Remarks by Patrick Lyons
121 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 3 of 5
Thanks for that clarification. Trying to imply anything other than, yeah, personal. Yeah. Councilor Shea.
I'll fourth it. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor? Motion carries. Thank you, Mike.
All right, let's see if that works for temperature and doesn't crack some windows. We're on to agenda item number 15, council order number 092604. Excuse me, sir. 604, request of the public works director to accept 6 million in drinking water state revolving funds to be put towards the water treatment plant project. Charlie, we've got some memos from the finance director, but we also have a procedural question we need to address on this one.
Great. And I just want to note again, so the, the matter was properly noticed for a public hearing. Both orders are in our packet materials. So the public's had opportunity to review it. The council's had the opportunity to review it. All we're asking the council to do is to, if we're going to add an agenda item, our rules require unanimous approval to do that. What that will allow us to do is address both of these here tonight as they're related and be more efficient for the city. Again, there's no issue with notice and awareness that everyone has noticed that we were going to take these all…
So the agenda is the only thing that didn't have it as a public hearing, but everything else otherwise did? Correct. Okay.
Okay, yeah, 604, agenda item rule 15. So we'd have a public hearing here tonight for both matters, and we'd be able to vote on them both tonight. We just need the council to approve adding the second half of it to the agenda here tonight so we could work through it.
Thank you. Thank you. Okay, so unless the councilors have any further questions, I think before we get further into the merits,
Well, I think, on that note, Steve, again, as I understand it, that this meeting has been noticed as a public hearing, or this agenda item, both agenda items, noticed as a public hearing. So the only misstep here was the, as I understand it, was how the agenda was written so otherwise we've done everything properly and I think rather than for that one minor clerical error come back and have to have a special meeting and expend the city resources and time I think it's a simple motion here to amend, and then we can get into the public hearing on both and have robust discussions and get the work…
Second. Any further discussion or questions from council? All those in favor? Opposed? Reasons? Why, Steve?
Okay. So, I think... What we can do to move forward here is have a public hearing on one of the orders, on both of the orders, but then only vote on the one because we only have one agenda item. And then we'll have to vote on another in October. but I believe only one of these requires the October 1st deadline.
Just vote to postpone it? Yes. Or table it?
I don't know. Why would we not just split the agenda item into two agenda items, Steve, and do it all here tonight?
Yeah, something's fuzzy. All right. Let's just proceed with the... Chris, I don't know.
So how we're going to proceed then is that I'm going to move for a vote to bifurcate the single order into two orders. number 092604A for the 2024-27 matter and number 092604B for the 25-06 matter. Do I have a second?
Second. So again, we're now, this is a vote to bifurcate the order into two orders. which we don't need unanimous consent to do. So the agenda item we needed unanimous consent, but the orders we needed, we don't need unanimous consent. So all those in favor to bifurcate the orders? Opposed? So bifurcated. So now we're going to hold a public hearing just on the matter that requires us to be... And I hate to interrupt, but before we get there, I saw that Woodard and Kerr and Brent had something.
Oh, please. We're here to listen to you.
Councilor Howland, do you consider your vote to split the agenda item?
So my understanding is now that we bifurcated, we are going to hold a public hearing solely on what we've deemed 092604B for the 2025-06 matter, as that is the one that has the, we know for sure, and that's the October 1, 2026 deadline. So on that, so that in your packet counselors you should see that as because there's two memos. It's the one that's 2025 dash zero six. Before we go to a public hearing specifically on this matter, does council or council have any questions for staff or our experts that are here tonight? Seeing none, I'm going to open this matter for a public hearing. If…
Can I see it real quick? Kind of takes the fun out of it.
Okay. So, yeah, Tavi, you want to move the first motion? I think it's just further detailed than the original motion that I provided.
Okay, further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor? Opposed? Motion carries. We have a motion to table agenda item number 092604A to be brought up at a later date. So moved.
Second. All those in favor? Opposed? That carries.
Great. Thank you, Charlie. All right. Moving on to agenda item number 16. Council Order Number 092605, Discussion to Convert the City of Elser from a Weak Mayor Form of Government to a Strong Mayor Form of Government. The first election of mayor in November, 2028, sponsored by Council of Elser.
Do any other municipalities in Maine use a strong mayor system?
My understanding is if you have a strong mayor, that's a full-time job. Correct.