Bangor council hears hours of public comment on homelessness, needles, day center plan

[3:18] Susan Hawes: all right we are live thank you good evening welcome to the regular meeting of the bangor city council it is may 27th it is 701 and we are in council chambers council maller can you hear us yes i can hear you okay as always we start every meeting with the pledge of allegiance agents and oh my God Hillary would you lead us in the pledge please thank you Hillary okay this is the portion of the meeting set aside for general public comment directly related to city business for matters that do not appear on this evening's agenda. Public comment requires a person to state your name and whether you are a resident of Bangor. The city council has adopted a public comment policy that we will adhere to. Statements during public comment should respect the dignity and seriousness of the proceeding, and individuals will be restricted to speaking once. Obscene, truly threatening, or overly repetitive comments will be deemed out of order and will be interrupted and removed. Topics that are considered out of order also include matters that are in litigation, individual employees or employee groups discussing matters for which complaint or grievance procedures are in place, personal disputes between the speaker and another resident not germane to city business, support for opposition to any candidate for political office, and personnel complaints pertaining to individual city employees. There is a time limit of three minutes per speaker, and the total time allowed for general public comment regarding city business will be limited to no more than one hour. The public comment period is for City Council members to listen and not to respond or debate with persons. If you do not live in Bangor or own property in Bangor, please allow those who do to have the opportunity to speak first. If you'd like to offer comment on any item directly related to city business not appearing on the regular agenda, you may approach the podium. Individuals who have appropriately pre-registered to give public comment via remote means will be given the opportunity to participate remotely. Alternatively, counselors may be reached via email at counselors at Bangor main.gov. A link to the adopted public policy comment can be comment policy can be found on the city's website. Okay, before we do any of that, we do have a proclamation. Could we have a roll call for attendance? Hold up, that would be nice, wouldn't it? Yes, that's the back present, that's the [6:51] Lisa Goodwin: Carson present that's the Dean present that's the flume present that's the fish here that's the Leonard breathing alive that's the mallor president that's a [7:03] Susan Hawes: Haas here the present one absent okay so back to the presentation we do have a proclamation this evening and council flown if you would like to present that absolutely thank you [7:24] Susan Faloon: it is my absolute pleasure to present this is a proclamation from the city of bangor recognizing george hale for distinguished service to the bangor broadcasting community whereas george hale has devoted more than 70 years of his professional life to radio and television in the greater bangor area building one of the longest and most distinguished broadcasting careers in the history of Maine media and Whereas over the course of seven decades George Hale has become one of the most recognized and trusted voices in Maine broadcasting serving listeners and viewers across Penobscot County and beyond with integrity humor and genuine care for the people of this region and Whereas George Hale has used his platform to shine a light on the stories, events, and individuals that define the character of the Bangor community from sports to local government and civic affairs to arts, culture, and everyday life. And whereas through more than 70 years in Bangor area radio and television, George Hale has mentored emerging broadcasters, including myself, strengthened the profession of local media and demonstrated that community-rooted journalism remains vital to an informed and connected citizenry and whereas George Hale's contributions extend beyond the airwaves reflecting a deep and abiding commitment to the city of Bangor and beyond and the people who call it home participating in community events supporting local causes and lending his voice to the common good and whereas the mayor and members of the Bangor City Council wish to honor a career of extraordinary longevity in meaningful public service and to celebrate a broadcaster who has made Bangor a better place to live, work, and raise a family. Now, therefore, I, Susan Valloon, on behalf of Susan M. Hawes, Mayor of the City of Bangor, on behalf of the City Council and the citizens of Bangor, do hereby proclaim our deepest gratitude and admiration for George Hale and recognize him for his more than 70 years of extraordinary contributions to broadcasting and to the greater Bangor community. And I just want to say I have had the wonderful opportunity to work with George several times in my career, both in television and radio, and this doesn't even go far enough. He is just a magnificent human being. So, George, would you like to come up? [10:41] Wayne Mallar: You told me I couldn't vote tonight. [10:45] Evangeline White: Oh, thank you. Thank you, George. You want to say anything? Oh, no, it's. [10:52] Wayne Mallar: They tell a lot of lies about me, and you don't care, but I've always loved this town, and I wish you well and the work that you do. Thank you. First, okay. [11:23] Susan Hawes: Is. There anyone wishing to make public comment? [11:47] Scott Party: The clock is set. My name is Scott Party, and I'm a resident of Bangor, and I'll, I have hay fever, so it's nothing catching. I'm going to try to get through this without losing my voice, and it's, I kept it short because of that. To the Bangor City Council, the low barrier service center proposal I recently submitted is not a conceptual starting point for endless debate. It is an immediate, zero cost necessity. As someone who works directly with our local unhoused population, I know firsthand how incredibly. Difficult, strained this crisis has become. We have reached a breaking point, and the vast majority of Bangor citizens deserve to have their city back. This proposal directly achieves the exact outcomes every stakeholder wants, clearing block sidewalks, eliminating needles and human waste from our public parks, restoring safe and easy access to our library, and driving foot traffic back to downtown Bangor. Crucially, it provides a centralized footprint to get a handle on the current HIV outbreak by ensuring the unhoused have consistent exposure to medical aid, recovery resources, and proper needle disposal. We do not have the luxury of time to let this stall and committee over location logistics. If the council has a better municipal site in mind, change it, but do it now. This initiative utilizes existing infrastructure and existing staff provided by the opioid settlement fund of 500k plus, costing the city nothing. It is a pragmatic, immediate, logical solution to a public safety and health emergency. You don't need staff's blessings, just do it. For too long, the city has been paralyzed by over analysis. This plan offers a clear path to reclaim our public spaces while simultaneously throwing a. Lifeline to those who need it most. Stop debating, approve the framework, and take action today. Thank you. Thank you. [13:54] Sharon O'Hara: Hello. My name is Sharon on the horn. I'm also resident Bangor been homeless since 33. I am. I have many things to address with that. I only have three minutes. I was okay first of all we 're trying to clean up. June 15th there we have over a hundred red needle drops and a whole bunch of gloves coming from needlepoint sanctuary that moved to 1009 Ohio Street now and it's helping our population we're trying to pick up work clean garages pick up garbage all of us not all of us because a lot of people are on the frozen water I hate saying it the ice but it messes you up it does and it's messing a lot of our folks up because they it's a quick fix a quick hi to all the sorcerers that we have like we everything gets stolen we can't even sleep our shoes get stolen back and so that being said i was also raped and not i'm not saying that for myself i would that happened to me so i could speak for the women and children of the city of bangor we are not safe i've been to the police they finally let me in I have no criminal record. I'm this big. I carry no weapons. It's what I know. And there's so many things I'm going to do. us are we're people too and everybody is a sovereign free-willed individual meaning we have a god-given choice all of us moment to moment there's a million moments we can change anytime therefore let's step back not engage with whatever's going on but come inside ourselves shelves and make the choice that we all have and do our own thing and let everybody do with our own thing and then maybe we can make a better Bangor and I'm born in 1972 from New Jersey originally and as God is my witness I have so much proof about a lot of things and I've tried to get it out and i'm sure my three minutes are up but thank you for hearing me and listening thank [16:32] Katie McCarthy: you hi my name is katie mccarthy i'm a lifelong resident of bangor i have attended bangor public schools from pre-k through high school and i spent my entire life playing sports and representing Bangor with pride. And I'm here because I'm losing that pride. I go to college out of state. Every time I come home, the city is more and more unrecognizable. Not only am I a resident of Bangor, I'm an employee of the city. I'm a supervisor for the two city pools. This is my fifth summer working for Parks and Rec. And I can say with certainty that every passing summer, I've witnessed more problems than the last. We've seen more 911 calls, more public intoxication incidents, more needles found in the park and in the pools. pools. Last week I was working on opening up Dakin Pool by Broadway Park and I was trimming weeds around the fence. I was in the park area right between the pool and the basketball court and my main concern was stepping on needles because that's where we find them every single year. This is in a public park, a public pool where kids go on their own without parents to have fun in the summer. Also our staff at the pools were made up of mostly high school and college kids. We have a lot of employees as young as 15 years old. When we do our training we spend almost a full day on how to handle and interact with the general public and this has become really concerning a large portion of this time is spent teaching 15 year olds what to do if someone is in the pool intoxicated we learn how to spot an overdose that part of our regular bathroom walkthroughs are to check and make sure that no one is passed out or oding in a stall we're trained in the administration of narcan the pools are supposed to be a safe place where parents can send their kids to have fun and not worry about them but these are the types of things that we have to prepare for because of the decisions and policies being made in the city in two years i'm going to graduate from college i'm going to have to make a decision about where i'll work and live and i can tell you right now that it won't be bangor this isn't a place to work anymore it's not a place to have kids or raise a family i think a lot of families with young kids don't have the ability to leave bangor right now even if they want to but people my age who have the decision ahead of us can and will i understand that having empathy is important i have so much empathy for unhoused for addicts for anyone who's struggling but decisions based on empathy have real impacts in this city at some point a decision needs to be made about who is more deserving of our empathy if it's homeless coming in from out of state who are taking advantage of our city and our money if it's the Children who aren't safe in parks and pools, who get to miss out on the freedom and joy of running around outside because their parents are afraid they'll step on a needle, or small businesses and small business owners downtown who have to close their doors because no one feels safe to be outside anymore, or even our incredible school system that suffers when teachers move out and retire because nobody young is moving in to replace them. We all have empathy, but we also have awareness and reason. I love this city. I have so much pride in this city, and I'm frustrated watching this empathy destroy it. Thank you. Thank you. Good [19:48] Grace Nichols: evening my name is Grace Nichols I live in Bangor near Huston University and I'm part of a group called act up Bangor I just happen to have a history of working with act of New York and so when I came here for law school it seemed really important that now that we have a cluster of 43 identified cases, which by the rule of four public health concept would mean at least 192 actual cases. So we have a little experience with that in New York City, where we were told that only gay men and only Haitians got this new gay cancer in the early 80s, and the government didn't act. And we found out that everybody can get a virus, and I think that Bangor needs to understand that this is a call to a general public health education campaign that's a necessity if we're gonna stop it where it is, and we do need to stop it where it is. Geometric growth is a fearsome force. It would let this keep going. So, with that in mind, we're facing as a city federal cuts that are going to impact us far worse than what we're currently experiencing. So, the 2027 federal budget 0s out the CDC prevention division at the federal level. It also takes away housing opportunities for people living with HIV, which houses thousands and thousands of people. It's going to throw people on the street who are sick, and it's going to kill people. And that's just some of it. So there's a week of action called Seven Days in June, and it's for a lot of different health care issues. But all of the ACT UP chapters up and down the coast were part of a group called ACT UP Nation. All of them are having vigils on the 5th to talk about the fact that June 5th, 1981 was the 1st death from HIV. It's been 45 years and 45M people have died of HIV on this planet because places like the United States who had the ability to launch a major public health effort did not do so because of discrimination against gay men and immigrants. And so we didn't do the job, but now we have a, cluster that we can, there's a small cluster in Cumberland County now, but that we could get a handle on it. We could do it different this time. So, we're asking for people to come out and say very clearly to the federal government and to our senators that we will not approve this 2027 budget. It is going to kill our people. And so I hope you can all come. That's going to be on the 5th at 8 p.m. at Bangor City Hall up front. So we'll see you there. Thank you so much. Thank you. [23:07] Trisha Quirk: Trisha Quirk, resident of Bangor. I received this letter from a guest at our inn. Just wanted to read it to you. Hi Bob and Trisha. It was a pleasure to meet you and have the opportunity to stay at your lovely inn. During our visit, we also had the pleasure of dining at the restaurant, which is beautiful. We enjoyed a magnificent meal. That said, I left Bangor with a heavy heart. While I will not put my grievances in a review for your inn or a restaurant, I do feel the need to address those feelings in a format where I can be completely candid without causing harm to your business, your staff, or any other businesses in Bangor. Shortly after we checked in we went to downtown Bangor for lunch. We decided that Patty's Irish Pub that we'd seen on the way into town. As you know that area of downtown is quite beautiful and it's clear that a lot of effort went into making it look nice. We found a parking spot about a block away from the pub and while walking to it we were shocked to encounter a junkie doing drugs on the sidewalk in broad daylight. I hurried my wife past and we continued to the pub which was nice and the people were friendly. We had heard about such things happening in large cities but we had never witnessed anything like that and certainly didn't expect to encounter it at a pretty little town in Maine. After all, we had been in Maine for nearly two weeks, and everything else we had seen had been great, and the people had been wonderful. We passed it off as what we'd seen as a rare occurrence. After ordering, we started looking at other restaurants, and we wanted to try other things. We wanted to, we wanted to do well in Bangor. We were seated at the booth near the big window, and as we discussed our plans, we began noticing pretty persistent passing of homeless people. Several of them behaving as if they were some level of distress. One man even strolled down the street screaming while moving his hands as though they were sock puppets, but it was unclear that he was dealing with, it was, it was unclear if he was dealing with a mental health crystal crisis or if there had been more nefarious cause. The longer we sat there and watched, the more concerned we became. After we finished our meal, which was very good, as was the service, we decided to walk straight back to the car whether than, rather than walk around town as planned. We walked, we passed some of the people we'd seen past the windows without incident, but as we approached the car, we are approached by a lady. That's it, thank you, thank you, good [26:20] Richard Chaucer: evening counselors. My name is Richard Chaucer. I'm a resident at the reef, at the reef, at the two and a half million dollar, money tax dollars we put in at the, yes, well, yeah, you know, the woman you got a big data for drug addiction, yeah, at the schoolhouse apartments. What I want to comment on, bring up to, is when we're talking about the unhoused population, any challenges it's causing, we had it, we had a place, I was in Portland, we created when I was on the board of mainqualitycounts.org, we created a place called the Florence House. That place is run now by Pebble Street. That place is nothing but a drug infected area. Drug trafficking goes in and out of there like crazy, and we also created another place called a day center. I read in a paper today they want to have a day center from 9 to 5. Well, that sounds good if they do the launch, the logistics behind it, and do the history. Pebbles, there's a day center in Pebble Street, Pebble Street in Portland, and also another one called McGee Chi Hall, which people in the healthcare who won't understand what that is, desk, that is a epitaph of exactly what this last young lady said that goes. It's going to be happening here because we do not have the infrastructure for, we do not have the plumbing for, we did not have the safety. We didn't have the medical staff for now. I had the housing in need, and we don't have the people in staff. What we're doing is we're giving out vouchers like their M and M's, but that's great. But it's problem is we need supports. Like I said before, when a person comes out of unhoused homelessness, they need supports that not just about you to sit in and look at 4 rooms where we do all day. They need support. Jobs,. I haven't heard anybody in this council talk about job creation, talk about putting people in work. You get a person off drugs, what are we going to do with our spare time? We need to work. We need to find something to do. Thank you. [28:29] Amber Webb: Good evening. I'm Amber Webb. I've been born and raised in Bangor my whole life. And I'm going to be talking about the homelessness epidemic tonight, but in a different way than some previous speakers have. I believe that homelessness, addiction, and mental health are all interconnected, and right now we're just putting a band-aid on a festering wound with all of these city ordinances and shoving them from one location to another and not addressing the root cause. We cannot expect them to recover while we remove every single necessary condition for them to successfully recover. We are setting them up to fail. We are telling people that if they want to get sober, then they need to go to rehab, but when they go to rehab and get out, where are they going to go? Back on the streets, back into that situation. They are not comfortable or safe enough to go get help. Other countries like New Zealand have had extreme success with programs where they actually focus on working on all three at the same time. Sorry, I went off script. I believe that we should explore an integrated stabilization approach instead of primarily reacting with a crisis management. Right now we are paying more money with the police intervention, the constant emergency services coming, all of those issues, all the Narcan, everything is costing more than utilizing the empty buildings all around Bangor. We could put that money in, we could utilize grants from places like the Housing Authority, HUD, opioid settlements, stuff like that, and turn them into somewhere where people, especially homeless, who are struggling with mental illness, addiction, and homelessness, can go in, get sober, get safe, get on their feet, and have around-the-clock support. And until we can actually sit here and agree and realize that we are just putting a band-aid over the actual problem, it's going to continue to get worse. We're to hear more stories and more people are going to lose compassion, and people are forgetting that dead people don't recover. Thank you. Thank you, Jackie. [31:00] Jen Gunderman: Smallwood, I'm a resident of Bangor. I'm just going to continue on with Trisha's letter. During our vacation in Maine, but this wasn't help, this wasn't a helpful local trying to help our tourists. As she drew near, she was mumbling something unintelligible about a bird feather, and it was then that we realized she was seeming friendliness. She realized her seeming friendliness was a guise to get us to close down so she could ask us for money, which were the only clear words she spoke. We hurried onto the car and decided to take a ride around town, hoping this type of activity was isolated to the particular part of town and that the rest of the city would feel safe. We had seen the public library on a list of attractions and it looked quite beautiful, so we decided to check it out. Upon arrival, we realized that it had become a homeless encampment, so we gave up and just went back to the end feeling quite disgusted. That evening, we discussed what we had witnessed and how the situation necessitated the need for change, a need to change our plans for what we wanted to do in Bangor. We reflected on how Bangor seemed so different from everything else we had seen in the state. Our trip had been wonderful. While in Portland, we did see a few homeless people in a small part of town near a shelter, but we hadn't seen anything that seemed threatening, much less had to walk past a junkie doing drugs on the sidewalk. Something was different about Bangor. This was especially impactful because we live in a town that isn't too different from Bangor. It's about the same population and size, and like Bangor, is a business center that's relatively close to other cities that depend on tourism. However, in our town, our nine-year-old granddaughter can walk to the ice cream shop by herself. In fact, it's quite common to see groups of children walking to the shop, playing in the park, riding bikes all over town without their parents having to worry that something bad might happen to them. We talked about how sad it was that the children of Bangor, or at least that part of town, do not have the luxury, nor do the parents get to enjoy what really is a pretty downtown area. It's a shame. Please do not misunderstand my disappointment as a lack of empathy, because I truly do have a great empathy for those who are less fortunate, and I have regularly worked with organizations who offer assistance to people who need it. But the Bangor situation looks like people's well-meant compassion developed into acceptance into unacceptable behavior that perpetuated into enablement for that unacceptable behavior. From the outside, it seems that the happiness and health of the community was sacrificed in order to show misguided compassion to a few people who likely did not have the capacity to care for themselves, much less care for the community that tolerates their behavior. In the end, we drastically changed our plans and the only time we set thank you thank you. [34:10] Grace Nichols: Yes. [34:14] Andrew Lavertiere: Hi Logan, are you ready to sign that Glass-Steagall petition? Okay, very good, I'll get in touch with you. But I'm Andrew Lavertiere, I am a candidate for the State House Main House of Representatives, but I came here because I have been very frustrated on the fact that we have on our doorstep the potential of rebuilding the country kind of Roosevelt style did with the New Deal with this global infrastructure network that could easily put everyone back to work very easily and that's what we need but unfortunately we have a system where Augusta and the state basically take your power away to deal with the homeless situation and my friend Tim Bonder he's investigating this weird cult that exists that dominates Augusta that keeps people homeless so whatever you're saying here it's because the system requires people to be homeless it's not about that though none of you care about what's going on it's the system requires people to be homeless and drugged up that's why George Soros finances all sorts of programs to keep people drugged up. Yeah. So that's the issue is, like I said, we need stuff like Glass-Steagall, a national bank. We need vast infrastructure investment, rebuild the infrastructure, high-speed rail. And of course, connected up to the Eurasian land bridge in South America, we could easily put millions back to work, bring back the industries we've lost because I've gone through the old registries and they brag about all the industries manufacturing and mills that used to exist here and you talk to the old-timers and they told you that shoe factory down there that's what everyone did people worked in mills they were productive that's what we need well you don't have any more but yeah we can go back to that but you guys get a fight on something like Glass-Steagall to get like said a banking system that functions to give you guys the credit to build infrastructure and of course we have the manufacturing we obviously need because we need work we need work that's the basic thing because according to the American Society of Engineers we have trillions of you know infrastructure needs trillions right you spend the credit on something like that you're gonna take care of all these problem It's not the homeless, right? It's that's it. Bankers r they've taken your power taking your power away. Y pissed off about that. So these people, they have n taken their power away. O [37:06] Susan Hawes: He's international. Sir, to address the council pl [37:12] Andrew Lavertiere: Okay, but yeah, I'm just giving you, like I said, I'm frustrated for you guys because you have no power to basically solve any of their problems. [37:20] Colleen O'Neill: Thank you. Not sure how I got behind that, but here I am. My name is Colleen O'Neill. I'm a resident of Bangor and 1st, I got to say. Are you absolutely kidding me? People complained about the homeless being in the streets and in the parks and now you want to spend a projected 200,000 dollars. a year to hide the homeless? Pretend that they don't exist? It's just another Band-Aid. Let's talk about some numbers. So $310,000 annually for the Downtown Ambassador Program, supposed to make people feel safe, hasn't worked. The only time I've seen them, which is very rare, is they're standing on a corner congregating, looking at TikTok. That hasn't worked. It's a bunch of waste of money. But you're on the hook because you signed a three-year lease for a three-year agreement with them. Now we're paying up to $680 a day for the police to patrol downtown because it isn't safe. Your policies did that. I'm not sure how you managed to use ARPA funds for two positions. That should be a discussion in and of itself. A homeless response manager and a housing navigator. These funds will end in December. Then the citizens are on the hook. Almost $120,000 to clean up Tent City. $120,000 for a warming center. You gave $2 million in ARPA funds to local NGOs. Why didn't they pony up? Why did the city have to pay $120,000 for a warming center? But, you know, maybe it's because they got to pay their six-figure salary. $60,000 for needle cleanup because you refuse to at least do a one-for-one exchange. Your policies did this. The list goes on and on and on. In order to address a homeless problem you need to address the drug problem. I'm empathetic to the issue of drug addiction but you can't have recovery without accountability. You won't get rid of the drug dealers until the addiction problem is dealt with. You won't get rid of the addiction problem until you make people accountable. You can't make people accountable if you if you pay for their every need and enable them to continue to use. All I see is wasted money with no clear plan. Meanwhile we're hearing a proposal of a 19 increase in our property taxes again are you freaking kidding me come up with a concrete plan not more wasted money we're sick of this crap [40:02] Philip Henry: well said well said i'm philip henry resident of bangor i'll just i wrote this down because it's three minutes goes by fast so i shared some concerns online recently and submitted some concrete ideas to move the well the needle which is probably a bad term but that seemed to resonate with a lot a large number of local residents we have dirty needles on the slides at our beautiful parks where kids can no longer play our library is inaccessible to the residents and has been taken over our streets and wooded areas where you cannot see and the trails are littered with trash needles and human waste companies can't recruit talent based on the optics of our city and our educated youth like you just heard are choosing to build their roots elsewhere due to the direction that this city is going and i could go on regarding the current results does anyone here understand the cost to the hospital for flying in temporary staff it's like 4x developers entrepreneurs and builders are taking their Capital elsewhere to the socialist policies and lack of support for businesses. Our schools are dropping in their rankings, and then to cap it off, the hard-working taxpayers are asked for more taxes and new property assessments for 19% increases for these wonderfully atrocious results. Your intentions don't matter, the results matter, and right now the results speak for themselves, and they are trending in a negative direction. And if the city was a company, people would be fired for these lack of results and transparency. Results are from policy decisions which are made by people, and those people have to be held accountable. We need leaders, and leaders make tough decisions, like one for 100 needle exchange. Someone needs to say that makes no sense, we should probably go to a one-to-one, and if you need to ask forgiveness, ask forgiveness. We can't hand out needles like candy, no more panhandling, loitering and shopping cart theft, walking in our streets with people shooting up in the streets rates. One set of laws for everybody. Why are there two sets of laws? If I claim to be homeless, I have a different set of laws than if I am homed. That makes no sense. Taking away the natural laws and individual consequence for choices made is stealing people's only chance of learning the lessons and choosing something better for their lives. And there are times where consequences are very painful, which can be the only catalyst for real change at times, and not everyone will make that choice, and that should be met with natural consequences. We need to encourage and support builders and entrepreneurs through reduced regulation so we can add housing supply, creating jobs and provide a market which helps recruitment and stabilize pricing and brings high paying jobs to the city. No more waiting on studies and all this stuff. With low housing supply as one of the highest priorities for the council, when you hear council members look to propose fines on brave developers that are looking to increase our supply and add rental registries and rent caps when those strategies are proven to not work. You just have to Google has this fund done before. It doesn't work. Thank you. Thank you. [43:20] William Hurley: Good evening Councillors. My name is William Hurley. I'm a former Bangor resident, current resident of Orono and I work in Bangor. I have emailed you all about this but I want to share the following letter from the board of directors. I need a sanctuary. Oh, well, that's in the interest. [43:48] Susan Hawes: Order Mr. early, are you a resident of Bangor? I'm not I work in Bangor. You work in Bangor. Okay. Okay, if you could let the Bangor residents speak 1st, and then step up, that would be great. Thank you. [44:11] Zach Campbell: How are you doing? I'll do a moment. I am a resident of Bangor. I want to be clear about what this is about and what it is not about. This is not about people being homeless. homeless. There are individuals in the city who are homeless that respect public paces, who are trying to get back on their feet, and they're not the problem. The problem is what is happening in our public spaces. We're seeing open drug use, drug paraphernalia left in public areas, litter, and repeated incidents of indecent behavior, including in the parks and around playgrounds. These are real, visible issues, and they are not being addressed effectively. When all of this gets labeled as the homeless problem, it shuts down honest discussion and prevents focus on the behavior that is actually driving these conditions. You were elected to serve the entire community. Your mission speaks to a safer, cleaner city for everyone. Right now, many residents feel that safe parks, clean spaces, and basic standards of behavior are not being maintained. contained. I've heard of discussions about solutions like a day center. I got a question for you about that. How does that directly change the behavior people are seeing in public spaces today? Without that connection, we are adding services without solving problems. And there is also a reality we need to acknowledge, capacity and cost. The need for services is growing faster than the city's ability to sustain them. At some point, we have to ask whether Bangor can continue expanding services while still meeting the expectations of the taxpayers who fund them and rely on basic quality of life. If we don't address that balance honestly, the system will continue to strain and outcomes will continue to fall short for everyone. And I'll close with this. Perhaps you feel that last year's election was a mandate to focus on the problem the way that you are. But in this city, elections happen every year. You are well into your term and many residents do not feel the conditions are improving for themselves or for the people that these policies are meant to help. Public sentiment is already shifting. If that continues, you're going to see it reflected in future elections, and likely in ways that brings leadership and approaches that neither you nor many residents want. You still have time to adjust course, refocus on outcomes, prioritize safe public spaces, pair your compassion with accountability, because if the balance isn't restored, the voters are going to restore it for you. Thank you. Thank you. [47:00] Brendan: My name is Brendan. I live here in Bangor on 2nd Street, and I'm a mental health worker. I would also like to point out that I'm currently being filmed by an operative from a big money right-wing organization, The Main Wire. I just felt the entire crowd should know that they are currently on camera for propaganda outlets. Yes, I understand, but I'm going to get to my point. This is why I'm here tonight. Unlike these propagandists, I am actually a mental health worker. I deal every day with the people being demonized by these videos being shared online by bad faith actors. I work with them to connect them with the resources that they need to succeed. People are saying that we need accountability, but no man is an island if you do not work with the people who are dealing with substance use disorder, with homelessness, with mental health challenges, then we are letting them die. I would rather go out and safely clean up needles, which I do, than clean up dead bodies. And I do have a question for everyone. How can a person recover if they're dead? You can't. So instead of demonizing the people that actually provide the services and work to resolve this problem,, perhaps we should instead of demonizing the people who are working to solve this problem, we should instead ignore those who are more interested in getting clicks and views for their propaganda outlets. What else can I say, but this is some nonsense. [48:39] Zach Campbell: Bangor City Councilors, my name is Zach Campbell. I'm here tonight as a Bangor resident, co-founder and board president of needlepoint sanctuary and a local organizer with the main psl. For years we've watched an economy that grows more untenable for the people. Things are more expensive while the wages are depressed and a growing class of folks are being left behind. Housing costs and rents have exploded without a similar rise in wages, and while we can't solve all these problems at the local city level, we can all agree that this will continue to Get worse according to NBC, 64% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. Homelessness in the United States grew 18% in 2024 and again in 2025. Regardless of administration, we can expect wars thousands of miles away, but we can't house people in our own backyards. I was around in Pickering Square when Needlepoint Sanctuary first formed in 2018. Over the next few years, homelessness rates in Maine went up 400%. Watching that was really hard, seeing 5,000 Mainers now homeless, knowing the real total was surely much higher. Before I say what I'm going to say, I want to say that the solution has always been just to house people. European nations like Finland have a housing first policy and they report saving roughly ten to fifteen thousand dollars per person by simply paying to house people rather than public expenditures like emergency shelters, hospital visits, interactions with the criminal justice system and targeted social services. In the UK they call it letting people sleep rough and they estimate it cost them twenty six thousand dollars per person each year. It's disappointing seeing this way yet another half measure in this day in the day center that will only end up costing us more over time than the brave solutions you all could fight harder for. Camp Hope rose as a natural conclusion to a city that can't stand having homeless people visible. If you all wanted a place for people to stay during the day to do targeted services, that was the place. What will happen when this temporary program ends? People will still be homeless and will have spent money. again just running from the solution house people just house them you may say that it's not up to a city like bangor to solve this and that moron house people will come in some ways that's true we can't solve the entire housing crisis in Maine or in this nation but we can't let others apathy engulf us and prevent action at a certain point someone has to break the cycle and do the right thing and that's house people do the brave thing put more pressure on local districts to follow suit fight at The state level for more funds and resources. In reality, this state and really the nation needs a constitutional right to housing. The obligation needs to be put on the state to house people, but we can take more aggressive steps to house people. Flow, whether that's looking at vacant apartments to take over, fighting to build new apartments owned by the city of Bangor. There are solutions. The Bangor Daily News reported that the Bangor Housing Authority was stopping applications in December of 2025. This temporary day space is simply not what the city should be prioritizing. Incrementalism is not pragmatism. I'll skip ahead. We know what works. Give someone a stable private place to live, no preconditions, with services attached. Within months, their emergency costs plummet. Their health improves, they find stability. This is the end of the story. So let's stop pretending that half measures are wise. They're just delays. Pay for homes, house people, anything else is just rearranging misery. I'm [51:51] Susan Hawes: a homeless resident of Bangor. I just kind of wanted to come up and get things from a different perspective. I know it's easy to say, you know, throw us somewhere where you can't see us and the problem's solved, right? It isn't. After the library ordinance or the sidewalk ordinance that's winning the play. All that's happened so far is we've had our belongings taken by the city. I don't know where they're putting them, but if we leave them outside, so we can go into one of the businesses or the career center, wherever we go, if we leave our belongings, they're being picked up and disposed of. A lot of my friends didn't come to me cause they were worried, they were scared. They didn't wanna come face all you, but I'm here. I'm not going anywhere. I'm gonna continue coming until something changes. Is that I want to work, but would you want to hire me coming in with two outfits on my back, not able to properly care for myself? I do pretty well, I make you, but there's a lot of us that don't. The day center, I really, I want to say it's a good idea, but it's not going to be because what's going to happen at night? That's where we really fail and we have nowhere to go. We can't even sleep because we are being pushed out of everywhere. If we find a wooded area, we can't stay in there because it's Somebody's property, and I understand that, but where are we supposed to go? I don't get emotional, but I'm starting to get emotional right now because it sucks knowing that everybody in this room kind of looks down upon me because of my where I stand within society. It wasn't always here. I told you guys last time I worked at the hospital. I was a surgical sterilization technician for Eastern Rain, and I'd like to go back to doing that, but I need, I need help. I'm not asking for a handout. I can't get case management. I've tried. PATH has not been able to guide me in any way, shape, or form. Really, the only people that I can count on is the appointments sanctuary, and that's where I go whenever they're open, and that's where a lot of us go to. I know again they all sort of look down upon the community, but we need something, and that's our, that's our community pretty much, and that's all we have. And I wish you guys would take time to speak to some of us, so unless they're smart, some of us want to help We don't want to be a part of the problem. We want to continue to help, and I hope we can figure something out because Bangor kind of sucks now. Hello [54:17] Jessie: My name is Jessie. I'm a resident of Bangor and an employee of Needlepoint Sanctuary, and as I am sitting and hearing all of the voices in this room, something I feel like hasn't really been touched upon is the Opioid Settlement Funds. And whether it's the work that I can speak for myself or the tireless recovery community that is pulling on shoestrings and moving the earth to try and help people get to services that are fragmented, or people are having to sit and wait in ambiguity to figure out what a plan can be pulled together. I've driven people across the state to try and make it work because it's too full here. I could name quite a few other organizations and efforts and coalitions that could give you countless like impactful recommendations about how there are interventions that intersect and everything that's been talked about today. And I think that transparency and more buy-in terms of the Opioid Settlement Fund is really necessary. [55:40] Adam Baker: Thank you. Thank you. [55:47] Corey Cahill: My name is Corey Cahill. I've lived in Bangor for like the last 15 years. Some of you might recognize my name. I was homeless in Bangor for most of the time until about three years ago. I went to prison, I got clean and I just want to give you a point of view like for me. The needle sanctuary it's not working you know it's taken advantage of you know it's you Yeah, it's for help with like, and all that, but look, we have an breakout in Penobscot County. Obviously, it's not helping. I mean, how do you think people it's a 1 to 1 ratio or 100 to 1, whatever? How do you think people get the needles? You know, how many times I went in there and said, oh, I've never been here before. And they give you a 100 needles to start with. You can go in there every time and say that it's, you know, but. But, and with this day center thing, you know, some cities it might work, but Bangor, it's not going to work. Bangor doesn't have the leadership for it to work. But I just want to give everybody my point of view, somebody that's lived both sides of it. You know, I have empathy towards addicts, you know, I'm an addict. [Philip Henry: It and but.] It's time to be honest you know because addicts aren't being honest with themselves they're gonna tell you what they want to hear so they can get more out of it you know and I don't know if you guys don't see that or just I don't know what it is but thank you thank you. [57:43] William Hurley: Hello again. That's my neighbor. I love my neighbors. My name is William Hurley, former resident, former Bangor resident, work in Bangor. I'm the executive director of Needlepoint Sanctuary. I've emailed you all about this, but I wanted to share the following letter from my board of directors in the interest of the public benefit and recognizing the need for nonprofits profits to be transparent in their decision-making and the communities that they provide services. So at the May 18th meeting of the Board of Directors of Needlepoint Sanctuary, the Pauline was approved unanimously. So in order to prioritize our mission to reduce the harms associated with substance use, poverty, and social injustice, our Board has decided to formally end the syringe service pilot program at the Unitarian Universalist Society of Bangor, effective 5 p.m. on August 31st. So what this means is that after August 31st, we will no longer provide syringe services at Park Street and downtown Bancorp. That particular service will shift to our Ohio Street office. On Park Street, on Tuesdays, we're going to continue providing testing, recovery, and wraparound services as we did for the previous year before the pilot program started. This was a difficult decision, as the pilot has been a tremendous success. So during the course of our services at Park Street, we've had 1679 service encounters. We distributed 400, 4461 doses of naloxone, and we've had over 156 overdose reversals reported as a result of the naloxone distributed directly in downtown Bangor. We provided over a thousand referrals to a variety of other services, such as detoxes, medical care, recovery, and peer support services. Park Street was also the birthplace of a first-of-its-kind PrEP program. PrEP is an HIV prevention medication that was cited by the federal CDC as having the potential to transform HIV prevention among populations of people who use drugs. That's the program we started in conjunction, in conjunction with Main Family Planning. Our goal with providing syringe services on Park Street was to provide a critical intervention to address what is now the largest HIV outbreak in Maine's history. We have succeeded. The success means we can transition syringe services away from downtown, assured that at-risk community members will continue to have access through Ohio Street and community partners such as Wabanaki Public Health and Wellness. It is our hope that this decision demonstrates our sincere commitment to finding a balance between the needs of all community members while upholding the necessity of ARF and the necessity of all social service programs in Bangor, programs that are doing incredible work with few resources and who deserve the support of this community. [1:00:47] Susan Hawes: Thank you everybody. [1:00:48] Joe Sokol: I'm Joe Sokol, Bangor resident. I do want to say there's a lot of people from Needlepoint Sanctuary here. Thank you for your help. You guys been really helping out, seeing a lot of those in locks on kits on strewn across basically the town, walking around them personally on the ground being there. I wasn't gonna talk, but since someone addressed me, I figured I would. It's crazy to sit in the middle of that. You would take your children there, walk through the town. It's if it was your business and you and you were making money 24 seven with that, and you're trying to, you would fix it. So I'm not saying there's a fix here, because I don't know what that is. I don't envy your job. I didn't want it. And I wouldn't know what to do, but I know that there's something that we can do, whether that is give out 100 syringes, that's not, it's obviously not working. The people, you can try to have a meaningful conversation with someone and they you can try to give them a voice and then you can walk in Bangor and people can pull up to you today and call me a gay boy another guy threatened my life two people threatened my life this week for what because I'm showing what's happening and if you see the content that's being made all I'm doing is talking to people so this is really divisive and I don't think it needs to be I think people are more close to each other than they really think they are and they're really reading into things too much we just need to come together as a community I don't know what that means for you I really don't know what it's like to be back there I don't know if it's divided like it is out here but I know behind here it's hard for us to even have a conversation without somebody getting aggravated let's say aggravated so it's it's interesting to see where this is gonna go I know that you are talking about a day center i know that we all want something done but i think we really need to think this out because it's not working on our side because i can't even show it without having my life threatened and having people pull up beside me and say crazy stuff and it's going to get to a point where i know that it's going to be kind of difficult for me to take my family out just because i'm showing stuff going on in bangor like that's wild like go to davenport park tomorrow at 12 o'clock just walk through it have a talk with them just go try it all of you this week see if you can go more than 20 minutes without crawling out of your skin it's very hard to deal with do i know what to do no my heart breaks but it's also it's incredible to see i don't really know what else to say i appreciate everybody here and i really want to say my best intentions are for bangor to be a wonderful city like it was eight years ago it was great for the most part in most places and now it's something else and I just want to thank everyone for coming here and I want to thank you guys you're amazing for what you do because I wouldn't want to do it thank you thank you okay [1:03:55] Susan Hawes: we have nine minutes left so there's what three of you there I guess you will be [1:04:02] David Lyons: The last three. Well, I'll be quick. So my name is David Lyons. I'm from the Milo area council. Thank you for letting us come up here today. I'm actually gonna be speaking for both the city and the homeless. For those that don't know my story, I was homeless 13 years. I was addicted to meth. I was a drug head. And it seemed like there was no hope. But now I actually get to do homeless outreach. This month alone, just going out on the streets, which some of you guys have seen us out there doing the work we do. We've had over 15 people get saved, clean off of drugs, back into homes, and restored with their families, and we check up on them. And the reason why what we're doing is working, it's not because we're throwing resources at them, it's because we're talking to them. I've been there, I've done that. I know that your state of mind is what drives you to do those kind of drugs, and if you continue to think the way that you do, it's not going to change. But luckily the homeless outreach that we do, it's been working. But the main reason why I wanted to come up today was to let you guys know, he actually talked about Davenport Park, 12 o'clock on Friday at Davenport Park, to try and help the city and to give the homeless a voice. The homeless are actually doing a, we do recover prayer walk with us, and we're going to be going out with trash bags, and we're going to be cleaning the city streets. And we just want to let you guys know, I've been there, I've talked to these people a lot. I do know that there's some bad eggs out there. I get it, and I understand that it's frustrating to the community. I've been there. I was that guy that if you would have seen me before, you would have hated me, and I would have given you every reason to yell at me. But I want you to know that we do recover. Thank you. Thank you. Hello. [1:05:54] Shane Mulaney: I'm Shane Mulaney, and I work slick shop eat and play in Bangor. I'm on the board of Together Plays Peer Run Recovery Center. And we are actually starting a series of volunteer cleanups of our parks in partnership with the Barn, the Brick Church and Civita. The first one is June 15th at 11 a.m. And I invite everybody here to get out on the street and help us make the city better. I moved back to Dover Foxcroft during COVID to take care of my parents. I arrived jobless, broke and struggling with my mental health and active addiction. What I did have was a family who housed me, a family who supported me as I accessed recovery resources here in Bangor because there's nothing outside of Bangor when you go up or over. Since getting sober, I've worked in downtown Bangor since 2022, and with our unhoused and recovery population since 2023, I do talk to them. I know their names. I know where they're from. Can you guess where 85% of our local unhoused population is from? What state are they from? Maine. They're from Maine. The vast majority of our unhoused populations are Mainers, and I am a Mainer helping Mainers. Isn't that what we do in Maine? The question was asked, how does a day center change behavior? Well, first of all, people are in a safe space, and when they're in the safe space, they are connected to rehab. Have they are connected to job coaching and workhorse development services. People are connected to higher education. People are connected to housing. We do have infrastructure here. There are programs that work here. Some haven't, but those that do work are run with accountability and transparency. I have personally helped 40 people exit the homeless population here in Bangor, and that's just one person. Bangor has 33,000 residents, but we have about 80,000 people here on any given weekday working shopping, hanging out, accessing services. What are the services that people are accessing? Health care, case management, legal, dental, education, employment. These are the same services that our citizens who have housing access. I access them as well outside Bangor. It's rural. Where are the jobs? Where are the hospitals that are cutting services every day? Where are the primary care physicians? Where is the retail? Those things are here in Bangor. So people come to Bangor and they are available to all citizens. 50,000 of us who don't live here access those things every day here in Bangor. Bangor needs to recover. We need to recover our pride in our city. We need to recover our sense of community, our sense of fellowship. We need to recover our ability to listen rather than to judge and to work together to find solutions that work. [1:09:03] Evangeline White: Hi, my name's Evangeline White. I'm a resident, but I am a business owner, downtown Bangor. I am a craniosacral specialist. I specialize in somato-emotional release and we can't hear you so thank you I'm a craniosacral therapist I specialize in somato-emotional release I help people with chronic pain daily emotional and physical pain and emotional and physical pain shows up in the body pretty much the same way no matter what anybody's beliefs are no matter their income bracket it and it is really interesting how it corresponds with their life experiences it's a lot of big feelings here about people's sensibilities being hurt, and I'd just like to remind everybody that if everyone here didn't have walls and they were just doing what they do daily publicly, you'd find that people are doing absolutely heinous, disgusting things, no matter what their income is. So there's good eggs and there's bad eggs, whether you're in a house or not. So to protect everybody's very sensitive sensibilities, walking through a park seeing yucky, dirty, icky homeless people, it seems like we have a common drug here, right? And I'm sorry I'm being very sarcastic about yucky dirt. I myself was homeless as a teenager. I'm now, I have my own sensitive sensibilities, but I just, the common, the commonality here is that if you don't want to see homeless people anymore, you can't go poof, they won't disappear because you wish your world looked like Pleasantville. There's no like morality police for you to say, we don't like how this isn't pretty, make these people go bye-bye. If you then put the money into housing so you don't have to see it anymore. I just wanna thank all of the experts here who dedicate their lives and have boots on the street helping people and actually understand and have gone to school and are dedicating their lives to get rid of the yucky, itty, icky human suffering problem, human suffering visibility problem for you guys. So thank you to everybody for working very hard for everybody's sensibilities. Thank you, Sue. [1:12:04] Susan Hawes: That does bring us to the hour that we set aside for public comment. Thank you to those who participated and we are going to be moving on, council [1:12:29] Susan Faloon: flew. Thank you, Madam Chair. I request removal of co26-167 from the consent agenda [1:12:43] Susan Hawes: agenda. Okay, that [1:12:48] Susan Hawes: item will be heard under new business. Madam Clerk [1:12:56] Lisa Goodwin: minutes of Bangor City Council regular meeting of May 11th, 2026. 26-163 order authorizing the execution of a municipal bill of sale for real estate located at 10 I Street. 26-164 order authorizing the execution of a municipal quick claim deed for real estate located at 14 Manors Avenue. 26-165 order authorizing the city manager to execute a collective bargaining agreement between the city of Bangor and American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Local 926-06 Council 93 representing airport, airfield, and building maintenance employees. 26-166 order authorizing the acceptance of a tree donation from Bangor Beautiful Inc. 26-168 order authorizing an award of the Commission on Cultural Development grant in the amount of 1 250 to the American Institute of Graphic Arts Main Chapter. 26-169 order authorizing an award of the Commission on Cultural Development grant in the amount of 1 510.30 to the Bangor Ballet. 26-170 order authorizing an award of the Commission on Cultural Development grant in the amount of $1,510.30 to Bangor Beautiful. 26-171 order authorizing an award of the Commission on Cultural Development grant in the amount of $1,000 to Bangor Community Theater. 26-172 order authorizing an award of the Commission on Cultural Development grant in the amount of $2,225 to Bangor Historical Society. 26-173 order authorizing an award of the Commission on Cultural Development grant in the amount of $1,500 to Maine Academy of Modern Music. 26-174 order, authorizing the city manager to execute a contract with All States Construction in the amount of $397,286 for chip sealed placement on certain streets. 26-175 order, authorizing the city manager to enter into a five-year contract extension with Oak View Group for the operation Cross Insurance Center. 26-176 order authorizing the city manager to execute a contract with Streets Landscaping and Lawn Care in the amount of one million eight hundred and eighteen thousand six hundred and seven dollars for the fiscal year 2027 paving program. I move passage of council [1:15:31] Susan Hawes: consent agenda. Second. It has been moved and seconded. Is there any further discussion? We will do a roll call vote. Councilor Beck? Yes. Councilor Carson? Yes. Councilor Deane? Yes. Councilor Faloon? Yes. Councilor Fish? [1:15:51] Lisa Goodwin: Yes. Councilor Leonard? Yes. Councilor Malheur? Yes. Councilor Haas? Yes. Eight yes, zero no. [1:16:02] Susan Hawes: The consent agenda has passage, eight yes, zero no. Referrals to committee and first reading. [1:16:09] Lisa Goodwin: 26-177 ordinance amending chapter 148 of the code of the city of bangor by including broadway park chapin park and davenport park as historic sites first reading in referral to historical historic preservation commission on june 11th 2026 26-178 ordinance amending the land development code section 165-31 temporary sales of food and merchandise to allow increased flexibility for this use first reading and referral to planning board on june 2nd 2026 26-179 resolve ratifying staff action accepting and appropriating 685 221 dollars in grant funds from united states housing and urban development to fund the bangor rental assistance program first reading and referral to government operations committee on june 1st 2026 26-180 resolve authorizing the city Manager to accept and appropriate $41,328 from the Marine Cancer Foundation grant to implement 30-day alcohol reset challenges to reduce alcohol use. First reading and referral to Government Operations Committee on June 1st, 2026. [1:17:21] Carolyn Fish: I move referrals to committee. Second. [1:17:27] Susan Hawes: It's been moved and seconded that these be referred to committee and first reading. Is there any further discussion? Saying none, we'll do a roll call. Counselor Beck? Yes. Counselor [1:17:40] Lisa Goodwin: Carson? Yes. Councillor Deane? Yes. Councillor Faloon? Yes. Councillor Fish? Yes. Councillor Leonard? Yes. [1:17:47] Susan Hawes: Councillor Mallar? Yes. Council Hawes? Yes. Eight yes, zero no. Referrals to committee and first reading have passage, eight yes, zero no. They will be referred to their respective committees. [1:18:05] Lisa Goodwin: Next item, unfinished business. 26-095 ordinance amending the code of the city of bangor to establish chapter 46 employee authority in immigration matters. Council of Back. [1:18:16] Carolyn Fish: Madam Chair, I would like to make a motion to postpone this indefinitely. We've already previously voted to enact LD 1971 and we would like our manager to proceed with given our staff guidance and just get on with us, so I would like to make a motion to postpone this indefinitely. [1:18:40] Susan Hawes: Second. It has been moved and seconded that ordinance 26-095 be postponed indefinitely. Is there any further discussion? [1:18:56] Grace Nichols: Call please. Councilor Beck? No. Councilor Carson? No. Councilor Deane? Yes. Councilor Faloon? No. Councilor Fish? [1:19:05] Lisa Goodwin: Yes. Councilor Leonard? No. Councilor Malheur? Yes. Councilor Haas? Yes. 4 yes, 4 no. No. [1:19:17] Susan Hawes: Ordinance 26-095, which was to be postponed indefinitely, has four yes, four no. I believe the order dies. [1:19:31] William Hurley: The motion fails. [1:19:33] Grace Nichols: The motion to postpone. [1:19:34] Susan Hawes: OK, the motion. [1:19:37] Michael Beck: Madam Chair, I move to postpone Ordinance 26095 until the regular scheduled meeting of June 22. Second. [1:19:49] Susan Hawes: It has been moved and seconded to postpone the meeting to I'm sorry what was the date [1:19:55] Michael Beck: June 2nd June 22nd on 22nd for [Susan Hawes: Any discussion okay] I would say that the move is prudent to postpone given the amount of legal review that Council has received a chance to review it all rather than try to vote on it tonight saying [1:20:24] Susan Hawes: No further discussion we will do a roll call [1:20:27] Lisa Goodwin: Councillor Beck yes Councillor Carson yes Councillor Deane yes Councillor Faloon yes Councillor Fish yes Councillor Leonard yes Councillor Mallar yes Councillor Hawes yes eight yes zero no the [1:20:45] Susan Hawes: Postponement of Ordinance 26-095 has passage eight yes zero no [1:20:56] Lisa Goodwin: Next item 26-160 Ordinance amending the Code of the City of Bangor to create a standing committee [1:21:03] Susan Deane: On housing Council of Dean thank you Madam Clerk this ordinance will amend the Code of the City of Bangor to create to create a standing committee on housing during the City Council's annual priority setting session in December 2025 City Council selected affordable housing as a top priority for the coming year. In subsequent discussions, Council coalesced around the creation of a standing committee to help advise Council on its approach to housing related issues. This standing committee would include a mix of experts in affordable housing development, construction finance, representatives of construction and trade employees, and other housing experts. The committee's mission is to consider and advise Council on issues impacting affordable housing, including better regional and structural coordination, identifying and quantifying gaps, recommending sustainable funding strategies, reviewing state legislative proposals, reviewing and providing feedback on housing related items coming before Council and community stakeholder engagement. This item was reviewed and unanimously recommended for approval at the May 4th GovOps committee meeting. I move passage of Council Ordinance 26-160 second [1:22:20] Susan Hawes: Ordinance 26-160 has been moved and seconded is there any [1:22:28] Michael Beck: Further discussion. That's a bit, just a comment to say that I'm pleased that council is taking this action. I know that there's a lot of folks who want to see more done, and you know, speaking for myself, I absolutely want to see more done too, but I believe there's nobody in this day, as you would say, they don't want to see more done, and this is how more gets done. So, coming off the heels of our homelessness committee, which we're about to nominate the members for tonight. And now this, I think that these are major steps forward in addressing housing and homelessness. And I'm, I'm really proud of this work. [1:23:08] Susan Hawes: Any further discussion? Seeing none. Do a roll call vote please. [1:23:13] Lisa Goodwin: Council of Beck. Yes. Council of Carson. Yes. Council of Dean. Yes. Council of Falloon. Yes. Council of Fish. Yes. Council of Leonard. Yes. Council of Malheur. Yes. Council of Haas. Yes. 8 yes, 0 no. [1:23:27] Susan Hawes: Ordinance 26-160 has passage, 8 yes, 0 no. Next item, please. [1:23:38] Lisa Goodwin: 26-161 Resolve authorizing the City Manager to accept and appropriate $250 from the Maine Primary Care Association for providing an educational presentation about the ROSE program. [1:23:50] Carolyn Fish: Councilor Fish. Thank you, Madam Clerk. I move for passage of Resolve 26-161. Second. This ordinance would authorize the city manager to accept $250 from the Maine Primary Care Association for providing an educational presentation about the ROSE program. ROSE stands for Reach Out, Stay Strong Essentials for New Mothers. This program is evidence-based intervention to address maternal mental health. Bangor Public Health and Community Services has offered the ROSE program five times over the past two years. Recently, the Maine Primary Care Association requested a presentation about this program and was provided to federally qualified health centers in Maine. The Maine Primary Care Association has offered a $250 stipend to help cover the cost for preparing and conducting the presentation. This item was reviewed and unanimously recommended for approval at the May 4th Government Operations [1:24:54] Susan Hawes: committee meeting resolved 26161 has been moved and seconded is there any further discussion seeing none roll call vote please [1:25:06] Lisa Goodwin: councillor Beck yes councillor Carson yes councillor Dean yes councillor Falloon yes councillor Fish yes councillor Leonard yes councillor Malheur yes councillor Haas yes 8 yes 0 no [1:25:20] Susan Hawes: resolve 26161 has passage a yes zero no next item 26-162 resolve authorizing the city manager [1:25:30] Lisa Goodwin: to accept and appropriate eighty thousand dollars from Maine General to implement outpatient early intervention services with respect to HIV disease. Counselor Fish. Thank you, Madam Clark. I move for [1:25:43] Carolyn Fish: for passage of Council Resolve 26-162. Second. This resolve would authorize the City Manager to accept and appropriate $80,000 from the Main General to implement outpatient early intervention services with respect to HIV disease. Ryan White, Part C, outpatient early intervention services, EIS, included HIV testing and referral,, rapid referral to medical care, case management, education, and partner services. These services are critical for the supporting people living with HIV to reach viral suppression and access mental health, substance use care, stable housing, and other services and resources. Maine General Medical Center has been a long-time provider of the Ryan White Part C outpatient early prevention services in many parts of Maine. They were awarded the federal funds to implement Ryan White Part C outpatient early intervention services in the areas previously served by Heal, including Bangor. When Maine General Medical Center based in Central Maine, they approached Bangor Public Health and Community Services to enter into an agreement to provide the Ryan White Part C outpatient early intervention services to people living with HIV in the Bangor area. The agreement includes funding to support the staff time. This resolve is to accept and appropriate the funds for the April 1st, 2026 to March 31st, 2027. This item was reviewed and recommended for passage at the Government Operations Committee meeting on May 18th, 2026. [1:27:29] Susan Hawes: Resolved 26-162 has been moved and seconded. So any further discussion? Hanselbeck. [1:27:37] Michael Beck: Just a comment. So this now makes $160,000 for Maine General and that's very generous and I appreciate that. And then I'm looking forward to having the conversation in the future regarding how does that reflect on the opioid settlement funds that were given for the same purpose and whether or not any of that should be used elsewhere for recovery. So that is a conversation I'm still looking forward to. [1:28:04] Susan Hawes: any other discussion i have a quick i have a quick question go ahead councillor maller the [1:28:14] Wayne Mallar: period of time we're approving has already passed and I'm curious is how these people were paid when there was no authorization or any monies to pay them. That's [1:28:33] Susan Hawes: all. Okay. She's [1:28:35] Jen Gunderman: On her way to the podium, hi Jen Gunderman, director of Bangor Public Health and Community Services. So that is correct that the grant started, the MOU would start on April 1st, which was a couple months ago. The current employees are paid by under other funding streams. So when this funding gets approved, we move some of their time so that the time can be sort of retroactively covered for the past two months. [1:29:04] Wayne Mallar: But that sounds like a bait and swell. I mean, I find it interesting that they were paid, I don't have any issue with that. But I question how we're doing it and we're happy, more than happy to explain, for example, [1:29:17] Jen Gunderman: one of the staff members who's doing specifically counseling and testing for HIV and referral to services is paid for by a different main CDC grant. Once we get this approval, we'll move some of her time off of that main CDC infrastructure grant and be able to use those funds for other [1:29:35] Wayne Mallar: things in our department. But that's you, so what you're telling me is you applied for the grant, you got the grant, but you're not using the money for the grant. The grant can be used for other areas and I don't, that's not accurate. Well, didn't you tell me that you, she worked, she got money from another grant to keep her job? That's fine, but now that you have this grant and she's already been paid for past work, you're going to use this money for other, to pay people in other grants, they're going to be solely used for this grant and obviously you had in there salaries from the beginning, so I don't understand how you increase salaries when for two months you haven't paid any. [1:30:22] Jen Gunderman: So this is a, this is sort of probably a description, an explanation of how our public health department uses grants funds and I'm happy to have that conversation, I [1:30:32] Wayne Mallar: I understand how they use them, but I question if you apply for a grant that you can switch as much as you are. [1:30:40] Jen Gunderman: So we have a very specific Maine CDC infrastructure grant. That grant has flexibility to it to be able to move it to support our capacity building and infrastructure. The Maine General MOU was not a grant that we applied for. This was a memorandum of understanding that Maine General has provided, you know, a contract that main generals be able to provide for us we do currently provide hiv counseling and testing through a position paid for by the main cdc infrastructure grants what we're able to do is with this mou is to now use some of the funding that would be allocated to her time through the infrastructure grant to be able to use that to other things that we want to do with that grant [1:31:25] Wayne Mallar: Funding, yeah, I understand what you're doing, but I question whether the grant allows you to do that. It does. I'd like to see a copy of the grant. Absolutely. Thank you for [1:31:42] Susan Hawes: any further discussion. Seeing none, [1:31:50] Lisa Goodwin: that's a little bit. Yes. Council Carson? Yes. Absolutely. Dean? Yes. Castle Balloon? Yes. Castle Fish? Yes. Castle Leonard? Yes. Councilor Mallar? Yes. That's the Haas? Yes. Eight yes. Sarah? No. [1:32:08] Susan Hawes: Resolve 26-162 does have passage, eight yes, zero no. [1:32:15] Lisa Goodwin: New business. Public hearing, application for special amusement license of House LLC doing business as Penobscot Poorhouse, 14 Larkin Street, Councilor Beck. [1:32:25] Michael Beck: Thank you, Madam Clerk. Madam Chair, I move to open the public hearing for the application for special amusement license of House LLC doing business as Penobscot Poorhouse, 14 Larkin Street. Second. [1:32:38] Susan Hawes: And moved and seconded, the public hearing is open. [1:32:47] Lisa Goodwin: We need to do a roll call. [1:32:49] Susan Hawes: Oh, yes, we do. Sorry. Councilor Beck? Yes. Councilor Carson? Yes. Councilor Deane? Yes. Councilor Faloon? Yes. [1:32:56] Lisa Goodwin: Councilor Fish? Yes. Councilor Leonard? Yes. Councilor Malheur? Yes. Councilor Haas? Yes. 8 yes, 0 no. [1:33:08] Michael Beck: Madam Chair, seeing no one trip over themselves to get to the podium or see no one online, I move to close the public hearing. Second. [1:33:18] Susan Hawes: The public hearing will be closed. Roll call. Councillor Beck? Yes. Councillor Carson? Yes. [1:33:25] Joseph Leonard: Councillor Deane? Yes. Councillor Faloon? Yes. Councillor Fish? Yes. Councillor Leonard? You know, I'll vote no. [1:33:33] Lisa Goodwin: Councillor Walker? I mean, Maller, sorry. Yes. Councillor Haas? Yes. Seven yes, one no. [1:33:47] Michael Beck: Madam Chair, I move passage of the application for special amusement license of House LLC doing business as Penobscot Poorhouse, 14 Larkin Street. Second. Okay, it's been moved and seconded [1:33:58] Susan Hawes: for passage of the license. We'll have a roll call. Councillor Beck? Yes. Councillor Carson? Yes. Councillor [1:34:04] Lisa Goodwin: Dean? Yes. Councillor Faloon? Yes. Councillor Fish? Yes. Councillor Leonard? Yes. Councillor Mallar? Yes. Councilor Haas? Yes. Eight yes, zero no. The [1:34:17] Susan Hawes: Application for special amusement license of House LLC does have passage eight yes, zero no. Next item 26-167, order authorizing the city [1:34:30] Lisa Goodwin: manager to endorse an agreement with Bangor Housing Authority for a 90-day extension on the option to purchase land located off Main Avenue to construction to construct a Permanent Supportive Housing Facility, Councillor Falun. [1:34:45] Susan Faloon: Thank you, Madam Clerk. Madam Chair, I move passage of Council Order 26-167. This order authorizes the City Manager to endorse an agreement with Bangor Housing Authority for a 90-day extension on the option to purchase land off Main Avenue to construct a Permanent Supportive Housing Facility. The option would otherwise expire June 30, 2026. Bangor Housing Authority has received financing from Main Housing Authority to construct permanent supportive housing on property fronting Main Avenue. This housing is specifically for people previously unhoused who will need 24-hour support and care due to mental illness and or addiction. This project is aligned with the City Council's goal of addressing housing in 2026. This item was reviewed and unanimously recommended for approval at the May 18th Business and Economic Development Committee meeting. Second order [1:35:43] Susan Hawes: 26167 has been moved and seconded. We will do a roll call. Are you gonna miss you have a chair you have another section yes Madam Chair I [1:35:59] Susan Faloon: move to amend Council Order 26-167 to replace it with the amended order that has been provided to [1:36:07] Susan Hawes: council and corrects the name of the entity. Second. It's been moved and seconded to use the amended order which does correct the name. Is there any further discussion? [1:36:24] Lisa Goodwin: Roll call please. Councillor Beck? Yes. Council Carson? Yes. Councillor Deane? Yes. Council Balloon? Yes. Councillor Fish? Yes. Councillor Leonard? Yes. Councillor Malheur? Yes. Councillor Haas? Yes. Eight yes, zero no. [1:36:42] Susan Hawes: Order 2617 as amended has passage of eight yes, zero no. [1:36:50] Susan Faloon: Madam Chair? Yes, ma'am. I move Order 26-167 pass as amended. Second. I see. [1:37:00] Susan Hawes: All right. Any further discussion once [1:37:07] Lisa Goodwin: more that's what that yes that's what Carson yes absolutely yes that's what the loon yes that's what fish yes that's what Leonard yes that's what Maller yes that's what Hans yes [1:37:20] Susan Hawes: Sarah no. Two six one six seven has passage eight yes zero no as amended. [1:37:27] Lisa Goodwin: Next item 26-1 81, order appointing nominees to the Advisory Committee on [1:37:33] Susan Deane: Homelessness Council of Dean. Thank you, Madam Clerk. This order will appoint nominees to the Advisory Committee on Homelessness. The City Council created this committee on March 23rd, 2026 to initially create a strategic plan for the city's response to homelessness that is data driven, evidence informed, and that considers regional and structural coordination. Following completion of this initial charge, the committee's mission is broadened more expansively consider issues impacting homelessness, including better regional and structural coordination, identifying and quantifying gaps, recommending sustainable funding strategies, reviewing state legislative proposals, reviewing and providing feedback on items coming before council, and community stakeholder engagement. Seats on this committee were advertised and applicants were selected and interviewed by the council's Personnel Committee on May 2nd, 2026 and May 5th, 2026. The committee developed recommendations for full council consideration as noted in this order. [1:38:35] Susan Hawes: I move passage of Council Order 26-181. Second. Council Order 26-181 has been moved and seconded. [1:38:45] Michael Beck: Is there any further discussion? Council Beck. Just a comment on what a tremendous undertaking this has been. When we put out the call for help, over 50 people responded with applications. That says a lot about our community and wanting to step up on this issue. But also, this is an undertaking that, unlike anything I've seen since I've been on council, the amount of work the staff, especially our city clerk, put into organizing all of the applications and getting the information out to council, to all of the scheduling. In fact, it included a session on Saturday that the clerk graciously came in for. That's a sacrifice that I wanna recognize. A lot of work went into coming up with these nine choices that I feel really good about. And I appreciate the effort the council's put in, the discussions we had over deciding who to be on this council. Piggybacking off what I had said about the housing committee, this is a big deal. We wanna move the ball forward. I wanna move the ball forward, speaking for myself. And this is one of the ways we do that. So I just with gratitude to everyone who applied, everyone who's being nominated tonight, all of the staff who worked on the multiple drafts for this city clerk, everyone to get us to this moment. I just want to extend my immense gratitude. Thank you. [1:40:08] Wayne Mallar: Yeah, I make a comment. [1:40:15] Richard Chaucer: Hello? I have a public comment. My name is Richard Tosser. I live reside in Brunswick Maine. I used to be a director of the representative, the homeless voices for justice representing the Brunswick Maine community. I also used to be a board member representing main quality counts for people in different categories. Now, with this council, we have a question is I noticed some of the names on here and I was put up. What are some of the tasks that we get that are going to be wired? If this council is going to provide, are we going to know, are they going to be requiring? Are they going to be doing a task on the far as how it's going to be financed? Number 2, the appropriations are adding the supports to supports. Like, I'm going to bring this up again past program, pick up assess, shelter and serve. Are we just going to be do what we've been doing throwing out money, putting people in housing with no supports? Are we going to have a viable, a viable, what's the word I'm looking for? Accountable,, accountable representation. What I mean, when you pick someone off the street, are we going to have someone, an entity that provide to actually make sure they know how to cook, they know how to clean, that they understand the transition period going from homelessness into residential. I've been there done that I spent 40 years in this, and I'm really kind of appalled very appalled that I didn't even know about this before. I'm proud. I saw some of these names. I have more qualifications and some of these people on here. That'll pass. I hope you guys really know what this is involved, the money's involved, and I hope you guys talk to Bo Hill, like I said, in Cleveland, Ohio. We pick up assess, shelter, and serve because the way it's going right now, folks, we're going to look like a bunch of fools. We're going to give out all these vouchers like you heard. I want a voucher. What good's a voucher? We're going to sit in the house. I don't know how to cook. I don't know how to clean. I don't know how to be required to be careful with my neighbors. I don't know about the transportation system. I still haven't heard anyone talk about work job focus on job focus on working. I get really emotional about this. I spent 40 some years in this field. Thank you folks have a blessed day. Thank you may I speak there's [1:42:39] Hillary Simmons: One more speaker and then you may speak. Thank you, Hillary Simmons, resident of Bangor. I want to speak tonight about the advisory committee and the homelessness and the direction this committee is taking. First, I understand that homelessness is a serious issue. Every city needs compassion, safety, and solutions that actually work. But when I read this order pointing nominees to the committee, I noticed something important missing. Where is the voice of the people who are housed but struggling, their families in Bangor barely making run, their seniors choosing between groceries and heating oil. There are young adults working full-time and still unable to afford rising housing costs. There are taxpayers living paycheck to paycheck who feel invisible in this conversation. Why does it feel like this committee only focuses on one side of the crisis? Housing instability does not begin the moment someone becomes homeless. It begins long before that. Rising rent, unaffordable property taxes, inflation, lack of affordable starter charter housing, mental health struggles, addiction, and wages that do not keep up with the cost of living. If this committee is truly supposed to be data-driven and evidence-informed, then it should include people who are one emergency away from losing everything, not just organizations, agencies, and advocates. The current structure risks becoming disconnected from ordinary residents who are struggling silently every single day while still following the rules, paying bills and trying to survive. This committee also talks about regional instructional coordination, funding strategies and stakeholder engagement. But who counts as a stakeholder? Because housed residents are not stakeholders too. The hardworking renters worry about eviction is a stakeholder. The family living in a motel because apartments are too expensive, are they a stakeholder? The resident concerned about safety, public spaces and accountability are they a stakeholder. The taxpayers funding these programs are they a stakeholder. A balanced committee should represent all impacts of the housing crisis not only one perspective. I also believe accountability must be part of the discussion. Compassion and accountability ability can exist together. Bangor residents deserve policies that help people get back on their feet while also protecting neighborhoods businesses. If this Committee is going to continue, then it should expand its membership to include struggling house residents, working class renters, small property owners, local business owners, and the people directly impacted by rising living costs. Otherwise, this committee risks becoming an echo chamber where only certain viewpoints are welcomed while other residents feel ignored. Bangor needs solutions that are realistic, balanced, fair, and transparent. We cannot solve homelessness while ignoring the broader affordability crisis affecting thousands of house residents across [1:45:40] Adam Baker: the city. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Simmons. Mr. Baker, Adam Baker, Bengal resident. All my words are my own, they don't reflect any committee. I'm just here to just thank you guys for finally way of making a homeless committee. I know it's not a long term, it is and it isn't a long term, like right now, like solution, but I think it's in the right direction. I mean, I think not having it is worse. I mean, I would also advocate that we also work on long-term solutions for like housing, because that's what we need right now and produce unhoused people that I care so much deeply about. So thank you. Thank you, Councilor Mallar. Yes, I just want to say I [1:46:31] Wayne Mallar: was unavailable for the personnel committee meetings and the interviews. Therefore, I am not going to vote on this item. Okay, is [1:46:45] Susan Hawes: he able to not vote because he wasn't at the [1:46:48] William Hurley: meeting? No, the vote is supposed to take place unless there's a profit or else that he wasn't at [1:46:54] Sharon O'Hara: the interviews. That's what he's saying. Yeah, so he still should go. He's supposed to be able to [1:47:02] Susan Hawes: slow to vote. Yeah, Council Miller, did you hear the city solicitor? That's fine, I can vote now. That's the question, who's talking to me? Oh, I'm sorry. That's good. Please go to the podium. I [1:47:20] Shane Mulaney: don't have an earful to say anything. I'm just wondering, can just a regular guy show up to the housing committee to just hear or maybe give some input or help or something? [1:47:32] Susan Hawes: It's open to the public once they get started. Yes. [1:47:34] Richard Chaucer: Else. How do you disperse it? How do you know? The same way. Go ahead. How do you know? I wouldn't even know how each member voted. [1:47:50] Katie McCarthy: Mr. Chaucer, it'll be noticed on the website just like every other public meeting. And it will also be video recorded and saved. And you'll be able to watch it on YouTube if you want to go back and see how members have voted. [1:48:00] Susan Hawes: It do. [Sharon O'Hara: We] Have a first and second on this. Making sure we have a first and second, we haven't lost it completely. We do have Order 26-181 does have a first and second. If there's no further discussion, we'll we'll do a roll call. Councillor Beck. Yes. Councillor Carson. [1:48:40] Lisa Goodwin: Yes. Councillor Deane. Yes. Councillor Faloon. Yes. Councillor Fish. Yes. Councillor Leonard. Yes. Councillor Malheur. [1:48:49] Wayne Mallar: Not casting any dispersions on the members. I vote no. [1:48:53] Lisa Goodwin: Councillor Haas. Yes. Seven yes, one no. [1:48:57] Susan Hawes: Order 26-181 has passage, seven yes and one no. Next item. [1:49:05] Lisa Goodwin: 26-182. Resolve establishing a Vision Zero resolution to eliminate traffic-related deaths and serious injuries on the City of Bangor streets by 2036. Councilor Leonard. [1:49:18] Joseph Leonard: Thank you, Madam Clerk. The City of Bangor is committed to improving the safety of residents, visitors, and the traveling public and have developed a Safety Action Plan to improve safety outcomes of crashes on Bangor's roadways. In the safety action plan is a vision zero resolution, which is a formal commitment to eliminate traffic fatalities and severe injuries. The safety action plan has been developed for the city using a grant awarded through the Safe Streets and Roads for All program. This program is a federal initiative that supports regional, local, and tribal efforts to prevent roadway fatalities and serious injuries. The safe system approach, which guides this planning process, is the transportation safety framework adopted by the U.S. DOT and the Maine DOT to make places safer for people. A safe system emphasizes designing transportation systems that incorporate the following principles. Death and serious injuries are unacceptable. Humans make mistakes. Humans are vulnerable. Responsibility is shared. prepared, safety is proactive, redundancy is crucial. The primary goal of this Safety Action Plan is to eliminate fatalities and serious injuries for all roadway users in Bangor. This Safety Action Plan outlines the data-driven priorities, policy recommendations, and targeted strategies to eliminate fatalities and serious injuries in Bangor. It reflects flex extensive public input through focus group meetings, pop-up events and online survey and project steering committee meetings. This safety action plan and resolution positions of the city for future implementation funding aligned with its primary safety goals. This item was reviewed and unanimously recommended for approval at the May 18th infrastructure committee meeting. Madam chair, I make a motion to pass Resolve 26182. Second. [1:51:29] Susan Hawes: Resolved 26182 has been moved and seconded. Is there any further discussion? Seeing none, roll call vote, please. [1:51:39] Lisa Goodwin: Councilor Beck? Yes. Councilor Carson? Yes. Councilor Deane? Yes. Councilor Faloon? Yes. [Zach Campbell: Councilor Fish? Yes.] Councilor Leonard? Yes. Councilor Malheur? Yes. Councilor Haas? Yes. Eight yes, zero no. No. [1:51:53] Susan Hawes: Resolve 26-182 has passage, eight yes, zero no. This does bring us to the end of the agenda for the meeting this evening. Thank you all for attending and sticking it out. Do we have any final comments from staff in the back of the room? No. Two nos. Big no there. Anyone else? No. How about staff behind me? All right, good. [1:52:33] Shane Mulaney: Night Bangor, thanks. [1:52:38] Richard Chaucer: Not. [1:52:41] Susan Hawes: So bad it's. [1:52:43] Michael Beck: Wonderful to be having some heat lately. I'm looking forward to some more of it. Just please make sure you hydrate. Can't say that enough. Please hydrate and stay safe. Good. [1:52:54] Joseph Leonard: Night council Dean. Good night Bangor. Council Leonard, I won't take too much time. I do want to acknowledge that there was a lot of rhetoric tonight regarding about how nothing's gotten done in the city regarding a certain topic over the number of years, and I do want to point out that was actually one of my frustrations when I first decided to run for council. I was really aggravated by the lack of mobility and the length of time it took to get things done. And I do want to say that since my time on council, this has been the most proactive council that I've been a part of for my entire time on here. That said, though, there are still improvements that can be made. And I do want to let people know that are still here that I do plan to after our budget process that we're doing to start a, I don't know if we'll call it a council workshop, but discussions regarding how we look at our municipal government. How do we want to vote for councilors in the future? Do we want to talk about changing our charter to have a mayor? How do you want to talk about the communication issues that council has been struggling with since well before the majority of us gone on council? How do you want to talk about the potential equity and pay issues that come from counselors who can't necessarily afford to be counselors? So these are all really serious topics that we do need to talk about. But I think these conversations will address a lot of the issues that were not only brought up tonight, but have been brought up by our own fellow counselors here. So I'm looking forward to those discussions coming up after the budget. it thank you all so much for coming out tonight and have a wonderful evening counselor mauler [1:54:53] Wayne Mallar: good night council [1:54:57] Susan Faloon: flu thank you madam chair i just want to say i'm really proud of all of the work that city staff and the council has put into getting this committee together and yes it has been excruciatingly long making it happen. But I, after the interviews, I am just so pumped to have this committee come together because the experience is incredible. And I can tell you that we have, the people who are making up this committee are, as I think Councilor Fish had said one day, this is our dream team. And there are certainly others that would have been good on this committee as well. and I really think we're going to be able to accomplish some great things. I know it's frustrating that, you know, these things have gone on and that it's gotten to this point, and, like, it's frustrating for us, too. I think that, you know, we took our first vote on the housing committee tonight, and there have just been a number of steps. There is so much going on. It's not all, you don't see it all during these, I don't know, two hours that were in this meeting but there are multiple other meetings and multiple efforts going on city-wide by the council by city staff and by other people to address this situation and i do think at the end of the day we do all want the same things we may not agree on how to get there but i think this is a really good step with that thank you all so much for being here, and good night, Bangor. Council Fisch. [1:56:33] Carolyn Fish: I just want to add, too, for our homeless committee we put together, it was a lot of hours, and I was very pleased to see the caliber and the skill and the expertise of the applicants, and to see so many, and interview such a passionate group that I was kind of sorry we could only have nine. I wanted a lot of them. But I think we're going to keep some handy, and hopefully they'll still participate somehow by listening to the group, adding advice, or giving us counsel from wherever their point of view is. And the truth of the matter is, you know, this is very controversial. And to be honest, I am a little nervous about, you know, what direction this is going to take us in. But the direction we've come from certainly has failed. So this is an attempt to improve something that we all acknowledge we can do better and we want to do better. So this is a step that we hope reaching out with other experts. And it's not just for how much more can we do for the homeless, for those at home that think that's all we think about. It's actually I think part of our goal is also to help us find those limits and expectations and accountability. Ability, those things that have been missing that I think will help guide us in a better direction for all of those involved, homeless and housed, and all of the Bengal residents. Thank you for everybody that's come out, all the variety of opinions, and all the residents are very important. I take notes on all of you and appreciate you all. Thank you. [1:58:12] Susan Hawes: Thank you all for coming. Have a great evening. We are adjourned.