Bangor Legislative Committee holds inaugural meeting to set legislative priorities

[0:12] Daniel Carson: Real life. All right, good evening and welcome to the inaugural meeting of the Bangor City Council's Legislative Committee. It is 8 25 p.m. on Monday, May 4th. I am the committee chair, Counselor Carson. Fellow committee members around the table are Counselors Dean, Counselor Fish, Counselor Leonard, and Counselor Walker. We are also joined at the table by City Manager Carollynn Lear, Counselor Beck, and Councillor Faloon. We have two items on our first agenda this evening and I will go ahead and [0:46] Susan Deane: turn it over to City Manager Carollynn Lear. I'm really not sure what the organization item is, but so here we are, we're at the first meeting of the Legislative Committee. I'm planning on staffing this committee, but in future meetings Assistant City Solicitor Grace Innes is also going to be joining me and sort of co-leading it. I suspect that there is going to be a healthy amount of drafting that comes from this committee, and so I thought it would be good to have her sitting at the meetings to get your inputs and she will likely be effectuating a good amount of it. From my perspective, the work of this committee has very broad possibilities, and I think my hope from this discussion was to maybe do a bit of brainstorming about what Council thinks the top priorities of focus should be, so that I could take away some tangible actionable to view items to schedule future meetings for us to actually start working through issues. In talking with Counselor Carson about this recently, that we both agreed that the brainstorming session may be, may need to be quickly followed by a narrowing session where we choose sort of a top number of priorities, because my sense from Council discussions is that we could probably come up with a list of 100 different potential proposals that we might be interested in looking for. We certainly want the city staff resources to navigate hundreds of proposals, at least not initially. So with that, are we interested in starting with brainstorming? I know that there's an A here, which I think is a Councillor Beck item. So maybe we can start there. Yeah. And then go around the table. [3:04] Michael Beck: Go ahead. Please, Councillor Beck. Okay. So what I proposed is amending the formula at the state level about how county taxes are shared among all the communities to include a service credit for service center, you know, a service under credit, so it kind of forces everyone in the county to chip in a little for what we're doing with by reducing our tax burden and putting more of it on them. So I was looking to maybe so that we could did craft and put forward to get that to our legislative delegation to go to bat for that kind of a service credit. I'm open to ideas about how that should be, how much, but at least to start that conversation, the way to get our regional partners to chip in a little more on the [3:53] Susan Deane: burdens we carry. I really like that idea. Rather than penalizing other municipalities, we're actually crediting ourselves for doing something for those municipalities. So I think that would be a wonderful idea if we could somehow implement it, and I think it's a more positive way than charging someone more for services that they're already utilizing. [4:23] Joseph Leonard: One of the things that I saw as a unique way to have a legislative committee be very useful, besides its primary focus, which would be developing legislation, bills to present to our delegation or to the legislature in general, is to use this also as a networking committee as well. I think a really good thing to do would be if we have partners that want to collaborate, work with the city, I think it's in our best interest to invite them to this committee so that we can have candid discussions publicly, regardless if they're a public official or if they are representative of a company or a union, whatever it is. I think establishing those networks will facilitate better bills because we don't necessarily need to create bills that are already being drafted by other entities and other bodies. If we can tag our name to a list of 15 other entities that are backing something that's that's very similar, there's no reason for us to scout those out as well. So I think networking and making sure that we're not reinventing the wheel is going to be very important for this team, because it would drive me crazy if we send an entire meeting or two working on an idea for a draft of a bill only to hear that like Biddeford preferred just propose something to go forward with the same exact thing that we're putting so much effort into. So and I know Councillor Carson and myself offline were even entertained the idea of even bringing in potentially some gubernatorial candidates to this committee as well that I think would not only boost the ability for this committee to stand out more but also just to make it very clear to whoever is going to be the governor this is one of your primary municipalities that you should be paying attention to and you should have a good relationship with as well and i think that's a good way to actually really start off on a good foot with whoever is going to be the next governor so that 's just one idea but i love That the idea that you go out to council Carson offline and I think that's a that'd be a great way to start a networking meeting for this committee I'm gonna call on myself real quick just to [7:03] Daniel Carson: Respond to that so I can inform like add a little bit of what I was thinking to that and of course you identified the main piece which is building relationships I think no matter what it is we're doing whether it's going to be advocating for legislation working with our sister cities, right, working regionally on questions, those are all sort of get back to the foundation of building relationships with people and working together. And I think about very often, and this is in a very nonpartisan way when I'm thinking about this, just to be clear, but the geography of our state, there is a natural concentration of people along the coast and in Southern Maine. And that concentration necessarily drives political focus to where people are concentrated. And if you talk it, and it doesn't matter who you're talking to, right, Republican, Democrat, Independent, you go out in the community, very often you will have a constituent say, I really feel like people don't hear my voice in Bangor or in CD2. And so I think to that point about potentially bringing in, whether it's a candidate for governor or a candidate for it's in a very non-partisan way to build a relationship to allow that candidate the opportunity to hear about the priorities that the city council has set and to hear how them you know provide them with the opportunity to speak to us and constituents about how what their vision is around those priorities so just a great opportunity I think I think I even said to you it's a very Different thing to pick up the phone and call a governor The day they've been elected versus picking up the phone and calling a governor who you've picked up the phone and have talked to before so that was a little bit of where I was sort of thinking about that idea and counselor Fish I saw your hand. [9:02] Carolyn Fish: To piggyback on Council Leonards comment. The main association of realtors has a very strong obvious and there's a lot of housing issues we have an APP and we have. A strong communication and there's a call to action where we all get a text in there you can click on that and it gives you the legislative bill that's there what are you know if we oppose it or we support it so I think there may be a lot of things along housing that we would be interested in supporting and yet maybe collaborating so a little locally the Bangor or it's like a union. So there's the national, the state and the local. And on the local chapter of the board, we do have a legislator that works with the state and we could maybe invite her or he, whoever it happens to be chairing that committee and hear from them what's on the legislative, what we would like to join with them on as well. And I think that's a great idea years to invite the candidates here before it'll be more impressive and hopefully give us a little more clout later and the big because especially Bangor has three or four methadone clinics and then when the state closed down our mental health Dorothea Dix they just closed it and literally I think at that day they were still 74 if I can remember what I read in that report on that day 74 people that had severe mental health issues that literally had no place to go No housing or anything so I think even though that happened in the early 90s I can't remember the date but we are still having and I know everybody has them in but I think Bangor particularly where we had we are a service center and our geographical area is so broad that we really need to get Augusta's attention somehow. We need them to be a partner and somehow help us with this issue. And we have three or four methadone clinics, again, more than anybody, and we're never going to be able to negotiate having one or two of them placed elsewhere. They're great, but at the same time, when people fall out of those services, we're left again with the unhoused person and that has issues on our streets three and though it is still an issue everywhere I think Bangor is susceptible to it being even a bigger issue than it otherwise should be and again I think the state due to the circumstances and the unique situations we have unique to Bangor should really be participating and I don't know exactly how we approach that but those are two to My long time concerns and priorities for me, I don't know council would agree, but I think that it has been escalating and I think it will continue to and not just from the economy but be but because of these unique things that we have for them. Thank [12:19] Susan Deane: you. Thank [12:21] Susan Faloon: you. I'm not actually on this committee but just a couple of thoughts. I know I had reached out to you a while ago and just planted the seed about having a lobbyist and I think there was one for the city at one time, I think, I couldn't tell you what it was. And so kind of building on what you said council fish, that might be something to discuss and consider down the road because are we missing out on funding and things like that or we are we not participating on certain bills because we don't have somebody you know in Augusta for us. I and I know that we're part of you know like municipal groups that represent you know as a whole but they're not necessarily representing the interests of bank or a loan. And then the other thing that I was going to say and might address sort of what your idea was getting at counselor back, when we had our legislators in here I mentioned and I had mentioned met with all of them when I was campaigning too and discussed this with them and there was a lot of interest and sorry it's been a while since I've looked at what I had drafted but I was looking I was talking to them about proposing a bill that would, you know, there's already something in place where other municipalities are supposed to report if they bring people to Bangor and drop them off. But we know that's not happening and we know that they're not paying for those folks that they're bringing here. And so my idea would sort of bypass that since the reporting isn't happening and would go to the state where there would be like a reporting mechanism where they would be tracked once they enter the system and that we could then get some reimbursement from the state and that could either be you know a portion of ga or some kind of maybe a lodging tax or some other designated needed fund. I have this more vetted a bit more, yeah, then I'll have to go back and pull it out, sorry, but anyways it's just a thought and you know I can bring that to the next meeting to give more details on what my thoughts were but there did seem to be interest from our representatives. [14:58] Joseph Leonard: In the areas that was for Leonard, another branch that I thought would be really good for this committee as well is there's a lot of nitty-gritty details within the city that we as elected officials just never going to know, and subject matter experts that are our staff, I think it's actually going to be really important for staff members to go through the proper channels to actually deliver to the committee, whether it's through a collective living reading document that we always are able to read or if it's at a committee meeting itself to propose ideas for bills that can help us financially throughout the city or even with material acquirements, because there are just some things that are really phenomenal good ideas that are just very technical that none of us are going to have the ability to actually elaborate on or think about, that someone who's in the grind of one of our departments might actually have a very good idea that just we don't hear about but we really should at the end of the day, so if there's a way to allow for staff members to present those types of ideas to the legislative committee, I would, I think it's actually important for us to have that open channel, or even if it's just a one directional Channel [16:34] Michael Beck: I would second that, I mean if anyone's running into the red tape at staff and they'll be able to tell us what the barriers are, and yeah, absolutely I'd love to see ideas they would bring forward and what can we do to alleviate some of that well [16:52] Daniel Carson: I'm waiting for the next, I just want to share that since we passed the order for this committee, in every meeting that we've been in, somebody has brought, talked about something right that's on an agenda, and I get a look oh listen, and I just want to share with you because I think it will help illuminate, and all of these, I really love everything that's coming up in this committee and I think that's, it gives us a great place to focus, but I want to share some things that have already come out just to show you how much of a we will need a narrowing to really become focused, right, we obviously have like building that relationship with the main Municipal Association and then the National League of Cities, we have heard about difficulties that, when we don't have numbers on this but like to realize a report of the consequences of unfunded state laws and their impact on the city, I think I've heard four or five counselors at separate times mentioned Dorothea, And so it would be great, I think, to Maybe try to get some consensus around what would be a vision around there. We obviously have monitoring and advocating and writing legislation. We have referrals that are going to come from committees as the Homeless Committee steps off on its work, as the Housing Committee steps off on its work. I hope it mentions the Pearcloth Amendment. We've heard from public health that case managers, MaineCare doesn't pay for case managers when they have to drive extra miles to go find their patients, or when they step in to fill in the gaps of other activities from other services there that they're receiving that fall through. We heard a report from in an infrastructure committee about biosolids, right, and the problems with Juniper Ridge. You know, you're you're thinking about this a lot as well, the one-year extension, but the problem still exists, right, and what was the solution that came up was those drying buying facilities for like 500 gajillion dollars, right, but it doesn't answer the question of the competition we're gonna face with where to put those. We've heard utility advocacy, you know, and then the things that have sold there's, I mean, really a lot, but I also wanted to ask the question while you're still thinking of ideas, two things that have sort of come up here, which Leonard, counselor Leonard, the inviting, you know, Partners as we're advocating for legislation, right, thinking about those people who are already working on those questions, and the idea where there's some agreement about potentially bringing candidates in, both of those, I think, would require for us to propose a language change to the actual ordinance that established this committee. And so I think if there's consensus on that, I would be happy to work on proposing that change. [19:47] Joseph Leonard: Change, I have no issue with that, all [19:56] Daniel Carson: right, I see head bubbles, I like governing by consensus, other [20:06] Susan Faloon: ideas, counselor Balloon, thank you, I think it would be, so the state has some protections for renters and Bangor has some, however they don't really, I don't think, go far enough, and I bring this up because I had a constituent who, an elderly woman, who was scared to death and was messaging me frantically like over a weekend or something, I was actually out of town and I was communicating with her because an out of town management company owned this rental property, suddenly changed the terms and were moving her to a month-to-month, upping her rent, but not other tenants. It was just this whole convoluted and there really aren't any protections. And she was scared to death to be put out on the street and that she was she's like, I cannot live on the streets of Bangor or anywhere. You know, and she was talking about how Connecticut, where she's from, has so many more protections for people. So like in my, you know, especially with all the housing challenges, I'm just thinking maybe taking a look at, you know, and this could be at the state level, this could be at the local level, I don't know, but looking at protections for people so that they're not, you know, just because some out of state company comes in and decides that they want to get everybody out so that they can make more money, that there aren't, you know, some stronger protections for people. [21:52] Daniel Carson: Can I ask a clarifying question? Absolutely. Do you think that would be something for the an idea for the legislative committee to take on now, or would that be in do you have a different or when we establish the housing committee with this? Yeah, that could [22:09] Susan Faloon: be. I'm just kind of throwing that out there. I was like, yeah, so maybe it's something that the housing committee tackles, but I just wanted to kind of put it out there, counselor [22:26] Susan Deane: Dean. Well our top priorities have been for the past few years, housing and the unhoused. So of course, I think every conversation we have involves some of that. So we have not had a lot of input elsewhere on what we can do in our city. And I think that is a biggie, because as we know, we thought about it ourselves. The two are kind of intermingled. So I actually believe that needs to be addressed. And of course, the Georgia Dix, we've been talking about that for years, you know, and every new council thinks they have this great idea, let's just call it there, and we cry out, yeah, from the new council went toward the addicts, we've been shaking about this what for 10, 20 years, and we don't get anywhere with it because the state owns it. So at some point something needs to be done with properties that are state-owned that could be benefiting the state of the city of Bangor and its house or run house community, you know, whoever we can move people on, we can move people in, we can tear down and build, I mean, but we can't do it alone. I think we all know that, counselor Fish to talk about Dorothea Dicks again. [23:44] Carolyn Fish: I think we've always thought that the state, we could buy it from the state, or the state would partner with us to do something more with it, and maybe we should think about leasing it for a dollar if they're not going to help us, or if they don't want to give it up, lease it to us, and maybe that might be, maybe that'll get their attention to at least our conversation, at least it for a dollar, because I mean after all, I think they have owed us some participation that we haven't gotten, so we could start with the dollar. I don't know how far we get, but just to open the conversation, I'm [24:25] Daniel Carson: wondering if you think it would be helpful, committee members, to actually schedule in a, in a future legislative committee meeting, actually schedule an agenda item to try to focus in on the Dorothea index question and see if we can narrow down to find out like what the specific appetite or vision that council has around potentially doing something, because I think it might be easier, that would be the wrong word, I think going into that type of a really big conversation with at least some sort of a vision around what we want is going to give us an advantaged approach. I [25:07] Susan Deane: just add something to that. I believe Senator Baldachi said that the property had future uses, maybe another state hospital, which hasn't happened, but even if it prompted of them to move in that direction, that's going to benefit us, so whatever we could do with that property, whether it be the state or us taking it over, would be a [25:28] Joseph Leonard: huge benefit comes from Leonard that not only do I think that's an appropriate start for a specific meeting just because it's always been child, but this also gives us an opportunity to be creative with that as well, because even if we don't necessarily get an outcome that we like, we might also be able to work with say Portland's legislative committee if they also have similar issues regarding state properties that they have in their locality, maybe we can collaborate on a similar state property bill that while might not necessarily address Dorothea Dix itself could actually address a larger statewide issue that we just also happen to benefit. So that's no, I think that's a great, let's just call it a very useful guinea example to start one of our first committee meetings? I [26:40] Carolyn Fish: think we have a short list. [26:42] Daniel Carson: I certainly agree, it's a good start. [26:46] Susan Deane: So for, I think the sort of first thing we want to consider is a language change. So I can get that drafted for a future committee meeting. And then if I might, i feel like a threshold question that we need to answer particularly because we're in budget season is the lobbyist question because we have the opportunity to appropriate money now if that's something we want to pursue but i what i would like to do is actually set forth for you in a memo what we already paid for and what we're getting because i think in my mind it would not make sense to just add money to pay for a lobbyist i think we need to evaluate what we're paying for Currently determine if it is a good use of our money. If not, evaluate not participating and then supplement with a lobbyist. So I'd like to have that conversation sort of part one and two, and I feel like unfortunately that can't wait because we're in budget season. [28:04] Joseph Leonard: I would very much appreciate that conversation actually, because I, mean, I know some other counselors have also had questions regarding that specific item as well. All so I think it's very appropriate to have that conversation, and then I'm wondering and I. [28:23] Susan Deane: Mean that might wind up being a whole meeting, those two discussions. But after that I'm wondering if we couldn't find someone either internally to the city or from the state willing to come and give us information about what's happening at Dorothea Dick's currently and whether there are any plans before. And then once you sort of know the current state of play, that could inform how we want to approach that question as a committee. So maybe that's meeting one and two are those two opportunities. Does that make sense? See consensus on that and. [29:17] Daniel Carson: I wanted to put out also in that idea of a lobbyist, which of course I appreciate having that discussion, but as the chair of this committee I'm volunteering to go also and do these things if that's, if Council wants somebody to show up in Augusta or whatever, I will gladly volunteer to do things like that where we, when we see that is appropriate, because that would also save us some money. And I think another question and probably you know not to answer this question tonight, but I would like. Everybody to sort of start thinking about, because this committee is going to liaise to network, right, to build those relationships, to, so to think about how I receive, I can receive direction on how to know when and how to build those relationships, you know, some way to know what the council's, you know, consensus is around where and how we build so that I could be proactive in some of this. [30:23] Carolyn Fish: Part of that direction may come with what are our primary, like, as we, you know, pick off our primary goals. Your sphere of where you go and what you do may change according to the goal we have on the table. I see what you're saying. Yeah, you're going to need direction. Yes. Yeah, and I think my other [30:44] Daniel Carson: threshold question is you know that whatever we're coming up with is can we tie it to current council that like another way to help narrow it down is it can we tie it to current council and [30:59] Susan Deane: So I think additionally, based on the ordinance, before we sort of do any of these things, we should agenda this on a full council workshop to get full council input on these items, which I can do for Monday. Although we have a majority here, I think the intent is that we'll sort of report out to a full-time. So you can do it and then just [31:39] Daniel Carson: To make sure I was clear, the thing, the two things that I heard were the potentially bringing candidates in, so that's one piece of the language change, and then like inviting partners, which you described could be companies [31:54] Joseph Leonard: Or, you know, just the different groups that might be working on it. Did I miss anything? Do we need to have language change for that one directional channel for staff to go to [32:07] Susan Deane: The committee, or is that just something that, you know, that can just occur? And actually I will, so that I'm already queuing it up for maybe meeting three, four, or five. I'll start soliciting collectively staff input to eventually raise up a few, because I'm sure of the second pass there's going to be like a hundred things. Anybody have [Daniel Carson: Anything else?] No, I think this is exactly what I needed to sort of start. Right, bring stuff to you. [32:49] Daniel Carson: Any final thoughts? It [32:55] Susan Deane: Was a great first meeting, and I think you're wonderful as the chair, and I'm glad that we're starting with this. [33:00] Susan Faloon: Well, thank you. I second all. Absolutely. Thank you, Dr. Carson. [33:05] Carolyn Fish: I think we have good choice and look at us go, Homeless Committee, Housing Committee and Legislative Team. [33:11] Daniel Carson: Yeah, making a little bit of history here with this change. Very excited about that. Well, if there's nothing else, then we are adjourned at 8.58 PM on Monday, May 4th.