Remarks by Patrick Lyons
121 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 4 of 5
And does a strong mayor, so let's say it's a full-time mayor, they have their salary and then they'll also have a like a chief administration officer? Is that typical how this works?
So this proposal would add another high paid city employee on top of paying the mayor as well?
And I don't know what his reasons are. I think it's a horrible idea. And I think it would just bring more politics into our small town. And that may be Councilor Halloran's intent. That wouldn't surprise me. But I think it's a horrible idea for our small community. It would disenfranchise, to a degree, the other councilors. We are growing, but we're not Boston. We're not any of these communities that have a strong mayor. I don't think this is a good fit at all for the city of Ellsworth, and I have no interest in directing the staff to pursue it any further. Councillor Smith.
Whenever you'd like, Steve, you can put your hand.
Yeah, I don't see how this would improve Ellsworth. I think it would just make it more political and bringing big city proposal to a small Hancock County town. And I have no interest in advancing this. So unless anyone else has anything further on it, I think we can just move on to the next agenda item. We have Council Order Number 092606, Discussion and Potential Action on the Creation of a City of Ellsworth Food Sovereignty Ordinance, sponsored by Councillor O'Halloran.
Yeah, I don't know. Well, so just, I think this is, these conversations and these questions are great, and if the council wants to vote to advance this, then I think we're going to need, you know, to go through the various process of vetting. My one question for you is if, If the council does approve this, would your family and other folks be willing to help council advance an ordinance like this? 100%, absolutely. Because, you know, again, limited resources, the more we can, as the city can rely on interested constituents.
Sir, if you're going to speak. Sorry. Just say your name for the record, please.
This means more chicken pies in my life.
Hang on. I'm just going to go in order. You haven't spoken yet.
Great. Thank you, Charlie. Good stuff to know. Councilor Howland?
Well, I think this is much more, it's not just growing produce. There's a whole host of considerations.
Maybe we'll, I think my advice is someone make a motion and we see if the council supports it and then folks can figure out how we get this through the process. Would anyone like to advance a motion?
I wouldn't support that. I'm sorry? Which word?
Okay. Why don't we just move to the, we've got a lot to do here. I would ask we move to the motion to vote. All those in favor? Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. We will proceed to the next. Thank you very much for coming. Thank you very much. We will proceed to the next agenda item, number 18, which is an executive session for discussion of labor contract negotiation matters regarding a proposed side agreement to the Clerks Collective bargaining agreement between the City of Ellsworth and the Laborers International Union of North American pursuant to one MRS section 405.60.
Second. Second. All those in favor? We are in executive session. Thanks, folks, for everyone coming tonight. Council Order Number 092607. There, Jason's with us here. Action on the proposed side agreement to the Clerk's Collective Bargaining Agreement between the City of Ellsworth and the Laborers' International Union of North America, LUINA. So we just discussed in executive session the proposal with the council and our legal council and HR and the city manager. Do I have a proposed motion regarding this agenda item? Councillor Smith.
Second. Second, Councilor Shea. Motion to second. Is there any further discussion from council on this matter? Seeing the city manager?
Thank you, Charlie. Motion to second. Further discussion from council? Seeing none, all those in favor, unanimous. Agenda item number 20, council order number 092608, discussion and potential action on the request of the city manager to make a budget reallocation from the city manager's FY27 payroll line to the city clerk's FY27 payroll line. And we'll make the motion. Charlie, any further elaboration on that?
Do I have a proposed motion? Councilor Smith.
Any further discussion from council? Seeing none, all those in favor? Any animus? Agenda item number 21, executive session for consultation with the city attorney concerning the city's legal rights and duties pending or contemplated legal matters involving main organics, including potential continued enforcement or legal action pursuant to one MRS 4056E.
Second. All those in favor? Anonymous? Jason, we are in executive session. Executive session now. There's no action coming out of the executive session with legal counsel. So we are going to proceed to agenda item number three, adjournment.
All those in favor? It's unanimous. All right. Adjourned.
Meeting to order September 8th, 2026 at 530 p.m. On the agenda for the special meetings is one matter. It's council order number 090800, public hearing potential action on order authorizing issuance of up to $3,860,443. the city's general obligation bonds to finance the acquisition of miscellaneous equipment and street, road, sidewalk and other municipal infrastructure improvements. We have a memo from our deputy city manager and our finance director, and we also have our city manager here. So, Charlie, I don't know how staff wants to kick it off.
Great. Question for you, Charlie. Just to confirm, the reason we needed to call this special meeting was in order to get the bond paperwork done by a specific deadline?
And when, so we approve this bond, it doesn't, we don't, but then we don't draw down on it until we vote to appropriate the funds. And at that time, it's, you know, looking at these projects, they each, they all have different scopes, right, in the length of time. And I know we talked about not wanting to bond projects longer than the life of the project. So for example, local roads, 10 years.
So it's not one bond. If we were to then draw down on it, we could then select the length of time.