City Councilor Wayne Mallar violated Bangor’s ethics code, a city board decided, when he said he wouldn’t support a school budget increase because of programs for multilingual students — commentary that was caught on a hot mic during a previous ethics board meeting this spring.
This is the second time this year that the city’s Board of Ethics has found Mallar in violation of that code, this time for remarks that generated backlash from residents, including some who called for his resignation.
The board voted that Mallar’s comments advocating for the denial of multilingual education services failed to be “fair, impartial, and responsive” or “maintain a standard of conduct that inspires public confidence in the integrity of the city’s government”; and that those comments and his assumptions about students’ legal status violated “the requirement to treat all persons equitably and without unlawful discrimination.”
The ethics board’s next step is to approve an official advisory opinion in writing and send it to the City Council, which can decide if it wants to act in response.
Mallar’s fellow councilors sent him to the ethics board in April after he was recorded in the council chambers complaining about a proposed school department budget hike and programs for “illegals” in local schools.
“The school department’s asking for a 10% increase. As far as I’m concerned, they get no increase,” Mallar said. He could then be heard discussing the department’s spending on multilingual teachers and services for students learning English.
“They can’t speak English, read English, or write English. It’s not a disability. We do not have to furnish. They’re probably all illegals anyway,” Mallar said.
In addition to the questions about inspiring public confidence and avoiding discrimination, the board also considered whether Mallar failed to make it clear whether he was speaking in his official capacity as a city councilor. The board ultimately decided in a 3-2 vote that the councilor did not violate this part of the ethics code.
Several residents defended Mallar during Tuesday’s ethics board meeting, including speakers who argued that he should be treated as an ordinary resident given the circumstances and that his remarks were protected by the First Amendment.
Hilari Simmons, Mallar’s daughter, accused the city of setting her father up to be caught on the hot mic, saying, “that was a setup by the city of Bangor.” Ethics board member John King denied that accusation.
Mallar described his comments about the school budget as part of a “private conversation,” saying he did not realize any microphones near him at the time were on.
“I didn’t say it as a city councilor. I said it as a private individual to someone I talk with frequently,” he said.
Shane Leonard, the ethics board chair, pushed back against that idea, saying later, “everything points to him being there that evening in his role as a city councilor” given he was invited to the meeting as a city councilor and referred to that way in the meeting agenda.
Board members differentiated Mallar’s comments from a simple statement of opinion, noting that the councilor said he intended to make a particular vote because he did not approve of the city providing those services, which it is legally required to offer. The school department must teach English language learners, per state and federal law.
Mallar was the only councilor who voted against Bangor’s school budget last week.
Councilors were split on whether it was worth sending Mallar back to the ethics board, which does not have the power to dole out punishment. Some said they disagreed with Mallar’s comments but did not believe another ethics inquiry was a good use of resources.
The other eight councilors also voted unanimously in April to issue a statement that Mallar was not speaking on behalf of the city or the council.
Mallar’s comments prompted a swift backlash this spring. Residents showed up en masse to condemn Mallar’s comments at subsequent City Council meetings, including multiple school department teachers and someone who dressed up as a caveman seemingly to poke fun at Mallar. Several residents published op-eds in the Bangor Daily News calling for Mallar’s resignation.
School Committee chair Timothy Surrette previously condemned Mallar’s comments, calling them “false, hateful, and deeply harmful to our multilingual learners and their families here in Bangor.”
The board previously determined that Mallar violated the city’s ethics code by inappropriately using his position as a city councilor to attempt to influence the city’s historic preservation commission in a separate incident last year.
The board approved its official advisory opinion to the City Council on the matter in mid-April, but the council has yet to take any action in response. Most recently, councilors requested the full investigation packet from the ethics board and planned to discuss it at a future workshop.
The city’s ethics board has considered four cases in the last year — an unusually high number, given the board had not met for two and a half years before October.
Bangor’s ethics code mandates that violations are punishable by a civil fine in addition to a censure, although it does not appear that any councilors have been charged a fine for violating the code in recent memory. The minimum penalty laid out in the city’s code is $100.