March 28, 2024
BANGOR DAILY NEWS (BANGOR, MAINE

Bangor council OKs hot topics for referendum> Abolishing councilors’ term limits, raising compensation to be on ballot

BANGOR — Off-year elections typically draw a light turnout, but the City Council on Monday came up with referendums that may rally the voters in Bangor: term limits and councilors’ compensation.

Just the question of how much to compensate the city’s nine city councilors should stimulate voters’ interest, according to Councilor Marshall Frankel.

“It will definitely get the vote out,” he said.

The charter amendment which passed 7-2, with Christopher Popper and Gerard Baldacci opposing it, would raise compensation to $1,500 a year for each councilor, with $500 extra for the mayor.

The pay for a city councilor has remained at $400 for more than 35 years, Councilor Patricia Blanchette pointed out. An increase “I feel is long overdue,” she said.

The point is not to pay councilors, she said, but to reimburse councilors for things such as long-distance telephone calls and to make up for some of the time and expenses incurred. If the compensation were a little higher, she said, more people might feel they could afford to run for office and serve.

Councilor James Tyler, who wrote the order, said that campaign costs are now in the area of $3,000 to run for council, and the low compensation of $400 “effectively excludes those who don’t have $3,000 in their pocket.”

Popper said that he would vote against the order because it would cost an additional $10,400 a year in total. He said it wasn’t right to spend that money now when the city had not given its employees a cost-of-living increase.

Councilor Timothy Woodcock said he also was concerned about the message the increase would send to city employees, and he did not personally favor it. He also pointed out that many small towns pay far larger amounts than Bangor does.

In November, voters will also have the opportunity to give their opinions on term limits for city councilors. By a vote of 6-3 — with Frankel, Popper and Woodcock opposing — the council decided to put to referendum a charter amendment that would abolish term limits for councilors.

For several years, the council has operated with limits of two consecutive three-year terms. After at least a year off, councilors may run again.

The original question, which came up last year, had nothing to do with the council. After a contentious budget battle with the School Committee, Popper proposed that the committee members be treated the same as councilors with term limits.

Superintendent James Doughty and others opposed that, saying that school business is highly complex and continuity is important.

Councilor William Cohen proposed limits of 12 years of total service over a lifetime, but the council delayed putting the matter on last year’s ballot because it was a busy election year.

After much discussion this year, the council approached the question from another angle and decided to look at doing away with their own limits.

A natural term limit occurs every time a term is up, said Baldacci, and the voters get to decide. He said that the problem with government was not elected officials, “but entrenched bureaucracy.”

The council considered several privatization orders, and decided to indefinitely postpone one pertaining to the motor pool. Those that the council voted to have the city manager issue Request for Proposal letters to see if money might be saved were: snow removal from permit parking areas; street sign and painting maintenance; mowing of parks and city cemeteries; maintenance of traffic signals and street lights; and striping of roadways and crosswalks.


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