For the first time since Gardiner’s attorney told city councilors in November that the city joined the Kennebec Regional Development Authority incorrectly, councilors plan to ask the public at Wednesday’s City Council meeting what the city should do about its membership in the organization.
Whether the city correctly joined the group of central Maine municipalities that collaborated about 15 years ago to build FirstPark in Oakland had been brought up by councilors in the past, but the city hadn’t sought an official opinion from an attorney on it until late last year.
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The city’s attorney, Jonathan Pottle, from Eaton Peabody, wrote in his review of the state law that established the authority that the city should have held a referendum vote in 1999 — instead of a council vote — to decide whether to join and to appoint representatives to the authority’s general assembly.
Councilors tabled the issue until new councilors were sworn this year after discussing it in executive session in November and December.
The City Council meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Wednesday at City Hall. The public hearing is scheduled to take place near the beginning of the public portion of the meeting, which will begin after three discussions in executive session.
One of those discussions in executive session, when the public can’t be present, is the continuation of another legal issue facing the city. City Manager Scott Morelli told the Kennebec Journal in December that the city planned to sue Alex Parker’s Steakhouse, a downtown restaurant that closed in November while still owing the city nearly $37,000 on a loan.
Morelli said early last month that the city had held off on filing a suit and would prefer to resolve the issue without suing the restaurant. The city’s attorney is expected to provide an update on the situation to councilors in executive session Wednesday night, Morelli said in an email Tuesday.
The city awarded a $40,000 loan to the downtown restaurant two years ago to help cover startup costs, renovation of the restaurant’s interior and a public walkway, operating capital and inventory. The city sent a letter to the restaurant owner, Peter Powers, on Nov. 21, saying the $36,595 still owed on the loan is due because the restaurant is no longer operating, Morelli said.
The Kennebec Regional Development Authority is the governing body of FirstPark, the regional business park in Oakland that has lost more than $5 million over the last 16 years for the 24 Kennebec and Somerset County member communities.
Authority officials told the city last year that Gardiner didn’t need to hold a referendum vote to join because it has a city council-style of government. Craig Nelson, attorney for the development authority and one of its founders, also told the city that its clerk certified that the process required by the state law took place, and that’s what the group relied on when it took on the debt to build the park.
Officials from the three other municipalities that also joined with city or town council votes — Waterville, Winslow and Pittsfield — have said they don’t have any plans to look into the issue themselves.
In at least two other instances, in 2008 and 2010, Gardiner councilors discussed whether the city joined the authority correctly, but the discussions never rose beyond asking for a preliminary report from an attorney for the city. That attorney told the previous city manager in 2008 that if there was an error in how the city joined the development authority, it’s unlikely the courts would invalidate the city’s membership and let the city off the hook for the outstanding debts already incurred.
The issue arose again last year when Bryan Blanchard, a former city councilor, brought it up in budget discussions in the spring and at an Oct. 7 candidates’ forum as a way for the city to save money. George Trask, a former city councilor who lost in an attempt to unseat Mayor Thomas Harnett in November, also brought it up in the candidates’ forum, suggesting the city sue to leave the development authority.
Harnett, who said he won’t be attending Wednesday’s meeting because of a scheduling conflict, said he expects the council to vote after the public hearing whether to take any action, which could include discussing the issue with the development authority or going to court to determine whether the city should remain a member.
He said one of the concerns raised previously is whether it’s “too late in the process to say, ‘Oh, I think a mistake was made when we joined it, so we’re leaving.'”
Some argued that the other communities and the development authority have relied on the city considering itself a member and contributing dues to the organization, Harnett said.
“I think the council will need to consider not just Gardiner’s interest, but our relations with the other communities and the association,” he said.
Maureen Blanchard, one of the two new councilors this year and the wife of Bryan Blanchard, said she didn’t want to voice any opinion about it without first hearing about the issue in executive session.
“I think we’re going to get a turnout for it with some interesting ideas or solutions,” she said.
Jonathan Ault, the other new councilor elected in November, couldn’t be reached for comment Tuesday.
Also on Wednesday’s agenda is a request from a start-up business looking to open a hard cider brewery in a former church for initial support from the city in applying for a Community Development Block Grant. The business, Lost Orchard Brewing Co., got approval from the city in October to open the hard cider production operation in the former Gardiner Congregational Church on Church Street. The company’s founder, David Boucher, of New Harbor, said the company hopes to close on the purchase of the building in the next few weeks and begin production soon afterward. The company, which plans to use cider from Maine Apple Co. in Monmouth, could have cider for sale as early as spring, Boucher said.
The $300,000 federal grant the company plans to apply for isn’t necessary to start the business, he said. It will be used more for expanding the business to a larger production facility, possibly in South Gardiner, Boucher said.
Councilors voted at their meeting Jan. 21 to apply for a $90,000 Community Development Block Grant on behalf of the Gardiner Food Co-op & Cafe, which hopes to open downtown sometime this spring. The request from the cider company is just to get the grant process started and is not for the city to apply for the grant yet.
Paul Koenig — 621-5663
Twitter: @paul_koenig
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