I read with some disappointment the American Journal’s article on the Inauguration ceremonies. Rather than rehashing the fact that I and a number of other councilors were understandably disappointed that our good friend and former Council President Jim Violette wasn’t elected, I would have hoped that the article would have focused on our desire to work with the current Mayor and our goals for the next two years. This Council has never been obstructionist, but instead has been open at all times to working with the mayor even when there has been disagreement on particular issues. The voters sent all of us here to do a job, and we intend to do it.

I am incredibly proud of this Council. As I said at the inauguration, when you live in a community, you hope that smart, hard-working people with good hearts who have a vision for their community will answer the call to serve. If you look around to any other community in Maine, you won’t find a better group of leaders than our City Council, School Board and Administration. I am lucky and proud to serve with them all.

And, by the way, when I said this at the inauguration, I included everyone on the stage, not just the Council, and not just the Democrats. This Council, Democrat and Republican, works exceptionally well together and it gets tiresome when local newspapers try to manufacture conflict along party lines by quoting only Democrats as criticizing Republicans or vice versa. Although I’m sure there are a few who refuse to believe this, we agree and disagree from based upon what we think is right for the city, not because of party affiliation.

Now that I’ve said that, I’d like to pass along some information to all of you. First, I’ve named the chairs of our committees. Councilor Drew Gattine will chair the Committee of the Whole (the entire council sitting in committee) and the Legislative Committee. Councilor Suzanne Joyce will chair the Economic Development Committee (focused primarily on commercial economic development), Councilor Dottie Aube will chair the Growth and Traffic Committee (focused primarily on traffic and residential growth). Councilor John O’Hara will chair the Facilities and Streets Committee (not including traffic related issues). Councilor Ed Symbol will chair the Budget and Finance Committee and the Accounts and Claims Committee, and Councilor Michael Foley will chair the Public Safety Committee (focused on all matters affecting public safety except traffic). I will also be appointing a Rules Committee to recommend to the Council ways to more effectively get information to and receive information from the public. Of course, in addition to contacting the chair of the committee that might address whatever concern you have, you can always contact any city councilor.

The City Council recently met in workshop to target some issues we know we will be working on over the next two years. We invited the mayor and the department heads, as well as the general public and appreciated their attendance. There will be many other issues that get added to this list, but I wanted to pass it along to all of you.

1. Issues relating to public lands will be important. We need a recreational field on the Ward 5 side of the city. We await the result of the city’s open fields study that some of you have participated in. The Rotary/school building program that has taught countless students building skills and provided excellent homes to Westbrook residents needs more land to build on. We are also exploring the creation of a land bank, and we need to evaluate city-owned land that can be sold.

2. Economic Development remains front and center. Downtown development has had some success, but remains challenging. Some of the questions remain whether and how to develop Saccarappa Park; whether it is time for a second parking garage downtown; how to redevelop the Maine Rubber site; and, whether to develop the city parking lot behind CVS. We have previously funded a general marketing campaign promoting the city and a marketing campaign focused on biotechnology and encouraged the administration to work with Idexx, Artel and others to develop this. These remain vital issues for the council. The council discussed taking concrete steps to work with Sappi to redevelop the unused or underused portions of its site. Finally, the Council discussed the need to think outside the box to attract businesses, like many of our neighboring communities are doing.

3. Trash pickup and recycling remain issues that need to be resolved. Last year, this Council passed a resolution calling for curbside recycling and added such a program into the budget, but the Mayor vetoed that. The Council will be addressing curbside recycling, the various options for trash pickup, and big trash pickup.

4. Two years ago, the Council required the administration to institute a best practices review by having department heads contact their counterparts in other communities to see what problems they’ve faced, and then address those issues or adopt those practices here in Westbrook before problems occur. This is part of our effort to make city government more proactive and less reactive. Instead of fixing problems for the next person in line, we should try to remove problems before they occur. We had hoped that we would get an annual report from the administration, but that hasn’t happened yet. The council discussed pressing this issue.

5. Employee measurement/budget accountability (especially for new positions) were hot topics. In tight budget times, it is difficult to fund new positions. When they are funded, the Council wants to be able to measure the benefits of new employees. We will be pursuing this along with ensuring that guidelines for positions are followed. The Council is also waiting for follow-up from the administration on the issue of the administration’s use of funds that are budgeted for salary and benefits to pay settlement packages to employees that leave.

6. The council also discussed whether it was time for a charter commission to review substantive changes to our city charter and whether we needed to redistrict. As we approach budget season, the Council has also asked to meet with the mayor and the School Board prior to the budget process to get an early understanding of the numbers.

So there’s a lot to do. As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me or any of the other councilors.

Brendan P. Rielly is the president of the Westbrook City Council.

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