BATH
Bath’s $2.8 million bond for sidewalk and street repair could soon be issued.
The Maine Legislature’s State and Local Government Committee unanimously voted in favor of a bill Friday that will fix a mistake preventing the issuance of a bond approved by Bath voters in November. The city had not published the full text of the measure in a local newspaper 11-15 days prior to election day as required by the city charter. The text was published, but only four days before the vote took place.
“Unfortunately, on Oct. 30 through Nov. 1 the city didn’t have any power, and so City Hall was not working and we were concerned about other things and not about what was printed in the paper,” said Finance Director Juli Millett, who added that city staff noticed the error following the storm.
Because of that irregularity, a bond attorney refused to issue the bond. In order to fix the situation, Rep. Jennifer DeChant, D-Bath, sponsored a bill to have the Legislature override the city charter and verify the bond.
The committee was hesitant, however, to override the charter without sufficient evidence that the city council and the public were aware of the mistake and the corrective actions taking place. The committee asked the city to make sure an article about the issue was published in the paper, all certified documents showing a timeline of events, and a resolution of support for the legislation from the city council.
On Wednesday, the City Council passed a resolution expressing support for the bill.
“(The council) more than covered their bases and eased the conscience of the committee, because they take very seriously — as they should — going in and amending anybody’s charter,” said DeChant. “This was a one off. This was a human error, one-time fix-a-roo, and that’s what the committee needed to understand.”
In order to prevent similar mistakes in the future, Millett said that she and the bond attorney had created a checklist to go through for future bonds.
The bill will now go to the full legislature for consideration.
nstrout@timesrecord.com
Correction: The piece as originally published implied that the bond could now be issued. It has been corrected to clarify that there were further steps needed to be taken in the legislature before the bill becomes law.
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