Kennebunk Town Hall Post file
KENNEBUNK – After a contentious and unsuccessful recall vote of a local school board member in 2022, Kennebunk moved to formed a commission to take a close look at the town’s charter – the document that functions as the municipality’s constitution.
That year, six elected members and three appointed members formed the Charter Commission, which has taken a fine-tooth comb to the charter and drafted proposed changes as needed.
The commission’s work was not only prompted by the recall, which some argue exposed procedural flaws in the charter, the document was also due for an update, according to Christian Babcock, the elected chair of the Charter Commission. The last time it underwent a major revision was 2009.
The commission has tackled everything from the charter’s code of ethics to provisions around forfeiture of office, and with the deadline to submit a final draft to the Select Board looming, they’re grappling with one final, highly consequential question: what style of government should the municipality have?
Currently, the town operates under a “pseudo Town Meeting” form of government, said Babcock.
Kennebunk used to hold true Town Meetings – the democratic tradition typically found in New England where the citizens assemble, debate and vote on issues placed on the “warrant” in person. But these days nearly all measures are put on the ballot for voter approval by the town’s governing body, the Select Board, he explained. Once the Select Board has sent a measure to the ballot, it’s locked in and there’s no real-time debate.
The town’s June municipal election, where voters weigh in on the town budget, borrowing, zoning ordinances changes and candidates, functions as its Town Meeting, Babcock said.
In practice, this means that voters are afforded quite a bit of deference in town decision making, even if the warrant articles aren’t debated in real time.
Charter Commission Vice Chair Richard Smith remembers participating in Kennebunk Town Meetings. He said they encouraged people to consider things “they didn’t take into consideration when they formed their initial opinions. And really, the interesting thing was it created strange bedfellows.” 2009 was the last time a true Town Meeting was held, according to town documents.
Procedurally, the commission is likely working against a May 8 deadline to submit a final draft of the charter to the Select Board. The Select Board then moves to put the charter to voters on the November ballot. Once on the ballot, citizens will vote the whole thing up or down.
To help make a final decision on the form of government question, the commission is soliciting survey responses through May 3. Survey responses can be submitted at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/6C97WMB.
Generally speaking, the commission is proposing either retaining a Select Board format, or moving to a Town Council style of government where the elected body has more power – but the survey outlines two options that constitute a hybrid approach. There are four options total.
The first option proposes keeping the system the town currently has, where the Select Board defers to voters on approval of the town budget, borrowing to purchase large expenditure items, and any changes to zoning ordinances (i.e. when property owners request exemptions to zoning rules).
A second proposes empowering the Select Board to approve the town budget and borrowing, but leaving voters with final sign off on zoning ordinance changes.
The third proposes moving to a Town Council format where the elected body approves zoning ordinance changes, but voters still sign off on town budget and borrowing.
And the fourth proposes a Town Council that has the power to approve the budget, borrowing and zoning ordinance changes.
For Smith, his biggest concern is making sure that whatever the commission lands on is what the majority of residents actually want.
“I think we can make either (a Town Council or Select Board) work. I want to make sure we have the one that we feel most people or a majority of people will be happy with,” he said.
When asked whether he’s more supportive of retaining a Select Board or moving to a Town Council, Smith said he does not believe his personal opinion is relevant.
Babcock is forthright about wanting to give Kennebunk’s elected body more power. “My opinion as a resident of Kennebunk, having gone into that voter booth and looked at questions that are affecting a zone miles and miles away from my house and that I have no vested interest in, (is) that these things … are best left to the elected body,” he said.
When he spoke to the Kennebunk Post on April 3, Babcock said that a Town Council system would be more efficient, especially when it comes to budgeting. At present, the Select Board can’t shift money around in the current fiscal year’s budget without taking it to voters, said Babcock. This creates problems when there’s an unanticipated funding need.
Town Manager Heather Balser agrees that the future elected body should be able to approve the budget. “I think it is critical. I think it goes to efficiency. I think it goes to strategic planning. I think it just gives you the flexibility to make good decisions, recognizing that things change rapidly, often,” she said at an April 10 Charter Commission meeting.
Babcock has also highlighted that Kennebunk is Maine’s 18th largest municipality and the second largest town in Maine to retain a Town Meeting format – suggesting that it has outgrown the system.
Members of the public who have spoken at public hearings and commission meetings have expressed a range of opinions around the question of government format.
Resident Patricia Sass Perry said at the March 23 public forum that she feared switching away from a Town Meeting format would increase “disengagement,” according to town documents.
Others, like resident Scott Ducharme, took issue with the budget powers that the commission initially outlined for the future elected body. Under an earlier proposal, the commission suggested giving the elected body sign off on a fiscal year budget as long as it was below a net 20% year over year increase from the year prior. Ducharme said in his opinion this threshold was too high.
Babcock said that the commission took this feedback into account, but as of April 16, the commission had decided to drop year over year carve outs out of concern they would make things more confusing – just one example of back and forth in this discussion around form of government, which has gone on for months.
Another contentious issue that the Charter Commission tackled was the town’s recall procedures – which were used not that long ago in an unsuccessful recall vote to oust former RSU 21 School Board Member Tim Stentiford. Former School Board Chair Art LeBlanc was also targeted in the recall effort.
Babcock said the recall effort is what got him motivated to participate in the Charter Commission.
“I was opposing the recall here locally, during the entire process. I saw the issues with the process, I saw how much burden it put on the talent staff, and I wanted to ensure that I had a voice in helping improve that process in the future,” he said.
The changes that the commission has proposed to the recall procedure add more rigor to the process, said Babcock.
Under Kennebunk’s current charter, only 25 signers are needed to generate a petition, outlining the grounds for a recall. And once generated, a recall effort must circulate a petition that’s returned with at least 10% of the number of votes cast in the most recent gubernatorial election, but that can constitute no less than 100 votes.
The commission opted instead to raise the threshold for the number of petition signatures to a higher percentage of the most recent gubernatorial election, but show the total as “hard numbers” instead of as a percentage. A recall effort now needs 500 signers to submit a “Notice of Intent,” and 1,000 for the actual petition.
The commission had also added a provision that would require people who want a recall to present their case in a public forum setting, said Babcock.
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