BANGOR, Maine — Seven residents vying for three open seats on the Bangor City Council recently discussed their top priorities if elected, calling for reforms to fight crime and drugs, bolster the local economy, increase wages and attract more residents to the area.
Voters have until Election Day Nov. 3 to decide which three should join the nine-member council. Here are the candidates and what they say they’ll do if elected:
Gary Capehart, 66, is a retired school teacher who worked 38 years for the Bangor School Department, during which he served stints coaching track, basketball and football.
If elected, he says he will make it his top priority to address a growing crime problem in the city and bolster the local economy, saying the city is economically “at the end of a dead-end road.”
To address crime, Capehart proposes putting more police officers on the streets, saying there are times when there are fewer police available to respond to emergencies than most residents believe.
“I really want to look at the police situation as to what we have patrolling the streets,” he said. “The bottom line is that studies have said if people see police cars on the road, crime goes down.”
Capehart says his own home on Essex Street has been burglarized, as have two of his neighbors’ homes. As for the economy, he said he would focus on attracting jobs that pay well in order to attract younger workers.
Currently, he says the state’s aging population presents a problem for economic growth.
“Most recently, I heard the birth rate is so low that if it continues as such, we could actually see a decline in population,” he said.
Paul LeClair, 74, is a retired customer service representative for Digital Equipment Corp. in Massachusetts and a veteran of the U.S. Navy who served during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
As a Social Security recipient and an outspoken critic of the city’s government who speaks out often during city council meetings, LeClair’s platform calls for cutting city spending to reduce the burden on taxpayers.
He said the city’s fire, police and public works departments all have “bloated budgets” and that if he is elected he will investigate the city’s budgeting process to bring accountability and transparency to the process.
He also calls for more transparency and accountability in city finances.
In particular, he said there is not enough transparency in the city’s budget and that it’s too easy for city officials to transfer funds between the city’s many financial accounts without the public’s knowledge.
The public has no way to determine whether money borrowed via bond issues is actually spent on the project for which the city borrowed the money, he said.
“We have no accountability in knowing whether or not it actually gets used for that and a lot of times I think it does not,” LeClair said. “Most or some of those funds get diverted to other projects and we never know that.”
City officials and the city’s charter disagree with that assessment.
Under the city’s charter, money from bond issues cannot be used for projects other than what it was intended to cover. However, if money is left over at the end of the project, the city can retain the remainder for future projects, but they must be of the same type.
For example, the city issued an $850,000 bond this year for street and sidewalk improvements. If those projects come in under budget and bond money is left over, the city can retain the remainder for future projects, but those projects must involve street and sidewalk improvements.
That said, the city council is authorized to move leftover bond funds to other projects, but doing so would require a council order, which must be approved at a public meeting. That vote would require a public hearing that solicits public input on the issue, according to Finance Director Debbie Cyr.
The charter does allow the city manager to transfer non-bond operating funds between accounts in the budget — for example, the manager could transfer operating money set aside for heating the fire department to another line item within the fire department’s budget — but she cannot transfer budgeted operating money between city departments without a council order, which must be approved in a public meeting.
For example, the city manager could not transfer budgeted operating funds from public works to the police department unless the council approved the transfer via a public vote, Cyr said. The city charter does not allow the city manager or any other city employee to transfer bond funds of any kind to unrelated projects without a council order.
David Nealley, 54, is the only incumbent councilor to seek re-election this year after longtime Councilor Patricia Blanchette left her seat vacant and moved to Florida in July and first-term Councilor Pauline Civiello announced in September she would not seek a second term.
Nealley is a longtime Bangor businessman who serves currently as publisher of Maine Seniors Magazine. First elected in 2001, he has served three nonconsecutive terms on the council.
During his current and past terms, Nealley has brought a fiscally conservative voice to council discussions and votes.
Most recently, he opposed Councilor Joe Baldacci’s proposed local minimum wage and pushed for rule changes to bar councilors from leaving their seats unattended without stepping down from office in response to the departure of Blanchette.
Nealley says he does not oppose a minimum wage hike at the state level, saying it’s no secret that “wages in this region are pathetic,” but that if every community implemented its own wage, “it would be chaotic doing business in Maine.”
If re-elected, Nealley said this week he will push for continued improvements to sidewalks, streets, parks and neighborhoods, but that doing so while keeping taxes under control is “where the challenge lies.”
He says his top priority will be to strategically position police resources to respond to crime across the city.
“Bangor will not escape the plight of urban America,” he said. “However, if we deploy our resources strategically, we can do something about it.”
Sarah Nichols, 25, is a 2008 graduate of Bangor High School and a 2012 graduate of the University of Maine, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in New Media. She serves currently as developmental coordinator for St. Joseph Healthcare.
Making her first run for political office, Nichols says her top priority if elected will be to make Bangor a place where people who want to stay in the city can afford to do so.
“After I graduated from the University of Maine, I struggled for over a year to find a good paying job. I was a month away from moving out of state for work when I got a job at St. Joseph.”
As part of her platform, Nichols supports raising the local minimum wage in order to make Bangor “a place where everyone can succeed.”
Nichols cites Census Bureau records that indicate 24 percent of Bangor residents live in poverty, calling the statistic “unacceptable.”
She said a single adult in Penobscot County who works 40 hours a week must earn at least $10.32 per hour to survive, well above the current minimum wage of $7.50 per hour, according to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s living wage calculator.
That required hourly wage to pay for food, housing and other necessities is double for a single parent with one child, she said.
“Working people — especially families — shouldn’t be living in poverty,” Nichols said. “Despite our city’s growth, people are struggling to access good-paying jobs. We should do everything we can to support working people and families.”
William Osmer, 35, is an instructor and adviser at the University of Maine.
Osmer says he is not a one-issue candidate, but he says his top priority if elected will be to work with fellow councilors to preserve the quality of life in Bangor and to promote policies that would stimulate sustainable growth in both employment and population.
His platform calls for supporting police and public health officials to find solutions for the city’s “growing opiate problem” in order to make the downtown area and Bangor neighborhoods safer.
He also says he will push policies that will bolster the city’s tax base by attracting younger residents and jobs to the area, noting that the tax base — the largest single source of city revenue — becomes more fragile as it ages and more residents are forced to live on fixed incomes.
Other pieces of Osmer’s platform call for expanding recreational opportunities, volunteer programs and public services for residents of all ages and continuing efforts to revitalize the downtown area as well as support for arts initiatives.
Touting his degrees in engineering, business and legal studies, Osmer says he is well qualified to make informed decisions on issues that come before the council.
“I care about Bangor and I know that decisions made in City Hall have a real impact on the people of this city,” he said.
Joe Perry, 49, served 14 years in the Maine Legislature. He says his late entry into the council race came only after he decided other candidates did not have the level of experience the city needs.
If elected, he says his top priority would be to use that experience to help the council avoid the gridlock that is currently plaguing state and federal government.
“I think partisan politics is creeping more and more into everything, and I just don’t want to see that happen on the local level because there are too many important issues that need to be raised,” he said.
In particular, Perry says municipalities across the state have adopted a “defensive mode” in response to budget cuts from Augusta that affect programs such as revenue sharing, which provides the city a share of state sales tax.
Those cuts, he said, force towns and cities to make the tough financial decisions so state politicians don’t have to because the local tax base cannot afford the added burden.
“He’s trying to starve municipalities and force municipalities to make the tough cuts in equipment and personnel that they’re not willing to make in Augusta,” Perry said, referencing the governor.
Perry asserts that his experience in the state Legislature will help the city in that fight.
Perry owns Garland Street Market in Bangor. His run for council marks his first bid for political office since he lost re-election to the Maine Senate in 2010.
Megan “Meg” Shorette, 31, is making her second run for council after an unsuccessful bid in 2011. She currently serves as executive director for Launchpad, a nonprofit arts incubator in Bangor.
She is also a small business owner at The BETA Agency, a local marketing firm.
A graduate of the University of Maine, she says her discussions with community members have identified a lack of employment opportunities, wage disparities and an ever increasing cost of living as top priorities for the council to work on.
She also cites aging infrastructure and abandoned properties as key problems facing the city, saying that if elected she will work to remedy those issues. She further says she will work to maintain the city’s status as a cultural center in the Northeast.
“I am ready to take on the issues to make Bangor a better place to live,” she said.
Election Day for the city council race is set for Nov. 3, with polls open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the Cross Insurance Center on Maine Street.
Absentee voting is already underway. Voters who will be out of the city or otherwise unable to vote on Election Day can request an absentee ballot from the city clerk’s office at Bangor City Hall in person, via phone at 992-4220 or by online at www.bangormaine.gov/ballotrequest.
From Oct. 26 to 29, the city also hosts early voting, where voters can submit absentee ballots from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Cross Insurance Center.
As of 4 p.m. Thursday, a total of 148 absentee ballots had been requested, according to City Clerk Lisa Goodwin, who said demand for absentee ballots is relatively slow compared to past elections.
That could indicate a low voter turnout.
Follow Evan Belanger on Twitter at @evanbelanger.