City Council - workshop

hello welcome to our tuesday evening workshop we're kicking things off with a cart to curb update from our uh friends of the public works department please introduce yourself and take it away and if i can ask counselors to hold their questions until the end thank you um good evening my name is megan bates i'm sorry i'm the deputy for maintenance and operations i'm john kuchinski environmental services superintendent insurance

So we have some news tonight. We've got some dates to provide to you for Cart to Curb. We have August 3rd. The carts will be distributed throughout the city. It will take about three or four weeks to distribute all of them. They will come with some information with the carts that will explain about cart placement. It will come with a resource guide which will answer a lot of questions that people have asked us already. We worked with the marketing department with Angie Morris and they've done a fantastic job on a resource guide that will be again included with the carts. We've also been distributing them at various public meetings, which I'll explain in a minute. But the city has been working really well with Casella. Casella has put out some really good communications material, or will be, and so has the city of Lewiston. But again, it's 23,000 carts, three to four weeks to get distributed. And the date that they provided us, it may change for the actual start of the program, is August 24th. Again, it depends on how long it takes them to distribute. So it may be a little earlier. or it may be a little later but with the carts will be information about the start date letters will go out casella will have a letter that will be drafted and be sent out to residents they're sending out a postcard as well so they got two things that they'll be sending through the mail plus information with the carts On the public meetings, John and I did one last week at the Lewis Library that went well. The audience asked some good questions. It was really a good evening, and we're looking forward to doing the other four. So we do one tomorrow night at Geiger School. These are all from 5.30 to 7. And then we have one at Clarion on July 29th, McMahon on August 6th, and Hoppers at Apple Valley Golf Course on August 12th. So we hope you all will join us at one of those. Again, I've already mentioned about information that comes with the carts. The resource guide is something we also pass out at the public meeting. So we get it distributed as best we can because not everybody has a smartphone, not everyone has a computer. So Casella will own and distribute these carts and they'll manage them throughout the contract. So they have a customer, it's hard to say, Casella customer care telephone number that people can call if they have any questions. And then Public Works has an after hours telephone number that people can call that will hook them up right with, again, with the Casella customer care telephone number. We've also had the cities also generated posters that were posted in various areas around the city that talk about the public meetings that we're having. Again, the communications, excuse me, the marketing department has done a great job on the cart to curb. Website page I've updated that On the solid waste page. There is a map that you can enter your address It will take you right to your property. It will tell you the date the time of the week that you have pickup and for more specific Locations where there is going to be a back down or a group pickup that will be on that information Also as you as you look at your property will tell you exactly what kind of pickup that you have Costello will also provide with their carts a brochure which will talk about cart placement, a recycling brochure, and they're really trying to push their app. There's a YouTube video that you can view about their app. It's pretty neat. You can get that off any of your app stores on your cell phone. It will have a place where you can see a calendar, which will also tell you what the day of the week your collection is. It has a recycle wizard where you can put any type of material down, cereal box, pickle jar, whatever type of material you have. It will tell you whether or not it's recyclable or not. It will also, the calendar will also include the, any type of holiday changes. We have how many dates, how many holidays? Four. Four dates where the, that will have an impact on your trash pickup, the day of the week of your trash pickup. Also, as part of the education program, when these carts get distributed, it's gonna take people a while to get acclimated to it. So Casella will be right there. They'll be working about two or three weeks with placing the carts if they're not in the right location. They put a tag on them, just providing instructions on making sure the lid is down, making sure they're so many feet apart. If they're too close to an obstacle, like a tree or a mailbox, they'll make it clear on the tag. And if anyone has a question, once they read the tag, they can call the Casella Customer Care telephone number. Now with some of these streets I had mentioned back at the March 3rd workshop, I talked about there are like 100 streets that were going to be a little bit challenging. So the map will explain which streets have those more challenging scenarios. And they're mostly narrow streets that have no turnaround. Castell is used to backing down and they back up down them now but with the side load it's only the right side that they'll be picking up so people will have to take their carts some people have to take their carts and bring them across the street instead of having them right in front of their residence so also the traffic division at Public Works will be or have they actually have already started installing parking signs that provide some direction they're about halfway through the installation of those I think we've concluded. That's our update. We're open for questions.

I appreciate all of your work and help with this. I know it'll be a little bit of a learning curve for residents, but I'm sure we'll have it down in short order. Questions, comments from the council?

Yes, Councillor Roy. Thank you. One question that comes to mind is have we decided on what's going to happen with fall and spring cleanup with leaves and all that such? I know that's a big question for a lot of people because some people don't have access to be able to bring it to

you know the dump and all that stuff so where did we land on that right so we're going to run a program similar to the brush pickup that we do in the spring this one's going to occur in the fall um it will be there'll be some restrictions um with casella if you had 50 bags out there they'd pick up 50 plastic bags of leaves Our program is gonna start on November 16th, Monday, November 16th. You'll have to have them, everyone in the city, if you want your leaves picked up, will have to have them out at curb on that date. And then Public Works will take a week to pick up the leaves. They will need to be in a compostable or a paper bag to be picked up. I'd like to add to that if I could, I'm sorry. If there is a restriction, I'm not sure if we're gonna have a restriction with how many bags we're gonna get picked up, but we'll have information on that as the date gets closer to November 16th. But, yeah, I just lost my train of thought. I'm sorry.

We're here all night.

I remember now. If you want, you can put them in your waste container. If you have room, you can put them in a plastic trash bag. When you have room, just put them there. If anyone is like me, I don't get everything done in one week. I'm doing this for a couple of months. I have oak trees and I'm fighting snowflakes to get the leaves up. That's why we have the late date of November 16th, and you have the carts that you can use as well. And we'll have a free disposal at the Solways facility for leaves for one week with two Saturdays.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Further questions from the council? Councillor Nagy.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The reason why we're putting them in compostable bags is because we're actually not going to put them in the landfill, is that correct?

We are working right now on trying to get those composted. So we'll be either working with a company or doing it in-house.

Okay, the two major concerns that I've heard overall, other than the concept of renting a second trash bin, which some people have voiced some concern over because there's cost to it. Even the smaller bin, some folks have some concerns about older folks being able to move them around, also not being able to maybe fit them in spaces that the smaller bins used to fit in. So in the hallway of your house, things like that. There's really no flexibility on the, we have either 64 or 96, is that correct? That's correct. And there won't be a flexibility on that.

We looked at those smaller bins, but according to Cassell, the way the arm works, the smaller bins do not get gripped by the arm very well, and they often fall into the truck. So they found them as not very useful for doing the trash collection. We have a couple of samples over here, and they're relatively easy to wield for most people.

And we would strongly recommend individuals to come to one of the public meetings so they can actually try the carts, roll them around and see what they're like.

Okay, and just to come back to the leaf pickup, so at this moment you're thinking that there will not be a restriction on the number of bags, but there may be?

As long as they're in paper.

No, I'm talking about the number, like the actual number that you're putting out. You know, like at my property, for instance, I can fill 30 trash bags with leaves. And so if we're looking at just that one week window, I would highly encourage if we can convince Casella to just pick up whatever leaves get put out there.

So that would be done in-house.

Oh, but we're sticking it out. Okay. Gotcha. Okay.

Castell is not doing the leaf pickup. We are.

Interesting. Okay.

Thank you. Councillor Herman. Thank you. Thank you both for being here. Could we find out if we can get different size trash cans of the two? I have been told and it wasn't very clear though that I have to get the 96 gallon trash cans because I have a multi-unit building. And I can't have the 64-gallon ones. And it's just going to be a big change to go from a 32-gallon bin, which is the maximum we're allowed to use now, to 96, and also have to have one for every single unit. So can we get the smaller bins?

Once the program's going, Casella said you can call up customer care and then begin that process of changing out bin sizes once... Right now, everything's been programmed for the bins have been ordered to have them distributed. So that's how it's been distributed based on the contract. But after it gets rolled out, after the 24th, if it's just call custom care, it may take a week or two to get to it, but they may swap them out for you. So it's nothing you know if you if you don't want three bins you only want one or two then that's all you know you don't have to take all the bins that you take in there we're not requiring people to take the bins yes okay so if you want one bin you get one if you want three when you're entitled to three it's just that you're not going to get four or five or six.

Okay thank you very much.

You're welcome.

Councillor Longchamps.

Thank you, Mayor. I'm just wondering, the examples that you have here, could we maybe wheel them over here? Sure. So maybe the public, because maybe some folks wouldn't be able to get out there. Just a moment. Thank you.

Is the 65 now, ma'am?

we have we have two samples here um the recycle bin that we have here has a blue top but if you have a single residential or duplex you'll get two of the 60 64 65 gallon so that one that the the waste will have the black top and the recycle will have the blue top right just as a reminder if you have a three unit or larger you'll get one 95 waste container per unit and then you'll the units will three units will share one recycle 95 gallon yeah thank you thank you

Councilor Nagy, back to you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The only other question I have is because Casella is going to be doing the customer service aspect, if there is a situation in which a taxpayer wants to escalate a complaint, how is that done? Do we just...

it will all be managed they'll be like i said they'll be owned and managed the service will be owned and managed by casella so they that's all these this this co these people do is take care of their customers so they'll be managing them even if okay so there's no city side there's not okay thank you

uh further questions from the council yeah counselor noble yes single family homes will be getting like a big recycling like this no no they'll get they'll get two of the 64 65 gallon okay one will have a blue cover like this okay it's just the cover changes okay so we'll get two though we'll have one for recycling and then one for our trash correct one and if you have an adu it's going to be an additional trash and recycling okay thank you

Councillor Longchamp so sorry so if I understood this right if you have let's say a five unit but you only need three trash cans you don't have to get five you can simply call and say I would just like three but you're not going to give me seven for a five unit right yes you can get less if you want you can get less thank you

Councilor Nagy. I promise I'll go to one of the workshops because I have a lot more questions. But just to clarify, I do believe that for a period of time we were allowing residential properties to request the larger cans. Correct. And so if that was done, then we'll get the larger cans. And then if you get the smaller cans now as a residential, you can still talk to Casella and switch it out.

Correct.

After the program is rolled out.

Okay. Perfect. Thank you.

Anything further, councillors? My plan for my residence is to see what gets dropped off and then go from there. I really appreciate both of you being here. Thanks for this beautiful demo. I just have one more comment. Oh, yeah, yeah. Sorry, sorry, please.

The only thing I'd ask is that for people to have patience with us as we roll this out and we learn this together how to do this.

you know it's new to everybody get accustomed to the new program uh yes no uh great advice for us all um yeah let's just um yeah be patient and if there's questions uh call customer care uh thank you all uh this now concludes our uh or anything from you uh deputy director bates

I'm all set. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you both. Thank you counselors. This now concludes our workshop and I hope to start at 7 with our regular scheduled meeting.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Hello, good evening. Welcome to our Tuesday evening council meeting. We are fortunate, very fortunate, to have all of you, but also very fortunate to have the Honorable Craig Settlemyer here, who will lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Craig, I appreciate your service to our city. Thank you. Madam Clerk, I believe we're ready to begin.

Yes, sir. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. All roll call votes for this meeting will begin with the Council of Ward 7.

And I understand we have minutes?

You do at the June 30th and July 7th meetings.

I have a motion to accept the minutes. So moved. Councilor Chittum. Second. Seconded by Councilor Martell. Madam Clerk, please call the vote.

Councilor from Ward 7.

Yes.

Ward one. Yes. Ward two. Yes. Ward three. Yes. Ward four. Yes. Ward five. Yes. Ward six. Yes. Motion passed by a vote of seven to zero.

Thank you very much, Madam Clerk. We are now up to our public comment period. Any member of the public may make comments regarding issues pertaining to Lucent City government. This period is reserved for non-agenda items. Public comment is also allowed during individual agenda items. Public comment is limited to three minutes per person. Please state your name for the record and please indicate if you are a Lewiston resident per our council rules. This period is reserved for Lewiston residents only. Because this is the business meeting of the City Council, all questions should be directed to the mayor who has staff to follow up at a future time. It is illegal for the City Council to allow comments related to personnel matters. All personnel complaints should be made directly to the City Administration Office.

Tell me if, is it all right, Mayor?

YOU'RE COMING IN LOUD AND CLEAR, RONNIE. THANK YOU.

OKAY. RONNIE PARITY, WARD 6. I'VE GOT A COUPLE OF THANK YOU'S I WANT TO GIVE OUT. FIRST OF ALL, TO ADMINISTRATION AND TO ANGIE'S DEPARTMENT FOR SETTING UP MARTELL SCHOOL THANK YOU. I'M REALLY HAPPY. IT SEEMS LIKE YEARS AND EVERYTHING, BUT NOW WE GOT MARTELL AND EVERYTHING AND HOPEFULLY IT WILL BE A REALLY GOOD PLACE FOR SENIORS. I THINK IT WILL BE AND EVERYTHING. SO THANK YOU TO ADMINISTRATION AND AGAIN TO ANGIE'S DEPARTMENT FOR SETTING IT UP. MY SECOND THANK YOU IS TO JOSH. on ward one because he let us know through uh and i wish the city would let us know about the big fire on main street i think we need to notice that when i hear alarms that go up and not know what's going on it's pretty things so someone needs to notify the city when things like that happen so thank you josh for putting that on face on facebook and everything I want to bring up something. I'm going to take a different stance on things. I would like people to start talking about issues and not people. And I'm going to do that. I acknowledge that I have talked about people and maybe insulted people. I know I have. I think we, in order to stop violence for our kids, we as adults have to be examples. And if we're not, our kids are seeing what we're doing. And when, like the city council fights or they insult anybody or I insult somebody, oh well, they're doing it, why can't we do it? We need to learn to say something nice to somebody. And I would recommend to city council, say something nice to somebody before you start a meeting and everything. I've heard of this, it works. And we gotta show our kids that we less insult or put down policies and not people. If we don't like a policy, we can say it. And I think we should disagree on policies, but we don't have to bring down people. And I've been guilty of it, too. And I want to change it because I think it will help our young people in the community to say, oh, those adults know how to act. And if we, if we, they watch us. Remember that. Thank you.

Good evening, Andrew Jones, Ward 2. It was a perfect segue there from Ronnie about talking nice about some folks, because I actually have some compliments here to share. So I was at the Auburn City Hall last night for their city council meeting. I got to see how things were run over there. And I have to say that I have more respect now for Cathy Montejo, our parliamentarian, SHE RUNS A GREAT MEETING. I WANTED TO GET IN EARLIER TO PICK HER BRAIN ON SOMETHING, BUT IT JUST DIDN'T WORK OUT. SO KATHY DOES A GREAT JOB, AND I WANTED TO ACKNOWLEDGE THAT. THE OTHER TIP OF THE HAT I WANTED TO PUT OUT THERE WAS FOR COUNSELOR CHRISSY NOBLE. I sent you an email and I wanted to actually come in public comment and say it as well. We got to see a side of you last council meeting that I think you awoke and you're willing to use your voice on the council as you called out the council president for perceived malfeasance. So just want to let you know that I appreciate that and I hope you find that strength more often. That's what I think is needed there. A couple other things. We dealt out some compliments, so got some other things to say. This one's directed at Councilor Chittum. Likewise, Noble had some complaints about you, as did the rest of the council, about some double dealing behind the scenes. It's hopefully getting addressed later tonight. You should never do that. You lose the trust of everyone up there when you do something like that. The last wag of the finger is going to be directed at a member of the safety committee. As you're all aware, there's been some issues on Bartlett Street involving the mosque and the towing company. And there was an altercation a couple of weeks ago involving somebody who was walking a dog down the street. And there was talk about having an organized dog walk down Bartlett, which I agree is intentionally inflammatory, and I'm glad it ultimately didn't happen. However, a member of your safety committee made comments on social media about leaving dog treats that were laced with Exlax in order to, I don't know, punish anyone who might actually try to do that. I don't think that a member of the safety committee should be advising you in any capacity if they're going to make comments, even in jest, about poisoning the animals of the citizens of Lewiston. So I would like to see you do something about that. Thank you very much, and have a great night.

Matthew a great word for honorable counsel. Mayor city staff and the general public. I was glad to be there for the groundbreaking at the Martel school project part one 44 units of senior housing and to watch my friends Ronnie and Louise shovel said. After long delays. It's now starting and hopefully there'll be a ribbon cutting next July and allow our seniors to be able to move into that space as well as start phase 2 of construction. I want to give a shout out to the city for its quick response to the Main Street 425 fire. It was nice to see Brian at the armory on his vacation. and how fast people get services around for these people. Now, we all want the city of Lewiston to improve, but what that means is we need to be able to come together and agree on what issues are facing Lewiston. That means we have to be able to cross party lines and find those common ground points that we can all agree on, and then work on solutions we can all agree on. I never expect the members of the left and the right to fully agree on all issues, but there comes time that you all see the same issues. Let's fix them. You are all elected to represent your wards first, and then the rest of the city and the taxpayers second. We all want improved public safety, and with the understanding it's going to cost us money, but if spent wisely, this will be money well spent to make our city safer. And we want the whole of Lewiston as one city to be safer, because if we solely focus on downtown and the street area, then all we're going to do is push the problems from one part of Lewiston to another. Finally, I know that there's a plan in the works to redesign how the third floor works, code, planning, economic development, into one larger, as I understand it, fully interconnected organization. I fully support this. One of the things I'd like to see our economics unit focus more on is instead of that one big project that brings in 200 plus jobs, maybe 10 smaller projects that will each bring us in 20 jobs. so that if, God forbid, we lose a project, we're not losing 200 jobs. Sometimes it's felt over the last couple of years that the economic development has not been properly pre-reviewing projects that are coming before the council. So the council, with the citizens objecting as well, has been forced to turn down projects or bring them back again at the next meeting with cleaned up language, proposals, et cetera. Thank you for your time.

Hi, David Rackmills, resident of Ward 1. It's been a busy year in Lewiston, and there's been a lot for you all to consider. I want to acknowledge that and express my thanks to each of you for your service to our community. You deserve credit for your commitment to moving Lewiston forward. You've come under attack individually and as a group, and I encourage you to focus on that last part. You are all part of a team. You don't have a coach. You don't compete head to head with other teams. And you may not have a shared sense of what it is that you're trying to accomplish, but you need to or you won't be effective. So talk to each other. And keep in mind that accountability works best when it comes from within the community rather than outside forces. There's been some valuable public dialogue this year. Let's have more of it here and in other forums like the school committee. Keep in mind that there are community members that are not comfortable speaking publicly, but whose voices are equally important and let's keep it respectful. Don't let personal animosities cloud your judgment and muddle your message. At the last meeting, one of the public commenters was lamenting the divisiveness of some of the discourse. And she specifically asked why people weren't supporting the school budget. As one of those people, I can offer that there are a variety of reasons why someone might vote against the budget. Doing so does not mean or should not imply that one doesn't care about the community or our youth. Two years ago, Councilor Gallant voted against the school budget and emphatically declared his right to opine on the reasons. Notably, he also gave messaging advice to the LEA and school administration. If the problems in our schools can't be discussed, then they can't be addressed. My motivation around the school budget referendum this year was to try to make space for the necessary conversations to begin. If you haven't seen the sunlight in our school's petition, I believe it's still up on the bulletin board behind this chamber, and I have some extra copies. I'd be happy to discuss it with Missy Frax, for whom I have immense respect, and anyone else in the community that is curious. Dialogue is the key to making meaningful change. So let's hold ourselves accountable and let's keep talking.

Hi, my name is.

Can you move the mic closer to you please? Thank you.

Hi, my name is Kim Bush. I live in Ward 2. I'm here to discuss something that happened about a month ago. This has been a reoccurring problem and I have been doing a lot of observation and documentation and I just wanted to speak to you guys tonight about what I've witnessed and let you know my thoughts on any possible solutions to reduce public safety for these individuals. I live on Walnut Street in Lewiston. I'm between Horton and Bartlett. I have seen so much chaos, I can't sleep at night. I'm a nervous wreck all the time. I can't deal with it. And it's harder now because my friend Kelly was shot in the face a couple of weeks ago, and I'm the one who brought her into my yard and hid her behind my car. And I wiped her blood and did what I could to help her. There were some significant things that had happened the week before. She was out there with another individual and that individual was having a medical issue and so I was out there. The two of us were assisting them. Two guys came walking by and they started saying stuff to us and then they threatened to shoot us. We ignored them and they said, I will shoot you all. They took their gun out and they kept aggravating. We attended to our friend that needed our help. They walked away. a week later exactly a week later at exactly the same time a vehicle came by and did what they did i've seen a little bit of a spin on this that this might be a random act of violence i'm here to tell you it's not i'm an eyewitness and i have plenty of witnesses that are terrified to approach the police department with what they're seeing on the street This has been continuing to happen even after the shooting. Individuals are reporting to me that these certain individuals keep coming through the area where they hang out, they know where they hang out, and they keep antagonizing and threatening them. This is statistics that the police department or safety committees are not going to be aware of. These are underprivileged individuals. Some of them are substance addiction people. And so I'm looking at the combination of homelessness, substance use, safety. What are the solutions? I went to a meeting at the Phoenix House, which is a sober house that supports substance use people. And a lot of discussion was had about availability at treatment centers or availability at beds. So we do have a shelter that has 40 beds, but those people are occupying those beds They're continuing to occupy those beds and they won't be getting out of those beds. Well on the day that my friend was shot She desperately needed a bed and I keep thinking back to that. It was hot. It was 93 degrees She has a heart condition and she basically She drank a bunch of alcohol and sat in a spot that she normally doesn't. It wasn't safe to be there. I wasn't able to pay attention. I have security cameras all around my building. That's why I'm telling you. I know what's happening. Unfortunately, she was in the wrong spot, but this is not random. I'm asking these individuals who are being threatened, what would you like to see? They would like to see the police department be a little bit more engaged as they're going through the area. The police department is in the area often, and a lot of times they're complaining about loitering. You need to move along. You need to move along. Even if the people are being peaceful and lovely. Some of these individuals aren't really doing anything wrong, but they feel as though they're being picked on and harassed. Some of the things that I have seen with the engagement with the police department, with these individuals, I'm not going to mention here, but let's just say one of them involved a significant head injury that I took pictures of, and they were terrified to say how it had happened. it certainly wasn't intentional but it was part of a process where somebody else was being pinned on their face on the ground because they were being disorderly that individual has a substance use issue and a mental health issue her friend came over you're hurting her I'm scared and you know you can't you can't charge an officer when they're apprehending someone that's the rule and they had every right to respond but unfortunately for them they're only 85 pound woman and they got a big wound on the back of their head like that so my feelings are i want to see more community engagement with the most disadvantaged people I would like to see funding allocated to places where substance use treatment can be acquired by these individuals. My understanding is that some of the hospitals will typically treat a severe alcohol addiction, but if it's heroin, crack, or anything else, I've seen these individuals back on the street in 48 hours getting into fights, being stolen from, and being in danger.

So it's my hope. If I can get you to wrap up in a few seconds here.

It's it's my hope that we could just be more aware of that and so we can get some support in that Thank you, and I'm sorry your first name Kim Kim.

Oh, I would pass.

I'm sorry.

What's that? Kim Bush would too Oh Deputy administrator. Can you please give her my card if you can email me Kim? I would appreciate it Thank you for the public comment

Charles Souls, 70 Horton Street, Lewiston, Maine. This morning I had an appointment at the Challenger Drive clinic, veterans clinic. And on both sides of the road there were tractor trailers parked. Some going in the correct direction of traffic and some parked not. And then there was pallets, trash, and CANS, THEY GOT TRASH CANS THERE THAT ARE NOT BEING PICKED UP. I WISH THAT THE CITY COUNCIL WOULD TAKE IN CONSIDERATION PUTTING NO PARKING SIGNS, THE COLLAPSIBLE ONES WHICH YOU USE ON PINE STREET ON CHALLENGER DRIVE AT LEAST ONE SIDE BECAUSE WHAT THEY'RE DOING, I HAD TO WAIT TO DRIVE UP THROUGH THE MIDDLE OF THE STREET. to let another car by and I'm here representing Brad Dillman. He is the facility manager for the Veterans Administration. He said he had already discussed it with the city and he had no No luck. So I'm hoping you can do that. At least put up the collapsible no parking signs on one side of the street. Now, another thing I wanted to bring up is that I believe that Lewiston should go back to its own jail system. And it might be an expense, but I think we could help out the Sheriff's Department. We have a lot of mill space. That's it. Thank you very much.

Hello John Horton Ward 2. Most of you at this point have actually met with me to discuss the ordinance potential for the mobile home park rent cap. I'm here to again voice that this is a wrong thing to do. The sign coming in the city says certified business friendly. This is not a business friendly move. The mobile home parks that we've discussed. The claim is that they're making it unaffordable for people. I would make some simple comparisons. If you look at the average home in Lewiston, they pay at least as much property tax as their entire annually as the mobile home park people pay annually for their lot rent. So which one's more unaffordable? It is the most affordable way of living. But if you're gonna put a crimp on it, it's gonna cause problems. You will not have affordable housing from mobile home parks, because they will not expand. We may have not built the park new in quite a while, but some of the parks have expanded But you won't get any expansion if this goes through it just cripples them too much if you want to make a comparison think about the city if you guys had to live by the exact same rules you're trying to enforce on the parks a CPI increase annually for the total cost of everything you would find out you'd be crippled in no time add to that as a business owner who all my money's tied up in this, not a single dime of anybody else's, what happens when I start going negative and I have to beg some board that's put together through the housing and I'm not picking on the housing committee. They've been great. I've been to all their meetings to try and explain things to them. I have talked to many of you and I appreciate your time. I've still got some follow up with some of you and I've got some I need to contact. But if you take and you make it so that I have to go beg to get things and I have to show you more financials than I have to show at an IRS audit, what's wrong with that? Maybe you ought to come at it from a different direction, not trying to attack the owners and make them be in financial straits. Maybe you ought to look at it and say, what can we do? Because here's a perfect example. Every time I do a rent increase, I will have various people, every single time, they will cry. They're going to have to move out or sell their trailer or whatever. And in 20 years of managing parks and owning parks, I've never had a single one do it, ever. Now if you go the other direction, if you do have a tenant that truly has an issue, why don't they come to the city and prove they have an issue instead of me proving I'm going broke, them prove they have to, and then the city find a way to get them in a program someplace to cover their expenses. Go the other direction for the ones that are actually in trouble. again i do want to take the last second to thank each of the counselors i've met with the ones i need to follow up with the ones i'm going to talk to and i do want to say and i've said it publicly at the housing committee those people have done a great job even though i hate this ordinance and i don't want it they've done a good job thank you further public comment

Hi, I'm Nathan from Lewiston, Maine, and I recently came to the realization that our country has been capable of building skyscrapers since 1885 for 141 years now, yet we're allowing 800,000 plus citizens to suffer unhoused. and i don't think it's necessary to provide main care to citizens just to leave them high and dry deteriorating their health outside living in tents and ebt food stamps you can't really do much with with no appliances or cookware thank you

Further public comment? Public comment is now closed. Administrator Kainrath, I understand you have a administrator's report.

All right. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I appreciate it. Starting off with the cart-to-curb transition, we have a few more public information sessions coming up tomorrow, Wednesday evening, 5.30 to 7 p.m. at the Geiger Elementary School, and also Wednesday, August 26th, 5.30 to 7 p.m. at McMahon Elementary School on North Temple Street. ALL MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC ARE INVITED TO COME AND HAVE THEIR QUESTIONS ANSWERED AND MEET WITH CITY STAFF ABOUT THE UPCOMING CART TO CURB INITIATIVE. A FEW STAFF UPDATES AND MILESTONES. I'D JUST LIKE TO ANNOUNCE FIRST CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR JUNE EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH ADAM HART. ADAM HAS BEEN A DEDICATED EMPLOYEE WITH THE CITY SINCE 2007 CURRENTLY WORKING AS A WATER AND SEWER EQUIPMENT OPERATOR. HE WAS NOMINATED FOR EXEMPLIFYING TEAMWORK AND COLLABORATION, LEADERSHIP AND INITIATIVE, RELIABILITY AND CONSISTENCY. as well as a positive attitude. Most notably, while operating an excavator on a recent job site, Adam recognized that something wasn't right and stopped digging. His quick thinking revealed an incorrectly marked gas line, potentially preventing a catastrophic accident. Beyond his exceptional work ethic, Adam is known for his fantastic sense of humor and his ability to make everyone around him laugh, and he's a valued team member both on and off the job. So congrats to Adam on his achievements, and we thank him for his work with the city. In our police department, Tyler Martin has celebrated 15 years of service with the department as of July 11th. In our fire department, Tim Berry and Luke Gervais have both reached 20 years of service this month with Lewiston Fire. Also, Corporal Matt Cashman at Lewiston PD will be retiring this year at the end of July after 30 years of service to the city. Thank you, Corporal, for all of your years of service. I'd also like to thank a number of city departments for their quick work with assisting the victims and displaced families of the Main Street Fire, including our recreation department, our fire department, and our social services department in particular. Thank you for everyone for your work there, as well as our community partners, the Red Cross and others for stepping up so quickly to help those displaced families. Thank you all. The Maine Resiliency Center, which we have engaged with to conduct a survey, is inviting the public to participate in the Community Impact and Resilience Survey, now open through July. The survey is designed to better understand how the events of October 25th have impacted individuals and the broader community over time, what is supported recovery, and what needs may still exist. So that survey is available. It's maineresiliencycenter.org slash community survey. Please visit there for more information. A reminder, the Beyond the Badge event, the first Beyond the Badge event is coming up this Thursday, July 23rd at Samar and Payton Park, 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. Please come down, bring your families, lots of great stuff there, and a great opportunity to engage with our Police Department, Fire Department, United Ambulance, Life Flight of Maine, and others. So we hope to see everyone this Thursday, July 23rd, again, 3 to 7 p.m. We have some reconstructed tennis courts. The Anita Murphy tennis courts look really great. They are now done. They are open for use. This $1.3 million project was a full reconstruction, including new underdrains, gravel, pavement, fencing, and lights. They've also been stripped for both tennis and pickleball. So please check them out. It really looks great. The Lobster Bowl Classic, the 36th annual Maine Shrine Lobster Bowl Classic, took place this past week at Lewiston High School. The West team defeated the East team 28-26 in an exciting game finish. The annual charity all-star game featured over 140 of the top graduating high school football players and shielders from across the state. But this year also, Lewiston High School Athletic Director Jason Fuller was honored with the prestigious Mike Haley Award, which recognizes outstanding contributions to the Lobster Bowl. The event did raise $310,000 for Shriners Children's Hospital. So thank you to all involved and congratulations. Lastly, I just want to thank the No Name Pond Association who hosted me last week out at the ponds to talk about the ponds, the watershed, and some of the issues they're facing. And I appreciate the boat ride they gave me. Also, it's one of the more interesting and fun meetings I've had in a while. So thank you very much for all of your hospitality. Thank you.

uh thank you administrator kinrath we appreciate your service to our city uh madam clerk item number one item number one confirmation of mayor chalene's nomination to fill the current vacancy in the ward 7 position on the school committee requested action to receive the mayor's nomination and to appoint emily levasser to fill the vacant ward 7 position on the lewiston school committee set appointment to be effective as of july 21st 2026 with term ending january 4th 2027.

I HAVE A MOTION, PLEASE. SO MOVED. SECOND. SECOND BY COUNSELOR HERRMAN. I'LL GO FIRST HERE. EMILY JOINS US. THANK YOU SO MUCH. AND, YEAH, HAS A SPECIAL NEEDS CHILD WHO'S IN OUR SCHOOL SYSTEM. AND RIGHT NOW, I DON'T BELIEVE WE HAVE A SCHOOL COMMITTEE MEMBER HERE PRESENT AND ONE IN THE AUDIENCE. THANK YOU BOTH FOR SERVING. RIGHT NOW, I DON'T BELIEVE THAT WE HAVE ANYONE ON THE SCHOOL COMMITTEE WHO CURRENTLY HAS CHILDREN IN OUR SCHOOL SYSTEM. And so, yeah, I appreciate your willingness to serve. Questions, comments from the council? We're adding the public comment for this agenda item. Please step up to the podium.

Good evening. My name is Emily Lavasser. I am a resident of Ward 7. I'm a mother of two young neurodivergent children, the wife of a disabled Army veteran, and a proud member of Lewiston's Franco-American community, and a small business owner. My professional and educational background has centered around supporting children and families. I worked for five years as a behavioral health professional where I supported children with special needs and collaborated closely with their families educators and service providers. I also volunteered for two summers at a camp serving children with disabilities and have been a strong advocate for children with special needs and at-risk youth. I attended Unity College where I studied psychology and adventure education, completing nearly all my degree requirements. I also plan to continue my education in the near future at the University of Southern Maine where I intend to pursue a degree in behavioral and social sciences. As a parent of children in Lewiston Public Schools, I have developed a deep appreciation for the work our teachers, support staff, administrators, and community partners do every day. I am especially grateful for our district's commitment to serving students with disabilities, students from immigrant families, and children who may face social and economic barriers. I recognize that serving on the school committee requires listening, collaboration, thoughtful decision making, and a willingness to continue learning. If appointed, I will work hard to represent the residents of Ward 7 while always keeping the best interests of all Lewiston students at the forefront of every decision. It is truly an honor to be considered for this. Thank you for your time, and I appreciate the opportunity to serve my community.

Further public comment.

Hi. My name is Sierra Pomelo. I am in Ward 7. I just wanted to take the opportunity to say that it's an honor to support Emily Lavasser. I have had the privilege of knowing her for over 10 years. She's a very close friend of mine and she is somebody who She goes above and beyond. She's always looking to figure out the best way to help her community members. She's helped me, myself, my children. I've seen her go above and beyond. When we were in Unity, I know a situation where I was involved. We have known each other since college, and she was there, my right-hand man, woman. right-hand person and she's amazing she will be truly truly great at this and i appreciate you all taking the time and the energy to support her in this move thank you further public comment back to the council uh yes councillor longchamps

thank you mayor thank you so much for sharing a little bit about yourself with us i really like that i i wish more people that were being appointed to committees would take the opportunity to share about themselves with the public thank you

Councilor Chittum.

Thank you. I'd like to second Councilor Longchamp. It's unusual that we have applicants for appointment address the council. It's very much appreciated and I enjoyed learning a little bit more about you. Thank you.

Further questions, comments from the council? Madam Clerk, please call the vote.

Councilor from Ward 7? Yes. Ward 1? Yes. Ward 2? Yes.

yes yes yes yes thank you very much thank you item number two item number two appointment of the financial institution representative to the housing committee requested action to receive the mayor's appointment and to confirm the appointment of julia bartlett to a three-year term as the financial institution representative on the housing committee said appointment is filling a vacancy and the term will expire january 2nd 2029.

I HAVE A MOTION, PLEASE. SO MOVED. COUNSELOR HERRMAN. SECOND. SECOND BY COUNSELOR CHIDDUM. I APPRECIATE THE COUNCIL'S CONSIDERATION OF JULIA AND HAPPY TO PUT HER NAME FORWARD. QUESTIONS, COMMENTS? PUBLIC COMMENT? BACK TO THE COUNCIL. COUNSELOR LONGCHAMPS.

IS JULIA HERE?

YES, SHE IS HERE.

THANK YOU.

Not that the applicant needed to be here, but we appreciate you being here Madam clerk, please call the vote Yes, yes, yes Yes Thank you. Thank you. Item number three.

Item number three, public hearing on an application for a new liquor license and special amusement permit for live entertainment for the Colise 190 Birch Street. Requested action to authorize the city clerk's office to approve a new liquor license application and special amusement permit for the Colise 190 Birch Street.

May I have a motion please? So moved. Councilor Chittum? Second. Seconded by Councilor Nagy. Discussion? Councilor Chittum.

I have a question for Madam Clerk. Exposing my ignorance here, later on in the agenda we're going to be asking the council to approve a request from the administrator to the state to issue a liquor license for an agent. Do we also issue agent licenses or do we issue licenses only for on-premise consumption? And further, do on-premise consumption establishments receive a license from the state?

We do not license locally agency liquor stores because, as you noted, they're not consuming liquor on premise. So we don't license them as far as a business license.

Can you move the mic closer to you?

They would certainly need to go through the Code Enforcement Department regarding zoning and all of that. But as far as a business license, agency liquor stores are not licensed by the city. And then the second half is, yes, businesses that have liquor consumed on premises need a state liquor license as well as a city liquor license.

Thank you, ma'am.

Sure.

Further questions, comments from the council? Public comment? Back to the council. Madam Clerk, please call the vote.

Councilor, from word seven? Yes. Word one? Yes. Word two? Yes. Word three? Yes. Word four? Yes. Word five? Yes. Word six? Yes.

Motion passed, a vote of seven to zero.

Item number four.

item number four public hearing for approval of an outdoor entertainment permit for the dempsey challenge requested action to conduct a public hearing on an application for an outdoor entertainment event for the dempsey challenge and to grant a permit for an outdoor entertainment event as required by the city code of ordinances chapter 10 article 1 Section 10-3 to the Dempsey Center for Outdoor Music Concerts for the Dempsey Challenge to be held at Samard Payne Park on September 13th through 22nd, contingent upon positive recommendations from the police department, fire department, code health officer, and land use inspector regarding compliance with all regulations and compliance with all city ordinances.

I have a motion, please. So moved. Councillor Chittenden. Second. Seconded by Councillor Naging. Discussion? Public comment? Back to the Council. Madam Clerk, please call the vote.

Councillor from Ward 7?

Yes.

Ward 1? Yes. Ward 2? Yes. Ward 3? Yes. Ward 4? Yes. Ward 5? Yes. Ward 6? Yes. Motion passed by vote of 7 to 0.

Thank you very much, Madam Clerk. Item number five.

Item number five, public hearing and final passage to establish the residential rental properties ordinance and moving the rental registration section into this new ordinance. Request an action that a new ordinance be created in the city code of ordinances designated as chapter 23 and titled residential rental properties and that the proposed amendment to the residential rental properties ordinance to add the code language regarding the rental registration program receive final passage by a roll call vote.

Motion please. So moved. Councillor Chittum. Second. Second by Councillor Martell. Discussion? Public comment? Back to the council. Madam Clerk please call the vote. Council from word seven. Yes.

Word one. Yes. Word two. Yes. Word three.

yes word four yes word five yes word six yes seven to zero i'm number six item number six public hearing and final passage to remove the rental registration section from the buildings and building regulations ordinance requested action that the proposed amendment to the city code of ordinances chapter 18 buildings and building regulations article 6 rental resident i'm sorry

REGISTRATION REQUIREMENT FOR MULTI-FAMILY BUILDINGS REGARDING THE REMOVAL OF LANGUAGE PERTAINING TO THE RENTAL REGISTRATION PROGRAM RECEIVE FINAL PASSAGE BY A ROLL CALL VOTE I HAVE A MOTION PLEASE SO MOVED COUNCILOR MARTELL SECOND BY COUNCILOR NAGINE DISCUSSION PUBLIC COMMENT BACK TO THE COUNCIL MADAM CLERK PLEASE CALL THE VOTE THAT'S IT FROM WORD SEVEN YES WORD ONE YES WORD TWO YES WORD

Yes. Board 4? Yes. Board 5? Yes. Board 6? Yes.

Motion to pass with a vote of 7 to 0.

Item number 7.

Item number seven, public hearing and final passage regarding an amendment to the Amusements and Entertainment Ordinance to eliminate the requirement for a public hearing for outdoor entertainment permits and to authorize city staff to issue these permits. Requested action that the proposed amendment to the City Code of Ordinances Chapter 10 Amusements and Entertainment to remove the requirement for a public hearing for an outdoor entertainment permit and to authorize city staff to issue these permits receive final passage by a roll call vote.

I HAVE A MOTION, PLEASE. SO MOVED. COUNCILOR NAJING, SECONDED BY? COUNCILOR CHIDDUM. COUNCILOR CHIDDUM, YES, THANK YOU. SORRY IF I MISSED YOU, COUNCILOR MARTELL. PUBLIC OR, NO. ALL RIGHT. QUESTIONS, COMMENTS FROM THE COUNCIL? PUBLIC COMMENT? BACK TO THE COUNCIL. MADAM CLERK, PLEASE CALL THE VOTE. COUNCIL, FROM WORD 7? YES. WORD 1? YES.

WORD 2? YES. Yes. Word four. Yes. Word five. Yes. Word six. Yes. Motion passed with a vote of seven to zero.

Thank you very much. It's only 7.40 and it's already been a long night. Item number eight.

Public hearing and final passage regarding an amendment to the business license ordinance to remove the list of city parks and refer to the parks and recreation ordinance. Requested action that the proposed amendment to the city code of ordinances chapter 22 businesses section 22-422 definitions to remove the list of city parks receive final passage by a roll call vote.

I have a motion, please. So moved. Second. Councilor Chittum, seconded by Councilor Martell. Discussion? Public comment? Back to the council. Madam Clerk, please call the vote. Councilor, from word seven? Yes.

Word one? Yes. Word two? Yes. Word three? Yes. Word four? Yes. Word five? Yes. Word six? Yes.

Motion passed with a vote of seven to zero.

Thank you very much, Madam Clerk. Item number nine.

Item number nine, public hearing and final passage for an amendment to the Zoning and Land Use Code, Article 11, district regulations for changes to the No Name Pond Conservation Overlay District to require soil disturbance within buffers to follow main DEP requirements. requested action that the proposed amendments to appendix a of the code of ordinances zoning and land use code article 11 district regulations for changes to the no-name pond conservation overlay district to require disturbance within buffers to follow dep requirements receive final passage by a roll call vote

Motion please so moved councillor Chittum snack and send by councillor Nagin director Connor. Thank you for joining us.

Please kick us off Thank You mr. Mayor and councillors as you recall this was the ordinance language change that the planning board recommended to the council the council made some changes of their own and sent it back to the planning board planning board heard it added it and recommended it on a 7-0 vote back to you guys and at the last meeting you guys all voted for it 7-0 and this is the second reading of that same ordinance and i couldn't have read it any better than madam clerk did questions comments from the council public comment for this agenda item

Dan Bernier, Ward 6, Councilors and Mayor. I'm asking, requesting clarification on the following discussion at the recent Council meeting. To begin, I want to be clear that I support a strong effective non-implant ordinance. My concern is limited to ensuring that such an ordinance does not create or implied buildability for 18 Waters Edge Drive. My understanding, and I believe the record will reflect this, is that Mr. Connor stated proposed ordinance change was brought forward specifically for connection with a permit for 18 Waters Edge Drive and that he further stated that change would not allow buildability on that lot. based on statement is my belief that bmp related amendment does not alter setbacks does not reduce the no name pawn overlay does not change the buildability status of 18 wars edge drive at this time i do not believe 18 wars is drive TO BE BUILDABLE. I RESPECTFULLY REQUEST I RESPECTFULLY REQUEST I RESPECTFULLY REQUEST CONFIRMATION AS TO WHETHER ANY CONFIRMATION AS TO WHETHER ANY CONFIRMATION AS TO WHETHER ANY UPDATES, CHANGES, OR ACTIONS UPDATES, CHANGES, OR ACTIONS UPDATES, CHANGES, OR ACTIONS HAVE OCCURRED SINCE THAT MEETING HAVE OCCURRED SINCE THAT MEETING HAVE OCCURRED SINCE THAT MEETING THAT WOULD AFFECT THE BUILDABILITY THAT WOULD AFFECT THE BUILDABILITY THAT WOULD AFFECT THE BUILDABILITY OF 18 WATERS AT DRIVE.

OF 18 WATERS AT DRIVE. OF 18 WATERS AT DRIVE. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO

So yes, excuse me, I believe the comment that's in reference was when Councillor Chittum asked if the current reading of the ordinance would prohibit the permit being issued, to which I said yes. And my understanding of the current ordinance language that we had. The addition of number seven, the language that Councilor Chittum proposed back to the planning board would now make that lot buildable. So this ordinance, as it passes tonight, will make that lot buildable.

Thank you. Further questions or comments? Yeah. Public comment is now over, but do you, yeah, do you have, I will, since you're a resident here, I will allow you to, but can you, just talk into the mic.

So, again, it was any use setback, so I'm a little, I'm completely withdrawn by this because even the board that it went to believed this wasn't going to be buildable. There is zero setbacks. There is stormwater there. The BMPs are only when you're actually acting on the property. This does not relegate this to some DEP setbacks. It didn't change anything. It said during the work, the best management practices will take place, period. There is no other change. I DON'T HAVE ANYTHING ELSE TO SAY.

THANK YOU.

THANK YOU.

FURTHER QUESTIONS, COMMENTS FROM THE COUNCIL? ANYTHING FURTHER, DIRECTOR CONNER? MADAM CLARK, PLEASE CALL THE VOTE. COUNCILOR, FROM WORD 7? YES.

WORD 1? YES. WORD 2? YES. WORD 3? YES. WORD 4? YES.

WORD 5? WORD 5 IS ABSENT.

OH, I'M SORRY. WORD 6? YES. AND MR. MAYOR? YES.

MOTION PASSED BY VOTE OF 7-0.

Item number 10.

Item number 10, public hearing and first passage regarding amendments to the solid waste ordinance to define the automated side load trash collection program. Requested action that the proposed amendments to the city code of ordinances chapter 62 solid waste to define the automated side load trash collection program receive first passage by a roll call vote and to continue the public hearing to the next regularly scheduled city council meeting.

May I have a motion, please? So moved. Councilor Chittum? Second. Seconded by Councilor Martell. If you can please introduce yourself, sir, and then kick us off.

I'm John Kuczynski, Environmental Service Superintendent, Public Works. The ordinance change is basically dealing with where the current ordinance talks about residents providing their own suitable containers. The city, through the contract, is now providing trash carts, so we're taking out suitable container language that talks about people providing their own carts, and we're substituting language where the contract is providing trash carts.

uh thank you council airman thank you i just had a question under the definitions so it's section 62-11 under the definition of suitable container it says that the weight of the waste placed in the container shall not exceed 50 pounds and i'm just concerned well one it seems like those containers can hold a lot more than 50 pounds and i'm also concerned because we're limiting every household to one container now so that means they'll only be limited to 50 pounds of trash or recycling each week whereas you know under the current system you can put out as many containers as you want as long as the individual ones don't exceed i think it's 30 pounds open to changes that i think there's certain limits to amount that the truck can limit but i think we used 50 was a guideline but you know we can strike that if this your desire it's just within the limits of what the truck can lift okay yeah I guess I feel like it probably can lift more than 50 pounds plus the cart and I was just surprised to see that it would be restricted to only 50 pounds in in each cart

Did we get that limit directly from Casella.

I don't recall. I'd have to check with them. I think we saw that somewhere and we put it in the ordinance but we can double check that.

Okay, thank you. Councillor Nagy.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Just to verify, we do have about 100 streets where the cart court curb or sorry, maybe it's not 100 streets, but there are certain streets where the trash is still going to be picked up manually, I believe.

yes some of the basically the tree streets the downtown area where there's too many the streets are narrow a lot of parking on the street a lot of multi-family unit buildings on those streets where it's impractical to do the automatic side loads

So on those trucks that service those areas where they have like a back load, like a table up?

They have a little car lifter, but that's time consuming. They prefer just to empty the trash can into the truck directly.

I get that. Ultimately, we're paying a considerable amount of money for the new service. And while I understand that Casella is providing the bins, we bought them. uh my my point with uh i want to be able to one verify with casella what their side load can carry right and i think that whatever number they come back with is an advisory number is probably higher than the 50 pounds but i don't want to set an arbitrary number i want to make sure that casella is comfortable that and the second part is the downtown uh residential areas where we know um those units will that the new trash containers will be fully used um we need to make sure that casella is aware of the fact that you know if they're going to limit it to a 50 pound dump because it's going to be physically done by a person THAT'S A RECIPE FOR DISASTER. THAT BACKLOAD PIECE IS SOMETHING I'VE SEEN QUITE COMMONLY. I JUST WANT TO POINT THOSE TWO THINGS OUT. I KNOW WE'RE WORKING THROUGH THESE PIECES, BUT THANK YOU.

Thank you, Mayor. Councillor Harriman raised a good point, and it seems like it would be pretty easy for you to just strike that out. So that would just be my suggestion that you just take it out. Yeah, we just take that out. Thank you.

Councillor Martell.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Is it that simple, though, that we can just strike out part of the contract that Cosello?

It's your ordinance, yes. I think it's a number we came up with. I can't remember where we came up with that, but I've been working on this for several months.

So that's only the city? That has nothing to do with the city's contract with Cosello where this is defined?

It's not in the contract. It's just about the truck. Excellent. Thank you.

Thank you for your patience. Council Roy.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Doing a quick search here, it says the can itself is like 25 to 30 pounds, but when full, it holds 200 to 250 pounds. Okay. All right. So just want to make sure like we're kind of, yeah, upping that a little bit maybe because a lot of households are probably going to. Might be a little bit heavier. Yeah. Thank you.

Councilor Noble.

How are they going to know how much the trash weighs? That's what I want to know. Are they weighing them or how does that?

Oh, it's just a matter of when the truck can't lift it, then it's too heavy.

OK. So it could go up to 200 pounds. And as long as the truck could lift it, then nobody's going to get spoken to?

Councillor Chittum, yes. Thank you Mr. Mayor. It sounds to me as though this may want to be tabled unless someone wants to make a formal amendment to alter the language and it doesn't sound as though we're ready to put a number in there at this point.

The number is probably not that important. It's just the important part of this order change is the description of suitable containers to carts.

I beg to differ, sir. This is an ordinance, and the language in the ordinance, as people who know me know, is important. I would make a motion to table this until we get an answer on that number, and I would like to also make two minor corrections to the ordinance. Sure. In section 62.6, there is a missing word, I believe. It talks about food processing plants, nursing homes, hospitals, etc., Establishment includes a commercial activity. I think the word that is missing there and finally The second minor correction I have is a concern that in areas of automated waste collection I'm talking about section OH, DEAR, THAT'S A LONG SECTION. 6213 ON THE FINAL PAGE IN SUBSECTION F. IN AREAS OF AUTOMATED WASTE COLLECTION, INDIVIDUAL CARDS ARE TO BE PLACED TWO FEET APART AND KEPT A MINIMUM OF FIVE FEET FROM FIXED OBJECTS. I understand that you don't want the carts next to each other, and I would suggest that you specify that the carts be placed at least two feet apart. Okay. The problem with two feet is if I've got to put it five feet from my mailbox and two feet from each cart, I've used up my entire driveway, and my option in the winter then is to shovel the big mound of snow that I've created by clearing out the wind rope created by the plow at the end of the driveway, and I am not unique in this problem. Thank you.

I understand your idea was at the table, Councillor Chen, but perhaps I have a path forward. So, you know, this is the first reading, and we can pass this tonight. We can allow Public Works to find out what the number should be from Casella, and then when we come back for the second reading, we can plug the number in, which would not represent a substantial change. Would you agree with that, Madam Clerk?

Yes, I would.

Okay. And then we can just pass it without needing to delay if councillors are amenable to that. Councillor Longchamps, yes.

Thank you. Why can't we just make a friendly amendment to the word that and the distance of the trash cans and put a limit of 250 pounds? Sure. To me, then we just move forward. We don't delay this. Can we do that?

Sure. Possibly? Yeah. You can do that.

Yeah, I mean we can plug in whatever number now, but this number is, you know, hopefully going to be provided to us by Casella. I mean we can plug in our number now.

Can you verify the 250 from Casella at the next reading?

yeah and if it needs to change in the next meeting that's fine madam clerk did you get all that i did so we're changing the number 50 to 250 and then inserting the word that in section 62-6 and then doing at least two feet in 62-13 correct

Could we do this as a friendly amendment, Madam Clerk?

I would suggest not because you're removing some proposed language that's going to be inserted. Understood. I think a formal motion would be better. Thank you, sir.

Do we have a second for this amendment? Second. Council Martel is seconded. Can we please vote on this amendment? Madam Clerk, please call the vote.

Sure. Councillor from Ward 7? Yes. Ward 1? Yes.

Yes.

Yes. Board three? Yes. Board four? Yes. Board five? Yes. Board six? Yes. Motion passed by a vote of seven to zero.

We're now having public comment for this agenda item. Back to the council, anything further?

I'm all set, thank you.

Madam Clerk, please call the vote.

Council for board seven?

Yes.

Board one? Yes. Board two? Yes. Board three? Yes. Board four? Yes. Board five? Yes. Board six? Yes. Motion passed by a vote of seven to zero.

Thank you very much. Item number 11.

Item number 11, order approving the letter of intent with Echo Hospitality Consultants. Requested action to adopt the order approving the letter of intent with Echo Hospitality Consultants.

I have a motion, please. So moved. Second. Councillor Chen, I'm polled by Councillor Martel. Director, thanks for joining us. Chris, thanks for joining us. If you can both introduce yourselves and then kick us off and we'll go from there. Sure.

John Blaze, Acting Director of Economic and Community Development.

Chris Thompson, Eco-Hospitality Consultants. Thank you for having me tonight.

good evening mayor and members of the city council uh thank you for inviting us back uh this evening to provide an update for the proposal letter of intent for the red shop and the broad broader riverfront hospitality development initiative We appreciate the thoughtful discussion that has taken place over the past several weeks and the opportunity to continue refining this proposal based on council feedback and community input. Included in the packets are the updated LOI, Exhibits A and B, which is the parking agreement and the special events policy. um since the letter of intent was first introduced in may city staff and eco hospitality consultants have continued working together to clarify terms address concerns raised by council and the public and improve the overall framework of the proposed partnership The document before you tonight remains a non-binding letter of intent intended to establish a roadmap for negotiating a joint development agreement should the Council choose to proceed. A few more important revisions have been incorporated into the updated draft. added flexibility the red shop disposition so either a sale or a long-term lease and then providing council additional flexibility as discussions continue so that we'll be back for another hearing for that community use considerations the letter of intent now includes a commitment to engage the community regarding The future of the red shop access and programming with findings and incorporation into the final lease or purchase documents were practical. This is our community conversations piece that we brought up last meeting. Project sequencing. If the additional time is needed to determine the future of the Red Shop, negotiations for the hotel expansion, tax increment, financing agreement, and other redevelopment components may continue independently so the broader economic development opportunities are not delayed. we can sequence this with the really the hotel being the the primary project with the tiff uh going to decd with a tiff and then having the public hearing for that so that would be our first step our concert and event programming the document further clarifies the city retains approval authority over programming outside of the nationally touring concerts again that's going to be incrementally rolled out over a bunch of years that I think that again we will be back to council on that to kind of lay out what the progression of that might look like so and then it will be refining things like the like an aerial for site plan of where infrastructure's gonna go, what we've built to date, what we've planned on building, what does the total build-out look like at that point? So again, another public hearing at that point. More importantly, the core economic development vision has not changed. The proposal continues to contemplate the renovation and the activation of the red shop expansion of the existing Hampton Inn or construction of a second hotel completion of a long-standing commitments related to 39 Lincoln Street parcel negotiation of a 30-year credit here and submit agreement at TIF district and then continued investment in sumane pain memorial park as a regional destination for recreation tourism entertainment and economic activity tonight's discussion is not a request to approve a sale or a lease of the red shop rather is an opportunity for the council to review the updated letter of intent provide policy direction and determine whether staff should continue negotiating the detailed joint development agreement and related documents that will return to the council for future public review and approval we appreciate your continued guidance and process and look forward to answering questions and chris if you want to add anything you're more than welcome just just want to say that um

following up on our meeting together a couple weeks ago um and reflecting on the let me we're not sure what that noise is but the ceiling is still uh hasn't started falling yet so please continue appreciate the opportunity to refine the letter of intent so that hopefully addresses the questions that were outstanding last time and happy to answer any that remain open

I appreciate you being here. Thank you. Councillor Longchamps.

Thank you, Mayor. I don't want to keep you here too long. Thank you for coming back. My pleasure. I wish this would have been passed the first time, but we're here again, so thank you.

Is this on? Yep.

just move it closer to you please thank you thank you basically that was it i think it's a great project um i hope there is uh no doubt uh with all of the council sitting here so that we can move this forward and i'm to apologize that you have to do this in sections but i think we'll get there thank you counselor uh noble

I just wanted to ask, I know you said about community involvement, and I just wanted to know if there were going to be any workarounds for the people who are already in the red shop using it for the boats. Is that something that you're looking at still kind of not necessarily accommodating by at least listening to them?

Absolutely. I read Amy Smith's letter that came in, I think, today. She cc'd me on that, which I was grateful for. We have indicated and had indicated years ago. We talked about our involvement in the red shop with Amy a long while back and indicated that we were then and have been open to having, you know, a collaborative relationship with the rowing group. And the list of uses that she outlined other than the rowing specific ones which again we remain open to you know to to considering how we can work with them. Substantially all of those other uses were ones that we presented to the council when we met in executive session several you know sessions ago. So those all remain consistent with what we're intending to do so substantially all of the. articulated goals for community collaboration are ones that we also share specifically in our plan for that building.

Thank you.

Councilor Martell.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you for being here and coming back. I really appreciate your investment in the community. I think that we're really lucky to get a project like this. I think many municipalities would be thrilled to get a project like this. My quick concern, and this doesn't necessarily have to be anything that gets an amendment scratched off. I know this is a work in progress, but I actually have a little bit of concern around the community engagement clause that's in there, and I would just like to point out that anyone in the community that has a desire to have input on this is all represented represented by a counselor up here they also have access to public comment so I have a little bit of concern codifying into the agreement that there's going to be some formal seat at the table or something there's a process by which to address one's concerns and um you know this this is a council decision and i just think that we need to be careful i don't want to disengage from the community and i think that you have a wonderful approach i just would urge a little bit of caution around um formally codifying maybe a voice or a voter or something along those lines so that's all i've got thank you

Councillor Nagy. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I would just like to state that I'm greatly appreciative of the rewritten letter of intent that Eco Hospitality Consultants is not a new developer, not a new developer to this community. has shown a long-standing commitment to both Lewiston and to projects that he's worked on within the state. And I appreciate the collaborative approach and the very humbleness some developers would be very upset from the first process and I apologize for that. I'm glad you're back at the table and it speaks to your care for this community and your care for projects that will work and so thank you.

Councilor Harriman. Thank you. I just wanted to thank you for promptly addressing the concerns in the previous letter and adding the community input section of it. I greatly appreciate the quick turnaround, so thanks. Thank you.

Now I need a public comment for this agenda item.

Matthew Egren Ward 4 I'm glad to see this back before us and I'm glad to see the language has been cleaned up so that it doesn't indicate that you have sole control of the park part of the reason that it was rejected was bad language this is a project where yes we're looking forward to yes I'd love to see nationally events here in Lewiston instead of having to travel to Portland or Bangor but we had to get the proper language done first. And I'm glad you came back with it. Thank you.

Further public comment? Public comment is now closed. Back to you, Councillor Herman.

Thank you. I just wanted to read public comment from a constituent. This is the letter from Amy Smith that we all received. She wanted to be here tonight to read this publicly, so I'll just read it real quick here. Dear Mayor, City Council, City Administration, City Staff, and City Planning Board, Lewiston Rowing is encouraged by the revised letter of intent and is standing by to collaborate on this exciting and significant new investment into the Riverfront project. THE REVISED LETTER OF INTENT HAS TWO IMPORTANT IMPROVEMENTS. RECOGNITION THAT THIS PROJECT COULD PROCEED THROUGH A LONG-TERM LEASE AND A COMMITMENT TO AUTHENTIC COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT AND BENEFIT. THE POSSIBILITY OF A LONG-TERM LEASE IS SIGNIFICANT BECAUSE IT MEANS THE COUNCIL NO LONGER FACES AN ALL OR NOTHING DECISION. The project can move forward while preserving public ownership during a thoughtful deliberation period where the city and residents determine whether a long-term ground lease can accomplish the same economic and community development goals. Lewiston Rowing supports continuing negotiations and encourages the city of Lewiston to fully evaluate long-term ground lease as the city's preferred ownership and stewardship structure unless it can be demonstrated that an outright sale provides a materially greater public benefit. the commitment to authentic community engagement is critical as this public asset is truly a diamond in the rough whose potential is unfamiliar to most lewiston residents lewiston rowing's modest outreach to 100 plus residents via surveys and a visioning session has already built excitement and support for uses that would fully activate this underutilized section of smart pain park including, and I'll summarize a little bit here, water-focused camps, classes and activities, youth summer camps, senior outings, winter activities, indoor farmer's market and seasonal craft markets, private parties, concerts, movie nights, team building retreats, headquarters for organizations using the park, yoga, indoor rowing and other health and recreation programs, and community pop-up events. We appreciate the one-year lease granted by the city which allowed us to conduct this outreach and are ready to leverage the momentum and continue this work in collaboration with the city, the developer, and our residents. Sincerely, Amy Smith, Executive Director, Lewiston Rowing.

Councillor Martell.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Yes, so if we're going to read emails into the record, I don't have mine with me, but I do want to state I think it's important to bring this up. More than one of my constituents and some residents outside of my ward reached out to me and expressed that Amy Smith on our planning board that has a vested interest in that red shop may have a conflict of interest. I tried to reach out to her privately. She did respond. I did not get what I believe was a satisfactory response that did not answer my question. And a lot of the language in that letter is exactly what I was saying gives me pause about formally codifying what seems to be, this is, you are bringing millions and millions of dollars of investment into this community, and while I appreciate your willingness to be cooperative and collaborative, you should not be handcuffed by the previous renter and that's just my position and I think those concerns are valid and might warrant being looked into. That's all.

COUNSELOR ROY. THANK YOU, MR. MAYOR. I JUST WANT TO THANK YOU FOR BEING A GOOD COMMUNITY PARTNER. I MEAN, IT SHOWS A LOT OF GOOD FAITH ON YOUR PART TO INCLUDE A LOT OF PEOPLE IN THIS COMMUNITY. BECAUSE WITHOUT THESE PEOPLE IN THE COMMUNITY, WE DON'T HAVE A COMMUNITY, RIGHT? AND IT GOES, LIKE, TO ME, I TAKE THAT REALLY TO HEART BECAUSE I THINK MORE PEOPLE SHOULD BE GENUINE IN THEIR APPROACH. AND THAT SHOWS THAT YOU ARE. SO THANK YOU.

councilor chittum thank you mr mayor mr thompson thank you so much for coming back i appreciate the improved language in the letter of intent i very much want to see this project go forward and any hesitation i had previously was to process not to project and i want that to be clearly understood i'm hoping tonight that the council will unanimously endorse this letter of intent with the full understanding that it commits the city and you to nothing. It simply is an indication that we wish to move forward on this project, which I believe we all do.

further comments questions from the council Anything further?

Yes, I would just say I appreciate all of that and nobody has to thank me for coming back I grew up in Lewiston Auburn That's what we do we Make a plan and we go get it done. And that's what we would like to do. Thank you all. I

Sometimes development projects require a little bit of tenacity, so we appreciate that in you. I'm really excited about this. We're hitting go on big plans for the park, so thank you very much. Madam Clerk, please call the vote.

Councillor from Ward 7? Yes. Ward 1? Absolutely, yes. Yes. Word four. Yes. Word five. Yes. Word six. And yes. Motion passed. We'll have it at seven to zero.

Thank you both. Thank you all. Item number 12.

Item number 12. Order authorizing the city administrator to execute an option agreement with Bates Mill LLC for Bates Mill number five. Requested action to approve the order authorizing the city administrator to execute an option agreement with Bates Mill LLC for Bates Mill number five.

I HAVE A MOTION, PLEASE. SO MOVED. SO MOVED. SO MOVED. SECOND. SECOND. SECOND. SECOND. SECOND. SECOND. SECOND.

SECOND. SECOND. SECOND.

SECOND. SECOND. SECOND. SECOND. SECOND. SECOND. SECOND. SECOND. SECOND. SECOND. SECOND. SECOND. SECOND. SECOND. SECOND. SECOND. SECOND. SECOND. SECOND. SECOND. SECOND. SECOND.

SECOND. SECOND. SECOND. SECOND. SECOND. SECOND. SECOND. SECOND. SECOND. SECOND. SECOND.

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Do you want to cover any of the slides or do you want to just go through them We do have a slide presentation loaded. It's relatively lengthy, but it was something that was covered in executive session. We could go through this, but if not, we'll go through basically the gist of the option agreement. And then, yes, council.

Well, yeah, I mean, if we have slides, we're here now. So, yeah, let's pull them up. I think Kurt is, yeah, there we go.

Okay. Then click from the beginning. Yeah, now when you click the mouse, it'll move.

Is that good enough? Yes. I can click it.

No, I can look at it a little bit. Yeah, that's all right. Let me just see this. Thank you for having us here tonight. This slideshow is really kind of a brief look at Mill No. 5 and the history of what we've done in the mills so far, and we can talk a little bit about what we hope to do in the future. That's mill number five you were looking at. That was rendered what it would look like in the future. This map shows mill number five in an aerial view and its context within the full mill complex. Mill number five is 360,000 square feet on two floors. It was the second post-tensioned concrete building in the United States. So it has historical significance, designed by Kahn in 1912. This is a Google Earth of the same shot, just giving you an idea of where it is in proximity to everything else. This is giving you an idea of its size in terms of the other mills and in terms of the space on Lisbon Street. This is a third of the size of all the space available on Lisbon Street. It's a massive building. and an undertaking to fill. I mean, clearly we've been working on it for years, though we've been having more luck putting people in the smaller portions of the mill because you can't really start the development of this mill until you have at least 180,000 square feet spoken for. You couldn't start a renovation with 10,000 square feet spoken for. This is probably anywhere, depending on the tenants, from $120 to $250 million project. So we need a certain amount of mass, and we are talking to two potential tenants right now that would add up to 180,000 square feet. We clearly have to continue on that path.

Not switching now.

Just a little history on the mill. It was started in 1912, finished in 1914. The mill was built entirely by hand. They excavated this four-acre site with shovels and mules. Something I don't think we could quite do today in the same time frame with all the equipment we have. this is a picture of the mill today on the second floor showing the sawtooth roof the concrete structure and we've done two structural analysis of this building in the last 15 years and it's still very usable it still does need some reinforcement but not not substantial This is one of the earlier floor plans we developed for multiple tenants on the first floor. And I believe the next one. shows the second floor. On the second floor, you'll notice that kind of spine going down almost through the middle of the building. That would come off of the top deck of the parking garage. It would be almost like an interior urban street. The spacing on those columns is 30 feet, so we'd have a 30-foot roadway almost. Not that you could drive on it, but a walking pedestrian road. It would take you through the building, across the canal, and then you'd come up onto Lisbon Street right by Rainbow Bike. So we can kind of join the lower part of our development with Lisbon Street. This is just going to show you some of the work that we've already done within the complex. These are renderings for tenants we were talking to with the Bates Mill for office space. This shows that same picture I showed you of the sawtooth roof with the glass put back in. This would be a historic project, so we would restore it, not change it at all. At one point, I think some of you would certainly remember we were working with the hospital, CMMC, to combine with the Y and create a wellness center there. A lot of things happened at the hospital, so that changed quickly. Other rendering showing from a different angle, the second floor of Mill 5, with all the windows replaced the way they would be. This was still part of that wellness project. Kind of go through these quickly. These are all examples of what we were working on when we were working with the hospital. And some of these things are still possible if we get the large companies we're talking to. We'll want some of this stuff in the mill. I don't know if you've been in Five? When you walk through it, it's an amazing space. And... This is that kind of pedestrian way that would take you right through the mill. What we would hope is that the large tenants would be well behind this, and then on this kind of roadway would be coffee shops and other places to shop, drugstore, places that would serve people.

Let's see.

Just an example of what we have done in the mill so far. This is Bates Mill number seven, back probably in 2000 or 99, before we really started on it. Mill number eight was connected to this mill, renovated for TD Bank. Since then, as you all know, it's been completely gutted again and is now the police station. This is after Mill 2A was removed because the roof caved in. It had been left for so long and there was so much water on there that the thing fell down, basically. So it was removed and then that mill was refaced to look like this today. This is mill two wing and storehouse where Da Vinci's is. Hebert Construction, Cross Insurance. This is the way it was when we first took it over. It's completely renovated and occupied and today it looks like this. I'm showing you these pictures so you get a sense that we have been doing a lot when we're down there. I mean, there's over $200 million invested in this mill at this point. And granted, it's not all in Mill 5 yet, but this is a process and we're definitely getting there. This is Mill 6 when we got there, and this is Mill 6 today. It's quite an undertaking to convert these mills. And in today's climate, unfortunately, since COVID, it's more difficult to find large tenants. We're really kind of revamping all of our thoughts. Getting 100,000 square foot tenants is really difficult now. It used to be really common. You got insurance companies, big call centers. Not anymore. They all work from home. So you're really now looking at people from 5,000 Maybe 25,000. And we feel real lucky that we're talking with two big tenants right now. Hopefully we can get them to hop aboard. That was the pub before it was built. This is fully restored. And when we do this, we really pay attention to the detail to restore the historic components. Every table, every piece of wood in there is reused from the mill. There's no new lumber in there. This is looking at Mill 3 down Mill Street. It actually has Mill 4 still attached, which was taken down because of its contamination. It was the dye plant. It had a couple of railroad cars in the basement filled with acid. I mean, it was beyond us saving, so it was taken down. But that's what's there today. This was the demolition of four. And that is where, whoops, I don't know how to back up here. No, that was the, oh good, all right. So where the tanks are and this entry to the pub is where four was. It went from that building over to the canal. So we've made good use of the space and created a lot of public spaces, you know, for people to walk. We've created a lot of artwork. This is mill one, third floor? Yeah, third floor of mill one, undeveloped at this point. These have been cleaned, and they're ready for tenant improvement. They were nothing like this when we found them. There was a lot of remediation that had to be done to get them this clean. This is Mill 6, the upper floor, which is fully occupied by Anderskogen Bank now. This is the entry atrium between Mills 1 and 2, which is used for public events. And nonprofits use it a lot for meetings. Bates College uses it for their board dinners. So we've made a public space out of it. and this is mill this is up no two storehouse two storehouse um which is where uh cross hebert and da vinci's are and that is that has one empty floor now uh since community health options moved out and they all went home uh probably all familiar with the bar at da vinci's i hope This is an interior shot of where included health or started out as grand rounds was. They're all working from home now. That was a major loss during COVID. Northeast Bank is in 17,000 square feet in Mill 2. And this is that grand round space. As we develop, we've been developing pathways and artwork. This is the Charlie Hewitt sculpture, The Rattle, that's on Mill Street now. This is Reggie Burrow Hodges now that were created in the mill and is now in the new museum. This is the Muhammad Ali sculpture, which I'm sure you're all familiar with now. a mural at the north lobby of Mill No. 1. This is on one of our other buildings, Chestnut and Canal, a mural. So we've been trying to pay a lot of attention to not just the buildings, but the surroundings and what can draw people to walk through Lewiston, around the mills, around to the waterfront. This is Andy Rosen's foxes. He has a couple of these on two different buildings. You're all familiar with Charlie Hewitt's hopeful sign. This is Andy Rosen's bear that he created for the walkway that we put between Mill 3 and Mill 1. And just a little kind of background on us. I mean, we've been doing things in Lewiston-Auburn for the last 47 years. We've done a number of parking garages. We've done numerous buildings in town for nonprofits, profits, banks. This Chamber of Commerce building, we renovated that. We did the seaport building across from the hospital. And this is the main mill museum that just opened. We did the Coliseum, I can't remember how many years ago, a long time ago. This is Govera Place. We've done a fair amount of housing. We actually have 144 units on East Avenue that we've designed, and there was a groundbreaking there just the other day. The Hartley Block on Lisbon Street is a project of ours that we designed. This is the Martell School that the groundbreaking was for just the other day. Main Public Broadcasting we did 20, 30 years ago, which I understand is up for sale now. Safe Voices was a project we finished just a couple of years ago on Lisbon Street. And this is just a list of other projects. I think what I wanted to make sure you understood is we're very committed to this town. And taking on Mill 5, as long as it's taken, and believe me, we've put a lot of time in on it. It's not standing empty just because we've been ignoring it. And I think, like I say, we're talking to a couple of people that I'm probably as hopeful as I've been in the time we've been trying to get this building full. So, we'd like to continue on the same path and hope that you would have us for another five years and hopefully we can get this thing done. I think that's probably the last slide.

Sunset and Lewiston. Thank you, Tom.

Uh, we're gonna take questions later.

I yeah, I just wanted to cover a couple of things in the option agreement. As Tom said that the Bates Mill number 5 purchase price is $1 with the option remaining in effect through June 30th, 2031. So it's a five year. Basically agreement that you know we're going to try to, you know, lower some some folks here to Lewiston and develop this awesome structure. During the option period, the developer has the exclusive right to evaluate and advance redevelopment opportunities. While conducting due diligence, conceptual planning, tenant outreach, financing efforts, financial stack is gonna be really important for this project to go. Opportunity zone, Tom, we're working towards that, so we're hoping that we can utilize the opportunity zone. here in the city in a market analysis if the option is exercise closing is going to happen quick with 60 within 60 business days and the property is conveyed by a quick clean deed with a marketable title The agreement also addresses customary provisions included taxes, legal fees, title review, dispute resolution through arbitration in the property transfer as as is condition. What we added to this, and this was part of the executive session, we want to create a collaborative redevelopment framework between our department and the developer. So we look forward to that rather than having strict performance deadlines. I'll be the first to know say the developments that I've done it not to been to this scale per se but I've done quite a few but I'm hoping to learn from Tom you know I look at this as a you know educational piece for me so. redevelopment timing is influenced by market condition availability construction costs labor tenant demand all this stuff this is what's going to make the project go or no go we understand that being nimble is going to be very important for this project We need to know when to strike when the iron is hot. The first principal that I worked in, I didn't work in an architecture firm, sorry Tom, an engineering firm, but he always used to say, strike when the iron's hot. So we're gonna be ready if council hits the go button for five more years, we're gonna strike when the iron's hot. So I'll just leave it like that.

Anything further, Tom or Doreen?

No, we're here to answer any questions you might have.

I really appreciate you being here. I also want to note for the record that we have Gabrielle Russell here, so thank you. And yeah, we were here five years ago, right? yeah so um that was before i was mayor and i stood up there and advocated during public comment that uh that we uh you know should continue with the option with platts associates and uh now i'm mayor and i still feel the same way i understand it's taken a long time but uh you are um there's no competing offer for this uh building uh in terms of space And people also don't realize that it will cost an enormous amount of money just to tear it down for abatement. And yeah, if there's anything, if there's anyone that can do this, it's you. So I appreciate you being back here again. And yes, hopefully we're getting close. Councillor Longchamp's.

I think I know this answer, but I just wanted to ask the question. So mill one, two.

Can you just move the mic in front of you? Thank you.

Mill numbers one, two, three, five, six and seven. You own those?

We don't own three. That was owned by Bill Johnson, who was at a company out of Portland. It went empty because of TD North. Actually, I think it's Bar Harbor Savings owns it now. Yeah, Bar Harbor Savings took it over. They put it up for auction. I think it was valued. I don't know. They're holding a $11 or $12 million loan on it. They offered to sell it for eight, and they got no bids.

So that's the problem today with large spaces.

I mean, you really got to work these things to get them full. I mean, it's just hard.

So three you don't own?

No.

That's the only one.

you know these mills mean a lot to Mainers especially people that are from Lewiston it employed thousands of people right so I'm grateful every time I drive by with the exception of five but that takes time to see people coming in and out and to see the beautiful work that you've done I WOULDN'T SAY THAT WE DON'T HAVE ANYONE ELSE COMING TO PUT AN OFFER ON THAT. I DON'T REALLY THINK THERE'S ANYONE ELSE THAT COULD DO SUCH A GREAT JOB ON THAT. AND THAT'S JUST THE REALITY. SO I'M DEFINITELY IN SUPPORT OF THIS. I HAVE BEEN. I DO HOPE THAT YOU CAN GET A TENANT IN THERE OR AT LEAST SOMEONE COMMITTED IN THE NEXT YEAR OR TWO AND YOU CAN START ALL YOUR GREAT WORK. SO THANK YOU.

THANK YOU.

Councilor Chittum. Thank you. Platts Associates, Mr. Platts, it's fair to say that Lewiston would look very different today were it not for you, and I'm very grateful for that. You've invested a half a century in this community, and that speaks volumes to your dedication and your ability to get things done. Mill 5 has been a challenge. It's been a white elephant, an albatross. Pick your animal. It's a whale, maybe. But I have no doubt that if this project is to be done, it would best be done under your capable leadership, and I'm fully in support of it. So this is really a thank you for all of the dedication that you and your firm have put into the community.

Oh, thank you.

Councillor Roy. Thank you very much. Thank you for everything that you've done so far up to this point. I don't know anybody who would take that on if you have, to be honest with you. I do have a couple of ideas. I've talked to some constituents and all that stuff to see what kind of ideas generated. And I've got a few that I'd really like to talk to you about. Absolutely. They're far out there, but if you have some vision, like I know you do. ANYTHING'S WORTH TALKING ABOUT. HE MIGHT TAKE THEM INTO CONSIDERATION.

LOOK FORWARD TO IT. WE'RE NOW HEADING TO PUBLIC COMMENT FOR THIS AGENDA ITEM.

Hello, Elizabeth Eames, Ward 3. I very much appreciate all the work that you've done, and the edifices you've created are wonderful, but there's no human side of how to walk from Simard Payne Park up to here. And I live right around here, and it's very frustrating to not be able to get from one part of the town to the other without zigzagging maximally. SO WHEN YOU DO THIS, PLEASE THINK OF THE HUMANS AND THE PEDESTRIANS. THANK YOU.

FURTHER? YES. PLEASE STEP RIGHT UP.

I'M AT ROY WARD 6. SEE, NEXT YEAR WOULD BE, WELL, AS A FORMER CITY COUNSELOR WARD 7 SAID, WELL, MANY TIMES HE SAID THIS IN THE LAST 20 YEARS, WE'VE BEEN KICKING THIS CAN DOWN THE ROAD SINCE 2007. Mr. Platt's finally get something done by the time 2031 gets around here He's he would have worked on this as long as da Vinci has currently been in their space As countering a genius pointed out About the reeval process kicking the can down the road continuously every five years gets you nothing and to the point that mayor made I 2007, we could have torn this down, started over, because since COVID, businesses aren't using physical offices. As a former employee of TD Bank, I know this more than most.

Thank you. Good evening. Christine Holden, Ward 1. I've had the great privilege many, many years ago of being in Mill 5, sometimes as it was related to Museum LA, the original location, and sometimes in my work as one of the members of Grow LA, an organization which developed out of the many, many people who fought really hard to keep Mill 5 alive many, many years ago. It's an ambitious and to some people, probably daunting task. But I think what Mr. Platts and his firm and all their associates have proved is that they are willing to take it on and capable of doing it. When Grow LA was looking into options for that building, we tried to entice groups like maybe Trader Joe's to come or Bates College to consider having housing in the mill. But we always considered the idea of some sort of market roadway that you could walk through the building and go off on either side of that kind of spine. I was glad to see that there. And following up on what Elizabeth Ames just said, one of the advantages of that kind of spine route would be to provide access from Lisbon Street all the way down to Lincoln Street. I hope that is something that could be considered. But again, as somebody who wouldn't have more than, comparatively speaking, a nickel to put into this project, I applaud the fact that Mr. Platts and others are looking for ways to do that, and maybe he might even find an ally in Mr. Thompson. Thank you.

Further public comment?

Well after that I don't think I could not say a couple words. Chris Thompson was at the table just before Mr. Platz. I just want to say from my personal perspective what Tom and his group have done in Lewiston is transformative and I have the utmost respect for what they do how they do it and their ability to stay committed and engaged and make such ambitious complex projects happen. So from my perspective Bates Mill number five is an extraordinary building and it would be a great shame to see that torn down. It would be amazing to give it as much time as it needs for new life to be breathed back into it and you can certainly do it.

Further public comment. Yeah, thank you. Okay, public comment is now closed. Thank you to everyone who spoke. You know, part of what makes Lewiston so special is its architecture. And Lewiston has retained many of its historic structures and repurposed them. And Base Mill 5 is such an iconic structure, and there's nothing else like it in our state. And when people say it's taking too long, my response is always the same. Whenever we get it filled and completed and restored whenever that happens to be we will work We will know then that it was worth all this weight. So I am We need to hit the gas, but I'm really looking forward to this. Thank you further comments from the council. I MADAM CLERK, PLEASE CALL THE VOTE. ANYTHING FURTHER FROM OUR PRESENTERS? MADAM CLERK.

COUNSEL FROM WORD 7? YES. WORD 1? YES. WORD 2? YES. WORD 3? YES. WORD 4? YES. WORD 5? YES. WORD 6? AND YES. MOTION PASSED WITH A BIT OF 7-0.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH. THANK YOU FOR BEING HERE. THANK YOU. WE LOOK FORWARD TO WORKING WITH YOU. Item number 13.

Item 13, order to rescind City Council vote 12-2026, taken at the meeting of January 5th, 2026, which was for the election of the City Council President for 2026. Requested action, be it ordered by the City Council that the City Council hereby rescinds City Council vote 12-2026, taken at the meeting of January 5th, 2026, for which the election of the City Council President for the year 2026.

May I have a motion, please? So moved. Second. Councilor Martell, seconded by Councilor Harriman. Councilor Martell.

Excuse me. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. My comments are going to be a little different tonight than I originally had planned them to be. I received an email from a very prominent, very influential business owner in our community this week, that I appreciate very much. Lewiston, just like the two presenters we just saw here, wouldn't look the same without them. So when those words came through, almost insinuating to me that this was a personal vendetta. I believe I was asked what I was out to prove. So, while my reasons for bringing this forward were numerous and valid, I just want to point out that it was a democratic process on this council that elected Councillor Chittum into this role, and it will be a democratic process if he is removed. It will not be a crusade of the Ward 7 Councillor against the Council President. So for these those reasons I am NOT going to enumerate those reasons that I had Planned to present and I will defer to my colleagues on the dais and if I have any Burning questions left. I will put my hand back up after public comment.

Thank you Councillor Noble

So I do want to address what has been going on. I feel that what you, Mayor Chalene, and what David did, Councillor Chittum did, was an insult to the council's intelligence. It was a breach of trust. It was a breakdown of our government system. and it was an unapproved use of taxpayer money. And I don't think that the two of you really understand those four things, five things and how much they do affect the city and how much they affect the council. We should all be working together and there have been decisions up here that have been made that I haven't agreed with, that Councillor Martell pointed out that he didn't agree with, which the ICE ordinance was huge. This is a democratic process, and we all get a vote, and nobody's vote means more than anybody else's vote up here. That's all I have to say about that. Thank you.

Councillor Herman. Thank you. I would just add that I was the other vote against the decision that brought this whole thing about, the decision of the council to defund the economic development director position. I was opposed to that decision if we had the same vote again today, I would I would make the same decision but I respect the process and I respect that five of my colleagues had a different opinion and I didn't try to go around and find a way to make that happen behind the scenes and I think that that is the real thing that has broken some trust on this body and Has brought us to this point tonight. I

Councilor Longchamps.

Thank you, Mayor. I would just like to point out how much I have appreciated Councilor, President Chittum. He's very intelligent, very thorough, is a good man in my opinion. But I will say that I think in my observation and in my opinion, our council president is used to working by himself. And when you're doing this type of work, you really have to work together. uh... not everybody will agree uh... that that would be really one of the only downfalls that i have uh... that i would bring forth about uh... counselor chittum is a lot of positives and and i don't want that to go unnoticed but I do think, as I used to tell my kids, you know, there is no I in team. And I just feel as though you've left that out a few times. So that's all I have to say. Thank you.

Councilor Nijen, did you want to say something before I recognize Councilor Chittim?

I can wait.

Councilor Chittum.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. First of all, I want to apologize to my fellow councilors for misleading you two weeks ago. I was caught completely unawares. The vehemence with which my actions were denounced really surprised me. I was not eloquent enough then to explain to the council that nothing I was doing was double dealing, I think it was referred to earlier. I certainly don't understand how it could be considered arrogance. I was doing what I thought was my homework in order to provide the council with a second chance to render its decision. The decision made in May to eliminate the position of economic development director was made under duress. All of us felt the time and monetary pressure of trying to balance the budget, trying to bring the budget in within the target that we had established there was an 11th hour decision to remove what this council has consistently said is one of the most important positions in the city that of economic development it has been our priority that with public safety since i've been on the council My efforts behind the scenes were to try to line up the funding that would provide to the council a second opportunity. I alluded to moving heaven and earth, looking at the rules and looking at the charter, and I think that was misinterpreted. I certainly did not express it clearly myself, but it was misinterpreted by some members of this council. as my trying to find a way to weasel through and undermine or overturn the council's decision. Those who know me know that nothing could be further from the truth. I was simply trying to do my homework and bring back to the council, without the pressure of time and money, the decision. And if the decision then had been, yes, we do want to eliminate economic development director, THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN IT. I FELT THAT THE COUNCIL REALLY HAD VERY LITTLE CHOICE AT THE 11TH HOUR AFTER HALF AN HOUR OF DISCUSSION. SO MY INTENT WAS ALWAYS TO BRING THIS BACK TO COUNCIL. I DO TEND TO WORK ALONE. BUT THERE WAS NEVER ANY DOUBLE DEALING OR DUPLICITY ON MY PART. I DID NOT OCCUPY STAFF TIME. I DON'T KNOW HOW CITY FINANCES COULD HAVE BEEN USED. I DON'T UNDERSTAND THAT. COUNCILOR NOBLE ALLUDED TO THAT. I DID HAVE DISCUSSIONS WITH THE CITY ADMINISTRATOR. I DID NOT SPEAK WITH DEPARTMENT HEADS. I DID EVERYTHING IN MY VIEW COMPLETELY ABOVE BOARD. SO I APOLOGIZE FOR NOT MAKING THAT VERY CLEAR TWO WEEKS AGO WHEN I WAS LAMBASTED FOR WHAT I THINK WAS A MISINTERPRETATION. I DID WRITE A LETTER TO AN E-MAIL TO MY FELLOW COUNSELORS THE DAY AFTER I REALIZED WHAT HAD ELICITED THAT KIND OF VEHEMENT DENUNCIATION THAT IT WAS A MISUNDERSTANDING. I EXPLAINED IN THAT E-MAIL THAT MY GOAL HAD ALWAYS BEEN TO BRING THIS MATTER BACK TO THE COUNCIL FOR DUE DELIBERATION. THERE WERE PROBLEMS THAT I RAN INTO IN TERMS OF LEGAL INTERPRETATION OF THE Council rules, I'm sorry, I'm losing my train. Our city attorney has indicated that there is really only one way to reconsider an item, despite the fact that Robert's rules spell out several ways to do that. The city charter specifies that once the budget has been approved, IT CANNOT BE RECONSIDERED, ALTHOUGH THE ATTORNEY DID INDICATE THAT THE COUNCIL CAN ALWAYS RECONSIDER. FINALLY, THE CHARTER REFERS TO MECHANISMS BY WHICH THE BUDGET CAN BE AMENDED AFTER THE BEGINNING OF THE YEAR. WHEN I REALIZED THAT THERE WERE LEGAL IMPEDIMENTS TO BRINGING THE QUESTION BACK TO COUNCIL BEFORE THE BEGINNING OF THE FISCAL YEAR, I CONCENTRATED MY EFFORTS ON BRINGING THIS QUESTION BACK TO COUNCIL AFTER THE START OF THE YEAR. SO I APOLOGIZE FOR NOT MAKING MY POSITION CLEARER. I UNDERSTAND FULLY THE ANGER AND THE DISAPPOINTMENT THAT WAS EXPRESSED BY SOME MEMBERS OF COUNCIL. I WOULD HAVE BEEN IN THAT POSITION TOO AND EXPRESSING THAT ANGER HAD I FULLY UNDERSTOOD THAT ANOTHER COUNCILOR HAD Done what I was accused of doing so I would very much like to continue being your president I understand that the council has the authority to remove the president For reason or for no reason it is the council's my colleagues decisions to do that so I asked for your forgiveness in my lack of Clear communication two weeks ago. I ask that you understand that in IN NO WAY WAS I EVER TRYING TO UNDERMINE THE COUNCIL. I WAS SIMPLY TRYING TO FIND A WAY FOR THE COUNCIL TO REVISIT THIS QUESTION AND MAKE A DECISION WITHOUT THE DURESS OF TIME AND MONEY.

THANK YOU. COUNCILOR LONGCHAMPSON, COUNCILOR NOBLE, AND COUNCILOR NAJING.

FIRST, I'D LIKE TO THANK YOU, COUNCILOR CHIDDUM, FOR ACKNOWLEDGING THE WAY THIS LOOKED. second i would just like to say when you seek advice from our legal they usually cost the city money i think that's what counselor noble was referring to this is the conversation we should have had about putting the director back in up here or with more than just yourself and the mayor although you're getting a lot of the flack tonight our mayor was a part of that and has not really taken any you're kind of getting all the heat for it and I'm sorry I I know that the both of you were working on that which shouldn't have happened just plain and simple it shouldn't have happened you should have communicated with uh more of us and quite honestly in a public setting for every action there's a reaction and unfortunately uh removing you may be it tonight so but I thank you for your time that you did serve thank you

YES, COUNSELOR NOBLE. I WAS REFERRING TO THE AMOUNT OF MONEY IT COSTS FOR THE HOURLY RATE FOR OUR CITY LAWYER, WHEN I WAS REFERRING TO THE MONEY. AND I ALSO HAVE A QUESTION ABOUT, SO ARE YOU SAYING THAT YOU DIDN'T COME TO US BECAUSE LEGALLY YOU COULDN'T COME TO US?

Yeah, Councillor Chittenden, if you'd like to answer that.

Thank you. No, I did not say that. I didn't say I was prevented legally or stopped from coming to you. I do want to clarify that I did not consult directly with our city attorney. The opinion I'm referring to was in a letter addressed to the city administrator.

Thank you for clearing that up.

Councilor Nagy. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. First of all, Council President Chittum, I have immense respect for you. I do. I enjoy the committees that I sit on boards with you with, and I also would like to just State that we have a dysfunction within the council and it's been here for a while and a lot of it comes down to communication and respect for other counselors None of us agree on all things but the vast majority of us agree that what we're under the pressures that we that we're facing for the things that we have to make decisions on that we have to work as a body and in give clear direction to counsel that I sorry to administration that is backed by counsel and and and that is I think the challenge that the majority of us actually have We feel very much like children that don't have the ability to work together or have a say at certain times and that is because of the culture of communication that has happened now for well over a year. But it is a struggle and I don't mean to disrespect you in any way because I appreciate you very, very much. for this body to function better, we do need to consider making changes.

Councilor Harmon. Thank you. Regardless of who contacts the city attorney, it still costs us money. Also, the city administrator works for the council, not for the council president and the mayor. And if a majority of the council makes a decision, then that is what administration is supposed to follow. Again, I didn't agree with the decision that the council made. but I respect it and we need to move forward from that.

Councillor Martell.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Councillor Harriman addressed almost all of the points that I intended to make. I would just like to point out again that Councillor Longchamp, you were right. The mayor isn't taking enough heat for this when you publicly in the media and privately in emails expressed to us that you didn't think anything wrong was done. And we find out it's you and David working hand in hand without any of the other councilors being aware of it. When staff is approached or administration by the mayor and the city council president, they're gonna be inclined to do what they're asked. But when what you're asking them to do is in direct conflict of what the council voted for, you're putting our city staff and our administration in a very difficult position. And it leads to exactly the accusations of dysfunction and chaos that have been levied for some time by both staff and the community alike.

COUNSELOR ROY. COUNSELOR ROY. COUNSELOR ROY.

THANK YOU, MR. MAYOR. THANK YOU, MR. MAYOR. THANK YOU, MR. MAYOR. COUNSELOR CHIDDUM, I DO HAVE A COUNSELOR CHIDDUM, I DO HAVE A COUNSELOR CHIDDUM, I DO HAVE A LOT OF RESPECT FOR YOU. LOT OF RESPECT FOR YOU. LOT OF RESPECT FOR YOU. BUT I DO HAVE TO ECHO A LITTLE BUT I DO HAVE TO ECHO A LITTLE BUT I DO HAVE TO ECHO A LITTLE BIT ABOUT WHAT COUNSELOR MARTELL BIT ABOUT WHAT COUNSELOR MARTELL BIT ABOUT WHAT COUNSELOR MARTELL JUST SAID, RIGHT? JUST SAID, RIGHT? JUST SAID, RIGHT? AND ONE OF THE THINGS YOU SAID AND ONE OF THE THINGS YOU SAID AND ONE I don't know about anybody up here, I can't speak for anybody else, but the decision I made was not under duress. I took some time to really think about the decision I was making. I also said, you know, what the definition of insanity is. When you continuously do the same thing over and over again and expect different results. What have we been doing with our economic development department now for how many years? And it seems broken. Right now, we're at a point where we can change and overhaul anything at this point. And now is the time to do it. And I think if it doesn't work, we can revisit that in a couple of months, six months, whatever. We can do that. But right now is the time that we really need to do this. And when five people on this committee, on this council, decide something it's not up to one person to go behind everybody's back that is deceitful um it's it's not good and you know again council nazine pointed out you know we have an identity crisis on this council and when you go around and you do things behind people's back and you hide things from the community that is wrong and we all know the difference between right and wrong we should So that was wrong. And that's my point on this. This is where I stand.

I wanna address a few things and then we'll have a public comment for this agenda item. Yeah, unfortunately I was not here last Friday, or last Friday, whoa, last meeting. And yes, as I, Councilor Noble asked me over email and I responded, yes, I did know about it. And I, a lot of strong language has been used up here. I don't think it's deceitful and I agree with David. That if we look I agree with David in terms of you know researching about you know where to find funding and and if we look back at why this decision was made I would think that the council was decision made to Force a reward or was it made because we were out of money and so if it was made because we were out of money then it should be would think that the council would be happy if we found money to put back the position but that's clearly not what's happening now and I understand I hear counselors and I understand the way it looks yeah And then the other thing is I understand the, however we want to phrase this, misunderstanding or from misunderstanding to deceitfulness or anywhere in between. I do not think that this rises to the level of removing the council president. In fact, we have been through, you know, we have gone through council presidents at an astonishing rate and for a variety of reasons. And I think this just speaks to, unfortunately, I just don't think this is helpful. We're going to head to public comment and then we're coming back. Public comment for this agenda item, please.

Again, Matt Roy, Ward 6. Mr. Mayor, the council president has previously stated that we should pick and choose, or he thinks we should pick and choose which parts of the charter to follow, which itself contradicts and voids his oath of office or any of your oath of offices for such conduct. Now, he thinks, based on what he said at the previous meeting, He needs the quote-unquote research charter provisions regarding reopening the municipal budget which clearly state which circumstances that process can actually happen as council president might remember two years ago when Brian Oh Maui was interim Administrator and that question came up. It was clearly outlined in the Charter Rescinding his appointment is only a bare minimum at this point given this pattern of conduct. I would remind the council you have a sanctioned Council Harriman three times for a demonstrated pattern of activity. Councilor Chittum should do the honorable thing and not seek to be a candidate in any office for the November municipal election. Thank you.

My name is Renee Fortin. Here I am again. It's my second time. My concern has been voiced a little bit about building trust and being able to work together. And because it's not just about you guys, it's about all of us in this city. And sometimes when we're looking on, we're scratching our heads going, what is going on? Like, what is happening? I was here one night, and this is after Rin Sol lost her election to Iman Osman by a few votes, and I was really thinking she would just get put in that seat because she had campaigned, she had received all the signatures that were necessary, and she was just a few votes short, and I heard with my own ears from Mr. Chittum, and no offense to you in any way, it's just what I heard, I'm testifying to that, that even after asking the lawyer what would be the best idea, and he basically said it could bring a lawsuit, there was a suggestion from you to overlook or circumvent the charter, because in this case, Didn't like the rules for some reason or the rules weren't feasible that night to make a decision about who would sit in The seat that Miss Noble is now sitting in And I'm shaking like a leaf because I don't want to hurt anybody. I I don't have that intention I just it just blew my mind and and I felt suddenly like I I don't know if I can trust my City Council and That's where I am and I just wanted to be honest with you all. Thank you

Matthew Akron, Ward 4. Councilor Chittum, you know I respect you because you respect the meaning of the word words and what words mean. Tonight we approach this You say it was a misunderstanding. There's a point at the end of the meeting where you could have said, hey, can we look at reintroducing the economic development director? You didn't use that. Instead, you hid it from your fellow counselors. That's a lack of transparency. You hid it from the public, lack of transparency. We no longer know if we can trust any of you guys up there. This has been an ongoing issue. It's a lack of trust because when things happen without people seeing anything, nobody knows who they can trust. You will also have in the past said, if I knew what was in the charter, I wouldn't have agreed to follow it. I agree the charter is a flawed document, but it's what the city runs under until we pass the charter commission, hopefully, and get a new one. I asked you when I heard you use the word, if I knew it was in the charter, I would not agree. I asked you then to resign your presidency. I don't ask you to resign as a counselor, but I ask you once more to do the right thing.

Peter Geiger, Ward 7, and two things. I'll address two different things. I've chaired the State Board of Education, and I've chaired meetings, and there's processes, and there's work that's done when you're in a meeting, and there's work that's done behind, you know, to get ready for the meeting and to address things. I don't personally think, from what I've read in the paper, that what David Chittum has done warrants being balanced out as being president. Previous councils have bounced presidents out as well. What I do see in this council and every other council before you is people taking cheap shots at each other, being offended, and rising to this crisis. And I've been on other boards, and I've never seen anything quite like what happens in Lewiston. And it's not just this council. It's previous councils. So this is just more of what I see, and I don't watch every meeting you have. I want to address the position of the council the Director of Economic Development. Back in 1954, Geiger Brothers was going to collapse in Newark, New Jersey, the building and the company, and we looked around and looked at 21 different locations to come to, And one of the locations was Portland. And so we looked at Portland, went back to Newark. But the first person running economic development actually flew down to Newark on his own money to meet with my father and my uncle. to get them to come up and take a look at Lewiston. They overlooked us because they looked at Portland. And so if you don't have a director of economic development who's aggressively going out getting businesses. So when we came in here in 1955 and however many years this is, you think about all the taxes we've paid and all the people we've employed and all of the things that we've accomplished. that's the one position that brings money and and into the community it builds the community so i think from what i read in the paper this is like a huge overreaction uh somebody who's trying to find a way to to do something that you want bring it back to you for you to vote on if i had an employee who disagreed a decision i had but did homework and came back to me with an alternative, then I'd probably put their picture on my wall. So I'm sorry that you take shots at each other. The sniping that goes on in here is not good for you. It's not good for the city. But I also appreciate what it's like to be in a public position where you're getting it from all sides. So anyway, I think that position of economic development is so important that it, quite frankly, was worthy of trying to be funded somehow if it was possible, coming back to you to approve. So anyway, I think David's done a great job as president, but we have changed presidents more times than you would expect from a council. Thank you very much.

THANK YOU FURTHER PUBLIC COMMENT PUBLIC COMMENT IS NOW CLOSED BACK TO THE COUNCIL UH COUNCILOR LONGCHAMP DID YOU HAVE YOUR HAND UP THANK YOU MAYOR I JUST WANT TO JUST TOUCH ON THIS BRIEFLY AGAIN MY SUGGESTION ON REORGANIZING THE THIRD FLOOR There will be a director that will, I do believe, go out and do lots of talking to try to get businesses here. We've had a couple that have done well. I'm not gonna speak bad about anyone, but I do think we have a good plan moving forward, and I think Lewiston will be very happy. But I would like to just ask if I could ask a question to our Council President Chittum and if he would be so kindly to be honest with us. Did our mayor direct you to seek funding or to seek to put that position back? I'd like to ask you that question and I hope you'd be honest with me. Mr. Chittum.

If you'd like to answer.

THANK YOU. NO, I WAS OPERATING UNDER NO ONE'S DIRECTION. THIS WAS MY IMMEDIATE REACTION AFTER THE COUNCIL VOTED, AFTER HALF AN HOUR'S DISCUSSION. THIS HAD NOT BEEN BROUGHT TO THE COUNCIL'S ATTENTION BEFORE THAT MEETING ON MAY the last meeting in May. It was basically sprung on us. There had been no prior discussion about eliminating the position. In fact, if I remember correctly, the proposal was to eliminate the position of MIS director. And that was... during this half hour discussion that was felt to be too important and since we did not have a sitting economic development director it felt very easy to say we don't have to we don't have to cause anybody to lose their job so to answer your question directly counselor longchamp no i was not directed i don't take kindly to direction as you may have noticed i did thank you

I I just wanted to say uh try as I might um David does not uh allow himself to be bossed around by me and so uh but I will uh it's been alluded to that uh I supported or I knew about this I absolutely knew about it and did I support it yes we we need to find funding for this position counselor and aging

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I would just state that economic development is an attitude and a process, and it's not a person. Ultimately, it's not a position, excuse me. There are things that I think we all as representatives of people who own businesses in our community have gotten feedback concerning how the third floor functions. And there's a need right now, a desperate need for us to be hitting the ground floor and not waiting for a savior. We have employees. I'm sorry, not waiting for what? I didn't hear you. Not waiting for a savior, right? We have employees who are capable, and I think it's establishing a process and shifting an attitude. I would also say that the real challenge here isn't necessarily trying to find funding. It's directing our administration not to reorganize the third floor. giving contrary direction to the majority of council to administration as the representative of the council is where the challenge is and that's what I think we're bringing up one issue but multiple times like one subject with this issue but multiple times there have been issues where many of us have felt left out of decisions not provided with correct information and then also our concerns when brought to council president were not necessarily addressed the way that that we would hope they would be and and Unfortunately, there's a lot of people management that has to happen in that position, in my opinion, in order to keep people somehow working together. Because we are very varied in who we are and what we believe. And it takes effort that not everybody is either suited to or wants to do. And so that's where I'm at.

UH YEAH I MEAN WE CAN GO BACK AND FORTH ALL NIGHT UM ANY FURTHER COMMENTS MADAM CLERK PLEASE CALL THE VOTE COUNCIL FROM WORD SEVEN YES WORD ONE YES WORD TWO YES WORD THREE YES WORD FOUR YES WORD FIVE YES WORD SIX IT SHOULD COME AS NO SURPRISE THAT I WILL VOTE NO MOTION PASS BY A VOTE OF SIX TO ONE

Councilor Shittim, I appreciate your service. Thank you. Item number 14.

Item number 14, election of the city council president for the remainder of this city council term, said term to end January 4th, 2027. There are two items for requested action. The first one is to receive nominations for the role of president of the city council.

So moved. Well, we're taking nominations. Oh, I know. Yes. Do we have nominations?

Councilor Martell, do you have a nomination? I'll defer to Councilor Noble.

Councilor Noble, do you have a nomination?

I'd like to nominate Councilor Nagin.

Councilor Nagin, do you accept this nomination?

Yes.

Do we have, nominations do not need a second because we're voting on nominations. Do we have any other nominations? Discussion on this nomination?

ANYTHING YOU'D LIKE TO SAY COUNCILOR NEGING SINCE YOU JUST SAID YES UM I I JUST THINK IT'S IMPORTANT THAT WE WORK TOGETHER IN ORDER TO MOVE THE CITY FORWARD YOU KNOW THE BUDGET THAT WE WERE JUST TALKING ABOUT I WORKED VERY CLOSELY WITH SUE DURING THAT EXCUSE ME COUNCIL LONG CHAMPS DURING THAT ENTIRE PROCESS I listened very carefully to the messages that were given in public session as well as conversations that happened afterwards about cutting field positions in the city there were there were multiple concerns about hitting a budget number I just think that I would take the time to treat each of the people who sit up here as important to their constituencies and also to the council cohesion.

Councillor Longchamp.

that you would ask of you is two things quite simple tell us when you're seeking advice from legal and when you have a meeting with our administrator and the mayor I would ask you that you brief us on the conversation thank you do you want to respond to that concern aging that's something we've all been asking for for about two years so yeah

Councillor Martel.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just want to state that I was prepared to, with some reservation, but nominate Councillor Nguyen again tonight. Him and I don't always agree on things and we don't always see eye to eye. He's always been willing to have a conversation and this position isn't about left-right ideology. It's about executing the job of council president in a way that is informative and openly communicative. if that's a word, communicative. But anyways, I look forward to seeing how you do if the vote passes and I was prepared to make that nomination as well.

Councilor Herriman. Thank you. I would also ask should Councilor Nagin win this vote that he address concerns from all councilors that are brought forward and always represent the majority of the council when dealing with city staff and city administration.

Public comment for this agenda item.

Robert Glaspie, Ward 6. I think the last time I was up here, I spoke about transparency and accountability.

Can you just move the mic closer to you? Thank you. How's that? We're doing better. Thank you. Awesome. Thank you.

The last time I was here, I talked about transparency and accountability. And obviously, that's where we are right now. Regardless of the events, obviously, things are headed in a different direction. But I do want to say that I've had some great conversations with Councillor Nagin. even though we may not see completely eye to eye, as Councilor Martell has alluded to as well. However, you did hit on something that I can't emphasize enough, which was councilor cohesion. That's the term that you used. So with this change, if this is the direction that you're headed, I would charge each and every one of you, like I have before, with the task of some type of cohesion and open lines of communication, giving and putting your best foot forward in that. So I know this was a difficult situation for you all to deal with. But I am encouraged that you can still find a way to work together for the benefit of each other and the citizens of Lewiston Thank you Further public comment Back to the council Madam clerk, please call the vote

Sure, so the motion before you is to elect Councilor Nagin as the City Council President, said term to expire January 4th, 2027. Councilor, from word seven? Yes. Word one?

Yes.

Word two? Yes. Word three? Yes. Word four?

Yes.

Word five? Yes. Word six? Yes. Motion passed with a vote of seven to zero.

Congratulations, Councilor Nagy. I look forward to working with you. Item number 15.

Item number 15, order proposing the creation of a charter commission. Requested action to approve the order proposing the creation of a charter commission.

HAVE A MOTION PLEASE SO MOVE COUNCILOR CHIDDOM SECOND SENTENCED BY COUNCILOR NAGINE COUNCILOR CHIDDOM WOULD YOU LIKE TO KICK THINGS OFF THIS HAS BEEN BREWING FOR QUITE A WHILE NOW EVER SINCE THE FIRST RUN-IN WE HAD WITH A FLAWED COUNT WITH A FLAWED CHARTER WE'VE MADE SEVERAL CORRECTIONS I THINK THREE CORRECTIONS WHICH WILL BE ON THE BALLOT IN NOVEMBER TO FIX THE CHARTER EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY UPON PASSAGE BY THE VOTERS This would then create a charter commission that would review the charter completely. Unfortunately, I missed the window. My goal was to have candidates on the ballot following the question. That's permissible under state law, but the time for drawing papers and getting signatures and becoming a candidate for the position of charter commission has passed. So that will have to wait until probably the school referendum next May, the school budget referendum. But this will put before the voters the question on whether they want to take a look at, a fresh look at creating an entirely new charter for the city.

Councilor Longchamp.

I would agree. Thank you.

Councillor Nagy. I'd just like to thank Councillor Chittum for putting this agenda item forward. I know that we've all been kicking around when it should be done and how it should be done. It just needs to get done, so I'm glad you did it. Thank you.

RIGHT, COUNCILOR HERMAN. YES, I ABSOLUTELY AGREE. OUR CHARTER HAS SEVERAL FLAWS WITH IT, BOTH SMALL AND TECHNICAL, LIKE WE HAVE PUT SOME FIXES TO THE VOTERS THIS NOVEMBER AND SOME LARGER THINGS AS WELL THAT I THINK COULD BE IMPROVED AND I THINK HAVING A FULL CHARTER COMMISSION WOULD GIVE IT THE EYES ON IT, PUT THE EYES ON IT THAT IT DESERVES AND HOPEFULLY WE GET SOME GOOD IDEAS OUT OF IT.

I SUPPORT THIS AS WELL. PUBLIC COMMENT.

uh matt royward six uh council president this goes further than january this goes back 12 five years ago minus a couple months october 2021 the then council issued a warrant for this exact item three one two Not even three months later, in January 2022, as we as we now know through Freedom of Access or yes, Freedom of Access Act requests that the that council at their first meeting of us at the behest of the then city administrator, Heather Hunter, rescinded that we could have done this five years ago, four and a half years later into Council Chittaboo's point. We could have, well, we, you guys could have voted, the council could have voted on this exact item before the first technical amendment. And then in June, we could have had this question. People could be collecting signatures. We're going to have, as the city clerk can confirm, we're going to have a three, four page ballot at this point because we're going to have U.S. Senate, Congress, governor, legislature, municipal election, now four. Questions on a ballot? We could, now to Councilor Chittum's point, we're gonna be collecting people who wanna be County Commissioners. Geez, I'm going back in history now. Commissioners for the Charter Commission are gonna be collecting signatures in winter, early spring. This is Maine still. Yeah, you guys are just making a bet

BAD SITUATION EVEN WORSE BY DELAYING THIS FOR THE LAST SIX MONTHS FOUR FOUR YEARS FIVE YEARS FURTHER PUBLIC COMMENT COMMENTS NOW CLOSED BACK TO THE COUNCIL MADAM CLARK PLEASE CALL THE VOTE COUNCIL FOR WORD SEVEN YES WORD ONE YES WORD TWO YES

Yes. Ward four? Yes. Ward five? Yes.

Ward six? Yes. Motion passed by a vote of seven to zero. Item number 16. Item number 16, order directing the city administrator to request an additional agency liquor store license from the main bureau of alcoholic beverages and lottery operations. Request an action to approve the order directing the city administrator to request an additional agency liquor store license from the main bureau of alcoholic beverages and lottery operations.

I HAVE A MOTION, PLEASE. SO MOVED. COUNCILOR CHIDDUM. SECOND.

SECOND BY COUNCILOR MARTELL.

MARTELL, YES. DISCUSSION FROM THE COUNCIL. COUNCILOR LONGCHAMPS.

THANK YOU, MAYOR. I WAS LOOKING INTO THIS AND THEN HAD A FEW QUESTIONS FOR COUNCILOR CHIDDUM, AND HE ANSWERED THEM, AND I'M THANKFUL FOR THAT. WE HAVE, I BELIEVE, TEN AGENCIES RIGHT NOW, LIQUOR AGENCIES, IS THAT CORRECT? this is a little different for me i've never since i've been sitting here have been asked to do this but the troubling part that's getting me is uh mr chittum councillor chittum had said that the person that has brought this forward or contacted him wanted to be anonymous and um that just don't sit right i don't i don't know i just don't feel right about it so i will not be voting to support this uh for for that reason thank you

this question is going to be more for the city clerk I believe do you know if other municipalities actually license agency liquor stores as well or is that always a state home rule you don't know okay

Councilor Harmon.

Thank you. I believe that this order is just to ask the Bureau of Alcoholic Beverages to allow for another license and then my assumption is that the whole process for granting that license will play out and correct me if that's wrong but i i believe that allows input from the city from city departments such as the police department you know if they've had trouble with with any of the applicants who might be interested in this i know the last time we had a a license that was granted in the city i think some something closed and then that license was freed up and some of the applicants were not necessarily the best ones to get such a license and thankfully they didn't So I just want to make sure that that normal process will play out. And I assume so because it's a state license. It's not something that we can grant. We can only provide input on. So I'm comfortable with asking for another license to be available as long as that process will play out.

Councilor Chittum.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Yes, I was approached by an attorney on behalf of his client who wanted to have Lewiston request an 11th agency store license. We have 10 now, which is the limit provided under law for a municipality of the population of Lewiston. The law provides that upon the municipality's request, the bureau can issue one additional agency license. That license would be issued and open to anybody who would apply. My understanding is that the bureau would then contact the municipality, the police department, the codes department, and so on, and ask for input on the various applicants. I don't know who this applicant is. The attorney did not tell me who the applicant was. He simply wanted to have Lewiston request an 11th license, which it's allowed to do under the law.

Councillor Martell.

Thank you, Mister Mayor. I'm a little concerned about this. We only have seven wards in the city. We currently have 10 liquor stores. It doesn't, driving around downtown Lewiston, it doesn't seem that anyone who wants to get their hands on liquor struggles to do so. I'm a big proponent of business development in our city. I just don't know if this is gonna be for the greater good. I think if we do get granted it and we make the request and it's granted, SOMEONE MORE THAN ONE SOMEONE'S I IMAGINE WILL STEP UP IN AN ATTEMPT TO FILL IT WHICH IS JUST GOING TO MAKE ANOTHER LIQUOR STORE IN OUR CITY WE HAVE TEN YOU CAN GET BEER AND WINE AT NEARLY ANY CORNER STORE UH MULTIPLE PLACES ON SEVERAL BLOCKS I JUST DON'T KNOW THAT THIS IS NECESSARILY NECESSARILY A GOOD THING FOR LOUISTON AND BIG PICTURE UM AND IF IT'S NECESSARY UH COUNSELOR LONGCHAMPS DID YOU HAVE SOMETHING ELSE

yes quickly so uh councillor chittum basically really confirmed it for me by saying you know we are at our limit at 10. we we've reached our limit and you're right we only have seven wards so i think uh 10 liquor licensing uh stores or whatever is is sufficient enough uh councillor naging um

There are 10 liquor licenses in the city, but there are multiple locations, I believe. So there are folks that are licensed that have multiple locations. I do have a major concern with the density of licenses within some of our socioeconomically challenged areas, to be honest. And so I guess the question would be, in order to approve something like this, and then also density of licenses in general, like where are our liquor stores, right? The in order to approve something like this I would want to understand who was requesting it and how our third floor is looking at it as far as like is this Does this make sense for us from an economic development standpoint? And I think that certainly in some cases it could, right? But I just, I don't have enough information to ask the state to give us another liquor store. They could give us maybe some more money for

for problems we have in our community, but Yeah So if I may here's what's happening. So the attorney has a client We do not know who this client is. The attorney has not shared that with us. And so the attorney has a client and We can only assume it's yes for business development purposes and And so we are requesting another liquor license. And then this attorney feels like their client probably has the best shot at getting this liquor license when it goes to the state. And yeah, I'm in support of this. Councillor Herriman.

Thank you. I just wanted to point out that while there are concerns with the density of certain things being sold in the city, most liquor stores are also grocery stores. I can only think of one that we have in the city that is a standalone liquor store. I might be wrong about that, but most of them are grocery stores as well. And that helps, being able to sell liquor also helps them with their development and their ability to sell other products as well.

Councilor Longchamps, and then we're going to public comment.

Thank you, Mayor. I hate doing this, but maybe we could table this and contact that lawyer and ask if they would please share who their client is. I mean, the only... place or store that I can think of is like the Hannaford that's going up, which would make sense. But I would like to see if we could table this, maybe get confirmation as to who's asking, and I'd feel much better voting that way.

I would second that motion.

I appreciate that, Councilor Martell, but you have not been recognized. Your apology is accepted. We're now heading to public comment.

Again, Matt Roy, Ward 6. Well, as Councillor Herriman alludes to, the only types of businesses that would be a state agency liquor store are grocery stores, gas stations, and I guess to the standard one point, a Rupert's, whose whole business is agency liquor store. But apparently we're forgetting one thing, Mayor and Council. save a lot has announced their clothes they sell well they were selling alcohol so that would free up one of those ten licenses hmm okay well well thank you different administrator but I guess to that also point Hannaford would be cut With their second location, Hanford would be covered under their current license in Lewiston as the property is also in Lewiston. So that raises the question, who is this? The attorneys, again, that gets back to the attorney's client and what business are they hoping to open and listen that none of you apparently know about or can't well, or you can't actually mention at this point, cause it's still an ongoing thing or the acting well, deputy director slash acting director of economic development. Hasn't told you about yet. Thank you.

Further public comment? Back to us. So I understand what you're saying, Councilor Longchamp, if we have the name, but that still doesn't guarantee anything because the state ultimately decides and there could be seven people or seven entities that apply for this and the person who has asked us to, the person who has asked us to ask the state to increase the limit may not get it in the end. and so yeah, I'm I still think we should pass this tonight, but Yes for we're coming back to you councillor Martel I was just curious on a point of order if Councillor Longchamps had made a formal motion to table this that wasn't recognized.

Mr. Mayor.

I Appreciate that. Are you making a motion to table this?

Do we have a second second?

We not do you catch all that madam clerk? Okay, I guess in the future of counselors can There's the difference between asking to table and then wondering if we should table if counselors could just make themselves clear in the future That'd be great. We now have a motion to table on the floor discussion before we vote councillor Herman

I JUST WANTED TO CHECK ON THE FACT THAT WAS RAISED THAT ONE LICENSE COULD COVER DIFFERENT LOCATIONS. I'M NOT SURE THAT THAT'S THE CASE. I JUST PULLED UP THE TEN THAT ARE IN LOUISTON. THERE ARE TWO SEPARATE ONES LISTED FOR ROOPERS. all the other you know the other eight that are available I I wouldn't think that the state would allow one license one licensee to open up as many locations as they wanted because that kind of goes against the the point of the licensing process which is to restrict how many locations can sell liquor uh thank you counselor Herman um

Anything else? Councillor Martell.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Again, this is a community in a city that struggles mightily with abuse and the results of the, whether it's alcohol abuse or drug abuse and continuing to just provide opportunity for people to indulge in self-destructive behavior is not the way I believe we should move Lewiston forward, even if it puts a few extra dollars on the tax roll. So I very much support tabling this.

YES, COUNSELOR NAJING.

I JUST WANTED TO POINT OUT THAT I THINK ALL CONVERSATION AT THIS POINT HAS TO BE GERMANE TO THE MOTION TO TABLE. AND SO I HAVE PLENTY OF THINGS I'D LIKE TO SAY TOO. BUT I JUST WANTED TO PUT THAT OUT.

Mean what would bridge your main is why we shouldn't table something.

So if you okay, so I do have something Like I don't have enough information right in order to make a decision right now and so ultimately I don't know if If one license covers multiple locations, I don't know if I don't know enough about asking for, I just know that we have a population of 38,000 and we're given 10 licenses for 30 to 45,000, right? And so we're like right in the middle there. There'd have to be a good reason, I think, to request an extra license. Or a pattern here I don't see, and so I just don't have enough information. I'd be comfortable to table until a date's certain, for instance.

COUNSELOR LONGCHAMP, BACK TO YOU. THANK YOU, MAYOR.

AGAIN, I'M NOT COMPLETELY SHUTTING THIS DOWN, BUT I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW WHO IS ASKING. AND IF THAT HAS TO BE AN EXECUTIVE SESSION, THAT'S FINE TOO. THANK YOU.

COUNSELOR CHIDDOM. THANK YOU, MR. MAYOR. COUNSELOR LONGCHAMP, I DID ASK, AND I REPEATEDLY REQUESTED FROM THE ATTORNEY, AND THE ATTORNEY WAS BOUND BY HIS CLIENT NOT TO DEVOLVE. SO I CAN ASK AGAIN, BUT THE ANSWER WILL BE I CAN'T TELL YOU.

Councilor Longchamp.

If that client really wants a liquor license here in Lewiston, I would suggest that he gets on the wagon.

To that end, perhaps after this vote, the attorney will be more amenable to asking his client if he can relay that to us. Madam Clerk, please call the vote. Councilor from Ward 7. I'm sorry, one second. Councilor Noble, did you have something? We're moving it right now. Councilor, I'm sorry, Madam Clerk, please continue with the vote.

Council from word seven?

Yes.

Word one? Yes. Word two? Yes. Word three? No. Word four?

No.

Word five? Yes. Word six?

No.

Motion passed by vote of four to three.

Item number 17.

Number 17 order approving the disposition of 11 King Avenue requested action to approve the order of approving the disposition of 11 King Avenue Motion please so moved second councillor Chittum second by councillor Harriman discussion.

I

public comment back to the council uh counselor and aging so this is buildable property I believe that's correct it's uh excuse me it's a building that's been condemned and their plan is to rehab the the existing building that's on the site so the the bidder that we're being recommended to approve is going to rehab it yes okay thank you MADAM CLERK, PLEASE CALL THE VOTE.

WE'RE NOW UP TO THE SECOND PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD FOR THOSE THAT DID NOT OFFER PUBLIC COMMENT DURING THE FIRST PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD. AND THE SECOND PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD IS NOW CLOSED. WE'RE NOW UP TO, WE'RE GOING TO COMBINE THESE TWO. WE HAVE REPORTS AND UPDATES ON NEW BUSINESS FROM COUNSELORS. COUNSELOR LONGCHAMPS, DID YOU HAVE SOMETHING?

As most Members of the community are aware of some comments that were on Facebook over the last couple of weeks We have received many phone calls our police department have they've received complaints regarding this comment and it was very concerning. And I would like to ask our administrator if there is some way that we could put on our next council meeting as an agenda item to discuss our ethic policy. I know Bangor just did some tweaking to theirs or perhaps added some things to it, but I'd like to see if that would be something possible that we could do specifically for our committee members and council as well.

Yes, and we can do some research. You mentioned Bangor. We're happy to pull up Bangor's recent actions and maybe provide that as some template and some examples. So we'll do some research and we'll have it on the next agenda.

Thank you.

I would suggest that it probably needs to be workshopped first.

Councilor Chittum. Thank you. Question for anyone who can answer it. Has there been any notification of public involvement on the redesign of the stairs from Park to Lisbon to Canal Street?

Yes, we actually met with Public Works today with some initial concepts they have. They're currently working up some budget numbers and what could potentially be accomplished. So right now they're in the gathering information phase as far as the financial piece, but we actually met with them today with some just initial thoughts we had to walk through of what could be possible there.

uh administrator cainrath there was there was a provision that there'd be public input and the involvement of the downtown lewiston association at a minimum has has it reached the point where that can be scheduled we heard yeah so they've actually they've already spoken with the dla they plan to bring it back to the delay for more comment but we could also have a larger public you know input session also um before anything gets rolling obviously to to gather public input thank you we heard we heard tonight from Tom Platts about the possibility of a corridor running through mill number five that would feed in beautifully to these stairs and it would be shame to squander the opportunity to make the best use out of them so I would like to encourage anybody who's listening and has thoughts about how those stairs can be improved both sets of them please let us know

uh before i forget uh i was given this by counselor longchamp so thank you i didn't really i knew we had the posters i didn't realize we had these uh i don't know if we can zoom in here but uh as mentioned uh are we zooming in maybe it's getting late okay So I'm holding in Beyond the Badge happening this Thursday. Facebook event is online. You can find all about it. And yes, or you can... Kurt, we love you. Okay, yeah, we're good. Yeah, that's close enough. Okay, just go to the Facebook event. Councillor Longchamp.

Thank you, Mayor. Administrator Ken Rath, I just wanted to be clear. I did not ask for a workshop. So I would just like something to be put on the agenda. We already have a policy. I think we just need to strengthen it. Thank you.

If I may, Councillor Longchamps, you know, as most of you know, I hate introducing bureaucratic delay into our proceedings, but if we're going to do anything other than change minor language, I think we just need to first talk about it as the body and then move forward from there. Just have a discussion.

Councillor Najin. Since our ethics policy applies to both employees and elected officials, I think that we'll need feedback from HR on anything that we're willing to change as well. So I just wanted to kind of put that out there. So yeah, just to mention that.

Further reports, updates, new business from councillors. Councillor Nagy, back to you.

So Public Health Committee met last week and had the Maine CDC come before us to talk about some of their initiatives. One of the things that was pretty appealing was their violence intervention programming that they're looking at putting into Lewiston. And so as more information becomes available I'll share it but I think they've also had conversations with city staff and so when something is actually materializing we know there's funds there so that's the plus there's actually funds there but when something actually materializes we'll we'll be able to get more information about that so

Are we calling it a night, Councillors? I have a motion to adjourn. You may. Councillor Chittum? Second. Second by Councillor Nagin. Madam Clerk, please call the vote.

Councillor from Ward 7? Yes. Ward 1? Yes. Ward 2? Yes. Ward 3? Yes. Ward 4? Yes. Ward 5? Yes. Ward 6?

No.

Motion passed by a vote of 6 to 1.

Thank you everyone. Thank you to our studio audience here. Thank you for everyone watching online. You all have a wonderful night, Lewiston.