BELFAST, Maine — Belfast voters will not simply be choosing three city councilors this November. They could be deciding how much of the institutional memory that has guided City Hall for much of the past decade, and in some cases considerably longer, will remain at the council table.
The seats held by Ward 1 Councilor Mary Mortier, Ward 2 Councilor Neal Harkness and Ward 5 Councilor Paul Dean are all up for election this fall. Together, the three represent approximately 34 years of experience on the Belfast City Council.
At least some of that experience is certain to disappear.
Dean, first elected in 2018 and completing his eighth year on the council, has said he will not seek another term, saying at the Aug. 4 City Council meeting that this will be “my eighth, and final, year on the council.” His departure guarantees Belfast will have at least one new councilor after the November election.
What happens in the other two races could make the transition considerably more significant.
Mortier is the longest-serving member of the current council. First elected in 2012, she will have completed 14 consecutive years by the end of her current term. Harkness, first elected in 2014, will have served 12 years.
Between them, Mortier, Harkness and Dean have been at the table for many of the most consequential and contentious chapters in Belfast’s recent history.
They have dealt with the proposed Nordic Aquafarms salmon facility and the years of political and legal controversy surrounding it; changes in housing and development policy; the COVID-19 pandemic; increasingly difficult municipal budgets; affordable housing; public safety; downtown development; broadband; climate and energy initiatives; and debates over how a growing and increasingly expensive Belfast should develop.
That history matters because the other two members of the five-member council are comparatively new.
Ward 4 Councilor Chris Bitely was first elected in November 2023, succeeding longtime Councilor Mike Hurley. Bitely was reelected without opposition in November 2025 and, by this November, will have served approximately three years.
Ward 3 Councilor Dan Miller is newer still. Miller was elected without opposition in November 2025 to replace Brenda Bonneville, who did not seek reelection. Before joining the council, Miller accumulated substantial municipal experience, including more than a decade on Belfast’s Harbor Committee and eight years as chair. By Election Day, however, he will have served only about one year as a councilor.
That creates an unusual imbalance in experience.
Mortier, Harkness and Dean account for roughly 34 years of Belfast City Council service. Bitely and Miller will account for approximately four years combined by November.
The potential turnover is particularly significant because three of the council’s five seats, a majority, will be on the ballot.
If Mortier and Harkness remain on the council, Dean’s departure will still remove eight years of experience and guarantee a new voice representing Ward 5.
But if voters replace either Mortier or Harkness as well, the loss of institutional knowledge would increase dramatically. If all three seats changed hands, Belfast would go almost overnight from a council dominated by veterans to one on which Bitely, with roughly three years of service, would suddenly be its longest-serving councilor. Miller would be the next most experienced, despite having served only about a year.
Such a change would not necessarily be good or bad. Turnover can bring new ideas, different perspectives and residents who approach old problems without being tied to previous decisions. Long-serving councils can benefit from new voices just as new councils can benefit from experienced ones.
But the scale of the possible transition is noteworthy.
Mortier and Harkness have yet to formally announce their intent to run for reelection. Nomination papers are due by 5 p.m. on Sept. 3.
This story appears through a media partnership with Midcoast Villager.