other real... memorable point was when Brian did the agenda and he printed everything double-sided. So we were flipping back and forth all night long. So we were very pleased to have you back. And I do have a couple parting gifts for you, Ella.

It's not necessary, but it's going to happen.

Sarah, we've got number one to do. You drive down Washington Street and you look in the window and you see the sign that says, That's the only one. I should have not stayed for the rest of the meeting. No, you should have stayed. And now I went to Ann Dalton's to try to buy you a painting of some sort. I could not get out of there and donated it. She would not let me pay for it because the citizens of these courts appreciate everything you have done for us.

And I love her.

I love you.

It's not the picture of you, is it, Billy?

Everybody sees that.

I've learned a lot, and I'll step on it moving forward. But I'm going to move my hands to a decent distance. I don't want to get in the way.

Saturday, June 20th, we have airport days from 11 to 3. Please try to attend. Earlier, there was some comments made about the senior center. That is open to the youth. The pool for the youth is two to four. Unfortunately, we haven't had any there yet. That calendar up there, if you haven't had a chance to stop in and see what's going on at that youth center, you should. Every day, that is full, that schedule. There is youth, there is adults, there is everything happening out there. Not just one thing. Just wanted to make that record clear. I don't know whether all councilors, I know Morgan sent it out, there's a cruise ship in Friday, and you're welcome to do a tour, but you had to get your invitation in pretty quick.

Name it for check, maybe.

I think it's Tuesday. I may have an extra seat, so if somebody needs to jump aboard, I don't know how much it will work out, but certainly I'll do what I can. That's all I have and I believe we have to have a motion to go into executive session.

7-12, I move that we go into executive session for personal matters, Title I, MRSA 405-6A, and for consultation with legal counsel, Title I, MRSA 405-6E.

Seconded. Second. Any further discussion on the motion? Hearing none, we'll call, please.

Yes, thank you.

Do I have a motion to come out of the executive session?

735, I make a motion to come out of the executive session. I second it.

I move to second it. Any further discussion on the motion? Hearing none, roll call, please, Sarah.

Councilor Daniel Cummings? Yes. Councilor Siemens?

Yes. Councilor Seeley?

Yes. Councilor Boone? Yes. Item 8, action from executive session, if there is any.

There is none.

And we're on item nine.

736. I motion to adjourn.

Move to second it. Any further discussion on the motion?

Yes. Yes.

Yes. Don't run off. These warrants have got to get done, guys. Okay.

Thank you.

I'll forgive you eventually.