BANGOR, Maine — The City of Bangor on Thursday will issue a $500 check to Pat Blanchette, who moved to Florida in late July without resigning from the City Council and subsequently missed several meetings.
City Solicitor Norm Heitmann confirmed Wednesday the city will pay Blanchette the final quarterly installment of the $2,000 annual compensation for her service on the council.
After being elected to the City Council eight times and serving four state legislative terms since 1987, Blanchette attended her final council meeting July 27, more than three months before the end of her term.
At the time, she said she had placed her Bangor home on the market and purchased a home in Dade City, Florida. While she did not plan to return to Bangor, she said she would not resign her council post, calling it an overdue vacation.
Since then, Blanchette has missed a total of six council meetings and 23 committee meetings. According to Council Chairman Nelson Durgin, Blanchette serves on the council’s government operations, infrastructure, finance and airport committees.
Despite her absence, she remains on the council until new members elected Tuesday are sworn in on Nov. 9.
While city code requires that councilors reside within the city limits, Heitmann said Wednesday Blanchette is still technically a Bangor resident because she has not taken steps to legally change her place of residence and she still owns her Bangor home.
“It’s never as clear cut as we’d like it to be,” he said.
City Clerk Lisa Goodwin confirmed Wednesday that Blanchette is still registered to vote in Bangor and that she did cast an absentee ballot in Tuesday’s election.
Blanchette has discontinued her city email account, and city officials have been mailing council meeting materials to her Florida home — though the city charter does not allow any councilor to vote without physically attending the meeting.
Assistant City Manager Robert Farrar said Wednesday he has no current phone number or email address on file for Blanchette, though he did release the mailing address of her Florida home. The Bangor Daily News was unable to obtain her electronic contact information in order to seek comment Wednesday.
Blanchette’s early departure could lead to changes in city policy, which currently doesn’t address absences by city councilors.
In September, the council’s Government Operations Committee voted unanimously to have city staff prepare proposals for rules changes that would set limits on councilor absences as well as define unexcused and excused absences.
Implementing any binding changes that could result in the removal or other punitive action against councilors who miss too many meetings would require a change in the city’s charter, which requires a public referendum.
Heitmann is expected to return to the committee this month with options for nonbinding rules changes and in June with options for binding changes to the city’s charter. At the earliest, the council could send proposed charter changes to the voters in November 2016 for enaction in 2017.
Recently re-elected Councilor David Nealley, who pushed unsuccessfully in August to have city staff stop mailing council materials to Blanchette, said Wednesday he plans to push for a review of several council policies in the next term, including policies for absences and residency.
“We were actually as close as anyone on the council,” he said of Blanchette. “I’m just concerned by the way she left.”
Nealley said he was not particularly concerned about the amount paid to Blanchette, calling Bangor councilors’ stipend a pittance compared to some other cities.
For example, the Portland City Council voted in 2012 to raise its pay 1.5 percent to $5,684 a year and members of the Harpswell Board of Selectmen earn $6,000 a year, according to The Forecaster.
Follow Evan Belanger on Twitter at @evanbelanger.