Read 'em and weep.

Chairman Cassida writes:

If you honestly believe that your opinion is representative of 70% of Freeporters I wish you could walk in my shoes for a couple of days.  There are a lot of opinions out there and finding the path that is best for the community is not easy when you actually give consideration to all the perspectives.  If I simply listened to my own thoughts or the thoughts of one individual or group I could do this job in my sleep.  Unfortunately that is not the case!

What I wrote:

It's too bad, and telling, that you think making a decision between protecting the residential investments of 70% of the town and the private wishes of one profit making enterprise's potential for gain is a difficult one. Seacoast can find properly zoned land for its building. They should be encouraged to do so. 

What I did not write:

I honestly believe that my opinion is representative of 70% of Freeporters. 

For the record, I honestly believe that my opinion is representative of me. I hope any doubt on the matter is now settled.

Putting the sale before the zoning

So the town staff, the town council, and apparently Seacoast United failed to discern any need for changing the zoning for the parcel where Seacoast's proposed 86 62,000 square foot building is supposed to go.

The Laws of the Game of soccer cover 130 pages. The Freeport Zoning Ordinance covers 216. In neither do you have to look too far for a definition of offside.  I hope they teach the kids the rules before they start to play the game. I wonder why they didn't check the Laws of Zoning before they decided to sign a purchase and sale agreement? You know something? I have a hunch they did, really.

More discussion

From the Town Council Chairman to a citizen 12/15/11:

Council Leadership has met with them [Seacoast] informally to discuss their options and we are working very hard to find a solution that will keep this development in Freeport.  The Council is very sensitive to the concerns of residents in the project area and we will not make any final decisions without giving all a chance to weigh in on the matter.  There is just nothing concrete to discuss at this point as Seacoast is doing their investigation of options.  Once the Council has heard from them on the 17th we will be better able to assess next steps and build a process that is inclusive for all who would like to comment.

 From the Maine Municipal Association on Board Member Bias:

Maine courts have repeatedly recognized that the constitutional guarantee of procedural due process presupposes a fair and impartial decisionmaker. 

For example, in Mutton Hill Estates, Inc. v. Town of Oakland, 468 A.2d 989 (Me. 1983), the Law Court held that a planning board violated a developer's procedural due process rights when it invited the developer's opponents to assist in making factual findings sufficient to support the denial of the developer's proposal, without giving the developer notice or permitting the developer's representative to attend the meeting. The Law Court agreed with the Superior Court that "the findings of the Planning Board were irreversibly tainted by this procedural impropriety" and echoed the Superior Court's grave doubts that the developer could ever get "a fair, impartial, and expeditious hearing and decision from the Planning Board." Because of the irreversible bias, the Law Court removed the decision of whether to approve the developer's application from the Planning Board and authorized the Superior Court to make that decision for the board. Mutton Hill thus stands for the proposition that board member bias can so affect the fairness and impartiality of a municipal proceeding that a procedural due process violation results.

The Superior Court in Burns v. Town of Harpswell, No. CV-90-1083 (Me. Super. Ct. Cum. Cty., July 10, 1991) approached the issue of board member bias and procedural due process from a slightly different angle. In that case, a group of abutters successfully challenged a ZBA's action approving a special exception as violative of procedural due process by pointing out that one of the members of the ZBA was both an abutter and a friend of the applicant. Prior to the hearing, the board member's husband had written a letter in support of the special exception which was entered into the record. Although the board member abstained from voting, she participated in the ZBA's discussion of the application which was ultimately approved. The court found her abstention from voting insufficient to overcome the procedural due process error. It noted that "[g]enerally, due process requires neutrality of the decision-makers" and held that "[w]here a member's bias or conflict of interest is of sufficient magnitude to disqualify that person from voting, the member should not participate in debate or advocacy of the matter." The court therefore sustained the appeal on procedural due process grounds.

A similar result was reached in Sevigny v. City of Biddeford, 344 A.2d 34 (Me.1975). There, the Law Court held that procedural due process was violated by the participation of the mayor, as the presiding officer, in a city council hearing regarding the dismissal of another city official. The Law Court noted that because of his interest the mayor could not approach his duties with the "requisite freedom from bias and prejudgment." 

These cases demonstrate that a fair and impartial decision-maker is an integral component of procedural due process and that a decision made in the absence of this component may be constitutionally deficient.

When is a discussion not a discussion?

Hmm. Planning Board FAQ

How may I contact a Board member? The State of Maine's prohibition against Ex Parte communication requires Board members not to have private discussions about projects pending before the Board. Members of the public and applicants may contact the Board by writing them a letter and sending it to the Town Planner prior to the scheduled meeting. The Town Planner will make copies for all Board members and the letter will become part of the public record. Members of the public may also speak to the Board during a scheduled Public Hearing.

PB Minutes 11-2-11.doc

Sande Updegraph of FEDC explained that this project [Seacoast, ed.] was discussed at their last Board meeting. The Trustees took no action but asked her to convey their consensus that they view this field area as being in a buffer area. They are very concerned and very respectful of the abutting residents. They would not support contract zoning but they would give some consideration to an overlay district since it is a strong project, in the right place, provides a good tax base and traffic has been addressed. They would like to make an informal recommendation to this Board.

FEDC Board Meeting Minutes, October 25,2011

Seacoast Update Wendy Caisse said that the Planning Board is discussing a zoning amendment to allow the construction of a domed field. Contract zoning and a change of use in RR1 will likely not be considered but an overlay district is a possibility. The Planning Board will next meet on November 2. ACTION: Sande will draft a letter of support for the overlay option for Kate’s signature.

FREEPORT ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION
Wendy Caisse, Vice Pres.

PLANNING BOARD
Wendy Caisse, Chair

You don't know what you've got til it's gone.

Earlier today while casting about for information on the town property where Seacoast United seeks to build its supermarket sized indoor soccer palace in an area not zoned for it, I came across this little tidbit (Word 2010 doc, PDF here) relating to the administration of the land abutting its proposed fiefdom: Hedgehog Mountain. The document is entitled "Hedgehog Hill Mountain Area Trails Maintenence and Management Plan". It was presented to the Conservation Commission at its November 15th meeting. It bears no date, and its authorship is unacknowledged, so its recommendations' source is impossible to determine. Commission members say it was presented by the Town planner, who has a vision apparently not entirely at all in accord with the Conservation Commission, whose remit by ordinance it is to act as custodian of this property on behalf of the town. Here is their plan, as adopted in 2004 (Word 2003 doc, PDF here). The former document would presumably replace the current one in force as the guiding plan for Hedgehog in the future. Some excerpts:

"The acquisition of the Hunter Rd property and the development of the athletic fields in 2011 creates a new opportunity to expand the existing trails to include this new property.  A small group of residents and trail enthusiast[s] that are very familiar with the property have developed a plan to maintain and upgrade some trails and to build new trails. 

So a "small group's" privately developed plan trumps that of the body charged by ordinance with developing such a plan with public input. For property acquired by the town through public bond issues for the expressed purpose of quiet enjoyment of open spaces by its users. Right. The small group's not through yet.

"The trails are currently managed and maintain by the volunteers of the Conservation Commission.The Conservation Commission is also responsible for managing and maintaining all of the other trails and woods owned by the Town.  Given the size and number of trails on this property, it is recommended that the responsibility of the land and trails on these properties not be that of the Conservation Commission.  This would require an amendment to the Conservation Commission Ordinance.

Instead a new committee such as the “Friends of Hedgehog Mountain Area” (FOHMA) be formed.[sic]  This group should be part of or at least very closely associated with any group that is formed to oversee the management and maintenance of the athletic fields on Hunter Road. The responsibilities and budget for that group are recommended to be the following:" [snip]

Read the whole thing to see what a new committee (presumably made up of the aforementioned "small group") has in mind.

This unsigned presentation on behalf of unidentified and non-public actors staging a power grab against a duly appointed Town commission established by ordinance is disturbing, to say the least. It seems some in town disagree with the Conservation Commission's understanding of the trust it is charged with. Fine. Let them present their views to the Commission for its consideration. It's rather unseemly to suggest that the right way forward if the Commission disagrees with one special group's outlook is to remove from the Commission's charge the care of the lands it was created to preserve for all of the Town's residents, regardless of that group's self-declared familiarity with the property. What's next? "Friends of Florida Lake"? "Pals of Wolfe Neck"? "Supporters of Sandy Beach"?  We need a Town Government that balances interests and builds consensus. Not one that throws out processes and ordinances because they don't accomodate the shiniest new toy on display.

Rumor has it this may be on the Council's December 6th agenda. If you can find a moment to speak out in favor of quiet enjoyment of our public spaces, come on down and tell the Council to let the Conservation Commission conserve our public lands.

Sweet little lies

Stenographer Amy Anderson of the Falmouth Forecaster dutifully copies:

Edgar Leighton, a member of the first Town Council, said the new council members will not create a major shift in the direction the town takes, but the composition of four women will change the dynamic. He also said the council may now have more productive conversations. "It's my understanding that there were a lot of 5-2 votes and while that gets the job done, it's my sense that one of things that will change is that the meetings will move a little smoother," Leighton said. "There is always room for disagreement and there is nothing wrong with that, but when it is constant, that is not good."

On the 2010-2011 Council, there were exactly two 5-2 votes where Joe Migliaccio and Eric Pandora voted the same way in the minority. The first was on November 9, 2010, when both voted against Jim Cassida as Council Chair, the second on January 25, 2011, when both voted against an unenforceable and constitutionally suspect e-mail policy for the Town Council. If two out of 78 is "constant", I am Marie of Roumania. If the Forcaster and Mr. Leighton care to gain a deeper understanding of truth as opposed to hearsay, I've compiled the votes for them here. But sweet little lies are the comforting stories we like to tell ourselves, right?

They write back

On Wed, Nov 16, 2011 at 7:51 AM, Jim Cassida wrote:

There are no minutes of the gathering.  The sole purpose was to pass out the council committee assignment and goal sheets and council contact form which I had forgotten to do before we closed the meeting.  I explained to everyone what the materials were and when they needed to be returned to Sara & I.  No agenda items were discussed, I simply explained the process for the new folks and handed out the materials.

James Cassida

---

Good morning, Jim-
Thank you for your prompt response to my request for information regarding the unannounced public meeting.
Steph (emphasis mine)

I write letters

Hello Jim and Sara-

Congratulations on your election to serve as Chair and Vice Chair of the Freeport Town Council for the coming year. I wish you all the best.

I hope the minutes of the impromptu meeting that Chairman Cassida called of the newly convened Town Council following the chips and dips this evening will be made available on the Town website. As I was leaving, I heard some discussion amongst yourselves and the Town Manager of possible agenda items for your next session. I believe it might be helpful for the public to be informed as to the nature of the discussion, as is required by statute. If there are no officially written minutes, perhaps you would be kind enough to divulge the nature of the conversation.

Respectfully,
Steph

The results are in.

Always true to you, darlin' in my fashion.

Kate Arno apparently doesn't know what she's the President of. Here's a clue. It is a private corporation whose core constituency is business interests with no membership and a self selected board of directors. It is not a "Commission". Freudian slip, perhaps.


Freeport Economic Development CORPORATION.  Says so here too.

Up against the blue curtains!

How's it feel to be the man?

The odd man out in this motley crew is Alan Caron, founder of the anti-sprawl GrowSmart Maine and now director of Envision Maine, which bills itself as a non-partisan think tank interested in informing public policy makers. I’m sure Caron has moderated his political views since I first knew him as a prison reform activist in the 1970s, but unless he has changed his spots completely, he seems to be the token progressive on Team LePage.

A 2007 trip down memory lane from the Boston Phoenix. As Ben Folds sings, "first you wanted revolution, now you're the institution".

In one uendo and out the other

The verbal tricks of politics and the media run from shameless character assasination to titillation and back, sometimes a combination of the two. "Does candidate x blow goats? It would be irresponsible not to speculate" is a famous (in the lefty blogosphere, anyway) parody of the style Richard Hofstader famously labeled paranoid.

So we have an honored Solon of Freeport politics, one Ed Bonney, writing this:

"In every election a candidate can expect to lose some signs due to weather or vandalism, but this year the apparent [sic] organized effort to remove and destroy candidate signs is the worst I have ever seen."

Note the "apparent[ly] organized" bit. Dark forces. Not the candidates, mind, and surely not his candidates, but an apparently organized cadre of evil minions slashing and burning. Subverting the political process. Who are they? Do they blow goats? It would be irresponsible not to speculate.

This blog started with a report of the disappearance of signs belonging to a candidate Mr. Bonney does not support. Others he's not inclined to bless with his imprimatur have also lost signs. Is there a town-wide cadre of anti political sign zealots lurking in the mud of Freeport waiting to deprive its citizens of vital signage during a political campaign? Magic eight ball sez unlikely.

It's a damned shame when the election campaign in a town of 8500 winds up with paranoid McCarthyite tactics deployed by partisans, especially experienced activists like Ed. I guess paranoia makes for strange bedfellows.

Unbroadcast News

Gee, who deep sixed the Chamber of Commerce candidate's forum on Freeport Public Cable? Unbroadcast at the scheduled times Thursday and Friday per the schedule provided by Rick Simard.You can find a list of cable board people and their contact info in this pdf. They are, according to the document:

Michael Reis, Chair
Edward Bonney
William Greene
Michael Ashby
STAFF PERSON: Rick Simard
rs@freeportmaine.com

Maybe they'll add a couple of replays to make up for the ones we missed.

Updated -
See the missing 11/5 airing? Cable 3 must be fully booked with notices about the dangers of lead paint and pancake breakfasts.

Last Kid Picked?

I guess that's how this candidate's supporter felt while placing his or her favorite's sign.

Really? Rich DeGrandpre has such awesomely cool superpowers that merely placing his sign in the right of way makes the two candidates' signs that were there before fly off into a ditch?

Again, I can't believe the candidates themselves are inspiring this expression of town juvenalia. Whoever is out there vandalizing signs, just stop.

Blocking up the scenery breaking my mind...

Look, I know people put a whole lot of energy into putting up campaign signs, and are naturally peeved when they mysteriously disappear. Anyone who'd spend their time ripping up signs because they don't like the candidate probably enjoyed ripping the wings off of flies in second grade. But to float rumors of lawsuits and bruit about accusations that the candidates themselves are engaging in such a pastime is really, really dumb. I know none of the folks I'm supporting are doing that.

Again, if anybody actually knows anything real about actual humans vandalizing signs, please let the authorities know.

It's been windy. The ground is damp. The weather doesn't favor anybody in particular. Leave it to the cops, and fuggedaboudit.