Cape councilors set annual goals

CAPE ELIZABETH — The Cape Elizabeth Town Council has laid out its goals for 2012, working in round-robin fashion at a workshop session Monday, with each councilor calling out additions to the annual to-do list.

However, the longest debate was not on what the council hoped to accomplish, but on how it will solicit feedback from the public on its proposed actions.

Councilor Caitlin Jordan faulted her fellow councilors for too often scheduling the final vote on important topics on the same night as a public hearing.

“I’ve heard a lot of comments like, ‘Why does it matter, everybody’s already made up their minds?’” she said. “The public perceives that their input doesn’t matter.”

“You’re right,” agreed Councilor David Sherman. “We have a hearing and then 30 seconds later we all vote. That feeds that public perception.”

However, Sherman pointed out that, in the recent vote to charge fees on bus tours entering Fort Williams Park, the council had held several hearings and workshops on the topic since last spring. As such, that the vote was clear going into the final hearing and vote.

“I was ready to vote,” he said. “It was like, let’s just get this thing off our plates instead of having it linger on for another month.”

“That had been vetted over and over,” agreed Councilor Jessica Sullivan. “No one was going to change their vote.”

“So, why do we even have the public hearing?” asked Jordan. “Is it just because it’s required, so we go through the motions? Why hold a public hearing if we are not going to then take time to absorb and adjust to what people have said?”

Because the Cape Elizabeth Town Council only holds one business meeting per month, except for April, when it meets twice, holding a final vote after the public hearing, instead of on the same night, necessarily means drawing out an issue for at least an additional 30 days – not an issue for Jordan, but deemed overly bureaucratic and laborious for most of the council.

Councilor James Walsh pointed out that the council can, and sometimes does, refuse to cast a final vote, instead sending an item back to workshop if a public hearing makes it clear the order is not yet ready for prime time. Such was the case, he said, with a recent ordinance designed to control noises made by farm animals, particularly roosters, when kept anyplace in town besides a working farm. However, Jordan was quick to point out that councilors decided to scuttle the final vote on that measure based solely on the number of citizens who turned out to speak.

“You put the brakes on that one before the public input ever happened,” she said, reminding Walsh that, “You said at the beginning that we’re going to take this off the table, but we’ll still listen to what you have to say.”

Town Manager Michael McGovern pointed out that change in council policy made two years ago allows the public to comment on issues at the first reading of any order. That, he says, “gives them two turns” to be heard. 

“It used to be that when people came to the public hearing, that was the first time the council got the hear from them,” said McGovern. “Now, the opportunity there is from a continuous process of input, from beginning to end.”

“We had been accused during the election process [that year] of decisions being made in ‘smoke-filled rooms’ and prior to meetings, where people felt that their input had absolutely no impact,” recalled Walsh, adding, “I’m not so sure we’re ever going to correct that problem for some people, if we make a decision that is contrary to what they think.

“If there’s a better way, I’d like to hear it,” said Walsh. “But I’m not sure how much we can tweak this other than to make everything we do much more protracted.”

“When we have a particularly difficult issue, we d have a tendency to say OK, we’re not going to vote tonight,” said Sherman. “But 70 to 80 percent of the time we hold the hearing and vote, because there’s no controversy. It would drive me crazy if we waited a month after every public hearing to hold votes. It just allows for another month of emails, another month of angst, and I don’t know if people want that.”

Ultimately, Councilor Sara Lennon, in her new role as chairwoman, ruled that the question would be carried over to a future workshop.

“We don’t have to solve this tonight,” she said. “We’re just setting goals and the goal is to make this better, and that seems like a great goal.”

Other 2012 goals named by the council, grouped by the councilor who raised the issue, include:

Walsh:

• Adopt and begin implementation of the Fort Williams Master Plan, a document McGovern said “is this close” to being complete. The council will begin review of the master plan in January, he said, with the new business plan for the park to follow soon thereafter.

• Improve handicapped accessibility, presentation technology and Council Chamber aesthetics at the town office. McGovern said he already has “plugged in a big number” for Town Hall renovations in FY 2014.

• Offer professional development to all town boards and committees and commissions for running effective meetings.

Jordan:

• Change early-morning start times for subcommittee meetings to an hour more convenience to most citizens. Sullivan, however, said recent Ordinance Committee meetings “have been packed,” indicating that the 8 a.m. meetings are not overly burdensome.

• Support local businesses by by holding periodic forums with the newly formed Cape Business Alliance and similar groups.

• Improve recycling efforts in town. McGovern said a meeting on composting was held last week and “we hope to get a proposal from a firm on that soon.”

Sullivan:

• Continue work on plans for a new public library, including fundraising efforts. “That will be a big, hot topic this year,” she said.

• Review possibilities for unused space in municipal buildings. 

• Review management of the town pool. McGovern said the pool will be placed under community services in the FY 2013 budget. “It would then report to the Superintendent [of Schools], not to me,” he said. 

Frank Governali:

• Complete work on the town’s Future Open Space Preservation plan. McGovern said the current timetable does not call for completion of the plan until 2013.

• Finish work on the cemeteries master plan.

• Find ways to be proactive in inviting stakeholders and other interested parties early in the process when new ordinances and other policy changes under review. 

Sherman:

• Complete work to “secure closure” on ordinance changes “in the pipeline,” including the so-called “rooster ordinance” and rules on short-term rentals. 

• Complete work on new rules for subdivision review, to make them consistent with the town’s comprehensive plan.

• Hold quarterly meetings with the Cape Elizabeth Land Trust, the Cape Farm Alliance and other non-government entities.

• Help establish a new, private arts commission in town.

Lennon:

• Complete the Shore Road Path. “That’s been on our goals all the time I’ve been on the council,” she said. McGovern said the town is only waiting on one final document to be signed by a resident, who already has agreed to an easement, but has yet to sign a waiver of compensation.  He said the town has a meeting with Maine Department of Transportation Thursday to plan the launch for construction.

• Continue joint meetings with the school board.

Councilor Katharine Ray, attending her first meeting since being elected to the board Nov. 8, chose not to put forward any goals at this time. McGovern will compile all of the goals into a working document to be reviewed by the council at a future workshop.