Bangor city councilors plan to impose another training on their colleague for his second ethics violation.
The punishment responds to the findings of the city’s Board of Ethics, which determined in June that City Councilor Wayne Mallar violated the ethics code 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 public meeting in March.
“They can’t speak English, read English, or write English,” Mallar said at the time about students served by the department’s multilingual programs. “It’s not a disability. We do not have to furnish. They’re probably all illegals anyway.”
It’s the second time this year that Mallar has been hit with training as a punishment, this time for remarks that generated significant backlash from residents.
Mallar’s fellow councilors voted in a workshop on Monday to accept the board’s decision.
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.”
Councilors decided they want to impose training in response and will refer the matter to the city’s Advisory Committee on Racial Equity, Inclusion and Human Rights for advice on the appropriate training to address discrimination.
“This has dragged on far too long,” Mallar said at the workshop, though he didn’t comment specifically on the suggested training.
Mallar’s comments about multilingual students 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 school department is legally required to teach English language learners, by state and federal law.
In a separate instance in July, the council decided that Mallar should undergo training on the proper use of titles and disclaimers after the ethics board found that he inappropriately used his position as a city councilor to attempt to influence a decision by the Historic Preservation Commission. Mallar is the only councilor the board has found in violation of the ethics code in recent years.
The council edited its ethics code in July to include deadlines for board decisions and council responses and to spell out potential punishments for violations, including censure, removal from committees, civil fines or training.