Hello, and welcome to our Tuesday evening workshop.

We're kicking this off with uh Director Roy, acting Director Blaze, and Administrator Cain Rough.

This budget, as mentioned, the revenues will be adjusted when the tax rate is towards finalized.

And at the end, we will adjust the TIFF budget and submit a new one before you approve in May.

The revenues you'll see are increased.

Those are from the CMP TIFF last year was not approved until after we approved our budget, so those weren't adjusted until afterwards.

So you'll see that adjustment.

The increases in salaries are the percentages for different wages that were requested on page 72.

You will see the title of each salary and the percentage of what is going in the TIFF account for wages.

And then on the LCIP at time, as I mentioned at our uh first meeting, the time to ask questions on the capital projects are the times that the department heads are here.

I have LCIP originally I had put page 29, but it's not.

I'm sorry for that confusion.

It's 20 and 21 for the Continental Mill TIFF at million dollars and the Lowell Street development TIF at 850.

And Director Um Blaze is here to ask answer any questions you have on this department.

Counselors, do we have any questions?

Councillor Chidam.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Uh yes, uh salary line increases of 11 and uh 11 percent.

Can you talk to that briefly?

Correct.

That is for all of the percentages last year, if you remember during the budget season for fiscal year 26.

We looked at all of the wages that could come out of the general fund and be um paid for by the TIFF when the CMP TIF came on.

So that's what all these wages are.

Okay, thank you.

So this isn't a uh a salary increase as much as it is a shifting of expenditure from general fund to tax increment financing.

And as I mentioned on page 72, you'll see the titles and the percentages of every individual that is in that TIFF.

We have a lot of partial people.

Right.

Thank you.

No other questions.

We will move to economic development, which is on page 67.

In prior years, we've requested 250 for the economic reserve and public arts for 58,000 was requested by the department.

These two items were removed from the budget when the city administrator was reviewing the budget due to the amount of funds that are still available in that economic reserve.

And on your page two that I gave you, has the projects and the balances that are left in all of those reserve.

So if you look like the pilot business attraction still has 213,000 mill five environment, 435.

So that gets you what is still available in that reserve from year to year for the projects.

So the city administrators requested no more increase for this account to bring the tax rate down.

Any questions on economic development?

We talked about public art.

Um there is if you notice still a balance for public art for them to accomplish some projects uh that you see there.

So I just want to make it clear that we didn't completely uh gut funds for public art available.

We really appreciate the work the committee does.

Um public art is uh part of beautification and approving the city's image, and so there are still funds available for that.

I just want that to be clear because we did talk about um cuts to public art in our initial presentation, but you'll see there are funds still available here for that purpose.

Thank you.

Further question, uh yes, counselor Chitum.

Yes, the revenue for public art.

Uh where did that come from?

I I view that negative actual $6100 as a revenue.

Yeah, so the um it's actually in the um Yeah, that that's it's so originally there was a project that was paid out of there that shouldn't have been.

So it was from a prior year, so in order to put it in back into that reserve for the public arts, we put it in as a negative to show it coming back, and we put uh the other portion of where um the item was that was paid out of there in the correct account.

So it's not a revenue, it's just a reallocation and given the money back to public arts for the use.

Great.

Thank you.

And it say again where it came from, where this was a project that was paid out of there that originally wasn't supposed to be paid out of there.

I believe it was the bridge lights that hadn't yet gotten approved.

So that had to come back into that fund.

Now when you say bridge lights, uh and this is for administrator Kenrath, is this for the Wiseman Bridge or for the for the uh the railroad trust or the pedestrian path?

All right.

Wiseman Bridge is still pending.

So we haven't forgotten about that.

Great.

No progress is being made on it.

I see.

Thank you.

Further questions from the council.

Councillor Nedji.

Um regular agenda packet, there's a note uh a letter from LA Arts that it is not related to this budget item at all.

It is.

You will see it when um CDBG comes up to do their presentation.

Okay, perfect.

Thank you.

So if that's it, I will remove myself so that Catherine can come up and go over CDBG.

Thank you.

I'm a huge fan of the average way.

Thank you.

Yeah, it's under the consolidated plan with the public hearing.

But it's all set up.

All right, very good.

Thank you so much.

Catherine Ruth, community development manager.

Thank you for having us this evening.

The community development block grant budget called CDGB and the home budgets are separate from your regular budget because they pay for them themselves and are outside of property tax dollars.

So you have a memo in your package, a copy of the census tracts and the actual C D G B budget.

So I'm going to go through the memo very quickly and the budget very quickly.

Um the budget is the same amount as last year, 788,103, and there is a carry forward for a public works project that public works turned down due to the amount of time that was available.

As you will recall the federal government shut down for several months, and we did not receive our grant agreements until the end of September.

And when that came forward, we were not supposed to be spending any money until then except for admin costs.

So public works was unable to go forward and have a paving project and get it all done in that shorter period of time.

And so it would have to be done by April.

So that was turned back, and we're going to allocate that toward another project on the budget.

So to go through the community development budget briefly.

As you know, we get an allocation each year from the U.S.

Department of Housing and Urban Development because we are an entitlement community, and most larger cities in each state are entitlement communities because they have a lot of low and moderate income people and provide a lot of services and have a large burden.

So for Lewiston's fiscal year 27, which is called the Federal Fiscal Year 26, C D B allocation, will be estimated, and we believe it will be 788,103.

Under the C D G B program, projects have to meet one of the following three national objectives.

So the one that we always meet on every project is to benefit low and moderate income people.

Second, projects can aid in the prevention or elimination of slums of blight.

And this would be if there's a deteriorated building, a building that's abandoned, a building that you get through tax-acquired dollars, and it's an ISO and should be taken care of.

Either public works or a contractor can take that down after a request for proposals goes out and all the proper paperwork is done.

And then that project, uh that property could then be donated to a nonprofit, sold to a business for a development.

Projects also can meet an urgent need, so we hope we don't have any urgent needs that are serious threatening and can't be met by other funds, and it's been a while since you've used that.

So each year, based upon what Congress uh provides, and as we know it takes a number of months uh to go through that process, um, we'll receive funding.

And so there are wide variety of items that you can spend the money on within the CDGB budget.

However, there are many requirements.

So in order to make sure that you utilize the funds so you can have the biggest bang for your dollar, you need to allocate toward just a few areas rather than trying to cover you know a lot of areas.

So the bulk of your funds are invested in and benefit the residents of a target area, and our target area are census tracks 201 to 204, and they've been those tracks for many years.

The HUD requirements require that we have broad citizen participation, and we really do.

We have a great committee, and we have a new member that came to his first meeting, uh, Mr.

Ben Ayre, and he did a wonderful job, very knowledgeable gentleman.

So the mayor always does a great job putting people on the committee, and they're very diverse, and their meetings can be exciting.

So the project all began uh in February when the committee starts going through all the public service agencies that have applied to our request for proposals, they go through everything, there's presentations, um, and then they make their decisions.

So to skip down to the middle of the page, there are funding caps on various types of funding.

Admin can only be 15% for some categories, for some 20.

There is a cap of 15% on public service agencies.

For many years, we used an 18% cap.

Um Lincoln said Lincoln, our long-term administrator of the program had indicated that was what we started out with, but um HUD has indicated we should be using 15% unless we find a document that proves we can use the 18%.

So that was uh brought to our attention, and so we'll be using 15% for the public service agencies.

So we basically had 13 agency requests, and as you know, there's very little funding.

So eight applications were deemed to have met all the requirements.

They did a wonderful job.

All projects could have been approved, but we can only pick five or six.

We're limited to six because of the burden on uh administration on the amount of work that needs to be done.

Uh I had managed CDGB projects for almost 40 years before I came here, and these uh HUD CDGB projects are a lot more intense than the regular CDGB projects that the rest of the state has.

So there's a lot of paperwork that's involved, and often the recording systems and reporting systems have uh technical issues, so you're down for a period of time.

So the committee went through and uh voted on all the projects.

They decided to fund five projects so that there would be enough funding to accomplish the purposes rather than dilute it out to six service agencies.

And if they had diluted it to six, um, the sixth agency would have got uh only around $8,000, and the burden to administer $8,000 of their $15,000 request was just too much.

So they approved the following projects.

Trinity Jubilee, 48,140, Trinity Jubilee for their food pantry and diapers, 19,495.

Seniors plus nutrition and meals on wheels, 19,451, YWCA Kidna Garden Readiness Initiative, $15,399, and Sophia's House, which is with the CCI here in town, 17,830.

In addition, they approved 1,000 500, excuse me, 157,619 for community development office administration.

That is a cap.

105,921 dollars for one Lewiston Code Enforcement Officer called targeted code enforcement, 160,625 for rehabilitation program administration and added on project delivery, 10,924 for economic development project delivery, and that's not actually to uh entity or to a business.

That's the additional costs of all of the technical work on a CDGB project.

So rather than have the economic development staff deal with that and try to figure it out, we would help in community development and do the paperwork for them.

They also approved $100,000 for Sunnyside Park renovations.

And as you know, in the past, $70,000 was approved for architectural and engineering drawings, and then another $100,000 was approved for the drainage.

And then once public works got into that, they found that the drainage was a lot larger project than that.

So they now have a request for proposals at putting together for a variety of items such as updating of the playground equipment, signage, some fencing, and some other items, and have asked for drainage from this upcoming budget to be matched up with if funding is approved in the CIP.

Some new categories which are very important.

We had very little funding, as well as housing rehab, we had the funding was capped.

I started CDGB back in early 2025, and after the first month, found out that the housing rehab loan account was very, very low, and the department director at the time capped it so it wouldn't go out at zero, which was the right decision.

So that has stymied some of our lead grant projects that were not apartment owners.

The apartment owners have been able to go to the bank, come up with other funds, but some of the smaller projects, the landowner, if they have a house that has a serious lead problem, there's usually other problems in the house also because it's an older house.

And the monies are not put into the projects unless the code violations are taken care of.

So you can see where we're going.

So they need help with this.

And often these projects have the lead grant match, and the housing rehab when it was the loan program would be deferred, or they would be written off after a certain number of years.

They're usually older people, they can't go to the bank, they can't go to the credit union, there's no funding available, and so we are the funding source to help them with their housing rehab problems, roofs, stairwells that are coming up, handicap access, and then the lead grant with dangerous lead situations.

And so these are two funds that will be new to the budget in this amount of money $114,950 for the lead grant match and $159,064 for housing rehab.

And so that you know, um, I at first thought, well, why don't we just budget some money from the CDGB funds into the rehab loan program, but it's not a legal item, we can't do that.

You have to put other funding in there.

So at this point, these would be grants, but they would be to low moderate income, probably seniors in most cases, or to dangerous situations with lead grant.

We're required to have a budget contingency plan.

So the committee has already agreed that we'll follow if the funding was cut down, which we don't believe it will be, but we'll follow the percentage increases that we can have and percentages allocation, and then uh cut or increase the public infrastructure.

We can't do much with the salaries because then that would be uh one less person in the department, and there's uh a lot of work for the people that are there.

Um so first um we would follow all the caps that are required.

The timeline is that the citizens advisory committee voted on the C D G B budget on March 2nd and finished their process.

This is the first public viewing at the budget workshop.

On April 7th, we'll advertise a public hearing on the CDGB and the home budgets, and then on May 5th, that will be the second public hearing, and we'll advertise for that, uh, meeting all the requirements for posting.

And so you have a copy of the budget in your package.

I may find bigger so I could see it.

Um, but it lists out in the second to last column, the social service agencies or public service agencies first, which total 100 $20,315, and then it lists out all of the salary accounts, um, and um we're allowed to have a small amount of $2,799 for planning and housing and other types of studies, which we're currently using and we'll probably use next year.

And we're allowed to have a small amount of $2,799 for planning and housing and other types of studies, which we're currently using and we'll probably use next year.

And then we've got the public improvement or infrastructure projects.

And if you look at the second to bottom line, you'll see the Public Works How Street Paving Project for $144,515.

That's the project that didn't go forward.

That's being reallocated, and it was being reallocated to the housing rehabilitation for applications.

And then there was additional money from another project that we couldn't uh approve because of the HUD requirements, and that added a little bit to that account.

So that comes up to $788,103, plus the carry forward of $144,615.

Thank you.

Any questions from Councillor Chitum?

Yes.

Thank you, Manager Ruth.

As always, I am awed by your ability to swim through these myriad federal forms.

It's impressive.

I'd like to go back to the CDBG funds for demoing uh dilapidated and blighted buildings.

I think you said that the property after the demolition of the building has to be donated.

It cannot be sold.

It can be sold or donated.

Often looking back in the records, if you were uh considering a nonprofit, it was often donated.

Um you can donate to uh a business or sell to a business.

Generally you would sell to a business.

Okay, so the guidelines don't require a donation.

No, they don't.

We can, if the property was taken for taxes, we can then um get whatever amount the city is allowed under state law.

Uh if it's a tax-acquired property, the new law is a bit restrictive in that area.

But if you acquire it through other means, sometimes people don't want their dilapidated buildings and donate them to the city or town, and it can be used as a strategic location for a new business or uh social service agency or another activity.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Council Airman.

Thank you.

Um I just had a question on one of the line items on the budget spreadsheet.

Uh second one from the bottom.

It says fractured Atlas Inc., the I Love You Gardens, Morning Flower Park, 29,900.

Is that from the public art proposal or is that a separate?

That was a separate application uh that the artist made.

Um it was vetted by the former uh director.

Uh but when we checked further, the requirements are more on this type of project.

It's not um like a park project in which you're doing work in the land.

Um this was a flower project, it's a wonderful project, and we're looking around for funding, and the deputy director believes he has found a funding source for that.

But additional requirements were going to be made by HUD in which we had to issue an RFP for this project.

Now, obviously the artist has done a lot of work, you don't want to issue RFP on a project that they propose.

Somebody else comes in, swoops in and gets it because they have a lower price.

So it just was too many requirements for the project.

Thank you.

And then so am I correct in seeing in the next column where it says zero dollars under CDBG CAC, that means it's not being funded out of this.

Correct.

Okay.

Yes.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Councillor Nanjine.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Um thank you, Manager Ruth.

Um as you know, I sit on this committee.

Um we originally allocated uh the funding that we originally had um assigned to the garden project uh evenly between the lead grant match and the housing rehabilitation match.

I noticed that the number for the housing rehabilitation match uh is actually higher than 114,950, and so there's an additional 45,000 dollars that has ended up in that pool, and I'm wondering where it came from.

I'm looking at page four of your document.

I don't know if that's just a mistype from the sheet or if there's actually additional funding that has been assigned to that pool.

All right, so lead match grant 11,950, and then housing rehab was going to be 1445, and then the 20,9 the 29,900 was divided equally between the lead match and the housing rehab.

So I believe it's 1594 65.

Okay, my apologies.

I I must have mistaken.

I thought the both funds started at 100K.

It looks like one started at one, you said 45.

Yeah, they both had different amounts when they started out.

That's my mistake.

I would like to just point out to the public that both the lead grant match and the housing rehabilitation programs are open to not just landlords but individuals who own homes.

I think this is important for seniors and others who are on limited incomes and having is struggling to maintain their properties.

Please contact the city in order to apply for these programs if you qualify.

And I would also say, as we have brought up in the CAC meetings that the Sunnyside uh park renovations funding is not absolutely guaranteed at this point.

We may actually allocate that to other sources based on how tight the budget actually gets.

Um I would love to see Sunnyside Park move forward this year.

I'm not quite sure if the if the council is gonna approve uh the $319,000 for the CIP.

And I also don't know how much other how many other projects we're scribbing and saving on where Sunnyside Park might have to wait another year.

No, completely understood, and I think it's very clear Sunnyside Park is a multi-year project, definitely.

And again, thank thank you uh for your help through this process.

Thank you for the presentation.

I would also take this moment to mention that we are down again, one CAC member, and we're going through the consolidated plan right now.

And so there is a uh representative for homeless advocates that's missing at the moment.

So yes, I was just made aware of this this week.

We will be working feverishly to fill that position.

Uh further questions for manager Ruth.

Thank you.

Uh I'm sorry, you cannot.

Uh anything else, Manager Ruth.

So we've got the home investment partnership program, too, that goes along with CDGB.

Yes, yes, please proceed.

So that one will be quicker.

So very uh quickly, you have a memo and you have your budget uh in your package.

And the home program is a home investment partnerships program, and again, that is a project through HUD.

And the purpose is to increase the supply of and access to decent, safe and affordable housing in communities.

And so there's an annual allocation from Congress and a lengthy process to obtain that allocation.

Neither Auburn nor Lewison are large enough to get an allocation by themselves as we do for CDGB.

So we have a consortium that was formed in 2002.

Um Auburn is in charge of the administration for the consortium for the funding that comes down, and they receive additional allocation of administration funds uh to deal with all of the amazing paperwork on that project.

So for fiscal year 27, um, you've seen a copy of the budget, and the Citizens Advisory Committee has voted to approve the budget, which is 1,2129.03, an increase of 0.7, so 7-tenths of a percent.

So at least it's not going down, so that's good.

Um the allocation for the consortium this year, um, which is split between Auburn and Lewiston is 462,52023 cents.

And so you can see the budget is larger because there are funds that are carried forward in both communities, because administering the home investment program is very difficult.

This started out to be a wonderful program so that you could have property owners, uh, people could purchase homes, but the requirements are so stiff and so difficult, and people often could not come up with the money that was required that larger projects are what are approved.

So projects such as Wedgewood and items such as that, huge projects that take several years to put together uh to be underwritten to bring all the partners together.

Um the Wedgewood project was a $35 million project, and we had a small allocation in that, but that allocation helped make the project work, and we were a partner, and the project is very good.

So I know that there are projects being talked about, but at this point, uh when you look at your budget, you'll see it's 2BA, to be announced, and the similar thing is happening in Auburn.

So at some point a project will come forward and use up some of the funding.

So basically, program administration is $37,599 and 79 cents, and that includes our current allocation and monies carried forward.

$25,000 is for security deposit grants for the homeless and near homeless.

And I asked for an increase because we have $15,000 and that can go quickly, considering that most people that are coming in to apply have an income of zero up to about $22,000.

I don't think I've seen anybody with any funding that has resources any more than that, and they simply can't afford a security deposit.

And the rental housing projects is $1,138,429.24 cents.

So we had our wedgewood development project, which is great, and we have the DeWitt project.

And at some point there will be other projects.

Now there is hope.

You know, 10 units, 8 units.

So at some point, people want change, and so there will be change to this program.

It may take a while to get through, but it will happen.

So this is the same for uh budget steps on March 2nd.

The Citizens Advisory Committee approved the budget.

We're here for our first viewing, and then April 7th will be the first public hearing that will advertise, and then May 5th will be the second and final budget hearing.

And on the budget, if you look at your one-page detail and avoid the Auburn part, because that gets confusing when we try to review that too.

But just look at Lewiston's.

You'll see uh fiscal year 26, and that is actually our fiscal year 27.

You can see the one 1,21,029 and three cents.

You see the administration account.

You'll see the rental projects to be announced, and then the security deposit program is the TBRA.

And then there's some formulas here, and I went through and they did the calculations correctly, of course.

We get of the uh regular yearly allocation of $462,520 and 23 cents.

We get $47.5% or $219,697, and Auburn gets the remainder 52.5 percent or 242,823 because they are doing the administration of the entire program.

Thank you.

Questions for uh Manager Ruth about the home funds program.

Uh Councilor Chutham.

Uh in your view, thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Uh, is the 5% of that going to Auburn for administration or uh is that worth our are they are they being underpaid for the amount of work?

I think they are being underpaid for what they go through and all the questions that we ask them as well as other people and the audit process.

All right, so we don't want to stir the pot then.

I think not at this point.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I would argue that they're being overpaid.

Further questions.

Thank you so much.

Thank you so much.

Uh I believe this concludes our workshops.

And uh Councillor Nijing.

So again, that uh LA Arts request in here.

What does that pertain to?

And which budget piece does this pertain to?

Uh Director Roy.

Sorry, and once again, Councilman.

Um there's just in my packet on uh in this exhibit for the workshop.

And I'm just wondering if that's part of the proposals that are the pieces that we just went over.

Like I just don't know where the line item is for the I'm sorry, he should have been um, Jim should have been brought up during the TIFF.

So the LART portion is in the TIF under, I believe the donation line for their funding.

Okay, so the proposal that's in front of us with the test right now actually covers that that portion.

Okay.

Perfect.

And I asked about it, but we didn't go over it.

So now that we have, I don't have any questions.

Councillor, we have we do have a sheet that you know which proposals are ranked and you know, all of that information that we could share with with the council if they wanted it.

So we can provide copies.

Should there be any questions for early arts?

Uh, I believe this concludes our workshop.

We will uh start back up at seven for our regular scheduled meeting.

Thank you all so much.

Hello, and welcome to our Tuesday evening council meeting.

Um, I'm saying Patrick's Day.

And it would be our honor to ask you to leave us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty, and justice for all.

Thank you, Deputy Administrator O'Malley, and thank you for your service to our city.

Madam Clerk, I believe we're ready to begin.

Yes, thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

All roll call votes for this meeting will be given to the Council of Ward 6.

Excellent.

I understand we have minutes.

You do of the March 3rd meeting.

I have a motion, please.

So moved.

Counselor Nagine, second by Councillor Chitam.

Madam Clerk, please call the vote.

Counselor from Ward 6?

Yes.

Word seven?

Yes.

Word one.

Yes.

Word two?

Yes.

Word three?

Yes.

Word four.

Yes.

Word five.

Yes.

Motion passed by vote of seven to zero.

Thank you very much, Madam Clerk.

We will now have a uh St.

Patrick's Day proclamation and presentation.

I see a lot of green.

If you're Irish American, please join me at the front here.

Mark Irish American?

Yeah.

Margaret, come in.

Hello?

Oh.

Thank you so much.

Uh today St.

Patrick's Day.

Uh thank you all for being here.

And thank you, Margaret Craven, for being here.

Margaret Craven, please tell everyone where you're from.

I'm from Galway, and I was born in uh the west coast of Galway called Connimara.

And when did you move to Lewiston?

I moved to Lewiston 52 years ago.

So I've been here a long time.

Married, married into Maine.

So I was a true Mainer.

You look fabulous.

Can you please tell us all how to say uh happy St.

Patrick's Day in Irish?

Um leave Park.

That really means um the blessings of St.

Patrick on everybody here.

That sounds absolutely beautiful.

Thank you so much.

A huge round of applause for Margaret Craven.

And now I have a Mero proclamation, a proclamation celebrating St.

Patrick's Day, whereas St.

Patrick's Day celebrated annually on March 17th, honors the life and legacy of St.

Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, and has become a global celebration of Irish heritage, culture, community, and whereas during the 19th century, many Irish immigrants came to the United States and to Maine seeking opportunity and a better life, bringing with them a deep sense of resilience, strong family values, and a commitment to building thriving communities.

And whereas the city of Lewiston, like many communities throughout Maine and New England, has been enriched by generations of Irish Americans who contributed to the growth of local industries, public service, education, and cultural life, and whereas Irish immigrants played a critical role in the early development of the city of Lewiston, contributing their labor and skills to the construction of the canals along the Anshkogan River that powered Lewiston's textile mills and helped establish the city as one of Maine's leading manufacturing centers, and whereas Irish workers also helped build the railroads, roads, and other essential infrastructure that connected Lewiston to the broader region and supported the city's economic growth.

And whereas generations of Irish Americans continued this legacy and service by contributing to Lewiston's civic life through leadership and local businesses, community institutions, houses of worship, and public service in the city's police and fire departments and municipal government, and whereas Irish Lewiston's Irish heritage is also reflected in the history of Bates College, where Irish-born students were among the institutions' early graduates in the 19th century, highlighting the role of Irish immigrants and their families in shaping Lewiston's educational, civic, and cultural life, and whereas St.

Patrick's Day offers an opportunity for residents of Lewiston to celebrate Irish heritage and recognize the lasting contributions of Irish Americans who helped to build and strengthen our community.

And now therefore I, Carl L.

Schaleen, Mayor of the City of Lewiston, do hereby proclaim March 17, 2026, as St.

Patrick's Day in the city of Lewiston.

I encourage all residents to recognize and celebrate the rich cultural traditions, history, and contributions of many Irish Americans in our community.

Thank you all so much.

Thank you all for coming to my event.

If I can have uh those who are just up here, please come back because we're about to get a picture with the flag.

And if I can have the counselors uh come join us down front.

Yep, I can use it.

Yep.

I like your time, by the way.

All right.

We're gonna all come in a little closer.

Right in the middle of the front.

All right, everyone else for the right.

Here we go.

One, two, three, geez.

Great, all right, looking good.

Not a hair out of place.

I got it.

Still got it.

A little nervous that wouldn't be the camera.

Uh a huge round of applause for Margaret Craven and all of the Irish Americans in our community.

We are now up to public comment.

Any member of the public may make comments regarding issues pertaining to Lewison City government.

This period is reserved for non-agenda items.

Public comment is also allowed during individual agenda items.

Public comment is limited to three minutes per person.

Please state your name for the record, and please indicate if you are a Lewiston resident.

Per our council rules, this period is reserved for Lewiston residents only.

Because this is the business meeting of the city council.

All questions should be directed to the mayor who will ask staff to follow up at a future time.

It is illegal for the city council to allow comments related to personnel matters.

All personnel complaints should be made directly to the city administration office.

Hi, my name's Brian LeClair.

I'm a lifelong resident of Lewiston.

I grew up on Shawmutch Street, Pine Street, Howard Street, downtown Lewiston as a child, and those are my stomping grounds.

Well, I was taking a walk through there today, all the snow is nice and melted off, and uh, you know, it's like I can't take a step without stepping on needles on the sidewalks.

They're literally everywhere, everywhere.

Okay.

You know, the deadly thing has to stop.

Um the the needle and the heroin, they go together.

Okay.

The drop of whatever's deadly, you know, can be stepped on.

But the needle, that puts it in you.

They gotta be discarded together.

The needle thing was a bad idea.

You know, we gotta be honest.

You know, it's just it is what it is.

We gotta have someone get out there and pick everything up, everything, and we gotta get this stuff taken care of, whatever, whatever it costs.

That's all I gotta say.

Thank you.

Matthew Agrin, Ward 4.

Counselors.

For the past few meetings, we've been playing, as I believe it was said by Council Chitam, calling agenda items out of a bingo cage.

I'd like to thank you, Councilor Chittam, for at least asking, could you vote to move items on the agenda, which you should be?

I will remind you all the agenda is set following how the council instructed it wanted items.

We the public get the agenda and go, okay.

I want to comment on items four, six, seven.

So I know I need to be here by 7:30, 8 o'clock at the latest.

Especially if I really want seven.

When you move item seven to number one, now you've disenfranchised anyone who wants to speak on number seven who isn't here at the start of the meeting.

Someone who might have had a viewpoint none of you had considered.

You've disenfranchised.

I ask you, please keep the agendas published as much as possible.

Remember, you all have the right to say no when asked, can we move an agenda item?

Sometimes it could be seen that maybe moving the agenda items around shields people from criticisms from possible decisions.

My next point.

It seems very much lately we have had members of Lewiston PD in the chamber in the hallways.

That's really nothing new here.

Over the years I've sat with Chief Welch and Chief St.

Pierre in public seating, talking with them, asking questions of them.

But I don't remember seeing regular officers regularly in the building, regularly in the country chamber.

I worry this could be done in a way that possibly silence people.

Because it seems to be more of a show of force placement.

We've all seen online the Augusta School Committee using police officers to silence people.

The council.

The committee disagrees with.

The State of Maine has on the table LD 2150, which would allow bureaucrats to remove people without any due process or oversight from buildings or property of the state.

Look, I know there are times up there that some of you would have liked to have the ability to silence me because you disagree with my viewpoint as I disagree with yours.

But you know what the nice thing about here in America is?

Speech, even when hostile, repetitive, accusatory, run settling, is protected by our Constitution.

I get it.

If we had serious threats or acts of violence occurring, that yeah, we need them here.

But if they're here, are they here at the request of the council or city administration?

That's time, thank you.

Further public comment.

Please step right up.

My name is Peter Rubens.

I'm uh chair of the Growth Grow LA River uh working group.

Um I'm sorry, where are you from?

I don't live here, but I've been living here for years, and I've been involved with the Grow LA River Group, and we're working on the other.

No, I understand, but uh our council rules uh expressly state that it's for Lewis and residents only.

Thank you.

I invite you to submit public comment to public comment at Lewis and Maine.gov.

Please continue.

Martin Char Strand, Ward 3.

Uh I don't always agree with every council member up there, but I do think you're all doing your best to balance many different agenda items and concerns, uh, even staying late into the night as often happens.

And so I feel moved to correct the record on an article that was published after the prior council meeting in the main wire.

The headline was while bullet holes scar Lewiston, the city hall fixates on ice policy.

And it goes on to say, I quote, in neighborhood after neighborhood, bullet holes could be seen on properties across the city, and goes on to ask why are the mayor and council spending their time crafting policy around ice instead of confronting problems, staring Lewiston in the face every single day.

I think all of us want a city where shooting does not happen and where none of our neighbors fear violence.

I do recognize we've had shootings.

I don't think it's helpful to make things out worse than they are or create a false division between different needs in our community.

If someone gives me an address, I'll go see and stand corrected.

But I ride my bike and I drive around Lewiston downtown very often.

Some of you have seen me, and I've never seen any bullet holes.

So at best that the article is exaggerating.

I was also present at both of the council meetings where the ordinance on ice was debated, and the council weighed a plethora of other issues, many of which took more time than the ICE ordinance.

Uh this is a real stretch what the article is saying, and I bring this up to make because I think some folks do look for news in this publication.

It's a concern for Lewiston that our city's challenges are being used to put forward a negative narrative that goes to people all over the state.

We do have a free press, so people can report what they want.

However, we also have an economy where money buys speech and money is concentrated in the hands of the powerful.

So wealthy interests can fund press to come into our city and fund lurid stories.

One second.

Yes, Councilor Martel.

I'm just curious if this is germane to city business or just upset with uh media outlet.

Uh I appreciate that.

I feel that it's germane to city business.

Please continue.

Okay.

Um they they can find lurid stories that they're looking for, whether it's by aggressively recording people without their consent or just making things up.

It's on us and especially those we elect to lead to focus on truth and stories that help us see our shared interests.

I also just want to say I sympathize with the first speaker around the needles.

I I go out and pick them up quite often.

I think we could use more receptacles because I haven't uh I've had some that I've had to carry around for a while because I didn't have an easy receptacle.

Thanks.

Andrew Jones Ward 2.

I was kind of surprised when I heard the mayor's preamble uh prior to the public comment.

Uh he included uh a phrase that said that uh public comment is for Lewis and residents only.

Uh that appears to be new, and I'm wondering when that change was put into place.

Um you've previously never had any issues with anyone else uh not living in this community come up to speak here.

I understand that you probably don't like Dave Jones coming up here and speaking, and that's fine.

Um you know you had an individual come up here to speak and you just silenced him based on rules that where did they come from?

Did you just make that up?

Um you've got an agenda item later tonight uh about changing council rules.

So how did this change uh get made without uh without council approval?

Um I think you need to let that man speak.

Thank you.

Paula Misha Ward 3.

By the way, where is my time so I can monitor?

Do you think that's the first one?

I don't see it.

Please continue.

I will let you know when you run off time.

Well, I'd like to monitor, but anyways, okay.

I have to wonder how many minutes are going to be used up by the council over the idea of roos reducing the time allotted for a Lewiston resident to make public comment.

Uh this is uh we will be discussing this at a future agenda item, and so you can speak during that agenda item.

I might not be here.

I'll send you my public comments by email.

Excellent.

Okay, uh, you keep saying you want the public's input.

Um, but yet you keep limiting.

You need to speak during that agenda item if that's what you're going to say.

I came in late, so I'm not even sure what the agenda item is.

Right now it's public comment for items that are not on the agenda.

Okay.

What about addressing the uh how are complaints of police misconduct addressed?

Because that is that on the agenda?

It is not, and I would refer you to our administration.

How do I apply to be on the new and improved public safety committee in case that's not on the agenda?

Because last time around I tried and I could never get any answers as to when the committee was meeting or how to get on the committee.

And as far as I'm concerned, it's comprised mostly of people that are already in city government or law enforcement.

Anyway, um, police did violate my rights quite substantially, and my complaint has not been addressed.

It disappeared when the former chief retired.

I gave my complaint to him during city council meeting on July 15.

It disappeared.

But I do have a complaint submitted on October 8th.

Derek St.

Laurence says that that is in the police department.

But yeah, nobody's addressing it.

That there was excessive force use on October 8th, too, when police cut my purse strap to arrest me.

Anyway, there was never a warrant to take my phone.

I've got two pages here.

One of them is a um I pinged my phone using my iPad after my arrest.

It was at the district attorney's office.

The other page I have here is a letter from the uh district attorney in Lincoln County where I'm being prosecuted, although 12 of the 14 counts were dismissed before trial.

A serious waste of taxpayer money when the state is being sued for violations of the Sixth Amendment failing to provide counsel to people who are being charged with serious crime.

Not like I was for uh protection order.

Anyway, um the DA's email addresses, my attorney's requests for my iPhone.

He says I have done all manner of research on her phone, and I am told it was never confiscated.

Hello, cell phone towers don't lie.

That's time, thank you.

Here's the copy for you guys.

And I'll email a copy to public comment.

Thank you.

Further public comment.

Hi, my name is Melissa Dunn.

I'm a resident and homeowner on Blake Street.

On February 7th, I was leaving my driveway, and I was witness it to a flock camera tracker being installed on our condo association property.

And it they did not have approval, and the city did not have approval, and the police did not have approval or permit or anything, uh correspondence with the Maple Street Homeowners Association, um, which is the homeowners association to the condo where I own my home.

The FLAC camera tracker has been removed probably within the last week or so, maybe a little bit longer than that.

And we have not received any information update, even despite my email to city uh elected officials and concerns of it being installed on private property.

I urge city officials, code enforcement, and police, if they're gonna have a flock camera tracker for masks for surveillance to have ordinance around installations of it.

Um it was being installed during the winter time, which I thought was confusing too, because once the ground thoughts, the poll is gonna shift.

Um I'm not gonna get into details of my threats being threatened with disorderly when I was trying to advocate and make uh get a call number.

I can talk to you guys about that later.

Um I'm hoping that other homeowners, other property owners, other associations don't experience the same thing that I did just by calling police for support because something was being installed on our property without permission.

Um it took my white woman neighbor friend who's a homeowner to uh I guess mediate, I guess.

Um I I do want to point out one thing that I found was particularly interesting.

When I talked to the guy in the van, I said, is that a flack camera?

And he says, You have a bunch of illegal immigrants around here, and we were told and insisted by the police and city hall that that's not what the flock camera tracker for mass surveillance was going to be used for.

Thank you.

Further public comment.

Public comment is now closed.

Uh administrator Kenrath, I understand you have a report.

All right, thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Uh first, as you know, we presented our uh FY27 budget uh last week.

I just want to remind the public there are a few upcoming dates for public input in particular.

These are public uh hearing dates.

The first will be Tuesday, April 7th.

That's the first public hearing on the budget.

And then we'll have another opportunity May 5th for a final public hearing on the budget and the full calendar uh of events, as well as all documents are of course available on the city's webpage, Lewis and Maine.gov.

Uh you also should know by now, hopefully, uh the city of Lewis is conducting its first uh citywide property revaluation process since 1988.

Um a reval updates property values across the city, so taxes reflect current market conditions.

Uh so to help explain this process, we've been talking about doing more public engagement sessions.

Our city assessor is meeting commute with community groups and will be hosting two uh Facebook live conversations uh coming up.

The first uh will be on April 7th, the second on April 21st.

Uh both conversations will take place 5 to 6 p.m.

on the city's social media pages.

We'll be putting more of that out uh in the weeks uh to come.

Uh residents can also get a jump start and look for further reval information uh by visiting Lewis the Main.gov slash uh reval for more information also.

We also do anticipate, as previously noted, uh, new assessments to be out to residents sometime in in the late April, early May uh time frame.

Again, I will remind residents it is important to not look at your new assessment and use the current tax rate to figure out what your taxes will be.

The tax rate, as we noted in the budget presentation, will be dropping um by approximately half, but we'll see where it ends up uh with the conclusion of the budget process.

But please do not uh use the current tax rate with your new assessment because those will be some very scary numbers.

Uh it's also important to note the you know, a reval process that does not cause the city to collect additional tax revenue.

The only thing that causes additional tax revenue to be collected is the city budget process.

So a reval is not more revenue, it is just an equitable redistribution of the current taxes across all the different sectors of the city.

Uh I'm excited to uh a reminder uh to announce uh Councilor Noble and I will be hosting a joint uh community mixer event on April 1st, 5 30 to 6 30.

It will be at uh Trinity Church, that's 247 Bay Street.

It's not uh the new Shiny Jubilee Center, this is at the church, 247 Bay Street.

Uh all members of the Lewiston community are of course welcome and encouraged to to join us um for conversation and to talk about city issues that are undermined.

Um and also of note this will be held upstairs in the church, not downstairs uh at Trinity.

So again, April 1st, 5 30 to 6 30.

Uh Councilor Noble and I will be there to to meet the public.

We're also excited to uh get going on uh Lewiston Live, our busing festival for 2026.

Um we have of course a a major priority of creating a vibrant and active downtown here in Lewiston with additional activities and events.

So uh we had a trial run last October of the Lewis and Live Busking Festival, uh which was by all accounts uh a good success for our first run through on a pilot project.

So um we're thrilled to announce this year we're gonna be greatly expanding the festival and going big.

There's gonna be multiple dates uh through the spring.

So those uh current dates being planned are April 17th, April 24th, May 1st, May 8th, and May 15th, all on Lisbon Street downtown between Ash and Maine from 4 to 7 p.m.

Um staff uh have begun outreach to performers, vendors, and community partners building on relationships established during our pilot program last year, last fall.

Um early interest has been strong with a mix of returning performers and some new acts uh expressing some really great enthusiasm about participating.

So uh we're working very hard right now in the coordination of all of that.

Um and of course, Lewis and Alive is designed to activate Lisbon Street, support local businesses, and create a vibrant and active downtown space.

So we're really excited about this uh series of events this spring.

Um the planning continues.

I do want to thank Joe Grockmall in particular in our office um who spearheaded this effort, continues to lead this effort, and we'll be managing uh the festival over the course of of all of these dates.

So we look forward to that.

We're also gonna be doing some enhanced efforts at marketing this year to make sure the word gets out, and we're bringing people from outside of Loosen into our downtown to have a good experience.

And one of our big priorities, as you know, is to improve the image of the city, and this this will go a long way in that regard.

So uh we're excited about that.

Uh please join us uh again, April 17th, April 24th, May 1st, May 8th, and May 15th, 4 to 7 p.m.

on Lisbon Street downtown.

Um I had a great uh time last week.

Um our city arborist uh Steve Merch and I uh as well as Kevin Gani, our public works director, went around and we uh surveyed um the city's ashtries uh along city streets.

As you know, I'm a big proponent of uh street trees across the city, of uh preserving our existing trees and also planting new trees and spaces um that are absent trees now due to disease or other factors.

Um as many of you probably know the emerald ash borer is a major invasive species that have been wreaking havoc on our ash trees across the country, uh and now uh more so in Maine than we've seen in the last number of years.

So uh we have a number of ashtries that will need to be uh removed, but we have uh a number of others who have earlier stage disease uh that can be treated.

And so we've identified those trees that that can be treated and saved.

A lot of these trees are on Lisbon Street, uh particularly um between um chestnut and pine.

There are uh at least 10 ashtrees there, and also on College Street, especially Lower College Street.

Um it is uh there are beautiful tree-lined streets with a large mature ash tree.

So it was our goal to save these trees.

Uh treatment has worked well uh in other places in other communities.

Steve Murch is is an expert uh in all things trees, and they've they've done a lot of research in this.

So we have some funds to uh to begin the treatment.

We will need to find uh an additional allocation about $15,000 to treat all of the impacted trees.

Um, but the results could be very positive in saving these all of these mature trees.

Um so we intend to pursue this.

So I want to thank um Steve.

I want to thank Public Works for being proactive on this.

Um, and uh I'm pretty much acquainted with almost every ashtree out there uh in the city now, so this is a great experience.

So that's all I have.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Administrator Kenrath, and I appreciate your service to our city.

Uh Madam Clerk, I'm saying we have a consent agenda.

We do.

Uh the consent agenda this evening consists of four items.

Item number sorry, if I can, uh Madam Clerk.

I understand there's some uh discussion at the council, and we'd love to I guess pull out item number two.

Okay.

Okay, the consent agenda this evening consists of three items.

Item number one, order authorizing execution of municipal quick claim deed for real estate located at 84 Summit Street.

Item number three, authorization to accept transfer forfeiture funds, and item number four, authorization to accept transfer of forfeiture funds.

Thank you.

And if I can remind audience members that public comment is now over.

Please continue, Madam Clerk.

Uh that was the list of um items on the consent agenda.

So moved.

Councilor Chittam.

Second.

Send by Councillor Nagy.

Madam Clerk, please call the vote.

Counselor from Ward 6.

Yes.

Ward seven?

Yes.

Ward one.

Yes.

Ward two?

Yes.

Ward three.

Yes.

Ward four.

Yes.

Word five.

Yes.

Motion passed by vote of seven to zero.

Thank you very much, Madam Clerk.

Uh, we will slot uh item number two uh at the end of the meeting.

And we will now proceed with item number five.

Mr.

Yes, point of order.

Counselor Harriman.

Um we typically take agenda items, or we're supposed to take agenda items in the order they're printed.

Um if there's a request to move one, I feel like the council should weigh in on that.

So uh as you may have noticed, I've uh located our council rules.

And uh on page four, it says the presiding officers authorized to adjust the order of business to accommodate members of the public or city staff attending the meeting for a particular item.

Uh and so, yes, I would like to slot that towards the end, uh, especially as we have uh interpreters uh who are here.

Uh could the council vote on that?

Uh not according to the council rules.

So uh a counselor could appeal the decision of the chair.

If you want to appeal decision of the chair, that is your right.

I will make a motion to appeal the decision of the chair to move agenda item number two to the end of the agenda.

Second.

Madam Clerk, uh we we're in uncharted territory.

Uh what uh can you uh please tell us what will happen next?

Um so if I may, counselor Harriman, but I am happy to be corrected.

The rules do state that the mayor has the authority to arrange items in the order of the agenda.

I would think that the proper motion would be to instead of overruling the opinion, the decision of the chair would be to vote to suspend the rules and that particular section of the rules.

I think is a more direct way to go.

That is just my opinion.

You're certainly welcome to take whatever direction you would like.

Um but I think that's a cleaner approach than the count.

It would require a two-thirds vote because you're suspending adopted set of governing rules.

Um, but then you would vote to suspend that particular section.

Um, and then you could um uh address number two at this time.

Counselor Harriman, you've been recognized.

Thank you.

Thank you for that uh for that clarification.

I would prefer not to have to vote to suspend the rules to enforce our rules.

Um I will uh I suppose I will withdraw my motion at this time.

Um, but I would appreciate that we take agenda items in order.

Or at least be consulted on them.

Uh duly noted uh counselor Herriman.

Uh Madam Clerk, we are now moving to item number five item five informational updates regarding services for families and survivors of the October 25th, 2023 mass shooting.

Requested action to receive the presentation and determine a course of action.

Thank you very much.

Uh we have Danielle Perent here from the Resiliency Center.

Uh please uh kick us off when you're ready.

We have a lot of materials.

Very good.

Good evening.

My name is Danielle Perrin.

I am the director of the Maine Resiliency Center, which is operated by community concepts.

The main resiliency center was established after the mass violence uh mass shooting in October.

Mike just a little closer to you.

Thank you.

The Maine Resiliency Center, which we refer to as the MRC was established in November after the mass shooting in October 25th, 2023.

Um it's important to note that I wasn't present.

I didn't know a single person there that night.

Um, but I am personally deeply impacted for the rest of my life.

Um I remember the call.

I remember going to the Family Assistance Center.

I remember sitting in a room filled with FBI agents and swarmed with city and state and federal officials who were guiding us on how the recovery effort should happen in this community.

Um they talked to us about best practice, they talked to us about creating a center and a space in which victims and survivors and the impacted community could come to be supported and to have their needs met.

Uh when you ask about a resiliency center, they'll tell you that they're different in every community and that the resiliency center really is supposed to reflect the unique needs of the communities that they're serving.

And so it really is a build from scratch type of model.

We opened the main resiliency center 19 days after the shooting.

It was the second fastest opening in the U.S.

history.

Um, two years to open, meaning that for a year to two years, victims, survivors, and impacted community members sit uh without support to navigate available resources.

Um so this community asking for us to open our doors very quickly speaks to the intention, I think, of this community to support those who are impacted.

When we opened our doors, we didn't know what to expect.

We didn't have a plan, we didn't have a list of victims.

We didn't have a list of victims.

We had no worldly idea what to expect.

We had a physical space that had been identified by the previous city administration here.

And we had people.

We had volunteers from the Red Cross and Safe Voices, victim advocates from the DA's office and the attorney general's office who dropped everything and showed up time and time and time again for months.

Over the next two and a half years, we just kept showing up.

We sat with people in the earliest moments when the shock hadn't worn off, when the questions didn't have answers.

We listened to stories, uh, stories of fear, stories of running, stories of staying.

We listened to the people who responded, who witnessed, who had to make impossible decisions, and we kept showing up.

When victims and survivors said that they wanted to go back to Smeggies and just in time recreation, we went with them.

We walked through the doors again and again and again and again.

We went into spaces that carried indescribable heaviness.

In spaces that would never feel the same again.

We didn't do that to fix anything.

We did it to make sure that people didn't do that alone.

We showed up at memorials and honorings at league nights and tournaments.

We learned about bowling and cornhole and pool and what those things mean to this community.

Because healing doesn't happen in isolation.

It happens in community and in a connection and in places where life used to feel normal.

We plan commemorative events.

We created safe spaces for four-year-olds and 80-year-olds alike to process, to learn, to meet with investigators, with detectives, with people talking about finances with each other.

We worked intentionally to be inclusive and accessible to the deaf community.

To date, we've served more than 900 individuals.

We facilitated more than 320 support groups.

We've held 133 community events, 42 trainings for professionals, and provided thousands of occurrences of support, counseling, advocacy, and resource navigation.

What we've learned in this time is that the impact of 1025 is vast.

Nearly every person in this room that I know personally is a result of 1025.

It changed the lives of victims and survivors, as well as their coworkers, friends, family, first responders, of providers, of funeral staff of the deaf community, of interpreters who had to tell stories again and again and again using their bodies.

We learned that trauma and grief recovery involves not just processing harms but also building new positive, safe experiences.

Resiliency looks like bowling again.

It looks like going to a store or going to work.

It looks like being able to move your body and be in nature and to experience joy without guilt.

They're not small things.

They're the things that help nervous systems rebuild.

We learn that social connection and community are foundational to resiliency.

We learn that changes that needs change and evolve, and that the needs that existed two years ago are very different than the needs that exist today and are going to be different than the needs that exist in two and five and ten plus years.

There is no fixing this.

Broadly, they include navigating the financial burdens due to loss or changes in career, navigating the challenges of everyday life that are exacerbated by the impact of the shooting.

I can't name the number of triggers that people encounter on a daily basis that you would never think about from a green laser to a popping balloon.

We watch people struggle with the array of emotions that are brought on by the subsequent media and public response.

And a particular need of being able to find qualified, skilled, willing providers to support them.

That's in addition to what many have shared about medical bills and just navigating the existing resources that are out there.

I think it's impossible to really know the needs of everybody who's impacted.

I can tell you that my understanding of impact is much deeper than it ever was.

One survivor recently referenced that how are they going to know if they're going to need another surgery?

How are they going to know what they're going to need in five or ten years?

And that's a real reality.

Never mind the fact that we don't know every single individual, and those needs evolve over time.

We will do that survey.

That is not something that we need funding for or support for it as part of the work that we believe we should be doing.

But we welcome the city's support and we welcome people to help us to think about the right questions to help us reach people.

There are plenty of people who are impacted that don't access the center.

And to help us connect individuals back to resources.

We can fund services, counseling services for those who don't have insurance or who don't have another means or don't qualify for victims' compensation but are impacted.

We can help with accessing financial supports and connection to wellness and education services.

That's in addition to what we do as advocates and support people ourselves.

We do not have funds that we can distribute directly to victims or survivors.

Everything that we do comes from that voice.

One of which is victims compensation that is run through the state of Maine Office of the Attorney Generals.

Anybody who qualifies for victims compensation, that can be somebody who may have been present.

It also could have been somebody whose family member was killed.

Qualifies for a CAP of $15,000 in our current victims' compensation structure.

Maine was the second state in the country to establish a mass violence care fund that was established pretty quickly after the shooting.

And that fund was really a bucket of money put to the side to be able to use the interest of that money to serve those who are to continue to provide support to people for years and years to come.

That fund becomes available.

The interest from that fund becomes available in October, this October, October of 2026.

There are currently a handful of people known to us that are reaching that $15,000 cap of victims compensation.

I think it's less than five at this point.

But that means that they need have needs that are going to exist until October of 2026 when the mass violence fund becomes available.

There is an ancillary funding that comes from a federal grant that I'll speak about that allows us to provide that support in the interim, and that is through the Attorney General's office and a seamless transition from victims compensation to that mass violence fund.

And the main resilience center is there to help anybody navigate that.

We're a small little mini team of five that are of our core staff, and so we've got Abby and Elizabeth and Meredith and Marisa behind me and our infamous Joanna with her bright glasses, if you've ever met her.

Uh, and then a whole host of interpreters and providers and support networks that help us and support us in in an accordion type manner so they can come to events when we need more staff and more support.

Um but that's your core group back there if you ever want to please stop them and say hello.

Um there's been a lot of conversation around finances and donations and money, and so I'm gonna speak to that a little bit.

Um the main resiliency center is funded predominantly through a federal grant through the U.S.

Department of Justice.

Um the grant is called the Anti-Terrorism Emergency Assistance Program.

Um it is a national program where Congress appropriates funds every year to be able to have communities who experience these types of events to apply for those funds to create things like resiliency centers to backfill victims' compensation and costs that they don't expect to incur.

The AEAP, as we refer to it, is again an emergency assistance program.

We received AEAP funds 20 months after the mass shooting event.

So for 20 months, we relied on the cash flow of the state of Maine, the city of Lewiston, which were all paid back through that grant, and donations.

Our current AEAP grant is set to continue through through the end of 2027.

Um so when we received it, it was intended to end this past January, so two months ago.

We were successful in asking for an extension for an additional two years because we hadn't been able to access those funds.

Um the future of the center past 2027 remains unknown.

The future of support services for those impacted past 2027 remains unknown.

Um donations were our safety net, and I think it's important to recognize how beautifully this community showed up.

They supported us in allowing us to say yes, right?

So we didn't have to wait two years to provide services.

We didn't have to say no because we didn't know whether federal funding would allow a thing that they felt was supportive or not allow a thing that they felt was supportive.

We weren't confined to victims' compensation.

We could support first responders and providers and the people who showed up and saw the carnage.

We were able to feed volunteers.

We're able to create opportunities for connection among the impacted community members, engage in our community, and recreate again.

We're able to create opportunities for service providers and first responders to come together for peer support.

And we're able to say yes, knowing that we wouldn't have to close our doors the next day if we didn't receive federal funding.

Um I won't go too I'll let you ask questions, but um, we've been asked how do you access the center?

Because there are folks who maybe have not um milized us or may not know we exist.

Um we used to live over in the PEC building, but we recently moved over to Sabatis Street.

So we're at 581 Sabata Street now, and we have an opening of this new space happening on the 2nd of April in the evening at 4 o'clock if anybody wants to come check it out and say hello to us.

Um you can go to our website, you can go to our social media.

Uh we have regular walk-in hours every week.

Um, and so we encourage anybody.

You don't have to be impacted to walk in and say hello, grab a cup of coffee, have a chat with us.

Um you can attend an event.

Um I think it's a hard thing to say that anyone in this room and anyone that's watching isn't impacted by just knowing somebody who is impacted, and so please come be in community with us.

You can contact us, you can follow us on social media, you can subscribe to our newsletter.

Um you can say hello if you see us in the community, you can track us down at the grocery store.

We often wear our sweatshirts out in the community anyways.

Um I think I'll close by just saying while I have the floor.

Um I'd like to take a minute to say thank you to those of you who have quietly supported us through this and to the impacted community who welcomed us into their lives and showed up for each other again and again and again.

And I have resources and I can answer any questions.

Thank you so much.

Um Danielle, and thank you for your service to our city and those affected by this tragedy.

Uh questions, comments from the council.

Uh Counselor Chitam, yes.

Thank you, Ms.

Parent very much for the work that you do and for standing up here tonight and telling us what you do.

I'd like to go back and ask you.

This Maine Resiliency Center was created, you said 19 days after the shooting.

How did that come about?

I I think it came from community concepts, but can you explain that a little bit?

Sure.

So I didn't live in this area before that.

I grew up in Wayne, and I moved to Sabatis a couple months before and had joined community concepts in a different role.

And the shooting happened, and I lived in Sabadis, and it was, you know, it was close to home.

On Halloween, after the shooting occurred, I got the call that said, you know, we need to open a resiliency center, and there's an ask out there, will you come and see if that's something that you can take on?

And so community concepts uh board agreed to allow us to step into that work without any assurance of funding, without any knowledge of what this would look like and turn into just knowing that a community needed somebody to stand up and do that.

And so we got a call and answered the call and showed up at the family assistant center the next day.

Okay, thank you.

Um you mentioned three or possibly four funds that are available for people who are impacted by the shooting.

Uh that includes victims, victims' families, uh, anybody who was there, uh, first responders and so on.

Can you briefly go through those funds again?

Yeah.

So victims' compensation is run through the state of Maine, and that is available to those who are directly impacted, meaning that they were present, if they were injured, um if they are the immediate family of somebody who was killed.

And there's a little bit broader um allowability there.

Sometimes you share a claim if you have a full family.

Um so those services are really specifically to victims and survivors and their immediate families.

Uh the mass violence care fund is similar to that.

Uh the mass violence care fund has a little bit more room to establish what it is able to do and and how it can serve uh the community.

And so there is a group that is an advisor that is a working group that is established.

Um Senator Peggy Retondo is on that group and a number of other individuals.

Um I name her because she's in the room here today, and guess your questions.

Um that group actually cre uh did a survey of needs and um brought folks together to identify what that fund should be allowed to cover.

So the there is a recommendation report from that committee uh that came out through the Mass Violence Care Fund in December of 2025 that basically describes a host of things that should be uh covered through this fund, and that includes things like ongoing counseling, um, additional medical bills, uh, and so I believe they're still in the process of defining all of that and setting that in stone and um setting any uh income like limits on the amount that you can have access to.

The Anti-Terrorism Emergency Assistance Program, which is through the DOJ, is what this center is predominantly funded through.

Um it is a federal grant.

It is a kind of build your own adventure grant in the sense that you work with federal consultants to develop this grant, and then you apply for the grant that you've developed.

Um so we have quite a bit more flexibility to serve those who are impacted, and that does extend specifically to first responders and providers of services and the uh broader impacted community.

Uh again, none of those are not funds that are direct money to an individual.

They are funding for services and um and supports.

There are a number of small things that come up here and there, and early on there were a number of funds that are um were available to victims and survivors, and they change pretty regularly, and so right now I don't offhand know what's open at the moment.

Um, but my our advocates can actually help people uh connect with those services.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Thank you again for your service.

Uh yes, Councilman Long Jumps.

Thank you so much for being here.

Um I appreciate all that you shared with us.

You just uh move the mic.

Uh again, thank you so much for being here and sharing all of that information.

It's it's very helpful.

Um I'd like to know if Mrs.

Retundo would uh perhaps come up and share um a little bit about that funding that you were just um talking about in that case.

Sorry, Peggy.

If if she wouldn't mind.

Senator Rotondo, please join us.

Good evening.

I'm Peggy Rotundo Ward 2.

If you can just move the mic a little closer to you for our audience at home.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for being here, and thank you for reaching out to me.

And I think it would be really helpful for the public to hear the funding that will be available, which I believe is specifically for physical needs.

That is correct, Counselor.

Shortly after the mass shooting, the governor with support from the legislature set aside five million dollars for the main mass shooting care fund.

And we can start drawing from it this coming October.

And it was established to provide forever.

Also to cover mental health counseling.

And the way it works is that about $200,000 is generated every year from the $5 million that's invested and that $5 million will stay so the fund will continue to produce about $200,000 every year.

And it was specifically because we were concerned about people not having the money that they needed to pay for medical bills that this was established.

Please continue, Councillor Long Trump.

I I would just like to recognize all of your efforts, Senator Retundo, for really pushing for that because you were really uh behind that.

And I think it's really important that we have some sort of funding uh for just that uh for medical needs.

So I want to personally thank you for advocating for that for the families and victims.

Thank you, counselor.

Um we're all in this together, and um the resource resiliency center has done such fabulous work with support from community, and I know we're all very anxious to make sure that those who have these needs will continue to have them met in one way or the other.

So thank you.

You uh Danielle, you mentioned uh I think that you could help with uh some sort of uh needs assessment.

Um can you uh speak to that a little bit or or what you think that might entail?

Yeah, absolutely.

We looked into this previously, and there are a variety of different ways that you can do this, and some of them are really costly.

Um, and I'm sensitive to the idea of spending money to assess needs instead of serving needs.

Um and so I do believe that we can do that in a pretty low-cost way to be able to use existing survey tools that are out there to develop questions that make um good sense to individuals and to get feedback from the community about what we should be asking.

Um and we have the capacity to be able to create and generate, collect that information, keep that private to our organization, um, to provide a summary report of those findings and to you know hopefully encourage connection to future resources as as they're identified as the needs are identified.

Um where we could use support would be in reaching a broader audience.

Um I think the folks that are connected to the center are very connected, um, but there are folks who maybe have accessed us once or twice, but maybe don't, who are impacted, who we may not be reaching through our own networks, and so um I would look to the city and to anybody who wanted to contribute to reach out to us to learn more about what the questions are that we should be asking to make sure that we're covering all of our basis when it comes to unmet needs.

I think it's quick to think about uh resource needs and financial needs, but there are probably other needs that folks have.

Um that we yeah, that we would be happy to do so and we'll likely do so regardless of whether the city chooses us to to partner in that work.

Administrator Kenrath, um given what Danielle just said, uh would it be appropriate for administration to work with Danielle on developing developing some sort of uh plan or MOU?

I think so, yes, and uh one um sort of exactly uh you know what this partnership could look like and perhaps devise an MOU, you know, formalizing that or a so uh yes short answer yes, I agree.

Uh yes, more questions and thoughts from counselors.

Uh counselor Chitam.

Thank you.

Um Thank you, Senator Rotundo.

Uh uh I have heard that the there's congressionally directed spending funds that are available.

Is that the uh anti-terrorism assistance fund that you alluded to?

Um Ms.

Parent or Senator?

Um there's AEAP and Danielle, maybe you can AEP, what it's what it stands for?

It is anti-terrorism emergency assistance program, yeah.

And um these funds um will be available until the um other fund kicks in.

Um so there will be uh the opportunity for people to access what they might need before next October when the main mass shooting um care fund um kicks in.

I'm just gonna clarify a little bit.

So there's um the AEAP grant does a variety of things, so it does support the reimbursement of um vic for victims compensation funds.

So we did not expect to have 18 additional homicides in this state, and so part of that grant did go to replenish those funds.

Um it also goes to supporting the resiliency center through the end of 2027.

What Peggy's referring to is that there is a section of that fund that is an ancillary fund that allows us to be able to treat it like victims compensation, quite frankly, um and support the interim between uh if somebody exceeds their victim's compensation claim before the mass violence fund is available.

Um and so that's what she's speaking about in that bridging time, and that is again through the Attorney General's office through victims uh compensation services.

Okay.

Thank you.

So it's confusing.

Just to clarify, there has been a long-standing victims compensation fund that has, I believe, a $15,000 cap.

Um that's available to anybody who qualifies.

Correct.

The mass shooting fund will not be available until three years after the shooting, which is this October.

And that is an endowment essentially from which the proceeds are available direct in direct aid to uh survivors and victims of the shooting.

And the anti-terrorism assistance fund is available.

Is there money available from that to directly to victims and survivors, or is that all administrative?

It's directly so complicated.

Um the part that goes through the resiliency center doesn't have a direct, uh I don't have the ability to give somebody a check.

Um I guess I'll say it that very plainly like that.

Um the resiliency center has the ability to cover services to help navigate services to provide services.

This fund because we were awarded quite a bit of money and we're not able that we have availability, there's the ability to move some of those funds to the Attorney General's office to be able to bridge the gap between victims' compensation caps and the mass violence fund being available.

And so it will be treated similarly where they would pay medical bills or pay for counseling bills, uh, but again, not direct funds to victims.

Okay, thank you.

Um I I don't does anyone well, I know somebody has a list of people who qualified initially.

There were either 161 or 162 individuals, depending on which list you look at.

Um have all of these people been advised of the resiliency center and the services that you offer.

Have you reached out directly to them or are we relying on uh mass media and and campaigns and social media and uh venues like this, for example?

So we never received a list of victims or survivors, so we don't have contact information for folks that came through like the FBI from that initial time period.

Um we do work very closely with the Office of the Attorney General and Victim Services and they have distributed information to individuals who are accessing victims compensation about the resiliency center and many of the things that they do to communicate, we're both communicating.

And so when there are changes or things to be apprised of, um hopefully people are getting the message through through one of the two of us.

Yeah, of course.

Um they have the the attorney general's office um victim services has the list of those who have signed up and qualify.

And um when we when the working group to establish the criteria for the um main mass shooting care fund.

The people in the Attorney General's office that had that list reached out to everyone that they had on their list to determine what the needs were at that point.

We were really concerned about people that might be reaching the limit of what could be paid for in terms of their medical and counseling services through the victims compensation fund.

And that's how we got a sense of that's how we determined how many people were at that level and how we could help them bridge the with the funding that they needed until this other larger fund kicked in.

Thank you very much.

Thank you and also thank uh Representative McCabe, who co-chairs this fund with you, uh the oversight committee with you.

Um I think the important thing now is to get the word out.

That's the more we do to get the word out of the services, and particularly the MRC, um, the better we'll all be.

So this has been an important venue, and I I would like to ask um the council to formally request administration to develop an MOU with the MRC so that we can partner to the extent that we can.

One of the one of the dangers that we have is that all the information that we have with very few exceptions is available.

It's public record.

And it is not the desire of me, and I'm sure the desire of the council to publicize the names of people who are receiving benefits and funds uh and and reparations for this.

So we have to be very careful about that as well.

Thank you very much, both of you.

Thank you.

Councillor Nijing.

Um Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Um I I would just like to thank you for coming to speak tonight and explain some of the process.

I also obviously, Senator Rotunda, uh, thank you very much for your work.

Um I know that there were a lot of people who filled in gaps uh quickly um after the tragedy.

Um I know it's very raw in our community still.

Um there's a lot of trauma from the survivors, um, from our first responders who are present at uh both locations from medical staff that had to respond to the hospitals.

Um there's you know a lot of unresolved issues, I think, concerning uh the amount of trauma and guilt a lot of us are carrying.

But I think it's important that we remember that the folks that did survive, they're still here, they matter.

Uh, and the folks uh that weren't allowed to uh experience October 26th based out of families, they're here.

They matter too.

And so it's important that you know we hold them in community and hold support for them.

So again, thank you very much.

Um that's all Danielle, um, we spoke in the hall and you said uh members from the deaf community are here with the center and would like to speak.

Um given I'm sorry.

I'm not sure it's specifically members of the deaf community.

I just knew they were folks that were asking if they would have an opportunity to comment on this.

Yes.

Um members who are uh connected uh with the center.

Um I would just like to uh especially if there's our members of the Deaf community and the logistics of that, I would just like to bring them here and uh um and they can uh speak now.

And then we will go to public comment after that.

Okay.

If you could uh Senator Rotunda, if you could stay there in case there are more questions, if that's okay.

Uh you uh yeah, there we go.

Uh anyway, sorry, yeah uh uh we're still considering this part of the presentation.

Uh if anyone connected with the uh with the center would like to uh come to the third chair and uh speak, now is the time.

I'm Andrew Chessey from Sabbatis, Maine.

I'm a survivor of the Schmeggy shooting.

I'm a member of the victim survivor advisory committee at the main resiliency center, the MRC.

I'm speaking here tonight in support of the MRC.

The MRC is run by community concepts, one of the true nonprofits in the community.

The MRC opened its doors within 20 days after the shooting, providing number of services from group therapy to help with victims' comp or to just a hub where victims and survivors could come together.

The MRC was and is still a hub where anyone affected that night can find services.

The MRC doesn't offer every service needed, but can and will point each person in the right direction.

The MRC has been and continues to support not only survivors and victims, but the support the first responders and their families as well.

On the topic of survivors and victims' needs at the present time and how the city can help, it is my recommendation that any survivor and victim, first responder and family member that have needs to turn to the MRC.

And if the MRC cannot meet these needs, then the MRC can turn to the city for assistance and making sure these needs are met.

This ensures confidentiality and safety to all par parties involved.

I feel that if the city truly wants to help, then they will support the MRC.

And I have faith that the MRC in the city support will have the resources to direct anyone in need of assistance.

May God bless you all.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Anyone else from uh the center would like to speak, please come forward.

Clarifying questions.

Do you want just any survivors or connected to the center directly?

Uh right now connected to the center.

We will go to public comment for everybody else.

Thank you.

Anybody else connected with the center.

Any further questions for uh Danielle or Senator Retundo at this time from the council.

Uh okay.

Um yes, Councilor Niji.

Um just uh brief question concerning uh how uh a regular citizen can help.

Um and I think uh that follow-up might not just come in this space, but might be something that uh we could use our marketing team to reach out and communicate as well.

Um because certainly um there's a need um I think uh and there are people who do want to help but don't really know how.

So that's great.

Now I guess.

Sorry, how can people get involved in help?

Yeah, I mean you can reach out to us.

Um I think early on.

Early on, there was like kind of a flood of folks wanting to to help, and it was a little bit overwhelming to vet folks, and then a lot of people kind of drifted off into um into their own lives again.

And so I think that some of the things that we're looking for are help connecting with providers, so therapists and counselors who are skilled and um capable and willing to take on this work so that we can make appropriate referrals.

Um any community member that wants to create a safe space, maybe if you're a business owner and you want to help us to support an event or an opportunity for first responders to have private space to get together or for victims and survivors to recreate and get back in their communities.

Those are things that are really helpful.

Um it's a busy group of people.

I'll just say this.

Like I'm not a person that recreates, so like I had to learn about bowling and corn hall and all these things.

Um but these are folks who majority of who go to work and come home and have families and are doing you know multiple nights a week of recreation and are squeezing in dinner in between those things, and so to ask them to then also come and get support or or to let us kind of invade their spaces is an ask.

Um, and oftentimes being able to share a meal together is a great opportunity for folks to not have to make that choice.

And so if there are business owners or restauranters or somebody that wants to contribute, those are ways that um easily off the top of my head can be helpful.

Um but I'm sure people would benefit from financial advising and you name it.

Um but please just contact the center.

We have an info at um email address on our website, and the ladies behind me will answer you.

Thank you so much.

Uh we're gonna be heading to public comment in a second.

I invite you to to stay there so we can you know uh come back to you after public comment.

Um and understanding that members of the public may have questions, uh, any questions that you would like to answer, if you can just uh write them, write them down, and then uh we'll have you uh answer them uh when we come back.

Uh public comment is now open for this agenda item.

My name's Lisa Jones.

I live in Ward 2.

I'm not speaking on behalf of myself right now.

I'm speaking on behalf of a family member of a victim.

Um they've been watching the meeting from home, and uh they just wanted to reiterate to the council that the funds that were discussed tonight are all related to medical bills and mental health, but they don't help anybody with their ongoing daily life.

So last committee meeting or or the one before, I mean council meeting, we heard a man talk about being unable to pay his mortgage.

Um, so the 1.9 million dollars that was raised for victims that they still don't have would go to things like that, and the four funds that we've discussed tonight would not go to things like that.

So that is still an unresolved issue.

I just want that out there.

Hi, my name is Bobby Nichols.

I live in Auburn.

I'm a survivor of the mass shooting.

I lost my sister that night.

We were bowling at the Bowling Alley.

I left in an ambulance while she laid dead on the floor.

Have I been to the resiliency center?

Yes.

Many times.

And I understand that it's frustrating for me to leave my house.

My life has changed.

Everybody um experience is different, everybody's recovery is different.

What works for me doesn't work for someone else.

What works for somebody else doesn't work for me.

I stopped going to the resiliency center because one, I do not want to go to the bowling alley for a community tonight when I've seen somebody murdered in front of me.

Not a place.

I don't care what you do to that place.

You can paint it, you can get a new floor, you can have new friends.

Never will I go there.

Yoga, yoga doesn't work for me.

So I don't follow the norm and want to be part of the group, there's no help for me.

As far as these funds, these four things, victim compensation, never heard of it.

Mass violence care fund, never heard of it.

Do you know that I have not been able to work?

I can barely leave my place.

You know.

I'm looking for the exit.

What happened to me that night, I can never forget what I seen that night.

I can never forget.

I worked most of my life working three jobs.

I can't even work.

I'm on disability.

You know how hard that is?

Do you know that it took me a year and a half to apply for disability because I wanted to work.

I wanted to be a productive citizen.

But no, I can't.

Because I can barely function.

Do you know how many times I wanted to come to this meeting?

Lots of times.

It's very hard for me to be here.

It's very hard for me to talk about it.

It's very hard for me to ask for help.

And you know what I got for help?

Yes, there were good people in the beginning.

Not that these people aren't good.

But in the beginning, we had people from the DA's office.

We had people from the Portland police office, advocates that had been doing things like this for years.

Not that these people, it's not their fault that they weren't trained.

It's not their fault.

But whenever I made a suggestion, because I didn't want to go to the bowling alley, or I didn't want to do yoga.

Whenever I had uh asked to do something else, what else is there?

What else can I do?

I was called difficult.

Don't be difficult.

The year of celebration, they wanted us to go to the resiliency center and write on a bus there.

I said, you know what?

I'm gonna take my own vehicle because when I'm ready to leave, I'm ready to leave.

I'm in a lot of pain.

I'm hurting, and I'm sure I'm not the only one.

I'm not blaming anybody.

I am not taking other people's inventory what works for them.

I'm glad.

But what about the other people that are being left behind?

Do you know out of 162 people that were at the shootings that night, there's only three of us that had to leave our loved ones dead on the floor.

Only three of us.

Do you know that my brothers aren't in counseling?

They weren't offered counseling.

My kids weren't offered counseling.

My mother wasn't offered anything.

Do you know that I got a psychiatric specialist and you know how I got that?

I had to call somebody from Tri-County that was not even open anymore, Tri-County.

I had to find my own people.

I just want to know what about the people that can't use what's being offered.

You know?

And I haven't got any financial help.

Did we get gift cards in the in the beginning?

Yes, we did.

And I'm sure lots of people did.

But I haven't got nothing since.

And maybe that's because, you know, I don't like to ask for help.

But sometimes I think I'm not the only one.

And how many other people out there are hurting that can't ask for help?

That their lives are never the same.

Never the same again.

And I don't have any answers.

But I would like people to understand that there are other people that need other help.

You know?

Bowling doesn't work for me.

I love bowling.

I can never do that again.

I did that with my sister.

Can't do that no more.

You know, um, I haven't been able to come because I didn't want to be angry.

I don't want to always be in pain.

I don't want to make it about me.

But you know what?

There are other people that are hurting too that can't come, that haven't been able to go, that haven't been able to ask for help.

And I'm speaking for them too.

You know, um, when we needed people, there were lots of people that came together.

I appreciate everything that everybody has done.

I appreciate the resiliency center.

I wish I could get something from there.

I wish I could be involved.

I want to be.

It's been two and a half years, and you know that my life is still the same.

I have a hard time leaving where I live.

I live in my bedroom of somebody else's house because I don't have a place to live.

You know.

And um, I'm just saying there are other people that are hurting that are not getting help.

And they need help too.

And people need to be open to suggestions, and people need to to figure that, you know, what works for some doesn't work for all.

And um, that's about all I have to say.

Oh, yeah, there was one other thing.

So what pains pains me the most is that when the mass shooting happened, there were tons of nonprofits out there.

Did they come to?

Did they come and help?

Did they ask us if we needed anything?

No.

But 29 organizations took money and walked away.

And you know what?

That's re-victimization.

And the idea that nobody wants to talk about it and nobody wants to tell them to cough up the money is wrong.

It's wrong.

That's all I have to say.

Thank you.

Further public comment.

Ryan Salvatore, resident of Auburn.

According to the main community foundation, 100% of the money raised was supposed to go to victims and their families.

Instead, you all stood by while institutions lined up beside butchered and massacred families for their share of the check.

That is not governance, that is moral bankruptcy dressed up as procedure.

Here are the facts.

4.7 million went to those directly affected.

The average payout actually dispersed was $29,000 per person.

If the a if the entire $6.6 million fund had been delivered directly to victims, that would have been 40,000.

The remaining 1.9 million was divided equally among 29 nonprofits.

Over 900,000 went to Somali nonprofits.

Even the MCF stated that nonprofits largely failed to deliver meaningful help to those harmed in the shooting.

What did these nonprofits have to do with the shooting?

Did gunmen storm the nonprofits and shoot up their children and families?

No.

And none of these nonprofits are focused on tragedy relief, such as the Center for Grieving Children, which received nothing.

So I ask you this.

Do you think that that 1.9 million, which was dispersed to nonprofits could have helped victims like Ben Dyer?

Dyer was excluded from fundraising help when he was still in a hospital bed fighting for his life.

How many other people like Ben Dyer are there that weren't able to receive this funding?

Speaking of Ben Dyer, when Dyer stood up at the first council meeting on this topic with visible injuries, you, Scott Harriman, who is still not paying attention, by the way, refused to look at him and give me even the most basic of human respect.

Remember this doodle, Scott?

Remember this doodle?

He's still not paying attention, everybody.

And then uh Counselor Chatham, you stated that officials received, quote, unwarranted criticism.

Guess what?

You don't want criticism.

Don't take a job as a public servant.

Don't misuse the seat you temporarily occupy for your own ego.

You and Harriman are both pretenders, actors feeding your own egos.

You are more offended by the tone of a survivor rather than the fact that these victims have not yet received justice.

It is disgusting.

You are both a disgrace to the community.

As you decide whether and how aggressively to confront the main community foundation, this council needs to take a stand, whether it be a formal stance or an actual audit, this council needs to act.

If you don't, you expose this play for what it really is.

A dog and pony show, pretending to play politics while feeding your own brand and ego.

This issue should be front and center every day.

Instead, you put it near last at the first council meeting.

Well, most people watching at home are asleep, and most people attending have left for other issues.

You don't you want to sweep this under Lewiston's dirty rug.

You can hide behind HIPAA laws, but guess what?

Everybody wants this released.

The victims deserve to know where the funds went, and even if you have to redact names.

Or I guess you could take a page out of the Epstein files and release the information or redact all the pertinent information.

Your choice, act or remain cowards.

Further public comment.

Sorry.

My name's Melissa Dunn.

I'm a community organizer.

I'm also a survivor of a raging radicalized violent white man who was deemed or deemed himself legally insane.

And uh threatened to kill me, threats and attempts to kill me and his mother with his AR-15.

Point of order.

Uh yes, go ahead, Counselor Martell.

Jermaine.

Thank you.

Um excuse me, uh Melissa Dunn, could you uh speak on the topic?

Oh, sorry.

Melissa Dunn, community organizer resident Lewisden.

Um I really tried to advocate April 14th, 2020, to the city and police to warn them of the risks of violence that we were going to experience.

November 2021, I fled this man.

June 2022, I testified here at City Council.

Is this related to uh the agenda item?

And then uh we had some other incidences in community, and then Robert Card happened.

I tried to advocate then for attention to end mass violence or attention and calls to it, uh, because what I experienced was an indicator to me that it was about to happen.

Robert Card was the threshold of violence, and in my experiences, I know as a survivor, resources don't exist.

Trauma uh supports don't exist.

Credentialed people do not exist.

Since I fled this man November 2020 there's still no supports and resources, even after radicalized Robert Card, there's no supports and resources that are adequate for the type of violence that we have survived from, that we have witnessed, even for gun violence survivors.

As far as I know, resiliency center is not accessible to me.

Um, I was able to get a seven-year total protection from abuse order against this man with the total.

Yes.

Uh could you we're we're can you please still has his eight or can you please talk about the agenda item or relinquish your I'm talking about my experience, please.

Do not silence me.

We need to be talking this work.

Melissa, we need to be talking about the agenda item.

Because there's no supports in service.

Well, we need to be talking about the agenda item.

So please talk about the agenda item, or please lose.

Trauma-based alternatives to healing is what I had to access through local organizations here because they do trauma support work outside of what the healthcare provides.

And so I had to navigate supports and resources as a survivor on my own, and it pains me to hear people in my community still experiencing things that I tried to call attention to.

Thank you.

And thank you for interrupting me.

That's time, thank you.

Counselor, hello.

Audience members, please refrain from engaging with each other.

Please head out to the hall.

Thank you.

We will maintain order.

Thank you.

Is there further public comment on this agenda item?

Could council could audience members please refrain from speaking?

We will also have it quiet.

Thank you.

Is there further public comment for this agenda item?

Public comment is now closed.

Back to uh one second, uh Counselor Long Champs, thank you.

Um is there we're gonna take more questions and comments from uh from us up here, but is there anything that you would like to say, Danielle or Senator Retundo?

Fair enough.

Um Counselor Long Champs.

Yes.

Uh first I'd like to thank um the lady.

You just uh we need to for our folks at home.

Just talk right into it.

Okay.

Thank you.

Um the lady that stood up, uh, your bravery uh did not go unnoticed.

Um I understand that uh you've shared with us that you're pretty much confined to your home uh because of the result of October 25th.

And first I just want to uh say how sorry I am that you are still experiencing this.

Um I think this is an eye-opener, right?

That you know what may have been working with the resiliency center or does work for many, may not work for everybody.

Um and that's why we're here today.

That's why we're doing this.

We want to come together to figure out who are the victims and survivors that their needs have not been met, and how can we better meet them?

That's why we're here.

So I would like to meet with you please, which I know you welcome, uh, to see different ways uh that we might be able to help uh this young lady uh that spoke.

I I'm sorry, I can't remember her first name.

Bobby.

Thank you.

Um how might that look uh or different ways?

Um I I'd like to get a better understanding of that if that's possible.

But again, that's why we're here.

We're here to see if anyone, if there are victims and survivors that have fallen through the cracks, that um have not had their needs met um or that are just plain right out, still suffering really badly.

And um again, not everybody's recovery looks the same.

So I want to thank you again uh for being here.

I don't think that the city of Lewiston or the city of uh the state of Maine could have picked a better person.

So community concepts is blessed to have you, and so aren't we?

Um so thank you for taking this on and and just having such a large heart and compassion uh that's not phony at all.

I can usually pick that out pretty good.

Um don't mind calling it out when I see it.

So thank you so much for all that uh you've done, and I believe that you will uh take what she has set into consideration, as I'm sure you already have in the past, and see if there's a different way to help assist her and uh many others that may not be getting the assistance that they need.

So thank you.

And thank you, Bobby.

Administrator Kane Rath, um, if we're all mostly in agreement here, do you have uh what you need from us to proceed with uh an agreement or MOU or whatever the case may be, and then to bring that back?

I think so.

We'll set up some meetings and some and begin discussions, absolutely.

Uh how does that sound, counselors?

Seems like we're in agreement here.

Uh any further uh thoughts or questions uh from counselors uh counselor Chidam.

Uh thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Yes, just some housekeeping.

Um this this uh presentation tonight for which I think we're all very grateful and appreciative uh was precipitated by a resolve that Councillor Longshamp uh requested action on two or three meetings ago.

Um that resolve still remains.

And I'd like to ask Counselor Longshamp with the chair's permission if she's satisfied that it has it has had the effect that she desired Yes, thank you for asking uh Counselor Chitam.

Uh my goal was to really just make sure that needs are being met, whether that's medical uh how however that looks, um which I'm not exactly sure, but I think we are on the right path to uh making sure that uh no st no stone is left unturned and we are going to make sure that those needs are met.

So thank you.

I'm satisfied.

Thank you very much for that.

And uh having heard that to do some housekeeping, I would like to move to table the resolve that was presented to us uh two or three meetings ago.

Uh it's had its effect, and I would rather not have it lingering over us as uh an action item.

Uh before we do that, if I may, Councillor Chitam.

Um it might be appropriate to once um something is uh worked out between admin and the resiliency center, you know, kind of uh uh rework the resolve just a little bit and then uh and then bring that forward uh to to approve the uh cooperation going forward.

Uh counselor uh long champs, how do you feel about that?

I would agree.

Thank you.

Uh would that be uh how do you feel about that, Counselor uh Chitam?

Uh my sense is that if uh if an MOU is developed between Maine Resiliency Center and the City of Lewist, then that will be brought back to the council for approval, and that would be the action that we would take.

I don't know that it needs a resolve or any other action other than council approval of that memorandum of understanding.

So the same effect would happen.

Um we would put the council's blessing on the action, but we would not have necessarily a resolve that's hanging out there now waiting for action.

So my motion still stands.

I I guess I'm hoping for a second.

Right.

Well, one second, if I may, Councilor Chitam.

So I I think um uh the resolve um certainly has some value.

It talked about uh sentiment of the council and then uh you know it could uh we could add some language in that uh resolve also you know approves the uh the MOU or agreement that's uh that's going to be worked out.

Uh I think there's I think there's value in that.

Uh Counselor Longchamps, did you want to say anything else?

Um I would like to ask our uh city administrator what his opinion is on this.

Administrator Kanerath, your thoughts.

Yeah, I I think we have plenty uh to move forward uh at this point.

I think as Councilor Chitam said to bring back an MOU for approval and formalize the relationship at some point uh would be a logical next step, but I think uh administration has all that we need to move forward uh and begin discussions with the resiliency center uh and report back with uh an agreement to be uh formalized.

Oh okay.

Yeah, I I I guess just for clarification, I did not mean that we needed to approve a resolve tonight, but to bring the resolve back with the MOU.

I agree.

Okay.

Uh Counselor Chidam, how do you feel about that?

Uh I feel that I've made a motion.

There is no second, so my motion dies.

Um I guess uh thank you.

Um anything further from you too.

Um thank you very much for being here.

Thank you for your presentation, thank you for your work.

Um and thank you for all the uh uh survivors for being here.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Uh Administrator Kenrath, uh just um do we think that uh something will be uh ready for the next uh meeting?

Uh Danielle, how do you feel about that?

But it will be uh you know, obviously depending on availability for our time to meet.

And so I think we'll we'll strive for that, but it could be the meeting after as soon as possible.

Yes.

Thank you.

We're just gonna take a second for people to clear up.

Counselors, are we in need of a brief recess?

We're gonna take a brief recess.

Thank you.

Item number six public hearing and final passage regarding an amendment to the administrative ordinance clarifying the relationship of municipal departments and employees interacting with federal immigration enforcement.

Requested action that the proposed amendments to the City Code of Ordinances Chapter 2 Administration Section 2.79 pertaining to federal immigration enforcement receive final passage by a roll call vote.

So moved.

Councilor Chitam.

Second.

Second by Councillor Najing.

And Mr.

Mayor, if we could just, I'm sorry, if we could just clarify for the record, just to let you know that we emailed you today and left on your place setting a corrected version of the ordinance.

What went in the agenda packet was the one from the March 3rd meeting before it had the amendment incorporated.

So we were we caught that.

We emailed the change to you when we left it on your play setting.

So just for clarification, if for any members of the public who are planning to speak, we have um corrected that and you have the correct copy in front of you.

I appreciate that clarification.

Thank you very much, Madam Clerk.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Uh yes, questions comments from the councillor from the council.

Councillor Chitam.

Thank you.

Um just to expand on that clarification.

The action tonight is on the ordinance that includes the word required rather than the word authorized.

Correct, because that was the approved amendment from the last meeting for the question.

So for the public at large, the action tonight is on the ordinance requiring or with the word required as opposed to authorized.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh Councilor Martell, yes.

Uh, yeah.

Uh, before we go to public comment, I just would like to read into the record uh letter sent to the council by Chief Conley last night, if that's okay.

Absolutely.

Please continue.

Mayor Sheeline and members of the council.

I'm writing to express my disappointment with the recent process surrounding the immigration ordinance and to respectfully ask that the council reconsider the recent language change in the ordinance.

When councillor Chitam first introduced this ordinance, he sought feedback from the police department.

I appreciated that very much.

As the ordinance will most directly affect our department, we will be the entity most often required to comply with its provisions and likely responsible for investigating any potential violations.

I was honest with the challenges the ordinance presented, including differences between the proposed language and our existing policy, the forthcoming state law that will take effect in the near future, and the potential implication that the ordinance could convey a lack of trust in the police department.

That said, I made it clear that we were willing to assist in implementing the ordinance should the council choose to move forward.

Following my conversation following that conversation, my staff and I carefully reviewed our current policy, the proposed ordinance, and the new laws scheduled to take effect this summer.

During that review, we identified language within the ordinance that could present challenges when interpreting the appropriate protocol, specifically the use of the word required.

While the ordinance does provide certain exceptions that would allow cooperation with ICE, the distinction between required and authorized still creates uncertainty regarding what actions a department would be permitted to take in those situations.

However, under the current language, ICE personnel may still be unable to enter the department to work collaboratively unless such action is required by state or federal law or judicial order.

I explained our concern with the language to both Councillor Chitam prior to the meeting and to other members of the council during the meeting in which the emergency ordinance was presented.

I also provide examples and analogies to illustrate that in law enforcement there were very few actions.

We are strictly required or mandated to take.

More often statutes and policies authorize us to act when appropriate.

Following the initial council meeting, I did not receive any further quote feedback or questions from council members.

Aside from Councillor Chitam.

Councilor Chitam indicated he was exploring alternative alternative wording that might satisfy other members of the council and would follow up to obtain the department's input.

Our department has consistently been responsive to council inquiry inquiries on a variety of topics.

We regularly answer phone calls, respond to emails, and engage in extended discussions with members of the council when members of the council have questions, concern or concerns.

Given this, it was concerning to learn that the language was reverted back to required at the following council meeting without additional consultation, clarification, or discussion with the police department.

Internally, this ordinance has already required significant discussion with members of staff, some whom initially interpreted it as an indication of mistrust or a suggestion that the department had not been following appropriate protocols regarding regarding immigration matters.

I defended the council's intent and explained that the ordinance was not meant to police the police or imply that the department had not could not be trusted.

However, the recent change to the language made without input or follow-up discussion with the police department has made it considerably more difficult for me to continue conveying that message to our personnel.

Our agency is comprised of men and women who specialize in law enforcement.

Our command staff alone averages more well over 25 years of experience in law enforcement policy procedures in the interpretation and application of state law, state and local laws.

While the council serves as the governing body of the city, I believe it's imperative that you trust and respect the knowledge and experience of those who have dedicated their careers to law and to the law enforcement profession.

We remain committed to working collaboratively with the council and maintaining the highest standards of public safety in our community.

However, we respectfully ask that when the police department recommends a language change to an ordinance that directly affects our operations, that recommendation be given serious consideration.

Our input is grounded in years of experience and in the practical realities of how laws and statutes are not only written but implemented in practice.

Thank you for taking the time to review and consider this from our deployment department's perspective.

Your willingness to consider the operational and functional aspect of our police department is much appreciated, signed Chief Conley.

I would just also like to add that I spoke with Chief Conley earlier today, and as of the beginning of the workshop, it uh she indicated to me that no member of this council other than myself or um councillor noble had reached out to her since she sent this email.

So it appears to me that um based on the motion in front of us that we're going to uh I I've used the word performative multiple times for this ordinance when we've discussed it, and I believe that's still the case, and I believe now that it's an indication that it was just a performance when this council reached out to ask for the input from the police department.

She gave that input in good faith, and it appears that it's going to be ignored.

And I have a serious issue with that.

I will have more comments after.

That's it for now, Mr.

Mayor.

Thank you.

Councillor Harriman.

Thank you.

I want to point out that this ordinance is specifically restricting city employee cooperation for immigration enforcement only.

Um it doesn't restrict cooperation with with regard to trafficking, um, human trafficking, sex trafficking, firearms trafficking.

For one example, under I don't have the first page, but it's uh Section B, Immigration Enforcement Operations, Subsection One.

Um says no city employee or municipal department shall grant any federal agency access to any non-public area of any city-owned facility for an immigration enforcement operation, except where legally required to do so by state or federal law or judicial order.

So this ordinance is specific to immigration enforcement.

It's not saying that you can't cooperate with federal agencies on other on other matters and other types of crimes.

It's specifically tailored to immigration enforcement.

Further comments, uh questions from the council councillor Cheter.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Um I appreciate uh Chief Conley's email this afternoon.

I would like to assure her and the police department that there is no lack of trust or faith in the police department uh by this counselor, and I don't believe any counselor up here has that.

However, uh, we are responsible to constituents, voters, taxpayers in the city who have uh overwhelmingly reached out and asked for this language to remain that uh that only the only uh exception to this ordinance would be when it's required by federal state uh statute or by judicial writ.

So uh the council at least I am put in in the position of listening to a department or listening to our constituents because the goals of both appear to be at variance.

Um given that situation, the fact that I'm an elected official, I have to assure the police that this is not a reflection of a lack of trust or faith in their ability to do their jobs.

Uh we have been told repeatedly that the police uh do not cooperate with ICE anyway.

So I'm advocating that the word required remain because it's been requested by people who have uh from the voters who have reached out to me.

Counselor Long Champs, did you have something?

Uh yes.

Um I wish uh when the meeting happened with our chief and she had suggested that word change uh that she would have been made aware then that no, that wasn't going to happen.

Um for us to act as though we were going to change it and then switch that up to me is definitely um displaying a distrust in not only our police department but our chief.

There are times where absolutely your constituents need to come first.

But when we're talking about safety and our law enforcement, in my opinion, not one of us sitting up here can even relate to the job that they do.

So I I think it's uh, you know, I think this should have been dealt with when you had the meeting, when councilor Chitham had the first meeting with our chief.

It should have never been presented to us.

Now we are going back, we are saying that constituents are, and they are important, of course they are, but when we're talking about law enforcement and um things like that, I I don't think it's really our place to uh do their job.

Uh I just I think it's ridiculous, but yeah.

Uh Counselor Nagyen, did you have your uh hand up earlier?

I did, Mr.

Mayor, thank you.

Um I'd just like to point out that in section five of the ordinance uh as proposed, it stay stipulates unless presented with a valid and properly issued digital warrant, or as part of the Lewiston Police Department's investigation of a serious crime, such as human trafficking, sex trafficking, drug trafficking, or firearms trafficking, no municipal department or city employee shall, and then continuing on uh mentions uh these restrictions with working with the ICE and CBP because we're trying to do here again is mitigate risk to um uh the city and the municipality, while DHS runs roughshod over laws that that uh exist in our community.

Um that that is an absolute fact.

And also um there is a piece here where um community trust um is earned um absolutely, and there are um uh considerable portions of our community who do not currently have community trust in uh the local municipality working with ICE on immigration issues, which is a federal issue.

And when I refer to this, it's not simply the police, it is the municipality.

Um so um I just do support um the reverting back to the required language as authorized was not specified as what that means or who decides and and and what we can expect from uh such a language.

And this is uh, you know, again, I have not had one person reach out to me to communicate that um they are not in favor of the language change.

I have had several of my constituents reach out to say that they are in favor of the language change.

Uh Council Airman.

Thank you.

Um just a couple things on the language.

It was originally required, it was then changed to authorized, then changed back to the original language which was required.

Um there's a couple of problems with the word authorized in that the actions that we are trying to protect people against are legally authorized, and that's that's exactly why changing the language to authorized basically negates the whole ordinance.

If a federal immigration agency calls up a city employee and asks for their help on an immigration action or they ask for data uh regarding immigration, that is legally authorized.

That's why this ordinance is proposed.

Um the second issue is that um if we had authorized in here, it would put this ordinance at odds with the state law that's going into effect in July.

So uh city employees would be operating under two sets of rules, one from the local municipality and one from the state.

So leaving it as required aligns with the state law that's taking effect and it actually makes this ordinance do what it was intended to do uh rather than changing the language so that it doesn't really have any effect.

Councilor Martel, did I see your hand?

Yes, thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Um I would just like to point out uh that yes, it it is authorized, so I guess we're now picking and choosing what we're gonna allow our law enforcement to engage in when it comes to enforcing the law.

And while you some of my colleagues up here may have heard from their constituents that agree with this language, um I can tell you, well, it's on the agenda later.

So uh when the inneadle ordinance was up, we heard from a lot of people who didn't want any more needles and being given out in this town.

And the response was trust the experts.

Let's talk to the experts.

So I would again um posture that the experts in law enforcement would be our trusted and brave law enforcement officers and administrators who weighed in on this and gave their opinion uh to which again it seems we're gonna summarily ignore it.

Uh counselor Chinum, did you have something?

Yes, thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

I'd just like to clarify that this is the third time we've looked at this ordinance.

We've we passed an emergency ordinance which had the language authorized.

That was a result of email communication.

I never had a direct meeting, but an email communication with the police chief.

She suggested that we replace required, which was the original language with authorized.

That was done.

That was passed in emergency form.

That's effective today, I believe, because we're still within the 60-day window.

So that language exists today.

The change from authorized to required was made at a floor uh an amendment to the action as this was taken under first reading.

So how we could have communicated with the police chief when a motion was being made live, real time, uh it just doesn't make any sense.

The communication with the chief was made in good faith.

The council moved uh and accepted the change of the language from authorized to required.

So that's that's just to clarify the communication between counsel between me and the police chief.

Thank you.

Uh Council Lange, yes.

And and yeah, I I don't know what you're going to say next.

Um I'm recognizing you.

But I want to make sure that uh counselors are not just uh repeating themselves.

What's this?

Repeating themselves.

Uh well, no, that's gonna happen regardless.

Yeah.

I love you all.

And so uh no, not just repeating yourself, but I I do not want us to get into petty disputes here at the council.

But uh please continue.

Uh no, but I do think it's important to give accurate information when that was discussed um when that word change uh it was discussed that there was a conversation, whether it be by email or phone, and that our council president did agree to change that wording.

That's all I want to share.

So it wasn't just kind of a flyby happened all of a sudden.

You agreed, you shared that in public.

You can go back and look at the council meeting.

That's all I have to say.

Thank you.

Um yeah, and I under s uh I guess I just wanted to say uh I do believe that everyone up here has acted in good faith.

I believe that the meeting uh that took well, I guess was over email, but um the communication with the chief was in good faith.

You know, our passing the uh initial emergency ordinance.

Um I believe at the time I wanted to change it to required.

Uh and so that was done in good faith, and then we decided to change it.

That was in good faith.

I I don't believe that I refuse to believe that um we talked to people while uh I don't believe that we were being disingenuous.

And I think it's okay for counselors to change their minds.

It's happened occasionally.

And um, yeah, at this point, I do agree that uh having required um you know protects our community, and that's what this ordinance is all about.

I appreciate the chief's email.

I per Speaking for myself, I absolutely support our police chief and the police department.

This uh this does not take uh this ordinance does not take issue with them.

This issue this ordinance protects our community against external threats.

And um, yeah, I I support it as it is.

Uh at this point, seeing as everyone's uh or would anyone like to speak uh who hasn't spoke uh before we move to public comment.

Uh we're uh we are now heading to public comment for this agenda item.

Lisa Jones, Ward 2.

I'll be super quick.

I just jotted a couple notes while I was hearing you speak.

Counselor Martell stole my thunder uh because I really wanted to say that we listened to Councillor Chatham for about 14 months tell us that we needed to listen to the experts at Cozy about how we needed needles all over our community.

And we're still hearing now how bad the needle problem is, but we needed to hear from the experts, and you had a problem with me calling them experts, and they turned out to be users in the basement and not experts after all.

And you have an actual expert advising you on how to behave now, and you're ignoring them and choosing to listen to your constituents instead.

But your constituents in general, um, Counselor Chatham feel very, very ignored based on what they tell me.

Um then you had also made a comment um that um the council doesn't disrespect the police.

Um, but we in this audience have witnessed outright hostility um counselor Harriman towards Chief St.

Pierre on multiple occasions right in this room.

Um so I had to put my disagreement with that statement on the record.

Um I can say that this ordinance does not make me feel any safer at all.

Um I can say that the council has spent at least three meetings discussing this ordinance and zero meetings discussing the 30 plus shootings we have a year in our community, which is unusual.

Good um hi everyone, my name is Sophia.

I'm from Ward 3.

I want to um I urge you all to keep and adopt the required language in this ordinance.

It should not be watered down.

Clear, strong language is what gives this policy meaning and ensures it is applied consistently.

Strong institutions operate best when expectations are clearly defined.

Clear policy provides guidance, reduces ambiguity, and insurance consistency.

It also supports those responsible for implementing the policy by reducing uncertainty and ensuring roles and responsibilities are clearly understood.

When policies are left as optional or authorized, it creates room for inconsistencies in how they are applied.

That kind of variation leads to confusion and it undermines clarity.

Required the requ the word required removes that ambiguity.

It ensures that expectations are consistent across the board and that policies are applied in a predictable and transparent way.

Clarity also contributes to trust.

When people understand how policies will be applied, it creates a more stable environment for everyone in the community, including the police officers.

I also want to know that other communities in Maine, including Rockland, have adopted similar language with clear and consistent language um language.

Lewis then is a very diverse city.

Um who will be directly impacted by this policy.

In that context, having clear and required, you know, the word required is especially important to ensure consistency and understanding across the community.

Finally, I want to be clear about the distinction before you.

Language that is again authorized allows for a mis uh interpretation.

Language that is required ensures consistency.

In situations like this, expectations should not be left to interpretation.

The council has responsibility to listen to its constituents and ensure that the safety and well-being of the entire community remains top priority.

I also want to recognize that this ordinance has involved through community input.

That is how the democratic process is supposed to work.

Listen, reflect, and make adjustments throughout the process and community feedback.

Thank you.

Hello, I'm Kate Weber from Ward 2.

And I'm here tonight just to say a shoe a few short words in favor of the amendment limiting local participation and federal immigration operations.

I know we've heard a lot already, but I do think this amendment with the clear word choice required is a very common sense move with so many benefits to Lewiston from protecting local resources, due process, and of course our our people in the community.

During the recent influx of ICE agents in Lewiston, I saw firsthand how much fear it caused in my friends and neighbors.

And for all of us who walked downtown Lisbon Street in those few weeks, it was just empty.

It was such a strange feeling being there, like a dystopian uh feeling.

And my husband works downtown, he saw business drop off.

Um it didn't feel like the Lewiston that we know and love.

Um so finalizing this amendment is a really important way to ensure that we're able to protect our own community locally, and I want to thank the counselors for their work on this.

Further public comments, Matthew Agren, Ward 4.

The word authorized means they are allowed to do it.

They are allowed to do traffic stops.

Would we change the rules to be or for example, how about parking during snowstorms when we're supposed to be clearing the roads?

They are authorized to tow.

They're not required to tow.

So public works has to still go around vehicles.

Should you change the ordinance there to say they're required to tow them?

Probably.

Are they required to do traffic stops on every car they see speeding in Lewiston?

God, how much money would we bring in into traffic finance?

Hell, I'm probably guilty.

Probably all of us are.

Thank you.

Melissa Dunn, community organizer, Blake Street resident.

Um urge city councilors to keep uh it as it is.

And I believe that uh like people protect their investment.

It's a kind of assurance for the police to have a clearly outlined because as we've seen, ICE has been kind of running good old boys wannabe mafia in the streets.

And I have witnessed uh people, residents uh being racially profiled in community by ICE agents.

And so if Lewis and Police says they don't racially profile, I don't think they'd want to really implicate themselves in that kind of good old boy wannabe mafia mentality until they get their stuff straight.

I don't know.

But neither here nor there.

Uh we've worked on countless cases of citizens being detained, people with legal rights to be here, people for driving fraction five miles over the speed limit being returned back home with ankle monitors on, and they don't do that for the ordinary common privileged person.

And so um we're just asking city council to make sure that assurance is there, make sure it's like an insurance, and that uh not just residents are protected, but like I mean, you don't want to open yourself up to litigation, you know, because of that blurred-lined relationship.

The police are still gonna work with federal agents to do the raids that they need to, probation violations.

What else was there?

Something else I can't remember, search warrants and other things like that.

So that's like usual business, and and we kind of expect to kind of see that that kind of stuff around in town.

What we don't expect to see is that our neighbors being racially profiled or harassed, or when they're telling an ICE officer, they're a citizen, they have legal right to be here, and that ICE agent weaponizes and says that they're not detains them, but they're released back home because they were a legal citizen, had rights to be here, you know.

So please just think about you know, protecting protecting and keeping that line.

Okay.

Martin Chartran Ward 3.

Uh I appreciate this ordinance.

Uh I appreciate the change back to required and keeping it that way.

Uh I support that the wording as it's as it's being proposed.

Uh a lot of the reasons for that, Council Herriman, Council Najine, and previous members of the public have outlined, so I won't repeat them.

Um, you know, how that the word authorized is very ambiguous and conflicts with state law.

I just I will say uh this is not an abstract issue.

Uh we all saw in the press Herald in the Sun Journal that police departments in Portland, South Portland were in communication with ICE.

Um some of that may have been legal even under the proposed ordinance because it was sort of friendly communication, not technically collaboration.

But that does indicate that there is a need for clear lines to be drawn.

I do hear the concerns, Chief Conley mentioned.

Um I'm disappointed that the police would take this ordinance as or take this this ordinance as uh offensive thing or a distrustful thing.

Um I think there are solutions besides changing the wording to authorized.

If there is a concern about the exceptions mentioned of human trafficking, etc.

Uh being on being outlawed by the ordinance well, whereas elsewhere in the ordinance they're being uh provided for that could be added, that could be changed, carved out specifically in Section B to say uh uh except as required by state or federal law or judicial order or authorized in section five subsection five below or something like that.

So we're not then nullifying the whole ordinance.

I also think that um it's about giving clear protocols.

I work in behavioral health, and I have to follow a lot of rules about what information I share with whom.

Uh sometimes it's challenging on and unwieldy to follow them, and it seems like people are all well-meaning and you know, there's no need of them, but I do because I know it's for a good reason, and I don't take that as a sign of mistrust.

I take it as a sign of uh the seriousness and sensitivity of my work, and I would hope that the public servants we hire would do the same and respect that they're doing work that's sensitive and privileged, and that in a democracy there needs to be limits on that.

Uh thank you.

Elizabeth Eames Ward 3.

Uh I'll be very brief.

I just want to remind every you that this ordinance is not about the police, it's about everyone who works at the city.

And so uh that's just a bottom line, and I would um support keeping required as the wording.

Thank you.

Ryan Salvatore, uh Alburn resident.

Uh, first off, uh unfortunately we're not a democracy, we're actually a constitutional republic, and there's a big difference between the two.

Um I think there is a big problem going around with a lot of propaganda, and I would put this on both sides as well.

Uh what I haven't heard from the council, I've heard it a lot at public comment, is kind of an argument back and forth as to why um they don't want to be working with ICE, like give an actual explanation to what they believe the problem is with working with ICE.

Um the people who were shot and killed during ICE protests were actively disrupting that.

And I think you can all picture in your s picture in your head a SWAT raid going on and a protest outside of a SWAT raid.

There's they're trying to conduct business there, and unfortunately it's really dangerous business, and you're putting yourself in the middle of it.

ICE's first um item on their agenda is getting rid of illegal immigrants, putting them back where they came illegally.

Their first act into the country was doing something illegal.

And unfortunately, a lot of these people, hundreds of victims from people like this have been dealing with child trafficking, um drug trafficking, weapons trafficking, and then we also have the problem of assimilation.

So when somebody legally immigrates here, we have them learn a lot about the country that they're assimilating to.

And unfortunately, illegal immigration kind of skips that whole process that we've set up.

And we have processes set up for people who don't have don't have funds.

We have asylum laws for a reason.

I'd like to mention something real quick here too.

Speaking of assimilation, is even in Islam's holy texts, uh, there's some serious concerns as far as assimilation.

Uh excuse me.

How is thank you, Counselor Herman?

How is this relevant?

This is relevant.

The hadith like the Sahira Bucharan.

How does this relate to the agenda item?

Yes.

Uh we have a lot of pedophilia.

Point of order.

Thank you, Counselor Herman.

Yes.

His next move at age 11.

Acts we'd call it.

So word of order.

Thank you.

How is this relevant to the remote?

So this is not amazing, Chris.

This is not relevant of order.

This is not relevant.

Your time is point of order.

Thank you.

Point of order.

How is this relevant to the agenda?

I've handled this.

The Muslim world was the last time.

Muhammad is a dead pedophile in Christ is the same.

The person keeps talking.

I've already called for the officer.

Christine Holden, Ward 1.

Good evening, Counselors.

I'd like to say that I am in support of the 90% of people who've agreed with this ordinance as proposed.

And if there is concern among the police, which I certainly understand, they probably want more information, training, and so on.

But they are going to have to re cooperate with the state law as well.

And this may be a very good opportunity to put into effect a little bit of that advantage before that one goes into effect.

And I have also heard from many people that they trust the police and they want to support them.

And this gives them authority to do so when they are required to do something.

Thank you.

Further public comment.

Brett, you called this uh performative, and I fully agree with that.

This is uh an act of theater.

Um Lewiston Police Department is already not providing assistance for uh federal immigration enforcement.

Our police officers' authorities derived from the state, and immigration is a federal mandate, not uh a state mandate.

So by definition, they can't be enforcing that or helping with that.

Um and uh yeah, you know, Elizabeth Thines was up here earlier saying that uh this applies to the whole city, and that's great.

Um, I had some email conversations with uh deputy administrator O'Malley.

He's not familiar with any uh any city uh cooperation with federal immigration enforcement either.

So if the things this ordinance is is supposed to prohibit are not happening in the first place, then what's the motivation for this item?

And all I can think of is that it is political grandstanding, it's performative.

Uh it it's it's not prohibiting something that's currently happening.

So I already know this is gonna be a five to two vote, so have a field day with it.

Uh, but I encourage this to get voted down.

Further public comment.

Uh further public comment.

Okay, public comment is now closed.

Back to the council.

Uh counselor long terms, and then counselor Nagy.

I would just like to say for the record that there is already a policy in place with our police department uh with working with the um immigration.

And they have not once, to my knowledge, violated that.

So there is already a policy in place.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Just really quickly, one of the things that was brought up by one of the speakers was language concerning authorized versus required.

It's the same as may and shall.

May allows for employee discretion.

Shall does not, and that's the point.

We do not want discretion for any employee to be acting in immigration enforcement actions.

And the reason for that is because it is one a federal priority, and two, the processes in which we're seeing with DHS are violating constitutional law.

None of us are constitutional scholars, and we're not the judiciary.

The best way to handle the situation is to say in the future.

Under this uh administration in the way it's being carried out today.

Councillor Martell, did I see your hand up?

Yes, Mr.

Mayor.

Thank you very much.

I would like to thank my colleague for saying it so plainly because discretion is where we put trust in our law enforcement officers.

So by removing any room for discretion removes that trust.

So it's finally nice to hear the truth come out because I get a little tired of hearing we support and we trust, and we don't have any uh distrust in our police department, and we also want to remove any and all uh discernment and judgment on their part.

I feel like those are contradicting statements.

I also hope that ICE comes back to Lewiston.

There's still welcome at my house, and I still intend to give them as much assistance as they could ask for further comments from council before we vote.

Madam Clerk, please call the vote.

Excuse me, counselor from word six?

Yes.

Ward seven?

No.

Word one?

Yes.

Word two?

No.

Word three?

Yes.

Word four?

Yes.

Word five.

Yes.

Motion passed by vote of five to two.

Thank you very much, Madam Clerk.

We are now heading to item number seven.

Item number seven.

Public hearing to receive comments on the draft CDBG 2026-2030 consolidated plan.

Requested action to conduct the first public hearing to receive comments on the draft Lewiston 2026-2030 community development block grant consolidated five-year plan.

Is this just a public hearing, Madam Clerk?

It is, yes.

There's no uh action requested.

Okay.

All right.

So we will head to the public hearing as soon as we hear from uh I I take it you have a a presentation manager, Ruth.

Very, very short presentation.

Well, we're in order as time went on.

Listen, we uh we have a long time to go till midnight.

We got time.

Power point.

So that the audience can see.

I'm sorry, is there a problem?

Um I didn't know that was the question.

This is our new chairperson.

Oh, I see.

Okay.

Rosie.

Rosie, thank you very much for being here.

I'm sorry I did not recognize you as our chair.

Yeah, Council Rose community development.

Okay, we uh sorry, okay.

We're we're gonna start over.

Thank you all for being here.

Please use mics.

Introduce yourselves and then kick us off.

Catherine Ruth, a community development manager.

We have our acting director here this evening.

And we have our new committee chairperson here this evening.

Do you want to introduce yourself?

Please use uh just pull it closer to you.

I think most of the committee members are familiar.

You're gonna have sorry to be such a pain here, but just move, yeah, just keep pulling the mic.

You're good.

Okay.

Better?

Very nice, thank you.

I was gonna say I think most of the committee members are familiar.

My name is Rosie Boyce, and I am um Lewisden resident, and I am the new committee chair for the Citizens Advisory Committee for the Community Development Block Grant.

John Blaze, acting uh director of economic and community development.

So I'll be very quick this evening.

This is the first of three public hearings on the new consolidated CDGB plan, community development block grant funding plan.

We required every five years, and in our case is six years because there was a one-year extension that both the City of Auburn and the City of Lewiston, who are members of the home consortium received.

And so this is the first of third three public hearings, and this public hearing is supposed to take place before we cement in what the final draft will be.

So it's to get opinions, information, and let people have their opinions before we set what the goals are.

And so thank you for having us.

The U.S.

housing and urban development called HUD requires that we have a comprehensive public planning process for the consolidated plan for the use of community development block grant funding.

And so this is a process that is to involve all stakeholders, everyone as much as you can.

We have had a lot of surveys, uh informational sessions, met with a variety of community groups as well as uh community boards and committees.

So uh that has been going along well, but we need to have uh more input.

The consolidated plan is very important because the funding over a five-year period for CDGP is almost four million dollars, and so you would want opinions from the public as to exactly uh what they would like to have the money spent on.

And you also have the home fund investment monies, which are approximately 1.2 million dollars that will come in during that period of time.

So that's $5.2 million on a plan.

You just don't want four or five people making a decision on a committee.

You want as many people as possible.

This evening I put out copies of an important survey by the agendas uh by the door, as well as a copy of this uh very quick PowerPoint.

And so you'll see on the target program area, which is in the package of information that the council has received, and up on the screen this evening.

We have census tracks 201 through 204, which are in the C D G B target area, and this is basically the area from Russell Street.

Um I'm gonna uh forget the name of the other road here.

East Street, East Avenue.

So Russell Street, East Avenue coming down to the tree streets and then going down to the downtown and then to the river and the canal.

So this is basically the area for the C DGB plan.

We have online on the City of Lewiston site on economic and community development under the uh C DGB con plan, two plans, the 20 and 20 through 24, which we're currently using now, and that is the one that's referenced in the counselors package.

And we also have a new plan that we have put together uh and presented to the citizens' advisory committee Monday night.

And so this plan has the same goals right now to not influence the process.

So we listed the goals the same and updated all the statistics and information that we could.

And then we'll currently, from the input that we get uh be updating the 26th to 2030 consolidated plan uh shortly.

So the goals that are in the plan are four, and there's still goals that I believe that we'll see in the next plan, but there may be other goals that will be added from some information that we've uh received.

Goal number one provide essential public services to improve the quality of life for individuals and families with low moderate incomes, including special needs populations and those experiencing homelessness or at risk of becoming homeless.

And this is where we have uh had uh over the years allocations to a whole variety of social service and public service agencies that have been very helpful.

Goal number two increase, maintain, and improve the supply of safe and affordable housing for individuals and families with extremely low to moderate incomes.

And so this is where we've had targeted code enforcement.

We've had the housing rehabilitation loan program, um done some uh building demolition and lot demolition to clear off lots that they could be used rather than have dilapidated homes on them.

Goal number three is to create economic opportunities for individuals and families with low to moderate income.

And in this area, we've had a variety of business goal programs, business loans, and business grants.

Goal number four, to preserve and improve public facilities and infrastructure that serve low to moderate income neighborhoods or special needs residents.

And this is where we've had street rehabilitation projects, sidewalk rehabilitation projects, work in the different parks, Kennedy Park, Sunnyside that's starting, and a variety of other items of that nature.

I'm going to skip down to the process.

And so for next steps, we need to have input.

We only have a few surveys.

On your 2020 plan, you had 36 residents that commented.

We're almost up to that, but we need to have more.

So in the on the website and in the PowerPoint copies, we've got the address for people to take the survey.

They can take a copy of the survey that I put by the agendas, take it home, fill it out.

They can use it to get the code or to get the address.

But please fill it out.

It's anonymous.

You don't need to put down your name, you don't need to put down your street.

Just some basic information about what you'd like to see the city do with the funding through the federal government that we'll be getting.

And so the rest of the process is we're having a housing forum with a variety of entities in the community and around that provide housing and look for housing funding.

That will be coming up at the end of the month for the agencies.

And we'll have other sessions and be contacting all the public service agencies because there's a survey for them too.

Some have submitted it, but we really we need to have more surveys come in.

So basically, this is to get the information out.

But I'd like to report what we've received as additional information from the 22 community organizations, businesses, and community groups that we've talked to, and since then about 10 more.

People would like to see, and this is a resounding comment through all of the meetings, more focus on addressing homelessness, providing more wraparound services for the homeless, more wraparound services for the seniors.

That's because it's so confusing to go from agency to agency and to go through all the steps and sometimes miss some of the benefits that are available.

Three, keeping rental properties in better order and having home inspections that came up constantly.

Four, youth programs with more emphasis on recreational facilities and activities where the youth are in their neighborhoods to bring back the neighborhoods.

Affordable child care businesses in the downtown and other locations in the city.

And that's something that economic development is talking about now to find locate people who would like to run child care businesses.

Lack of housing stock, which this has come up a number of times because of the lack of housing stock that's good and the lack of housing stock, people end up living in places that they shouldn't be living in, but there's no other place to live.

So looking at the housing stock as well as other programs that can help.

So these are trends and themes that we're seeing.

Nothing here is a surprise.

You've heard them before, but people are really adamant on them.

So what would help the city is to complete this plan is to have more information from the citizens.

Fill out the survey, it'll take 10 minutes.

Anonymous.

You can email it right in, it'll go right in on the survey monkey.

You can drop it off at the third floor of City Hall.

You can email it in.

Whatever you would like to do to get the surveys in.

And we've got where is the next one?

Oh, they're down there differently.

All right, good.

Next steps coming up.

We have a public hearing at the Citizen Advisory Committee meeting on Monday, March 30th.

That is at noon in the first floor administrative office.

So this is the only slide information that's not in the council's package.

We have a 30-day comment period when we get to the draft final consolidated plan.

That begins on April 3rd.

April 3rd, yes.

April 3rd, 2026, and go for 30 days, ending up at the final public hearing on Tuesday, May 5th at the City Council meeting, which starts at 6 o'clock PM.

And that will be lined up with the budget and other CDGB and home programs.

Thank you.

So that's a very basic background for the citizens and the counselors.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Is there anything you'd like to say?

No, I'd I'd just like to, you know, thank Catherine for the you know great job that she's done.

Um we're really lucky to have her and um putting everything together.

It's just wonderful.

And um, you know, the the big thing about this is it is a lot of money.

Um we really want public input.

I think that it's a very important that we get that.

Um that way there we can have a better product and um the important piece of community development, it really it it benefits economic development, right?

It's that support system.

So I think we go hand in hand, and that's that's what we're working towards.

Thank you.

Uh Rosie, is the uh as the chair is there anything you'd like to say?

Yes, I prepared us a small comment here.

It's a um I don't need to introduce myself again, I don't think, but um uh tonight is the first public hearing for this plan, and really it's an open invitation for the community uh to step into this process with us.

The consolidated plan is how we decide where C D BG, that's a mouthful, where that funding goes over the next five years into housing, into public services, into economic opportunity, and into the infrastructure that shapes daily life in our community.

At its core, this process is about investment.

Now we often talk about investment in terms of dollars, businesses choosing to invest in Lewiston, development projects, economic growth, but CDBG asks us to think about investment more broadly.

It asks us what are we willing to invest in when it comes to people because behind these funding categories are real conditions.

We're seeing rising homelessness and increasing need for wraparound services and supports.

We're seeing nearly half of renters carrying unsustainable housing costs, and we're hearing directly from residents that access to child care, transportation, and stable employment continues to be out of reach for too many.

We're also seeing growing concerns around elderly in our community and an increase in concern involving young people.

And when you look a little closer, what is underneath that is not complicated.

We do not have enough safe accessible spaces for teens, places where they can go be themselves and actually feel like they belong.

And when those spaces do not exist or they become inaccessible, the need for connection does not disappear.

It just gets met elsewhere, often in ways that are unhealthy, unsafe, or unsustainable.

To be clear, this is not about blaming the youth though.

It's about listening to what their behavior is telling us and deciding what we're willing to build in response, especially in a moment like this, as we continue to process the impacts of the tragedy in October and hear updates from the main resiliency center earlier.

Um we are reminded that community safety is not just about response, it's about connection, it's about prevention, and it's about whether people feel like they belong there, blank here.

The role of this plan is to respond to those signals, not after the fact, but to do it upstream to invest in the conditions that prevent crisis before it happens, to invest in stability, connection, and opportunity.

And to recognize that the CDBG funding is just one of the many ways that we are invited to invest in the future of this city.

As the chair of the Citizens Advisory Committee, I want to be clear that this process is not symbolic.

Community members are actively reviewing data, evaluating needs, and helping shape funding up priorities, but we cannot do that alone.

This hearing is an invitation for residents, organizations, and stakeholders to share what is working, what is missing, and what needs to change.

And I'll say this respectfully.

If we want different outcomes in our city, we have to be willing to listen to the people experiencing the conditions we are trying to change, especially those who have been historically overlooked, underserved, or pushed to the margins, because they are not just participants in this process, they are the experts in it.

So I encourage everyone to engage with this process and make your voice known.

Join us in this investment in our city.

Fill out the surveys, they're available up at the door, like Catherine said.

Uh attend one of the meetings that are listed up there, or come to a meeting and speak up.

Because this plan will shape the next five years of Lewiston.

And ultimately, it reflects what we are willing to invest in, who we are willing to invest in, and the future that we're choosing to protect together.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Excellent questions, comments from the council before we go to public comment.

Counselor and Jean, yes.

Just really quickly, and I should know this, but the survey monkey is in uh different languages.

Do we know that?

Okay.

So perfect.

Uh ultimately, census tracts, uh all four of the census tracts have heavy amount of folks who speak different languages.

Uh census track 202, that's my neighborhood.

Um I can uh make it a uh priority to get some of my neighbors to fill out that the survey.

Um I think it's important.

Um right, it is uh part of this plan going forward for the next five years.

Six million dollars.

Um considerable amount of money for neighborhoods that lack investment and so yeah.

And I take it this link is uh on our website somewhere or social media or yes, it's on the website.

Um at the City of Lewiston website under economic and community development as a CDGB con plan link on the left-hand side.

Just click on it.

It's near the bottom of all the links and all the surveys uh for the citizens as well as the survey for uh public service, social service agencies is on there.

Thank you.

Okay, I know you just said that, but I already forgot how to find it.

Perhaps uh administrator Kane Rath you could request uh our marketing team to uh uh to post that on social media again.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

Uh I I promise I'm listening, uh manager Ruth.

Uh further uh questions, comments from council.

We are now heading to um public hearing is now open for those who would wish to speak going uh okay.

Martin Chartra and Ward Three.

Uh I only got a chance to see this today, so I haven't looked in detail at the uh funding breakdown.

I will do that and reply on the survey, but from what I could see, it seems like it's going to good things, and I appreciate the work done by the committee.

Further uh public comment.

Back to the council.

Uh thank you all for being here.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you for serving Rosie.

Uh item number uh Madam Clerk, are we on item number eight?

Item number eight, yes.

Excellent.

Item eight, second public hearing and adoption of order approving the gendarine active living estates uh Gale, Farwell Street Tax uh increment financing district and development program.

There are two items for requested action.

The first item is to conduct a second public hearing regarding the proposed Gale Farwell TIFF and development program and to consider if anyone claims the project will have a substantial detrimental effect on that party's property interests, and then determine if those detrimental effects are outweighed by the benefit of the development.

Thank you.

Uh uh thank you uh for coming back, Director Blaise.

Uh please uh uh both of you could introduce yourselves and then kick us off, and then we will go to uh the public hearing.

Sure.

John Blaze, um economic and community development, um, acting director, and I have Noah Gendron here.

I'll um agenda representing gender and active living estates, the uh owner of the subject parcel.

This is uh very similar.

Uh we saw this uh last council meeting.

It was uh this is an administrative um public hearing.

Um again, the public notice was published in the Sun Journal on Sunday, August 3rd, um, summarizing the TIFF, uh inviting any interested party to attend and speak uh before the city council.

Um it was brought to our attention that the Sun Journal does again does not print on Sundays making this original public notice a day late for the 10-day statutory requirement to comply with state statute title 30A part two subpart eight, chapter 206, subchapter one, subsection five uh two to six.

We needed it to hold another administrative public hearing before submitting the TIFF before the end of this month.

The last presentation was on August 12th.

I will point out as Councilor Chitham asked previously meet the previous meeting.

Nothing has changed.

Everything still remains the same.

But to again to meet the requirements for the state for DECD.

We're required to have another public hearing to teach to meet the 10-day requirement.

Would you like to say anything?

Okay.

Well, we're gonna head to uh public hearing first here.

Um public hearing is now open.

And we're now back to the council.

Counselor Naging.

I was just gonna move to adopt the order.

Uh okay.

Well, I know I'm jumping the gun here.

Now I think you're you're in order here.

Uh no pun intended.

Second.

Yes, and now we have a second by counselor Martell.

Madam Clerk, did you get all that?

Um I did.

If we could just read it for the record, uh, Mr.

Mayor, the motion would be if the council determines that the benefits of the amended TIFF district and associated development outweigh the negatives articulated.

The council is asked to, and this is the motion to adopt the order approving the Gale Farwell tax increment financing district and development program authorizing the city administrator to execute an agreement for development assistance tax increment financing and authorizing city staff to submit the amendment and related documents to main DECD for approval.

Councillor Nagine, Councilor Martell, are we still in agreement?

Yes.

Yes.

Are we all set, Madam Clerk?

I'll set.

No, our are you okay?

I'm all set, yes.

Thank you.

Okay, excellent.

Um from any of us.

Madam Clerk, please call the vote.

Counselor from Word 6.

Yes, I think you have a question.

Wait, what?

Or sorry, did someone have a question?

Okay.

I'm waiting to say yes.

Okay.

Thank you, Administrator Kane Rath.

We will now proceed to vote.

Madam Clerk.

Counselor from Word 6.

Yes again.

Word seven?

Yes.

Word one?

Yes.

Word two?

Yes.

Word three?

Yes.

Word four.

Yeah.

Ward five.

Yes.

Motion passed by vote at seven to zero.

Thank you.

Uh thank you both.

Um, administrator Kane Rath.

Uh Madam Clerk, thank you.

Uh, we are now heading, now that everyone's been thanked, we are now heading to item number nine.

Item number nine.

Public hearing at an application for a business license for spur wink services incorporated for syringe service program license at 1155 Lisbon Street.

There are two items for requested action.

The first item is to conduct a public hearing to receive citizen input and comment regarding the applications submitted by Spur Wing Services Incorporated for a business license to operate a syringe service program at 1155 Lisbon Street.

Lewiston.

Okay.

Are you uh kicking this off, uh, Madam Clerk?

Um I can, sure.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

One second, do we have anyone from Spur Week here?

Uh please kick us off, Madam Clerk.

Sure.

As you know, last fall, the council um established an ordinance regulating uh syringe service programs.

The state has had licensing of these programs for several years.

Uh the council felt that the city should also license these programs similar to uh other uh communities, I believe Bangor and Portland off the top of my head.

So uh there's currently one program in town that is licensed by the state.

So this application is simply getting them in line with the city ordinance regarding local licensing in addition to their state license.

The uh three uh three departments need to review the application and make recommendation.

Police department has done that.

Uh fire and code have done that preliminarily.

They have their inspection scheduled on Monday for scheduling purposes, they weren't able to get in prior to this uh meeting, but the city council is the licensing authority for first-time applicants, uh, original applications, I should say.

Uh renewal applications are handled by the staff.

This is the first time application because the ordinance basically just went into effect a couple months ago.

Um, so the should the council decide to um approve the license, we would recommend that the motion be the one basically printed in your book, but also notated that within the motion that it is contingent upon a final positive recommendation from fire and code after their inspection on Monday.

Excellent.

Thank you for that.

Um the public hearing for this is now open.

The public hearing is now closed.

Discussion comments from the counselors.

Well, perhaps we can have a motion.

Sure.

The motion would be to um approve, I guess, approve the license application for a civil syringe service program for Spur Wink Services Incorporated to operate at 1155 Lisman Street in Lewiston and to have uh final approval be contingent upon final recommendation from the fire department and code enforcement department.

I second by counselor Nagying.

Discussion comments from the council.

Uh Counselor Chitam, yes.

I I have reached out to Spur Wink.

Um I'm hoping that the annual renewal will not be as voluminous as the initial application.

Uh and I'm not certain now whether they were required to submit each month's uh data to us, but I have reviewed it, and I would like to point out that in calendar 2025, Spurwink collected 45,000 more syringes than they distributed.

For every seven needles they collect, and for I'm sorry, for every five needles they collect they distributed that they collected seven.

This ordinance is here because of an agency that came to Lewiston, created all kinds of havoc and left, and now the valid harm reduction syringe provider is suffering the consequences of the administrative burden imposed by our other SSP.

So I'd like to again reiterate that there were comments made tonight.

Because of Spur Wink, there have been 45,000 needles removed from the local environment.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh questions, comments, or um, yeah, more comments from counselors.

Uh Catherine Rider, if you're out there, thank you for everything.

Madam Clerk, please call the vote.

Counselor from Word 6.

Yes.

Word seven?

No.

Word one?

Yes.

Word two?

No.

Word three?

Yes.

Word four?

Yes.

Ward five.

Yes.

Motion passed by vote of five to two.

I'm number 10.

Item number 10.

Order authorizing a financial guarantee agreement with Milltown Sports and Entertainment LLC for the acquisition of the COLISA.

Requested action to adopt the order authorizing a financial guarantee agreement with Milltown Sports and Entertainment LLC for the acquisition of the Collise A.

Motion, please.

So moved.

Uh Counselor Najine, seconded by me.

Uh seconded by Counselor Longchamps.

Thank you both for joining us.

If you can introduce yourselves and then please kick us off and just move the mics closer to you for our friends uh at home who are still watching.

Nate Bostick, President of Milltown Sports.

John Blaze, Economic and Community Development Director.

Uh Acting Director.

I'd like to I'd like to uh approach the bench to give the counselors uh the presentation.

Come on down, sir.

Thank God for our Madam Clerk.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay.

All right.

Um counselors, Mr.

Mayor, thank you uh so much uh for hearing us in such a short short amount of time.

I know in the packets there was lots of information.

There was uh we we listened, we tried to listen to what you guys said at the last meeting.

Um, and I'm here to try to deliver all the information that you requested.

Um, basically, this is uh in a nutshell, this is supporting the COLISA deal, the case for Lewiston's 1.4 million dollar financial guarantee to secure the future of uh our community's most iconic uh structure in the city.

Just at a glance, uh this project, um the total sale price um is 4.9 million dollars, right?

What we're asking though to go quickly over it is not to provide any direct expenditure, but to bridge the financial piece of a privately led acquisition of the Colise.

So right now Milltown Sports has identified $3.5 million loan from TNL, TNM investments already in place.

The ask again is a guarantee, not a grant, to back the seller if payments of Milltown Sports defaults to the current owner.

Currently, right now, the Colise current owner in Milltown Sports, as you will see through the presentation, they've already invested $3.9 million.

So quite an investment already happening there.

What is the Colise?

This is more, I guess, for the public.

Locations 190 Birch Street.

It's about 64,000 square feet.

Seating capacity is about 2600 for hockey and 4500 for concerts, with 17,000 square feet of exhibit space accommodating up to 4800 for conventions.

Was there remains one of the most famous bouts and boxing history?

It is our community hub, home to youth hockey, high school hockey concerts, box boxing, amateur MMA, ice skating, trade shows, and community year-round events.

The deal structure.

The remaining will be held by the by the current owner.

And then Milltown Sports will pay over the next 10 years at 0% on that.

The buyer, Milltown Sports and Entertainment, could acquire the arena, having already managed it since uh July of 2025.

Again, the the guarantee Lewiston backs the $1.4 million seller payment, enabling the deal to close and securing the arena's future.

Can you uh advance the slides?

I think we're out of sync at this point.

Valuation.

What is the colossa worth?

Um the city had an independent analysis uh look at the independent um price of the uh of the colossa, the current um bricks and mortar value in the broker opinion of uh value that was completed by the Bulos Company came in between 4.1 and and 4.7 million.

So right around 4.3 million dollars was uh the comps uh the that were basically found around the whole entire state of Maine.

Um what else we um know is that over half a million dollars in a personal property that's materials that's are inside the colise.

Um we devalued that a little bit.

Um the current the assessors have that at about 650,000.

Some of the materials were older.

But again, the total estimated value, if you took the personal property, the bricks and mortar of the of the structure, you know, put us squarely at about 4.85 million dollars.

These are, you know, these are real numbers with real comps.

We use nine comps across the state of Maine.

And that again, that broker opinion of value is found in your in your packet.

We also did an independent intrinsic value study to the city.

Well, what is it worth?

People are coming here, people are spending money.

Our initial uh take on that, if it was fully operational, as the business plan indicates, um, was 10 million dollars.

So that's 10 million dollars of re additional revenue that the st that the city sees by people coming here, staying here, eating here, buying gas here, um, you know, using the Colise, using the Colise's Pro Shop, using the concession stands, everything that's there, almost 10 million.

But again, we're using very conservative numbers.

Um, you know, we want to see this get up off the ground, but we're saying that's about five million dollars a year.

Um the broker opinion of value was was um completed by Chris Pazick from the Bulos Company, he's a certified commercial and investment member and uh Society of Industrial Office Realtors.

Um this is the highest level of commercial um estimating that you can get.

Um it's probably um just it's not an appraisal, but it's certainly um has a lot of weight and it um and can be supported by you know recent sales that they've had.

Um if this deal goes through, um TNM will still um put together a um an appraisal, and that's expected in about four to six weeks.

Um the guarantee does not move forward without an appraisal that is satisfactory to the underwriting of the 3.5 million.

So if it doesn't appraise using um appraisal standards, um this deal doesn't this deal doesn't move forward.

What are the city's protections in place?

Um again this this guarantee is not a blank check.

Um the city of Lewis and retains meaningful security and recourse throughout the agreement.

Um there's a property lien process.

Um the city has the ability to place a lien on the colise property itself if Milltown Sports fails to meet its obligations.

This personal guarantees, Milltown Sports owners provide uh personal guarantees, adding a direct layer of financial accountability beyond the corporate entity.

And then the operational commitments.

Milltown sports is contractually committed to continuing youth in high school hockey access and expanded year-round programming.

Um I do have again, I do have I know that there was a uh an agreement that was put in your packets.

Um that one didn't have uh any legal review, uh hot off the press today.

We have uh a limited um conditional guarantee that is drafted by an attorney.

Um this has a lot of teeth in it.

Um we're um we drafted it in the sense that um you know we we're protecting the city.

We're trying to hide any kind of exposure that the city has.

We um in here, I'll just um you know go through uh a couple of items that I think is very very important.

Um those copies for do you have extra copies for us or no?

I do.

Oh, okay.

We'll take them now.

Thank you.

Thank you, Doctor.

Thanks, Doc.

So the uh this operational performance uh requirements on page three of six.

I just wanted to point those out again.

Um it's it's written in here, you know, pretty much in stone, etched in stone.

Um youth and amateur athletics, um, you know, Colise shall remain available and be used for local youth hockey programs, high school hockey and amateur athletic leads and tournaments.

Community access, this is some of the things that we heard back from council.

Um the colise shall remain available and shall be used for community-based recreational athletic or organization.

Uh, and the biggest one here is the year-round programming.

Um again, this is really to address the shoulder season for the colise, expanding, but not limited to again concerts, wrestling events, indoor soccer, amateur sporting tournaments, community events, and entertainment programming.

Um these activities shall be maintained to ensure sustained utilization of the colise and continued economic activity with with Lewiston.

The um, you know, there's a lot more in here.

Um, but I just I do I do want to point that out that that was something that's very specific that the council had asked for, and um, you know, it's it's in this guarantee, and this I would call this a draft uh guarantee in place.

So in the event that the the city has to pay back, you know, we're not you know, this is the worst case scenario.

Um we have we have spa uh spoken to the doc.

Um he's gonna uh provide us with the same zero percent interest rate um if they did default on that.

But what we would do is we would utilize there would be no direct uh taxpayer uh funding here.

We could utilize it through the New England Clean Energy Connect.

We have an appropriations over the next 30 years of 200,000, which would cover this payment.

Um the other part of this is that with the combination of the city being involved in this deal, we know that TNM is a short-term uh financing piece.

Um this could be an opportunity for the city.

And um, you know, what what does that look like?

What is what is that opportunity look like?

Well, I think what um first is that this position's Nate in Milltown Sports to get better financing.

Go be prompted and ready to go to the SBA and to um you know get a lower interest rate.

We're at the table, we're essentially a co-signer.

All of a sudden uh different banks are now turning their heads and saying, hey, we want to be a part of this.

This makes sense, the city's involved.

The city also has an option in this in this draft agreement for a potential uh to become a partner.

And we could be um looking the pay pick up this um the remaining amount at year one at 1.2 million dollars to be to have a say into forever forever have a say on the call of say and more of a vested interest.

Again, furthering the the investment ability uh for a project to happen there.

That's you know, those are those are big picture thinking.

Um I I know that there was um some ideas uh about that, and I heard that coming from the council, and again I'm just providing options to make this deal um more secure, uh less risk for the city, and and other options as we move forward.

Economic impact.

Again, the numbers speak youth hockey alone, the economic impact for youth hockey at the Colise is estimated at 1.2 to 1.3 annually.

This is roughly equal to the entire guarantee amount generated every single year.

This doesn't include all the other items that we identified in the um conditional guarantee.

Um there was a lot more teeth here.

Um so that's just one benchmark.

Uh comparable benchmark at uh the University of New England study found that the main mariners generated $6.1 million in economic activity in Portland.

A thriving colise with expanded programming can deliver comparable impact for Lewiston and Anderscoggan County.

We know that this is a good possibility.

And I'm gonna say it again, there's no other place like it.

And I was just telling the administrators today, you know, I'm gonna put my environmental engineering UMane hat on right now, and I'm gonna say if this building gets you know mothballed within a year, there's gonna be so much mold in the place that the um the value is just gonna be basically worth what the rubble's worth.

I think we really need to consider that.

So again, the Milltown Sport uh vision for the Colise, hockey youth programs, concerts and entertainment, boxing, combat sports, multi-sport, community events.

Um again, I'm I'm repeating myself here.

Um we were asked for uh three-year financial forecast.

Um these are basically um detailed you know finances that we looked at.

Um we looked um really closely at the business plan, their business model.

Um we know that in at fiscal year 26 um in October, um they hopefully if it's operational still, um this colise becomes you know um cash flow positive.

So what that means is that they're taking in enough money to meet the operational cost of that facility.

Um so the business plan was real clear on that in the uh in the document.

This is Milltown Sports track record.

Uh again, in July of 20 uh 25, Milltown Sports assumes the management of the Colise under a lease to purchase the agreement.

Um summer of 2025, the developers invest thousands in facility improvements, new roof parking, lot upgrades.

Um we invite humane hockey to the colise in fall of 2027, and talks begin with uh Quebec Maritime Junior Hockey League and the Quebec major in the queue.

Um they launched in the fall of 2025, they launched the Lewiston Maniacs, USPHL, bringing competitive junior hockey back to the Colise.

Um again now, early of 2026.

We're seeking 4.9, they're seeking $4.9 million to purchase and finalize the purchase of the Colise and Mid-Coast Youth Hockey commits 250,000 for the upcoming season ice time.

Um and again, we're we're here to the vote on the guarantee, 1.4 million, the final step to secure the long-term ownership and stability.

This is uh this slide here basically highlights some of the capital improvements.

Um this is not only just the um this is just this is the the current owner now, the dock and um a combination of Milltown Sport.

Again, about th 3.9 million dollars have been invested into this facility today.

Um that's been over probably the last three or so years.

So uh a lot of investment is already there.

These are investments that you you know in an appraisal uh in a broker opinion of value and any of that, you're not you're never gonna see it.

Um you're never gonna see that the you know the Gemral Tron is worth X amount of dollars.

What happens if we don't act?

You know, uh inaction carries its own cost.

The risk of the deal falling through are concrete and significant for Lewiston.

Replacing the Colise would cost an estimated $13 million to 40 million dollars to build something comparable at 65,000 square feet, not including the land.

So that I mean that's that's a pretty significant amount of money.

At 4.9 million, the city has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to scare secure the asset, a fraction of the replacement value.

Um we're gonna lose, we would have the ability to lose the uh community anchor, uh youth hockey disruption.

Uh more importantly, the the economic engine that this the collapsate could be um the five million in annual local economy activity.

Um then on a bigger picture, it um it basically erodes the investor confidence throughout the city.

I think it sends a clear message that um you know that it's gonna be hard to do business in Lewiston.

Um I don't want you know, personally, uh from me, I just don't want another vacant building in the city.

Um and I think that this is our one of our best steps forward addressing the council concerns.

Um, you know, um is the city's money at risk?

Can Milltown Sports be uh deliver?

Is the 1.4 million worth it?

Um I think that with um careful look at the business plan, the information that the broker opinion of value, the information that we uh provided does that.

And I'll get again I'm going over the financial picture one more time.

Um the valuation and value, the broker opinion of value is at 4.85 million dollars.

This is text is a little small.

The entri the intrinsic value of the community at 5 million, replacement of the colossae at 13 to 40 million.

Um this deal again secures it a fraction of that.

The business plan viability, cash flow positive by 2027 per Milltown Sports Business Plan, diversified revenue through shoulder season programming, concerts, trade shows, events, public use commitments embedded in the guarantee draft, the financial deal breakdown again, 3.5 million dollar loan from TNM sports.

This is a short-term high interest rate, non-conventional bridge loan that I think that again, if the city got uh on board, could really open the opportunity for a refinancing very quickly.

Um it could be opera open the opportunity for $500,000 for through the finance authority of Maine at more favorable terms, and um again it would be worth um $500,000.

Again, bringing that SBA loan down to $3 million, and the $1.4 million note held by Dr.

at zero percent interest repayment plan by Milltown Sports.

The guarantee draft highlights public use requirements, diversified shoulder season programming, and a plan uh payment plan in place with uh utilizing the New England Clean Energy Connect in the event of a default, or the option to become you know part owner or you know another avenue of being a you know participant in this Mr.

Mayor.

Uh yes, Administrator Kenrath, did you have something?

Uh if the presentation is concluded, I just had a a comment on a question.

Uh I'm not sure it is.

Is the presentation concluded, Director Blaze?

Yeah, I I would just like to say that the bottom line, uh, you know, 1.4 million deer uh guarantee backed by the uh rail protection secures 64,000 feet of a community asset, hundreds of youth athletes opportunities and over you know um millions of dollars of annual local activity.

Um I think the risk of inaction outweigh outweighs the risk of action.

So that's it.

You had a clarifying question.

Thank you.

Yeah, I know this has been on an aggressive timeline, but I think I'd like to just inquire.

You know, we have Milltown here as to whether this this vote needs to happen tonight.

I do just want to uh address the obvious that this this agreement uh landed with the council tonight this evening.

Um and I want to just inquire if if we uh with this aggressive timeline, if we are looking and it's absolutely necessary to vote tonight, um, or do we have more potential time available to for the council to review this agreement that uh was put in front of them this evening that's uh yes, yes, please um we have uh well speaking to the mic.

The the issue we have is timing, and that was the biggest issue we had this past year.

Um we're going through youth trials, we have to build a business.

Um we're already behind probably three to four weeks out of recruiting season.

Um again, this is way bigger than just a hockey program and a hockey rink, but that is our anchor that is gonna be paying 75 percent to 80 percent to this building every year, and if we miss another window of opportunity, it'll you know I I just had a full year of operating without income and running teams without being able to have income, and we're gonna be pushing ourselves back into that same situation.

I I will say that the um the outline of the agreement um the spirit of that was is exactly what I just handed out.

This is just a more more refined version of that that had a legal eye.

None of the intent um of that outline that was included in your packet is changed in this document.

So you've had you've had the information before already.

Um I just wanted to note that we have progressed the the uh the agreement a little bit further uh in the spirit of time and wanted to share that with you.

Thank you.

Uh administrator Kenrath, uh well, Director Blaze even so you said this was done, so this was done by our council or Milltown Sports Council, or that was done by our council um that the city has, yes.

Okay.

All right.

Uh thank you both.

Um yes, Councilor Airman.

Thank you.

Um I have quite a few questions, but uh first the comment and the administrator alluded to it.

Um you keep telling us you have to vote on this now, you have to vote on it now, you can't have any time to look at it, and then you give us the materials at 10 p.m.

and ask us to vote on it right now.

Uh I can't make an informed decision, especially on a six-page legal contract with this dumped on my desk at 10 p.m.

That's the first problem.

Um the second issue is I I don't know who this TNM, you call them TNM investments, then you call them TNM sports at one point.

Who is who is this person?

Um I'm just concerned about the size of this loan and the the structure around it.

Um so can you tell us who this person is, this TNM investments?

Todd Johnson, he's local from Lewison.

It's the second biggest lender privately in the city.

Okay.

I I mean I did go, I don't know of this company.

I did go to their office.

They're just based in an office in that building on Main Street.

It's a second generation.

And they were uh they were one of I think about six LLCs on the mailbox for that office suite.

Um then I just when I looked at their website, they didn't really have anything comparable to this on their website.

So I'm I'm a little concerned about who they are, what their track record is, what their uh what their s level of sophistication is with this size of a loan.

Um so that's that's one piece.

You said they are going to be doing a an actual appraisal as part of this process.

I did want to point out that the broker opinion of value is not an appraisal.

Um it does say in it this was not prepared by a licensed or certified appraiser and may not comply with the appraisal standards of the uniform standards of professional appraisal practice.

So I'm also concerned that we relying so heavily on this number that's not actually an appraisal.

Um I I do have some more questions, but I will let you answer those and let other people ask questions as well.

Again, the the TNM sport uh the TNM investment group, um, I don't know why I call it sports, but um you know that if that if that investment is not proven through Milltown Sports, then this this deal doesn't happen.

This this deal is null and void.

The the conversation about TNM sports uh TNM investments loaning the money to uh Milltown Sports is not um if they don't if they don't lend the money, if they don't you know write the check to Middletown Sports, our agreement doesn't happen.

It just doesn't happen.

So the you know the validity of the investment group is really based is on Milltown Sports at this point.

We're just we're backing the 1.4 million from the doctor.

So you know that's I guess that's the answer for that one.

Again, the uh the draft uh agreement, you know, I I wanted to share with the council what we've been working on.

Um I could have I could have left this out of the packet, I could have left this um information.

Um but I just wanted to share that that what we've drafted up as a real legal document has the same intentions of what the actual uh document that I put in the in the packet.

So again, the spirit of everything has not changed.

Um it's just moved forward with a little bit of legal teeth in it that gives the city more security.

Can I ask a follow-up question?

Uh hold on a second, Councilor Herman.

Uh did you want to say something, uh Mr.

Bostick?

Yeah.

Also um, and I respect uh I I know it seems like a really quick process for everybody here.

Um where I'm sitting, it's been a 19-month process, so we're uh we're on separate sides here.

Um TNM has done our group's books, our tax returns, they've dug into my entire life and everybody in our group.

Um so like uh also going back to the Quebec League uh executives committee and coming down here.

Um that league is the NHL, that's the many NHL.

They did so much due diligence on our group financially, uh individually.

So a lot of the questions you are asking have been done.

Um I respect the fact it hasn't been done right here.

Um and a lot of this information is really fast, but there has been a lot of major programs, major groups that have done this due diligence, so they wouldn't have shown up.

They weren't gonna drive to Lewiston if our group didn't meet all the qualifications need be.

Um I just want to throw that out there.

Thank you.

Uh Council Herman, yes.

Yes, so just to reiterate, this material that was provided tonight was not in the agenda packet.

It was just given to us tonight.

Um also I'm asking questions about TNM because I'm concerned, one, we're gonna rely on their appraisal for one thing, and two, um, if the deal doesn't work out, if if they promise the money and then something happens with that and the deal falls apart, then the city is going to be on the hook for our piece of it.

Uh if I would they promise the money.

I would respectfully disagree.

Hold on one second, Director Blaze, please finish uh Councillor Herman.

So if they promise the money and this deal goes forward, the city is going to be on the hook for the part that we have guaranteed.

And I'm concerned about this company that we're not really sure about who it is.

I mean, we know who the principal is, but uh I I've never heard of them before.

Uh when you look at their website, they don't really have anything comparable on their website to this this sort of scale.

Um and they're they just don't uh they don't fill me with much confidence, to be honest.

Um so that's what I'm concerned about is that we're being asked to partner with this company that is pretty much unknown, and we're being asked to do it on such a quick timeline without being able to review the material, and that's just giving me a lot of pause.

Uh Director Blaze, yes.

Um I you know, the the the agreement, this agreement um doesn't get signed um by all the parties until we know that TNM is is going to be uh faithful on their on their agreement on their three and a half million dollar uh commitment.

Um so we wouldn't be on the hook for the 1.4 million.

We're not gonna commit to something like that.

That would be very risky for taxpayer dollars.

I'm not I'm not in the business of being risky like that with taxpayer dollars, not as a uh public servant for the last 25 years starting in the military.

Um absolutely not.

Um so I I would want it, you know, if I was providing guidance for our city administrator, we're not signing a document and putting the city on the hook for 1.4 million dollars until we know that that money is secured and in place.

Uh you know, as I understand it, um sorry, did were you finished Dorother Boys?

That's it.

I'm sorry.

Uh so yeah, I mean the deal's not coming together until all the funding sources are are coming together.

And so we're we're actually not partnering with TNM.

They're going to do an appraisal, they're going to fund it or not.

And if they fund it, then our guarantee happens.

Uh then yeah.

And uh, you know, the doc gets his money and uh the guarantee uh from us.

Uh and if TNM decides that they're not going to fund it, then the deal essentially falls through, and we are um you know not required to do anything.

Uh counselor uh Martell, yes.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Um the risk of sounding foolish.

Um help me get from in in the I'm opening uh an attachment and email.

It says the assessment of the land is 727,500 and the building is 1.065 for a total of basically 1.8 million.

How do we get from that to the 4.7 that you quoted?

So that's an assessed value, and that's only at a certain percentage of the total of the total value, our assessment based on the mill rate.

So that's only like a 50 percent assessment.

Um I did bring the assessors document, they had it valued replacement value at about um five million dollars.

I could certainly um share that with you, Councillor Martel.

No, I was just curious how we got from you know the 1.8 to 4.7.

And then uh my next question, uh Mr.

Bostich.

Um last time we were here, and and I do want to reiterate, I want to see this go through.

I'm getting a good amount of pushback from taxpayers on this.

They've seen unsuccessful programs go through this building before.

So you told us the last time we met that we were up against the deadline and you needed that vote and it was gonna impact your business going forward.

You're you're echoing that sentiment again tonight.

How exactly does us not voting tonight prevent you from moving forward as though like this is going to happen?

If we need just a little bit more time, did you want it or to dot i's or cross T's?

What is it with us voting not voting tonight that's gonna prevent you specifically from going forward with your business plan?

Um it's collecting money, frankly.

Um it's youth families, it's academy families, kids from all over the world, and for us to continue moving forward, we have to recruit those families.

We get them their visas, we we get them into school, they travel here.

Um we're not gonna continue on a false pretense of this is happening and have 40, 50 kids signed up to come here, be in Lewiston, be part of this program over the next month for this to not go through.

Okay.

It's essentially what I'm trying to avoid is what happened with Shift Sports a year ago.

I understand.

Um and then question is about the so the 10,000 a month instrument in interest free, is that the same rate that you're gonna be paying back that portion of the 1.4?

I'm sorry, what's that?

So uh I I believe it shows that if the city has to assume the 1.4 million dollar debt, we have an agreement that we pay that off at 10 grand a month as 0% interest, and it takes however long it takes, 11 years, I think I read.

So I guess what I'm trying to find out is does the city's liability go down by $10,000 a month every month when you take over?

Yes.

So you're paying that same on the same structure that we'd be paying it.

Correct.

So the city's liability in theory will go down ten thousand dollars a month every month.

Yes.

Yes.

Should the worst happen, which no one wants it to.

Yeah, we showed a slide on that.

Okay.

Excellent.

Sorry that I missed that.

Thank you.

That's what I've got for now.

Yeah, I mean you you essentially provide an amortization table.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So at year one, uh, we're at, you know, we're at 1.2.

Yeah, I must have missed that slide.

I apologize.

Uh you're good, Counselor Martell.

It's getting late.

Uh Counselor Long Champs.

And then Counselor Nijing.

Thank you for presenting.

Um, I just want to uh say you did get a pre-approval letter from TNM, correct?

Okay, which is pretty basic standard uh from a lender, whether it's traditional or or this type of lending.

Um the other thing I have to say is I do believe um that this was given to us in good faith.

You were just trying to uh put some you know, structure it uh and give us something that we could see that you were really uh trying to make sure that the city was uh safe in every direction.

But it is never a good idea to give us something like this.

Um because you know there will always be uh an argument against it.

So I don't know if there's any way of you taking it back and it not being a part of this.

Uh I don't know if that's possible, but um I looked over your plan.

Uh you know I'm a big believer in keeping the Colise alive.

Um what I like about this most is that you know, this isn't an organization that is all about hockey, and I have a hockey family, but you really are um one of the first that is coming in saying that um you want to do all kinds of events, whether it's indoor soccer or field hockey.

Um you really want to try to bridge some gaps, and for me that's huge, especially in an area where I mean it it's in a great location because it's got plenty of parking for people that are coming from out of town or that have cars, but it also really speaks to the people that uh are living in that area that probably cannot get to events or certain uh things that you may offer there.

Uh one thing that really impressed me was bless you, was that um you're one of the first organizations to interact with some of our inner city uh kids uh from the Tree Street Youth Department, which is largely uh kids that are teens that are at risk uh living in the inner city.

Uh so the fact that you went there and had your hockey players interacting with them is huge for me for someone that grew up uh in that area.

And although I went to uh many events there, um the circus hockey, things like that.

Um I don't ever remember really having an organization that was willing to engage or welcome all classes.

And I really appreciate that.

And our youth we we need more things uh for our youth.

Um we say it all the time.

I appreciate the rec and I appreciate everything they do, but the reality is is we need more.

And we need more things that kids really wouldn't have the opportunity to do without certain organizations coming in and saying we're gonna open this up for everybody.

We're not just gonna have hockey.

We're gonna have soccer.

Um and hope that you know, again, people from all classes and walks of life can come together.

And and for that I'm super grateful.

I know it's a lot of money for the city to guarantee, but I think it's worth it.

Quite honestly, I think we waste money in all kinds of areas in the city.

Um this is for the kids.

But not only for the kids, it's for the kids that are at risk that are living around there, that hopefully you'll be able to give them an opportunity working with uh Tree Street uh to get some tips on uh certain things that you could put in there for events, and I believe you're the guy to do it.

I've spoken with you many times.

I've spoken with Julia Sleeper from uh which is the neighboring building next to the Colise.

And I think it could be really, really great for our not only adults to have another uh or to have an event center, um, but our youth, which should be a priority for us.

So for now, that's all I have to say.

Thank you.

Mr.

Mayor.

Uh uh yeah, it's really quick administrative before I go to the next slide.

I know well, I don't have an interest in delaying things, but I do want to float a proposal.

Um again, I don't want to delay, but my first obligation is the good process here with the council.

Um we do have uh workshop meeting is scheduled for this Thursday and Tuesday.

Uh I do want to float the concept of the councils interested in tabling this tonight.

And we can have a special meeting, regular meeting for this agenda item on Thursday or Tuesday to give the council an opportunity to review the document put in front of them tonight and to have some further considerations.

So uh I'm just floating that proposal.

Again, I don't want to delay things, but we also need to be mindful of good process here also.

So I just want to put that out there that we could potentially take this up again on Thursday or Tuesday if there is interest.

Uh understood, Administrator Kingrath.

Uh I don't know if we're there quite yet.

Um Counselor and I Jean.

I'd be fine with tabling it for right now, or I can speak.

Uh we're we're here right now.

I I would uh ask your question.

Okay.

So first and foremost, TNM won't actually uh have an appraisal for the property for six weeks, right?

So that means that the funding mechanism that's tricking trick tricking in for TNM doesn't happen for six weeks.

We know that they have a guarantee, but we do not know if the appraisal will meet it probably will meet the $3.5 million, right?

Does not mean it will meet the 4.7.

And and so uh the importance to me is that the property is actually worth 4.7 if we're on writing uh underwriting 1.4.

Um that's one piece.

Um the second thing, just like uh on a uh on a pitch level, like when you say if the building is mothballed for a year, it will be worth the rubble value.

It's not a sales point.

My my house uh uh it has a replacement value of $750,000.

I can probably sell it for $250,000.

And so like these pieces that like we don't we can't identify the actual value of this property.

I know the potential value of the property, um, but but to guarantee a loan um or to underwrite a loan or to even provide a loan, especially using NECAC funding, which can be used for all kinds of different economic development strategies in the future, uh, I think it's really contingent on what that property is actually worth.

And so therefore I think it our due diligence would be to have an independent uh uh evaluation of the property to determine what the property is worth, and if it's not worth 4.7 million, then perhaps we don't move forward at all.

Um that's one piece.

I would also say that hockey without a doubt is a contracting sport.

Um there's there's uh 4,800 youth uh who played hockey in uh an organized sport competition in Maine uh in 2023.

It's uh we're seeing that uh the city of Lewiston uh now has a consolidated team.

Um there is absolutely money to be made in hockey uh by managing clubs and by having coaching and all of those other pieces, but the cost to operate these pieces is large, and we know that.

And in the Coliseum in particular carries a heavy price tag to operate daily.

And so when we're talking about balancing all these things, community events, which will pay absolutely nothing.

Um five days of ice time for uh the the polar bears right now.

Um, like how do we get the actual events that are gonna bring somebody like myself into the colise?

And to be honest, I've been in the Colise a handful of times in the past decade.

Um and it part of uh making that building usable um to the larger community is creating a model that um encourages me to go to the Colise on a Tuesday night.

Um and people like me who are the vast majority of the public.

Um and so I would also say, and I'm confident that with time we could probably get some good programming going.

I mean, I'm sure of that, but I know that you're running at a at a deficit at this point, and I know that the plan is to run in a deficit for a while.

Um so that means that the city actually does have to be a partner in in promoting the colise.

And so for me personally, I like I I'm unable to move forward without actually understanding what the value of that property is and also how we reclaim our investment should uh the property um uh should the proposal that's being put forward fail.

Thank you.

I'd like to hear for count from counselors who haven't spoken on this topic yet before we go to public comment, and then we'll be coming back.

Uh counselor Chitam, yes.

Thank you, Mr.