Members of a city council are elected to represent their constituents. They do this by asking questions, making changes in proposed ordinances and by voting — all of which requires showing up. If a councilor won’t be attending council meetings and workshops on a regular basis, she is not doing what she was elected to do.
Simply put, Pat Blanchette should resign from the Bangor City Council because she is no longer representing the people of Bangor. Saying she is tired of winter, Blanchette moved to Florida last month. She called her absence from the council for the remaining months of her term an “overdue vacation.”
Blanchette, who has been elected to eight council terms and four state legislative terms since 1987, previously had near perfect attendance at council and committee meetings, but councilors aren’t given vacations. They are elected for three-year terms, and they are expected to represent Bangor voters for that term. Blanchette’s term expires in November. She is barred from seeking re-election by term limits.
Since she has not resigned from the council, city officials are still mailing packets of council materials to Blanchette in Florida, although she is not permitted to vote by proxy. She has discontinued her municipal email account. Yet the city will pay her the remaining $500 of her $2,000 annual council stipend.
State law requires that “[i]n order to hold a municipal office, a person must be a resident of the State.” And to hold the office of selectman, “a person must be a voter in the town in which that person is elected.” It does not include such language for city councilors, but the same logic should apply.
Bangor’s city charter requires that city councilors must be “qualified voters” in the city.
Blanchette is still registered to vote in Bangor, and she has not registered in Florida, according to the supervisor of elections in Pasco County. She also continues to own her house in Bangor and has paid the property taxes due on it as well as the excise tax on the car that is registered in Bangor.
Bangor’s charter and city code are silent on long-term absences from the city council. Regarding attendance, the city code says: “Every member shall attend all meetings of the Council unless prevented by illness or absence from the City or unless excused by a vote of the Council.”
When the code was written, it was unlikely its writers envisioned a more than three-month “vacation” from the council. Rather, this language refers to an unavoidable short-term absence due to a medical condition or commitment out of town. It did not anticipate a councilor simply moving away and shirking council responsibilities but insisting on keeping a council seat.
These shortcomings in the city charter and code should be remedied. Councilors David Nealley and Pauline Civiello are pushing for these needed updates. The city’s Government Operations Committee, on a motion from Nealley, directed city staff to recommend changes regarding resignations and long-term absences.
Many cities across the United States and a few in Maine already have such policies. In Grosse Pointe Park, Michigan, for example, a councilor will be dismissed if he or she is absent without excuse from four consecutive meetings or a quarter of the meetings in one year.
This is a reasonable standard, and the Bangor City Council should consider adopting it.
Since Blanchette left Bangor less than six months before the next municipal election, the city will not hold a special election to replace her. So her position will remain vacant.
However, city councilors should live in the city they represent, and they should be available to conduct city business. Blanchette isn’t doing either, so she should step down from the council.
