Ellsworth is pausing the construction and removal of all memorials on city property until the City Council approves a formal policy around memorial placements.
The temporary ban stems from concerns raised by some community members over a memorial for George Floyd in Ellsworth’s Knowlton park. A tree and stone plaque in the park were dedicated to Floyd in 2020 after he was murdered by a Minneapolis police officer, setting off Black Lives Matter protests across the country.
For five years, the memorial sat in downtown’s Knowlton Park drawing little attention. Now it’s at the center of a debate over how city officials approve memorials in Ellsworth.
After hearing complaints from some community members regarding the political nature or appropriateness of the memorial, along with suggestions that the stone be removed, Councilor Patrick Shea, who was elected last fall, asked city staff to review how the memorial was approved in 2020, when David Cole was city manager.
The city erected the monument after a private citizen requested it and paid for its installation in Knowlton Park, according to City Manager Charles Pearce, who was hired by the city in 2024.
The city had no ordinance or policy in 2020 for memorials on city property. As such, Cole was legally authorized to install memorials without council approval, which is what happened at Knowlton Park, Pearce said.
The council has now directed city staff to revise that process.
The City Council last week approved a temporary halt on adding or removing memorials from city property. The council directed Pearce to design and propose a formal policy that requires council approval for any future decisions regarding memorial placement.
City staff are not recommending that the council order the removal of the Floyd monument, as its installation complied with city regulations at the time, according to a memo Pearce wrote to the council.
Pearce’s memo described several templates that other cities, including Portland and New York City, use to regulate memorial placements on city grounds.
“Across Maine and nationally, municipalities that address memorial removal do so through objective, process-based frameworks rather than case-by-case moral judgements,” Pearce wrote in the memo.
Among the suggestions, Pearce wrote that cities typically avoid removing memorials “simply because public sentiment changes,” instead adopting neutral metrics to evaluate a memorial, like its physical condition or interference with park maintenance.
Portland’s policy specifies that benches or memorials can be removed at the end of an agreed upon term.
“This framework protects the City from claims that removals are politically or ideologically motivated,” Pearce wrote in the memo.
The goal is to create a process that reinforces the city as a “neutral steward of public space,” he wrote in the memo.
City staff will work with Councilor Shea to draft policy options and may form a task force with members from the Arbor and Historical Preservation Commissions, Pearce said. The city would prefer to formalize the process in a permanent ordinance rather than a temporary policy, Pearce said.
Pearce estimated the process for drafting and adopting the policy would take two to three months.