BREWER, Maine — Shortly after unanimously voting to withdraw support for a proposed Interstate 395-Route 9 connector, city councilors held a lengthy and slightly heated discussion about requiring future school superintendents to live in town.
The connector route vote was easy because City Council members are frustrated with the Maine Department of Transportation’s recent decision to designate a new preferred route without first consulting city or area town leaders.
The Brewer-Holden-Eddington connector route is designed to ease traffic between Canadian Maritime Provinces and the federal highway system and has been in the planning stage since before 2000. Brewer and Eddington leaders learned in January that the DOT had selected a new preferred I-395-Route 9 connector route without consulting them.
“The city has gone on record on numerous occasions about the need to take into account local, regional and statewide transportation considerations in selecting a final route for this important transportation connector,” Mayor Jerry Goss said, reading from the resolve. “Brewer requests and urges the MDOT to use a more open and transparent process when making decisions that impact multiple municipalities, their governing bodies and their citizens.”
Councilor Joseph Ferris, and others, voiced support for the resolve.
“I think it’s very important that we at least adopt this resolve to show our utter dismay,” he said. “Hopefully, it will jog some response with the DOT.”
Applause broke out after councilors voted to withdraw support for the connector project and support the “no build” option.
When it came time to discuss whether to require future school superintendents to live in town, the council was split, with Goss and Ferris voting in line with the local school board, who last week voted unanimously to not support the change.
“I am not in favor of us telling the school department how to do their job,” Ferris said.
Goss, who spent years as the Brewer High School principal, said he worked under four different superintendents and “none lived in Brewer and [all] bled orange and black,” referring to the school’s colors.
City leaders, led by Councilor Larry Doughty, first discussed the matter last month and held a public hearing during Tuesday’s meeting to gather comments about holding a referendum to change the city charter and require the school superintendent to be a Brewer resident.
School board members David Austin and Janet McIntosh and a resident spoke at length against making the move.
“We are looking for the best possible candidate and a residency requirement would just limit our pool,” McIntosh said.
Under the proposed change, “any Superintendent of Schools contract beginning July 1, 2013, and thereafter” would require the superintendent to “become a resident of the City of Brewer within one year after his or her employment begins,” the notice states.
The original order was amended Tuesday to allow future superintendents up to three years to move into town after signing a contract.
Current superintendent Daniel Lee is retiring next year. Residents changed the charter requiring the town manager to live within city limits during 2002.
“It’s a difficult decision. It’s a difficult process,” City Councilor Kevin O’Connell said. “They are the highest paid individual in the city of Brewer.”
A “strongly worded” exchange among Ferris, Goss, O’Connell and Doughty occurred when Doughty questioned Ferris and Goss about whether they trusted voting residents. It ended when O’Connell called for the question, which stopped the discussion and forced an immediate vote. The final 3-2 vote was to let voters decide.
Councilors still have to select when to hold the local referendum — at the June election, the September special election or the November presidential election.
Hopefully Brewer realizes that requiring the Supt. to live in Brewer will only limit who applies.
Is there someone in Brewer who has been repeatedly passed over for the job who is pushing for this?
Would you also require them to purchase any and all products they use from Brewer merchants? Whoever came up with this idea doesn’t get the fact that Brewer isn’t the one in demand, the QUALITY Superintendents out there are.
It amazes me that the city council voted to put this to the people and couldn’t just let common sense prevail. There is not a huge number of people wishing to be superintendent, and IF this passes, Brewer can sit back and wonder why they get 3 applicants for the job, none with any experience. I do fear that this could pass in this day and age of “well, they make $100K or whatever so they should have to live in Brewer). How ridiculous this is. Where does it stop? What about other district level administrators?
A VERY small number of Maine communities require this. Bangor does not as far as I know.
I find it odd that while some feel that the superintendent of schools just must live in Brewer, the chief of police can live in Hampden.
If this is the type of horrendous decision the Brewer City Council makes (especially after hearing from members of the school committee who told the council why they were not supporting it), then I fear for the future of the city under their genius decision making.
Brewer should want ONE thing from its school superintendent applicant pool……….can they get a number of qualified and experienced applicants so they can hire the best fit for Brewer. What part of that coincides with “oh, and you have to live in Brewer”…….dumb
I have no issue with the head of the school system, city manager, police or fire chief having a requirement to live in the city/town they live in.
In the town I live in, the Superintendent of Schools lives in town, the fire chief lives in town and the police chief lives in town and there is no requirement to do so. They are connected to the town, they have an interest in keeping there budgets in line, they pay taxes, etc…
“Would you also require them to purchase any and all products they use from Brewer merchants?” YES!!!!!!
Southwest Harbor had (they may still have this policy but it has been years since I had to deal with it) the following purchasing policy:
1. Purchase from town merchants first. If the item is not available locally then;
2. Purchase within Hancock County, then the State of Maine and only after exhausting the first three choices then the department may purchase from a national vendor.
Is it more expensive to purchase locally? Maybe or maybe not. But they supported the people that pay taxes to the town FIRST!
The residency requirement makes no sense. Are they going to buy the house the new super needs to sell to buy one in Brewer? Probably not. The more restrictions they put, the fewer people will qualify. How is that in the best interest of the school district? It is not. This decision is overreaching and ignorant.
There is quite a bit of info at the Maine DOT website specifically set up for the connector. It includes a report that explains why the new 2B-2 route was chosen over others considered and why it is considered to have the least environmnetal impact.
In order to informally discuss the project and this decision, an open house for the project will be held at the Brewer Auditorium located at 318 Wilson Street in Brewer, on Wednesday April 4th from 3 PM to 8 PM The deadline for public comments is May 15th with a more formal public hearing scheduled in early May.
Sounds like DOT may have forgotten that local offocials might have appreciated a briefing on the 2B2 route and an opportunity to ask questions?
I have been using the DOT website to study the history of the East-West Highway, of which this connector has long been a part and have found it very easy to use and have been able to read all the past studies done on the highway. There is a huge amount of information on this conector as well.
I am not though suggesting that the governing bodies of affected towns should get their news from the paper or from the website. I would hope any state agency would afford the courtesy of a briefing to affected town officials before information like this is released to the general public.
My impression of DOT is they end up doing pretty much what they want without regard the neighbors, or the town’s interests, or or even the engineer, most times. I don’t know how you rein them in, other than to do what occurred here. Just say “No, that’s not how it’s done, here.” Bravo.
If the object of the exercise is to find the best candidate for Superintendent, the residency requirement is a tad shortsighted and an unnecessary burden. Nobody should be forced into this real estate market for the job. If it works, it works.
Why does it matter if the Superintendent live in Brewer or not, shouldn’t they be hired on being the best candidate? Their residence shouldn’t matter as long as they are there to do their job.
As said recently, take it straight across the Penobscot River and connect it to Hogan Road, then on to I-95!!
The DOT should hold off on this project at least until the East/West Highway due diligence is completed. If E/W toll road is constructed it will all but eliminate a need to extend 395 to Rt9. A traveler to Quebec or New Brunswick would rather a straight, divided highway (assumably a 65 or 75MPH road) to the Airline.
As for the requirement about the superintendent to live in town… bad idea. This might seem an acceptable idea about 40-years ago but today it is unrealistic and unnecessary.