City Council - workshop

Okay.

The August 3rd, 2026 Auburn City Council meeting will be called to order. The workshop items, there's three items tonight. The first is the tax commitment reevaluation update with the assessor's office, Peter and Ms. Cameron.

All right, Karen Scammon, City Assessor.

And I'm Joe St. Peter, Deputy Assessor.

And tonight, we are going to give you a very brief overview of the tax commitment, a little bit of an update on the revaluation, and answer any questions that you may have. I'm going to start. Jessica's not here. I'm going to start by saying thank you very much to Joe and Ozzie and Connor and Jessica. Commitment, knock on wood, went quite well this year and everybody worked very hard to put it all together and proof and we are very pleased. So I just wanted to put out a great big thank you to all of those people who helped. This is a general information. Commitment this year was on July 13th, a couple days earlier than last year. The assessment date, as we all know, values are set as of April 1st. So April 1st, all of our values were in. We committed July 13th. Certified ratio dropped this year from 85% to 73%, and Joe's gonna talk a little bit about that further on in the presentation. And our mill rate went from $22.88 to $24.50, and I think you'll probably understand why when we get through all of the slides and answer any questions you have on that. uh... we did make market adjustments this year we had several sales many many many sales on a lot of classes of the properties, and in order to maintain equity and try and keep our ratio up as high as possible, we did make market adjustments. These are the classes of properties up here that we made the adjustments on. AUX land is auxiliary land. That is land that has any outbuildings on it, sheds, barns, garages, but no living facilities so it's just vacant land with an outbuilding on it that's what aux land auxiliary land is condominiums we found that through the sales and through doing equity analysis that some of our condominium developments had lower ratios than others and in order to tighten up the ratios between all of the condominium developments we did make partial adjustments to some of the condominium developments, and now they're much more equitable among all the developments. All the rest of them are listed. Obviously, we did some commercials. We had not done commercial adjustments in all the previous adjustments that we have made over the years, and that was due to the fact that we had no sales to base any adjustments on. We have seen more and more commercial sales throughout a lot of the classes, and we were able to support some adjustments this year. So we did make those commercial adjustments.

It was our hope that until the revaluation values were effective, that we really didn't want to make market adjustments. However, because there was inequity between these classes, we decided that it was prudent because they were really drifting out. But overall, we only adjusted 650. 73 properties out of 9,506. That's just over 7% of parcels in the City of Auburn. We did not make any adjustments to single family properties, except for a few condominiums. However, as the inspection and the revals goes on, if we're finding things like a missing garage or a demolished garage, for instance, we would make those adjustments. So we have been making some physical characteristic adjustments, but no other market adjustments.

These are the valuation changes from year to year. You can see our last year's 2025 valuation in the middle of the pie. That $40 million value are the increase from those market adjustments that we made. The other value are the adjustments from just permits or maybe they were changes because of the revaluation or just any other valuation changes that were needed, we made those. That's a net increase due to growth that we're looking at, the 23 million.

And in real estate, because we do adjust to a certified ratio, there are certain properties that get ratioed with what we say. For instance, utility assessments. And we actually lost about $30 million because of that, because the full value was a little bit higher. But in order to be equitable, we have to make those adjustments. So there is an impact on our total valuation when we have a certified ratio less than 100.

Personal property, basics about our personal property. Personal property also has to be ratioed down to 73%. I'm sorry, I thought you were giving me something. No, personal property also has to be ratioed down to 73%. We do lose a tremendous amount by doing a lower ratio. The Betty

Excuse me.

The Betty reimbursement obviously is affected because we are ratioing down. We have less Betty value. So overall, we did lose quite a bit in the personal property evaluations also.

It was just over $123 million that we lose by not being at 100%. Sure. So exemptions make up a large part of the value in the city. We do have to statutorily assess property, even though it's exempt. So it's basically a fifth of our property valuation is exempt. And again, these are affected by ratioing, particularly things like the homestead exemption, which we have to adjust down. We're going to talk a little bit more about that.

We do do regular audits on our exempt properties. And so we have been scrutinizing a lot of the different properties that we had as tax exempt or as tax exempt applications come in. So we do keep a close eye on those because we know that we do have quite a few, as Joe mentioned, 100% tax exempt properties in the cities that affect our value.

So what is this business about a certified ratio? The city of Auburn enjoyed a period of time where we were at 100% for almost 20 years. This year, we had to declare it at 73%. And why do we do that? Well, we're required by Maine law to assess property at market value, or 100% of market value. If it falls below that, if our assessments fall below that, we have to make adjustments. And that happens when market prices rise faster than our assessed values. And that means the certified ratio drops. How do we know this? We know it through doing annual sales studies. We do them and the state of Maine does them as well based on our assessed data and sales that they see. And these studies use retrospective sales data. For 2026 ratio, it was based on sales from July 2023 to June 2024. So there's always that rolling delay between whatever your commitment year is and the study year, if you will. So what's been happening? Well, we know that market prices have been going up, and our assessed values have not kept pace or not changed at all. So in 2020, that was the last time we were able to declare 100%, and actually the ratio on paper was actually less than that. We held it steady for a number of years. In 2025, last year, we declared 85 percent, and this year, of course, 73 percent. We actually made a case that it was higher to the state, but they didn't agree with us. What's affected? One thing that's really affected is the property that the taxpayers exemptions that they receive. The homestead, for instance, at 100% is $25,000. At 73%, it has to be adjusted to $18,250. And on down the line, everything's affected, the veterans, the paraplegic, carcinogen, blinds. Those are partial exemptions that have to be adjusted by the ratio. 100% aren't affected because obviously they're 100%.

Last year, if you remember, our homestead exemption was a value of $23,250. So now we're down to $18,250. So that adds $73.50 to a tax bill just by us ratioing the homestead exemption.

And this seems like a good time to mention that next year there's going to be some reforms to the homestead and the veterans exemption. The amount for the homestead is going to remain the same, but it's going to be part of a combined application where it includes the homestead, the veterans, and the blind. And the veterans exemption is actually going up, and there's going to be tiers based on disability. We don't have all the details yet. The state is going to issue guidance in December or January. We're anxiously awaiting that because there's going to be a quick turnaround on applying for these exemptions. And another kind of change to that is that they're all confidential, so we have to safeguard this information. We really like to inform the public, and this is also a good opportunity to do that, about other property tax relief programs. One in particular is the property tax fairness credit. It's applied through your income tax return. A lot of people don't associate it with property tax relief, but it is. That's exactly what it is. And you can get up to $3,300 based on your household status and certain requirements. It's different for everybody. We don't administer it, but you can get information from the state of Maine for it. Another is the state property tax deferral program. And we are very sympathetic to the concerns of property owners, particularly seniors, who are concerned that they might lose their home. This program is not for everybody, but it might be a good option for someone who is being priced out of their home for a number of reasons, for the high cost of everything. And the state will basically pay your taxes, and you have to pay it back either by your estate or if you move, then those are due. And of course, we have our own homegrown Auburn Senior Tax Assistance Program, which has been very helpful.

So that's basically, in a nutshell, the tax commitment, what happened this year, what's changed this year. Let's talk about the revaluation. The revaluation is ongoing, doing quite well. We had to kind of suspend it as of April 1st because obviously we did not want to have any values put into the system that occurred after April 1st, so we asked KRT Appraisal to hold off on everything as of April 1st. We'll pick it back up in September, probably September, maybe August, September, and the plan is to start with the commercial inspections. So this is a timeline. You've seen this before. We've presented it before. When Joe and I were here back, I think it was in March, we talked about the reval and the reval timeline, but we wanted to just reiterate this again and let you know where we were in the process. So we're still on track, maybe even a little bit ahead. Fingers crossed we stay that way. We are expecting our values. By the contract, we have to have the values as of August 2027. And again, we keep saying this over and over, but we want people to know that then we have to take our time and we have to review all of those values and make sure they're correct. So we are anticipating there will be no changes and taxpayers won't see anything until their tax bills in 2028. Do you have anything to add?

I don't have anything to add, but if you have questions, we're delighted to answer. Question by the council, Council Collins.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, Karen, Joe, thank you, and to all those that you mentioned, thanks for the great work. THE REDUCTION, I KNOW YOU GUYS HAVE WORKED HARD TO TRY TO KEEP THE CERTIFIED RATIO AS HIGH AS POSSIBLE. AND, JOE, YOU MENTIONED THE INTENT AND FOR THE MOST PART TRUE, YOU DID NOT DO THE REVALUATION OR THE ADJUSTMENTS DURING THE REVALUATION. DO YOU ANTICIPATE Do you have a guesstimate in terms of whether that's going to continue to go down if you don't do adjustments or?

So in 2028, when we have those new values ready to go, we should be able to declare it 100%. So next year is really the year in question. The sales, of course, we watch the market all the time. The sales are probably pretty similar to what they were from this previous period. We think we should be able to hold it fairly constant, and that is really our hope. Of course, we're also looking for an inequity, too. So if we find ourselves in a situation where we have more sales to justify some targeted adjustments, we may or may not do that. So I really do hope we hold it, and I really think we're in a good position to hold it, but I'm not going to make a promise right now. Yeah. Thank you.

Other questions by the council?

I'm sorry, I forgot to add, we are working on the statistical booklet that we provide for the council, mayor, city manager, Kelsey, every year. So you will have all of this information and some additional information put into that statistical book and probably have it in a month or so.

Any other questions from the council? Great, thank you very much. Thank you. We appreciate you coming in. The next item is a briefing on a zoning map amendment on Pownall Road. Mr. Brown from Planning.

Good evening, thank you for having me. My name's DeKarl Brown, I'm your Director of Planning and Permitting for the City of Auburn. So today I'm going to be talking about, for this item, a zoning map amendment. And I'll be queuing up the question first and then going into brief information. I provided information in your packet, more than enough information in your packet, but that's on purpose. So if you have any questions on the topic, we'll be able to have that information for you ahead of time. So for this first item, a zoning map amendment, as I'm queuing this up on the screen, I can just describe how this came to pass. We were in the, this came out of a discussion in the Comprehensive Planning Committee when a member of the public came forward and asked about the property within the Ag Zone and why it is zoned the way it is while their neighbors were not and was actually in a more residential zone. And looking into it, as staff was asked to look into it, basically we found that the strip zoning for residential was actually never meant to be stagnant and stable. It was meant to change over time based on what changes happened around them, and that's actually what is a zoning map amendment supposed to do. When changes in your neighborhood happen around this, and the actual situation changes, that is actually when you start thinking about a zoning map amendment, and you're only supposed to be doing zoning map amendments in between comprehensive rezonings when you get situations such as this, as the area around it starts to change. I'm going to bring up a map just to talk about it just very, very briefly. So here it is here. So what you'll notice is basically it's at the end of a line of a residential strip. And when you're talking about where should a zone end or begin, you always have to make a line. Someone has to make a decision on where that line ends. In this case, in your comprehensive plan, it actually states about six criteria you should take into account when talking about this residential. strip um and actually it talks about these uh these lines that you're seeing in your comprehensive plan your future land use map are general at best and so when this was made there wasn't a parcel by parcel decision being made but in general this is the scope so the question before you today is whether we want to go forward on a zoning map amendment on the current comprehensive plan or the new comprehensive plan that you're currently thinking about passing now? And the reason why that's a question is that in the conversations about the new comprehensive plan, this strip has been elongated already. And so basically, you have support now in your ordinances to change it today, but you also will have support to change it after the passing of the comprehensive plan. But staff would like a little bit of guidance of which way you would like to go when you're talking about zoning map amendment in this case, because you're in that interim period of about to pass a comprehensive plan.

Questions from the council? Council Randall. So I might add a little bit of context here. So this map that's on the screen now is the current state and the yellow is where the strip zone is and you can see it for some unknown reason ends up in the middle of a couple parcels and cuts through BUILDING ON EACH SIDE OF THE ROAD. THE DISCUSSION FROM THE COMPREHENSIVE PLAN COMMITTEE INITIALLY WAS TO TRUE UP THOSE TWO PARCELS. IN OTHER WORDS, THE YELLOW WOULD CONTINUE DOWN AND FILL ALONG THE ROAD THOSE TWO LINES. In the comp plan discussion, as Mr. Brown has pointed out, a gentleman came in and he owns this land where it has these two pieces, one piece is cut out. And the question that he basically raised was everything north of there going along the road, each parcel on both sides of the road has residential structures in it. And below him, going south, there's residential structures on both sides of the road. So as Mr. Brown pointed out, his question was, well, this is a little strange because I can't do anything and I'd like to. So I think that's why it's planning is here, which is after that discussion, the Comp Plan Committee, if you go down a couple slides here, you can see this, yeah, that one, THE COMP PLAN COMMITTEE'S FUTURE LAND USE MAPS LOOKS LIKE THIS. THEY HAD A WHOLE DISCUSSION ABOUT WHAT TO DO WITH THIS RESIDENTIAL STRIP. SHOULD IT GO TO THE POUNTAIN LINE OR NOT? THEY DECIDED IT SHOULDN'T, BUT IT SHOULD GO TO WHERE THE HOUSES END ON BOTH SIDES OF THE ROAD, WHICH EXTENDS THIS DOWN Less than a thousand feet. I don't know what exactly it is, but it's a short distance so From a procedural standpoint Planning's here because If the sense is to do something in the interim Then on a future agenda there would planning would write up the Texan map amendment be a referral to committee motion and the council will refer this to the planning board for their review recommendation. They go through their whole process and send it back to us. The alternative would be to say we don't do anything at this time despite the resident's desire to put a residential structure on that lot. Sometime in the future after the comp plan would be adopted at the end of the year and We don't know exactly when the rezoning effort will take place. We don't know at this point what order what zones will be done when but Sometime in the future at least a year from now or later this would then come up. So I think that's I I think that's what the director is looking for, for some guidance. Is this something that the council thinks that we should address now? And I think they're looking for this guidance because there's quite a bit of work to write this up, and they don't want to go through the whole effort of writing up the text and map amendment unless they have some idea from the council that they would refer this to the planning board for their consideration. Council Randall.

What is the argument for not waiting until the comprehensive plan comes before the council?

I think the argument is that this law right here, there's an individual who on several prior occasions has approached the city to build a retirement home on that lot, and he's not been able to do so because of the Ag Zone restrictions, and that would be the impetus to do this at this time. And I would say I think you're going to see a few more of these. Members that were on the prior council recall we had a very similar situation on Riverside Drive. The council told the resident that until there was some action by the comp plan committee, they wouldn't take it up. COMP PLAN COMMITTEE AND THEIR FUTURE LAND USE MAP HAS ADJUSTED THIS. THE PERSON IS READY TO DO SOMETHING NOW. SO I THINK YOU MAY SEE A FEW OF THESE THAT COME IN OVER THIS INTERVENING PERIOD WITH THE SAME SORT OF ARGUMENT. Council Platt.

Thank you. My initial feeling is that the presence of a comp plan review shouldn't impact the process we take with a constituent. So if the request is to consider this zoning map amendment, my gut feeling is that we should pursue that. It doesn't feel right to me to delay that simply because we have a comp plan coming about. because I could see how it would anger that constituent. If they had asked us a year ago, then we wouldn't have it within the same context of the comp plans. So my inclination would be to support it going to staff. I guess my question is who decides whether their claim of it being satisfying all these criteria and being of a like parcel to those around it, does staff decide that or do we decide that in a quasi-judicial format?

Well, I think the answer to that is, for the most part, the planning board. So we would make a referral to the planning board. The planning board would look at the zoning changes. You know, the resident would have an opportunity to come forward and make their thoughts known on this. The planning board would then go through their process and then recommend to the council, responding back to our referral to them whether they thought that this should be modified or not. Council Walker.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'd like to see us clean this line up because this has been going on a long time. So moving it down to whatever you said, that 1,000 feet or whatever, I'd like to see that happen and give this person that advantage to build.

Other questions or comments from council? Council Cowling.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I agree with Councilor Walker. I'd like to move this forward. Not only because to cancel plants point this could go we could have instruct the planning board to review it anyways, but because it's being reinforced in my mind It's reinforced by the reality that the comp plan has put together a Map that matches what this intent is. So I think there's a lot of deliberation that's already moving in this direction I hate to hold it off and what seems to me be a more of a formality when we could move forward with it I guess the question I would have for you, Carlo, is as I look at the possible directions that you included, thank you for doing so, number two versus number three, which is number two is direct to draft a order for the council requesting the planning board to conduct a public hearing on a map amendment. versus draft an amendment to coincide with the adoption of the proposed comprehensive plan and seeing the difference in the, I guess I need a clarification. I'm guessing that number two could potentially happen sooner than waiting for the comp plan?

Correct. Okay. And so the information I provided, whenever you're making a zoning map amendment or a text amendment, one of the key questions is, is it consistent with a comprehensive plan that's active today? And so the background that you've seen in your document, it's saying in the general sense, staff does believe it's consistent with the comprehensive plan today. And so this gives you the backing of saying, if we wanted to go forward earlier, would staff support that? And I'm saying, yes, through that information and the information you have, you could do so. I also give the option, if you want it to wait to the comprehensive plan, that's also something that staff could support as well.

so thank you to follow up i i would uh recommend and endorse this the number two moving forward that um at a sooner pace and based on what's currently in the intended for the current compound other questions or thoughts from the council council

Yeah, I'll just weigh in here. I think I agree that we should go forward now that we have a current comp plan in place and we should follow that. It's delaying it because we have another one coming doesn't make a lot of sense to me, so.

Anything further from the council? So I think the feedback is to prepare tax and map amendment for a future council agenda or referral to the planning board.

Thank you.

All right. Thank you. And we'll move on to the next item that you have, which is a discussion of the property at 940 Washington Ave.

Absolutely. Okay, so this item that you have before you has to do with automobile graveyards. Specifically, it has to do with the licensing conditions. How we got here today is basically I am basically asked by the state to fill out a form, a testing, notarize the testing that it meets all our local and state regulations before that they can get their state license. In looking at the conditions of the license itself, I'm pointing out some, I would say, inconsistencies that from a planning director's point of view that we would like to clarify and to get some corrections to be made. An example is that this is a recycler license, but it mentions retail sales, sales of autos. So is it the intent that you are governing not only the automobile graveyard use, but also other uses on the site? And so we would need clarification if we're doing so for this site. In addition to that, it charges me, the director of planning and permitting, to inspect the site and actually do enforcement. But by state law, only a code enforcement officer, a named code enforcement officer that you all appoint, can do any enforcement when it comes to your codes and ordinances. And so those type of things are some of the things that I'm pointing out. and the material before you. And so what I'm seeking today is a little bit of guidance of how we would like to go forward when we're talking about this current license. Another reason why it's important is because this license in particular will be coming up for renewal next month in September. And so this is an item that you will see before you again and you will have to decide at that time. rather than waiting, we're taking a proactive approach to cleaning up the license itself because it's a precursor to not only their state information, but also your own licensing. The last portion of this is that it's asking, in its last portion, I believe item six, another reason we need clarification is that it's asking for not only consistency with those conditions in the license but also consistency with a list in the current ordinance which if we were applying on it own it would be a little bit different and then also state regulations as well and so if the intent is only to inspect based on the conditions in the license itself, then I think we need a little bit more clarification in there that that's the only thing we're doing rather than doing all three. And so this is just being very forefront of going, you know, I'm a new director here and I'd like a little bit more clarification in this license to make sure that it's reflecting your will as the council.

Questions or comments from the council? So I have a few questions. So the counselors on the prior council will recall that we've approved this license the last few times with some conditions. But it's not clear to me the relationship with the state license. In our prior discussions, IT'S BEEN ABOUT THE ORDINANCES AND SOME PARTICULAR CONDITIONS UNDERSTANDING WHERE THIS BUSINESS WAS LOCATED RELATIVE TO THE FLOOD PLANE. SO IS IT THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE CITY TO ENSURE COMPLIANCE WITH THE STATE REGULATIONS AS WELL?

YES.

IN THIS CASE. How does, so if someone were coming before the planning board today, given the current ordinances, my assumption is that you could not build such a facility in that location now, given the current law. Is that right? Correct. So this is a non-conforming use, and I think that was the basis of the additional CONDITIONS THAT WERE PROVIDED IN THE CITY LICENSE, IF WE'RE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ENFORCEMENT OF THE STATE STATUTE, HOW DOES THAT WORK? DO THEY HAVE A SIMILAR DON CONFORMANCE PROVISION THAT WOULD ALLOW THIS TYPE OF BUSINESS TO CONTINUE EVEN THOUGH IT DOESN'T MEET THE CURRENT REGULATIONS? SOMEWHAT.

It's easier to think about this is that you have a zoning ordinance where if an application is coming before you, you have to check your boxes that is consistent with that ordinance. Or if it started beforehand, you can be, at a time that it was legal, it would be a legal nonconformance. And then you have other uses that you have to do that, but then you also have to get a license. And I bring up restaurants. restaurants have to be compliant with health codes, and those are operational requirements. And so even though the zoning is grandfathered in, you can be placed here in a physical location operating that restaurant if the health code is updated then that restaurant, in order to continue operation, has to remain compliant with those updated codes. So here you're actually seeing something very similar in nature, where there's land use, right? multiple land uses. So you have standards that have to do with stormwater management from the state level and then local level. That has to do with our MS4 permit and the Clean Water Act. You have requirements for floodplain requirements that they have their own standards. And then you have land use standards as well. Here you have something similar where There's operational standards that no matter when you start it, you still have to apply those operational standards. And that's actually what ties into their yearly licensing. It's a yearly check that they're operating in a way that the state says, yes, you're OK. Now, the state actually charges us with making sure that that's consistent. And so what I am doing right now is clarifying not only here locally that this is exactly what we should be doing, but I'm also in conversations with the state that their interpretation of these terms are consistent. So that conversation is already going on. But in addition to that, the format of the licensing itself and the conditions of the licensing still would need, even if they're 100% A-OK, we still would need to alter the licensing conditions because it actually points to the wrong parties for enforcement. And so because it does that, even if they were not compliant, they could come in and say, well, the director of planning doesn't do enforcement and by state law he cannot do enforcement. And so you would be amending the licensing anyway to clarify that point. And so there's multiple things going on here, but we would like to start looking at clarifying the correct way that you all would like to update this licensing to make sure that it's consistent with interpretation and consistent with state law and reflects your will.

Okay, so make sure I understand this. Yeah. So from a zoning perspective, it's a legal non-conforming use. Correct. From a zoning standpoint. Yes. And from a licensing standpoint, the way that we've done the license the last couple years doesn't necessarily conform with the requirements. Yes, it may not. It may not. And so is the action that's necessary changes to ordinance? Or are the actions just changes in the way the license is written up?

It may be both, but it's definitely the license. So it is definitely the license itself, but we may need to look at the provisions themselves and see if we need to fix those as well. Because as far as the state is concerned, There are some portions that cannot be grandfathered in, and your provisions here locally in Chapter 14 licensing, you actually have a grandfathering position. And if that is not consistent with state law, you still will run afoul of those provisions.

So I guess the last question that I have is, so if there's changes that are required to the ordinances, you know, that's a, That's not going to be something that can be done in the time frame in which this license needs to be reissued So is what's the mechanism if you identify and you're coming going to be coming to the council? You know realistically that's at least a month probably a six-week process What's the provision? for the continuation of this license if the expiration date arrives before the council can take the action that they need to clean this up.

So you all will need to make a decision. When I talk about land use, there's multiple ways that you can go about. You can actually go a consent decree, which would lay out the provisions themselves on why, on what way this is to continue, if you decide to go that way. You could decide that you're taking a strict interpretation of not only the local, but the state provisions. And if it says you're not able to do so, you could say, OK, state has barred us from doing so. We're no longer pursuing looking at this above hand. And so in general, you have those two camps. But what this is saying is that sometime in the future, very soon, you will have to make a decision of which way you would like to go. And I would like to get clarification and more information, just like I got in the item beforehand, so you can make an informed decision.

Thanks, Mayor. Appreciate it, DeCarlo. I think, Council, just for some background here, too, I think that As we go through these business reviews, license reviews, and impacts, there's multiple layers, as Decarlo's outlining for you. It's important for us to have this workshop isn't just for you as the council. In the audience is the property owner. We've been working very closely with the property owner. They've been making adjustments, coming into compliance, working through that process. We'll be doing future inspections. We'll continue doing that. But it's also part of that public process to make sure the public knows that we are, including here the property owner, that this is being looked at by the council and the determination will need to be made on these interpretations as DeCarlo's outlined. We'll be using the city attorney as we walk through that. given this direction that, not necessarily direction, but information that we're providing, then now elevates to, for us to say, legal, here's a timeline that we have on this. We need to be moving in these steps to Carla. We'll get further information from the state and some of those other layers. Part of the change that happened here as well as If you recall, we changed the director position for planning. It used to be planning, permitting, and code. And so by ordinance and by this agreement, that director could do the enforcement, because that's the way it was at that time. When we change that position, that's when this now shifts. And so we'll work internally to make sure we have the language now to designate the appropriate person that can do the enforcement component. And we'll be coming back with, as Dakarla mentioned, here's now the recommendation from staff on how we should proceed. But it also provides you some information to at least look into this because there's multiple years of this process that's happened, but then there's also some language changes that we now need to comply with recently, but also some that have already occurred.

Other questions or comments from the council?

I believe in all the information you provided that there was reference that the business has expanded, which is great, and that some of the things you'd be looking at are ways that you're going to work on that compliance. Am I remembering that correctly?

And somewhat. It's exactly because the licensing refers to other uses other than just the graveyard. So one of the clarifications is that this licensing will just be for the graveyard use and not for licenses that not for other uses that don't require licensing. It refers, the licensing refers to retail, however, there are other uses that are happening on the site. There's a tow yard on the site, and also, And a repair and does auto repair. And so, you know, when staff is looking at this licensing, we are saying, okay, well, what do we do about the tow yard and repair use? Do they have to follow the same restrictions as the graveyard use? And so this is one of the reasons why I'm coming before you today to make sure that that's, that's accurate. Um, and another portion is that, um, it's not an expansion, um, but I would say an intensification of the use. And so it operates in the same spatial area, but what happens if this use intensifies as the amount of cars increases? As we've seen in the maps, right? It's the same geographic area, but okay, now this is full of one layer of cars. What happens if we're at two or four or six layers of cars? Is that something that we're okay with? And so that's the two portions that have to do with nonconforming. It's expansion, but it's also intensification. And then the last thing I'll say about this is that I'm also, I'm keeping in mind not only this exact business, but also the city as a whole, making sure that I'm talking to DEP. And one of those reasons is that I want to make sure that if they're saying they're okay, that this use is okay here, that we then don't get dinged on the other side when it comes to monitoring water quality because the state can't say, hey, this is okay and we are okay with you, continue that, and then want to come down on the other side for enforcement on the city saying, hey, you know, your levels are higher or X, Y, and Z because you have this use here. And so then we can point to a record of saying, no, you've actually told us that this use is okay to be here. That's one of the things.

Anything further from the council? Thank you very much. We appreciate it. I'm assuming that you'll be back here in the very near future, given the licensing cycle, with some more detailed recommendations. Absolutely. Thank you. Great. Thank you very much. We don't have any further workshop items, so the council will be in recess until 7 p.m. when the regular city council meeting will convene. Yes, I think that we should. So the manager is suggesting that we, in the interim here, handle at least one executive session, the first one. So we'll take up under item nine on the agenda. uh... executive session three under uh... uh... section nine of the agenda would be an executive session pursuant to one MRSA section four oh five sub six c the discussion of an economic development matter where premature disclosure of the information would prejudice a competitive or bargaining position of the body or agency is there a motion motion to move by council walker is there a second second Seconded by Councillor Geary. The vote will be by show of hands. All those in favor? The council will be in executive session. The August 3rd, 2026 Auburn City Council meeting will be called to order. Please join us in the Pledge of Allegiance. Thank you. If we could have the councillors introduce themselves, starting with Councillor Geary.

Good evening, Belinda Gary, City Councilor at large.

Good evening, Rachel Randall, City Councilor, Ward 1.

Good evening, Tim Cowan, City Councilor for Ward 2.

Good evening, Matthew Duvall, City Councilor, Ward 3.

Good evening, Jeff Hyman, Mayor.

Good evening, Kelly Butler, City Councilor for Ward 4.

Good evening, Leroy Walker, City Councilor, Ward 5.

Good evening, Adam Platt, City Councilor at Large.

Good evening, Student Representative Brennan Edwards.

Good evening, Student Representative Owen Robinson. Good evening, Phil Kroll, City Manager. Thank you. There's no consent agenda this evening, so we'll move on to approval of the minutes of the regular council meeting from July 20th, 2026. Are there any errors or corrections? Is there a motion?

Motion to approve. Second.

Moved by Council Walker, seconded by Council Cowan. Vote will be by show of hands. All those in favor? Seven. Having voted in the affirmative and none in the negative, the motion is adopted. We also have approval of the minutes of the July 28th 2026 special City Council meeting are there any errors or corrections? Is there a motion?

Motion to approve.

Moved by Councilor Walker.

Second.

Seconded by Councilor Randall. Vote will be by show of hands. All those in favor? Seven having voted in the affirmative, none in the negative. The motion's adopted. We'll move on to communications. Draw the council's attention to a memo from the city clerk regarding the business license denial for Webster's Trading Company at 150 Minot Avenue. There's no action expected on this. This is notice from the clerk in the usual process. to advise the council of the denial. Move on to the first open session of the evening. If there's any members of the public that would like to address the council on items not on tonight's agenda, please approach the podium and provide your name and address.

Good evening. Matt Leonard, 1775, . Let's start out, this is probably not the optimal venue to bring up this discussion. However, I did email all of you. I've asked as the developer for Auburn Town Center, excuse me, project to come speak to you all. And we've been denied whether an executive session or on the agenda to provide any updates. So this is the only venue that we have to bring up these points. And I'd just like to say that it's concerning to receive a letter about the city looking to execute its right to repurchase the property and take it back from us. I think it's kind of odd, seems to be rather unique, and rather ambiguous to get a letter that states the city has decided or the council has decided without any communication, especially when we haven't been able to provide you updates. And we'd love to answer questions. I have it in writing. We've been denied access to y'all to talk about these details specifically. As the city manager said tonight, when we were talking about business licensing and working with businesses, it's important to have workshops in the public to bring the business in, to bring the council in, and to do it in public. We've been denied that opportunity. So the deadline, which has been topic of discussion, Arbitrary has a negative connotation to it. But my point is those dates or deadlines chosen in that contract are arbitrary. There's someone just putting a date down saying, you need to do this by this. It's not based on evidence or workflow or process or template or you name it. It's just a date picked and put on a piece of paper. They're not dynamic, meaning that our planning board process happened to take six months. We had change in staff in the middle of it. We had an additional requirement of subdivision plan. Evidently, Auburn hadn't been requiring it. After we submitted our initial package, they said, you need the second package. We got into the planning board process. We needed a special exemption package that was brought up by a member of the community mid-meeting the planning board process that normally would have took one to two months took six months that planning board sets conditions and requirements of the city one of those namely is the easement agreement normally the seller i.e. the city would do title right and interest which we paid for to fix that dated back to eighteen seventy two And now we've paid for the easement agreement. That's five properties, seven owners, and multiple lending institutions that all independently have their own opinion and ability to sign or decline. We have one left. We've submitted all of our stuff for permitting. So all of this work, hundreds of thousands of dollars have gone into this, and we're literally one signature away from being able to break ground. Yet, we received a letter on the 24th that said, we're purchasing this back. And then it said, you have until 4.30 today to provide information. That information was provided well in advance. And I was still informed that there was another certified letter, regardless of what was on its way, to be delivered today that the decision had already been made. My question is, made by who? Why? Why not an opportunity, as a city manager said, to come in and all work together to make a determination about what would be in the best interest of the city? We own the land. We purchased it as part of this process. We have a tax increment financing deal approved. We have a credit enhancement approved, which has been before the council and approved. Incentive money, planning, planning board. We've been going through the city's process. We have to adhere to that. We don't set the timeline. There's been a lot of different challenges. It just is what it is. Multiple city attorneys that have actually tore up our first signed purchase and sales agreement and our earnest money sent in a desk for months. We've had multiple planning directors. I think we're up to four now. We're just doing what we're told when we're told to do it and trying to work as fast as we can. Owning a property, we're paying property taxes on a lot that's been vacant for 50 years. The work that we've already done to entitle that land has now been quoted to be at a value of 1.2 to 1.5 million. We're meeting everything we've wanted to work together to achieve. We want a great market rate building that enhances the value of the city of Auburn and contributes to our downtown and our community. The colors, the brick use, the stone use was chosen because of our first executive meeting with the council about what they wanted to see in their neighborhood. We've done nothing more than work with everybody. All of our subcontractors are local. This is an $11 million project. People have been working on this for a couple years. You don't just hurt us, the electrician, the plumber, the builder, the roofer. All of those individuals have put free hours into these plans and permits and are expecting to not have to travel to Belgrade to earn a living, but work here in their community so they can drive by a building every day and turn to their kids and family, as everyone in this community does and says, I was a part of that. I helped build it. So not to mention that taking the land back and marketing isn't a simple thing. It will be tied up in a year-long process before there would even be an opportunity to start marketing it again, and that developer would have to start over from scratch. Geotechnical studies, surveys, ALTA survey, environmental surveys, architectural drawings, all of that would have to be done. And I can tell you it's been hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars that have already been spent in what's called soft costs. That's not from a loan, that's out of your pocket. And our group are just people. We're not a big company from away that's building apartments. They're people that have worked their whole lives, and you'll hear from Dan Sties here in a minute, who's put his dollars in. That's a significant loss. That hurts. This isn't BlackRock suffering a little loss. It's not just us. It's all these subs that are counting on this work. I mean, these are big paydays for them. So with that, I would love an opportunity to talk to council to see if we can come to an agreement on how we can get this back on track and get this to the finish line, have a great groundbreaking and something we can all be proud of that we work together to achieve. And I'd also like to thank the mayor and the council for giving more than three minutes because I know I went way over.

Thank you.

My name's Daniel Sties. I live in Beverly, Massachusetts, 6th Hillside Avenue, and I have a house on Wayack Lane in Otis Field, Maine. I've been a part-time resident of Otis for many years, and I've grown fond of this area, and I've invested in some rental properties over the years. Our first property was near the Academy Street property and we saw some potential there and had a vision for Auburn Town Center. Over a two year process, we've done everything that's been asked of us. We've invested hundreds of thousands of dollars on surveys, traffic studies, plans, drawings, and renderings. At each turn, there always seemed to be one more thing before the final approval would be granted. We have assurance of financing once all the boxes are checked. We've been operating in good faith throughout the process and trusted the city would do the same. To reach the 11th hour and receive a letter saying that we were out of compliance and that they wanted to buy back the property was very hard to accept and disappointing. Commencement dates were never tied to the actual work required. There were estimates and the planning board process stretched over six months when one to two months were expected. Each time the city asked for something more and there were many such requests, The deadline stayed exactly where it was. We were held to a date that was a guess from the beginning on a project whose scope kept changing at the city's discretion. And the city itself acknowledged this on April 1st when it determined in writing that delays were procedural, not attributable to us. We trust that you as members of the city council would like to continue to act in good faith and grant the extension because we're anxious to proceed and help beautify the city with this project. Thank you.

If there's any other member of the public who'd like to address the council, please approach the podium and provide your name and address.

You'll bear with me.

Where does a lizard go when he loses his tail? Retail store. So yeah, I'm a blunt force object, and I'm trying to show a little grace, trying to settle down a little bit. So the SSP clearly is not a very liked thing here in Auburn. You can see that by your constituents. It came the last two times. It was on the agenda. You had your experts here. I will listen to experts, but I don't put all my faith in experts. Here's some examples of great experts. Eugenics, that was experts. Magic bullet and the JFK assassination. The Gulf of Tonkin incident that escalated Vietnam, those were experts. Weapons of mass destruction, how I wound up in Iraq, experts. And then the iPhone, that was a niche toy by the experts. That's what they said, it would never go anywhere. Experts are often wrong, but they cited a study, VA, did anybody read it? Because I wasted part of my life. So in that study, it says likely lowers human immunodeficiency virus, HIV. It says may lower hepatitis, but it will promote carrying naloxone. It also cites, I have a lot of stuff here, it also cites a study about how it doesn't increase the amount of use, syringe usage, from Alaska. I don't know, but Alaska, Maine, two different places, right? You've got to go through Canada to get the drugs there. And then if we're being honest, federal government, no matter who is in there, there are some shady things going on. And the last administration had the border wide open, and we had a flow of drugs and immigrants coming across that could not be contained. It was out of control. And so to think that any study that was done pre that opening of the border is useful is just silly. I mean, 2019 versus 2023 are two totally different worlds. You've got people wearing masks now still driving by themselves in a car since 2020. Janet Mills opened up the free needle giveaway in 2020. The Maine State Legislature Made its statute in 2022. I fought against it when I was in the State House in Augusta. I spoke against it, and I reintroduced legislation to change it to a one-for-one, thinking that was a compromise, and they wouldn't even talk. To think there's any compromise in Augusta, you're foolhardy at best on most subjects. So with that being said... On page seven, studies of public health interventions in real world settings often must rely on observational research methods that are intrinsically less rigorous than study designs available in clinical context. Because most of these studies were observational, and they were, what do they call it? Geez, I didn't have that in my notes. The person is turning in the information. They're personally reporting, so there's a bias there. So observationally, I can stand here in Maine, and I can look at Portland and Lewiston, our two closest neighbors, and see it is an absolute failure. SSP does not work, as it is. Now, I realize the ordinance is there. I've read a lot, thought about home rule, thought about a lot of different things. I see it doesn't apply. I would have fought the state and said, I don't want it here. I would have fought Spurwink and said, I don't want you giving away needles here. However, it is state law. You need to have it if they want to come. I'm not saying it correctly, but relatively in the right neighborhood. But you can make it a one-for-one. You could require counseling upon receipt of those. And by counseling, I mean legitimate counseling, not, hey, how are you doing today? Here's some needles. Goodbye. Because that's essentially what's happening. I have no reason to believe otherwise observationally. And then to go back on my other point that I made about the dates, holy hand of the dates, 2020, 2010, 2010, 1999, these are the studies they used. This is what they based their science on. I think that was a total different, 1989, 2013, 99, 99, and it goes on and on and on. There was one from 88. How does that apply to today? And then it makes the other comment. I'll see if I can find it real quick. Many studies relied on participant self-reporting for both SSP use and outcomes of interest. In general... I'll be out of your hair in just a minute. It says that... Where the hell is that? Sorry, guys. Leave it to me. There's a statement in here that fentanyl And methamphetamines prevailing in... Son of a gun. And now the moment's gone. So there's a statement in there that says that this study doesn't really apply because it doesn't adjust for the prevailing use of methamphetamines and fentanyl in our cities and towns. It just doesn't apply to it. But that's what we're using as our... expert study and we're going to do it here in auburn i hope not i mean it's still an opportunity to change it i hope you do something probably not i have no faith not man anyway good day any other member of the public like to address the council please approach the podium provide your name and address

Not seeing any of the open sessions closed, we'll move on to new businesses. There's no unfinished business tonight. The first item is Order 6908032026, Initiating Zoning Tax Amendment for Public Hearing and Recommendation by the Auburn Planning Board. regarding possible amendment to Chapter 60, Article 4, Division 2, Section 145, Sub B1, Agriculture and Resource Protection District Use Regulations regarding removing the employee limit for sawmill uses within the district. So before we move forward on this as background, the council, especially the new councilors, I think this is the first time one of these has been before you. There's two methods outside of petition. to bring text amendments of this type forward. One is that they are initiated by the planning board. The planning board goes through their process. They forward to the city council the proposed text amendment for the council's consideration the other method is in the in the Ordinance is that they can be initiated by the City Council the City Council sends the proposed Amendment through an action of Referral to a committee refer these back to the planning board for their review and recommendation and it comes back to council acts on it so that's what's before you here in this it's a uh... text amendment that would be referred to the planning board In the intervening period, while this agenda was being put together, the planning board actually took this item up on the 30th in an out of session meeting. So they're already proceeding in the method of generating at the planning board recommendations to the council for action on this item. SO MY RECOMMENDATION WOULD BE THAT THE MOTION BE PUT FORTH TO INDEFINITELY POSTPONE, WHICH IN EFFECT FROM A ROBERTS RULES PERSPECTIVE WOULD KILL THIS ITEM. THE PLANNING BOARD PROCESS IS ALREADY UNDERWAY. THERE'S NOTHING TO BE GAINED BY THIS REFERRAL FROM THE COUNCIL. THIS ITEM WILL BE COMING BACK TO YOU ANYWAYS THROUGH THE PLANNING BOARD PROCESS. If Councilors want to move this forward and send a referral back to Planning Board, the motion would be to adopt. If we want to kill this because it's already underway, the motion would be to indefinitely postpone. Is there a motion? Councilor Randall?

MOTION TO INDEFINITELY POSTPONE.

IS THERE A SECOND? SECONDED BY COUNCILOR GEARY. ANY DISCUSSION BY THE COUNCIL? VOTE WILL BE BY SHOW OF HANDS. ALL THOSE IN FAVOR? OPPOSED? SIX HAVING VOTED IN THE AFFIRMATIVE AND ONE IN THE NEGATIVE, THE MOTION IS ADOPTED. THE NEXT ITEM IS ORDER 7008032026, APPROVING THE AUBURN-LEWISTON MUNICIPAL AIRPORT MASTER PLAN. IS THERE A MOTION?

So moved. Second.

Moved by Councillor Geary, seconded by Councillor Walker. Before we move on to public comment, I would invite the director up in case there are any questions on the master plan from the council. After we hear that, we'll move on to public comment and then discussion of the item. Any questions for the director? No? Thank you very much. Any member of the public would like to address the council on this item, please approach the podium and provide your name and address. Not seeing any public comments, close. Discussion by the council? Council ready for the question? Vote will be by show of hands. All those in favor? Seven having voted in the affirmative and none in the negative, the motion is adopted. We'll move on to the next item, ordinance 14-08-03-2026, amending the city's code of ordinances to adopt a mobile home park rent stabilization ordinance. This is for first reading. Is there a motion?

Motion. Second.

Moved for adoption by Councilor Randall, seconded by Councilor Walker. Does any member of the public who'd like to address the council on this item please approach the podium and provide your name and address.

evening ladies and gentlemen pull the mic down a little good evening ladies and gentlemen nice to see you again i wish it was under different circumstances but it's not i standing here hoping and praying for our trailer park as well as the other two that we get a reprieve, not just so that he can't do these sneaky, underhanded things that he's been doing. I know you're more, it's what, three minute speech? It's hard to tell because I'm not wearing my watch. I would like to say that if this does not go through, you're gonna have a lot of people knocking on your door, because we're all gonna be homeless. And I'm not saying this or doing this to make you people feel bad, but you've got to put yourselves in our shoes. It's ridiculous. And he needs to be investigated more. He might have been brought up here in the state of Maine, born in the state of Maine, but he's, I'm sorry, but he's crooked as hell. He's sneaky. He's underhanded. He does things he's not supposed to. He takes money from people that are coming in. and then he turns around and threatens to throw him out. All he wants is money. He don't care about us. He don't care about the trailer park. And if your counselor, your code enforcement officer could come back and see just the other day, I know this is a story, but I have to tell you. This woman was living in a tent with her grandson, her daughter, and another girl. They had trash all over the yard and stacked up that high. And when myself and a couple of other ladies went into her yard to speak with her, rats just went

And then you could see roaches all over the place.

I don't have rats, I don't have roaches, and oh God, please, I never want them. So please, if you can, help us, help us. And get the code enforcement officer after this man. Thank you.

Thank you. Is there any other member of the public that would like to address the council? Please come forward to the podium.

Hello. Thank you. Good evening to the council and the counselors here. I want to share with you that there have been many thefts at my home. My title has been stolen. And I know that I did have it filed. I had the police come. I've changed my locks. It doesn't work. Things continue to go missing from my home and be stolen. And I'm very angry about that. And especially my title. That is a very upsetting situation for me. So thank you very much.

Thank you. Any other member of the public would like to address the council on this item, please come forward to the podium. Not seeing any public comments, closed. Discussion by the council? Council ready for the question? What will be our roll call? The clerk will call the roll.

Councilor Gary? Yes. Councilor Randall? Yes. Councilor Cowan? Yes. Councilor Duvall? Yes. Councilor Butler? Yes. Councilor Walker? No. Councilor Plax?

Yes. Six having voted in the affirmative and one in the negative, the motion is adopted. I remind the people in the audience that have an interest in this, this will be back again at the next meeting for second reading and public hearing. We'll move on to reports. A few items to report. I wanted to recognize the city and MDOT engineering staff. Some months ago, they held a public hearing regarding pedestrian safety improvements at Turner and Denison Street. Councilor Cowan and I attended. There was a very large turnout for this type of a meeting. I think the residents were all very appreciative of the pedestrian safety enhancements, but had lots of concerns regarding traffic flow. The engineering staff from both the city and MDOT took that at heart, went back, re-looked at this, and had a follow-up meeting in the last week in which, in addition to the pedestrian safety issues, they're going to be changing the traffic signaling at that intersection to improve the traffic flow. So very appreciative of them listening to the concerns and re-looking at their plan. Council Cowan and I attended the first open house for the Lewiston Crisis Receiving Center. Those that aren't familiar with it, this is a program run by Spurwink with DHS Office of Behavioral Health. It provides access to short-term crisis stabilization, observation, assessment, and intervention for transition age youth and adults experiencing behavioral health crises. This is going to be a significant new service for our public safety personnel. They'll be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, provides immediate access for people in crisis. There is another open house on Thursday the 6th from 3 to 5, and it's well worth it. If any of the counselors would like to attend, it's Spurwink's office at 1155 Lisbon Street, and it's worth attending to see this new program. update on the comp plan uh... uh... plan committee is expecting copy of the draft plan sometime next week the committee will be reviewing the draft plan which includes all the policy issues on the future land use maps on august eighteenth august twenty fifth and september ninth those meetings will be at six p m here in the city council chambers There will be a present joint session of the planning board and the city council on September 14th at 530, where the plan will be presented to those two bodies. The planning board will be working on it in the interim, and there will be a public hearing on October 14th. The details of that are to be discussed. Determined the last thing I think maybe the manager will say more about this everyone got a handout at their seat tonight National night out is tomorrow night. I It's a really great event. I Urge everybody to attend it starts at 530 down at festival Plaza That's all I have councillor Geary Nothing at this time, thank you Thank You councillor and

Hi, I want to just announce that the Auburn Public Library is going to have their annual block party on Saturday, September 26th from 11 to 1 at the library on 49 Spring Street. They're going to have live music, food trucks, community partner tables, vendors, face painting, and a basket raffle. Full details will be available at the end of August on the Auburn Public Library's website and social media.

Thank you, Council Collins. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just want to echo thanks and appreciation to our engineers and the State Department of Transportation on the intersection, Turner and Denison, of putting in a four-way stop in quick turnaround, which is great, and then be able to see what the impact is down the road if there's additional changes needed. So thanks to all the people who came out and provided their voices to make that happen. Thank you, Council Duvall.

Nothing at this time, thanks. Council Butler.

The Lewiston-Auburn 911 Committee met on Thursday last week and Director Hall reviewed the current status of the fiscal year 26 budget and also provided an update on the 911 center relocation. There also was some discussion around staffing report and training is going really well just prior to this meeting the New parking and traffic safety committee met for its first meeting There is one vacancy open for that committee. We elected chair and vice chair and We'll update on further agenda as we get going Thank You council Walker

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Just to repeat, national night out tomorrow night. Be there at 5 o'clock, and you won't be late.

council platte thank you uh nothing to report from the school department but i did just want to draw some attention to sun journal news article as well as there was some other media that came out last week about the dam removal that's taking place this was a project that was kind of spearheaded by volunteers in this city as opposed to elected officials or staff so just an impressive effort to get roughly over 3.5 million dollars in federal funds administered by the city TO GET THIS DAM REMOVED, SO THE ARTICLE IS VERY INFORMATIVE, TELLING A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THE HISTORY OF THE DAM, AS WELL AS SOME OF THE OPERATIONAL CHALLENGES. BUT GOOD STUFF IN THE CITY OF AUBURN.

THANK YOU. REPRESENTATIVE EDWARDS? SORRY. OFFICIALLY, SCHOOL SPORTS START NEXT WEEK, AND THAT'S ALL. REPRESENTATIVE ROBINSON? I HAVE NOTHING AT THIS TIME.

OKAY. THANK YOU, MR. MANAGER.

THANK YOU, MAYOR. JUST A COUPLE ITEMS. We are, rather, having a great launch of the season at Lake Grove Park. Our park rangers are on site. We have hundreds of guests each and every day that are there. I think the community is truly enjoying the park and all the efforts that have gone into that. We had our successful first movie last week at Movies in the Park at Festival Plaza. The next one's going to be...

at lake grove park on thursday august thirteenth at seven p m and then uh... uh... yes councilor thank you uh... city manager i went i went to the uh... movie that they had over here and if you haven't been to one of the movies this year and i know it was the first one you gotta go to the second one what they have now for a movie screen and for the system it is so great that you're going to feel like it's right in your front room or you're at a real movie hall because it's loud it's clear and it's wonderful and they also had a great turnout the first night out which is unusual but somehow people got to know that we're going to have it this year which was a good thing i think a lot of advertisement was done so Again, thank you to the city for putting something together that really works out there and get the kids out because they're going to enjoy it.

Great. Thank you. We'll move on to the second open session of the evening. If there's any member of the public would like to address the council on items that are not on tonight's agenda, please approach the podium and provide your name and address. not seeing any of the open second closed uh... for the public there are Three executive sessions on the agenda. The council has already met an executive session between the workshop and the start of the regular meeting and addressed item two and three. There was no action to follow. We'll be taking up another executive session with no action to follow and we would expect that the council adjourn immediately upon ending the executive session. So this item is an executive session pursuant to one MRSA section 405 sub 6D for discussion of labor union contract negotiations between the Maine State Employees Association and the City of Auburn and Public Works and the City of Auburn. Is there a motion? Motion to move in. Moved by Council Walker is our second. Second. Seconded by Council Duvall. All those in favor? The council will be in executive session.