You're alive.

All right, good evening, and welcome to what we believe will be our last meeting here before we get to move back into the newly renovated city hall.

So enjoy this room while you can.

This is a regular meeting of the Bangor City Council.

Today is Monday, July 8th, uh 28th, 2025.

It is 7 p.m.

We begin our meetings with the Pledge of Allegiance.

I'd like to ask our business and economic development director, Ann Creek to leave some pledge.

For which it stands, one nation under God and the missile liberty and justice for all.

Thank you.

This is a portion of the meeting set aside for general public comment relating to city business that do not appear on the evening's agenda.

Public comment, whether in person or via Zoom requires you to state your name and whether you are a resident of Bangor.

The City Council has adopted a public comment policy that we will adhere to that governs topics, comments considered out of order or offensive or confidential, and a time limit of 15 minutes at the beginning of the meeting, with the ability of the chair to reopen public comment at the conclusion of the regular business meeting.

Each person is limited to three minutes during the public comment period.

The public comment period is intended for city council members to listen, not to respond or debate with persons during the public comment period, although we may ask questions.

If you do not live in Bangor or own property in Bangor, please allow those who do to have the opportunity to speak first.

If you'd like to offer a comment on any item related to city business that does not appear on the regular agenda, you may approach the podium on Zoom.

The public can be recognized to speak by using the hand raise function or on the phone by pressing Star9.

Good evening.

My name is Michael Norton.

I'm a resident of Bangor.

I don't believe anything I have to say is confidential tonight.

The Georgia lawyer, the Blue Devil, and the Shade is a title of a landmark courtroom case featured in a motion picture screenplay I'm writing right now, in which the United States Centers for Disease and Control are represented along with the scientist by the Georgian lawyer to win the case for them and bring a modernized translation of the periodic table of elements from the perspective of magnetism for the people of the United States of America.

When we hear the United States CDC, the two operative words are United States.

It's for everyone.

But the media loves and the scholarly research love to present them with the caveat, if you will.

The blue devil and the shade.

None of the newsies know why the sky is blue, not even online or in our universities today in the US or outside of the U.S.

So the big payoff for this movie and court case is to have a jury of 12 sit there and tell us their reason why the sky is blue to their knowledge, and then have the Georgian lawyer side with the CDC, give them the science and the policy publishing power to modernize the periodic table of elements and explain to the judge and the trial, jury, and people watching why the sky is actually blue because it's a cure for immunological disease from cancer to AIDS to Parkinson's, many a neurological disorders.

And the walking dead is a television show.

Oh when I got to Bangor Maine eight years ago, I almost fell flat on my face in consideration of all the troubled people around here.

Thank you.

Good evening.

My name is Scott Hardy, and I'm a resident of Bangor, and I'm speaking tonight about the relentless, relentless increase in property taxes and its devastating ripple effect throughout our community.

We are witnessing a horrifying trend, the direct correlation between escalating property tax burdens and the tragic expansion of our homeless population.

For many Bangor residents, especially those on fixed incomes, rising taxes are not just an inconvenience, they are a direct threat to their ability to keep a roof over their heads.

When home ownership becomes prohibitive, families are forced into housing instability, and for far too many outright homelessness.

Our city is becoming increasingly unaffordable, and the human cost of this crisis is visible on our streets every day.

Our tax policies are in part contributing to the very problem we are trying to solve.

This leads me into a critical question.

What is our current property tax collection rate?

If that rate is indeed down, as many of us suspect, then we must confront the uncomfortable truth, our taxes are simply becoming too high for our citizens to bear.

A declining collection rate indicates we are pushing our residents beyond their financial limits.

We are taxing our citizens to the point where the city cannot effectively collect, then the system itself is broken.

I understand and appreciate the vital need for a central city services, our police, fire, public works, schools are the backbone of our community.

I also fully support the well-being and fair compensation of our dedicated city employees.

These are non-negotiable necessities.

However, a critical balance must be struck.

If our drive to fund these services through property tax pushes citizens past their breaking point, leading to widespread spread distress and a diminished collection rate, we are failing our residents and jeopardizing the city's long-term physical health.

Beyond essential services, we must scrutinize how our tax dollars are being spent.

We cannot afford to fund unsustainable projects or to take on bond issues we can't afford.

We must ask how much did the city go over budget?

Because something as fundamental as wiring at City Hall was forgotten.

What was the additional cost to send those public outhouses back to be made ADA compliant when they were already installed?

These are significant expenditures that directly impact our budget and by extension our property taxes.

These examples raise serious questions about oversight and accountability.

Who is minding the store when these costly errors occur?

Where does the buck stop?

Our citizens deserve transparency, transparency, and assurance that their hard-earned money is being managed with the utmost care and confidence.

We need clear answers and a commitment to preventing such unavoidable expenses.