BANGOR, Maine — A City Council majority agreed during a workshop meeting Thursday night to examine its process for selecting a chairman after a second-term member questioned the openness of the process a year ago.
Councilors informally agreed to have the government operations committee review the process, which one member termed the council’s “most confusing and least open discussions” of 2015. The decision came after Councilor Gibran Graham reminded councilors that they had not kept their promise to review the selection process after Councilor Sean Faircloth was named chairman a year ago.
“This is something that all of us vote on that is not made available for public discussion,” Graham told the council during its meeting, which was held at the police station.
Graham said after the meeting that he had no complaints about Faircloth’s management of council affairs, who he said did a good job. He felt, however, that last year’s selection process was “ugly,” and several councilor at the time described a chaotic and secretive process conducted through one-on-one meetings, phone calls and text messages behind closed doors.
“It was a constant round-robin of phone calls and emails of people making a power play for [a position] that should be tying us all together to do what we need to do,” Graham said after the meeting.
During the meeting, councilors and Bangor City Solicitor Norman Heitmann said that the City Charter allows councilors to decide, without public input, who should be the council chair.
According to Article II, Sec. 3, of the charter, the selection of a chair must occur “ At the first meeting, or as soon thereafter as possible” for “the ensuing year.” The next section mandates that this meeting occur at 10 a.m. on the first Monday in November following the election, when councilors are sworn in.
Graham said during the meeting that he had no specific proposal for changing the process. Councilor Joe Baldacci said he was amenable to change, but needed guidelines. Other councilors said that there was too little time to dive deep into the issue.
“Last year, there were some hard feelings, but I think we regrouped after that and worked hard. I think we have worked cordially. This year is nothing like last year. I think it is very low-key,” Baldacci said.
City Councilor Sarah Nichols appreciated the need for transparency, but said that public discussion of a candidate’s strength and weaknesses might be counterproductive.
“You might be too genuine and burn some bridges,” Nichols said. “I don’t want to get some personal issues that resonate in the back of our heads.”
“There hasn’t been a year when we haven’t recovered from the divisions” that might have been caused by the selection process, Councilor Ben Sprague said.
Any significant change to the process would probably require a charter change, councilors said. Graham said he would consider his next move after the meeting at City Hall on Monday.
“It is not a good process from the eyes of the citizen and very backroom dealing[-like] and uncomfortable,” he said.