This meeting of the Saco City Council was called to order at 6:30 PM by Councilor Hatch, with Mayor McVail arriving later. All councilors were present. The meeting opened with the Pledge of Allegiance and two recognitions: the Extra Mile proclamation for Misty and the Spirit of America Foundation Award for Carmen Dame Garonski. The council then heard extensive public testimony from residents of the Blue Haven mobile home park about drastic lot rent increases, followed by the adoption of an emergency moratorium on such increases. Other actions included approval of minutes, a consent item for a city planner appointment, acknowledgment of a grievance committee recommendation, an informational presentation from Maine Water Company, and an administrative update.
Good evening. I'll call the meeting of October twenty-seventh, twenty twenty-five to order at six thirty PM. Um let the record reflect that all council counselors are present. Um Madam Mayor McVail will be joining us later this evening. Um, interim city admin, Emily Cole Prescott is also present. Please join me for the Pledge of Allegiance. Thank you. Uh under general this evening, we have two opportunities to to recognize outstanding service. The first item is the extra mile proclamation. Whereas SOCO is a community which acknowledges that a special vibrancy exists within the entire community when it's individual citizens collectively go the extra mile in personal effort, volunteerism, and service. And whereas SACO is a community which encourages its citizens to maximize their personal contribution to the community by giving of themselves wholeheartedly and with total effort, commitment, and conviction to the individual ambitions, family, friends, and community. And whereas SACO is a community which chooses to shine a light on and celebrate individuals and exhort organizations within its community who go the extra mile in order to make a difference and lift up fellow members of the community, and whereas Saco acknowledges the mission of Extra Mile America to create five hundred and fifty extra mile cities in America and is proud to support Extra Mile Day on November first, twenty twenty-five. Signed this twenty-seventh day of October, twenty twenty-five by the mayor of the city of Saco, Maine, Jody L. McVail. From helping with her husband's business, taking care of her family, or fundraising for events, Misty always gives a hundred percent and goes the extra mile. On behalf of the city of Sacco, the Harbor Fest Committee and the Camp Ellis community, thank you for your kindness, hard work, and dedication in all that you do for our city and our community. Thank you again. And then welcome. And whereas on Mondays and Thursdays, Carmen can almost always be found donating her time in the parish hall with the most Holy Trinity Church, Paul. And whereas, in addition to the time Carmen spends each week unloading donated food and working with volunteers, Carmen also spends additional time attending meetings, planning menus, writing grant applications, and updating the organization's website and social media. And whereas Carmen never seeks attention for herself but deserves recognition for all the work she invests in the community and on behalf of its residents. Now therefore, again, on behalf of Jody L. McVale, Mayor of Sacco, and on behalf of the City Council, hereby resolve with sincere gratitude and appreciation that Carmen Dame Garonski is recognized for her commitment to the community with the 2025 Socco Spirit of America Foundation Award, signed this day, the twenty-seventh of October, twenty twenty five by the mayor of the City of Socco, Jodi L. McVail. I'd additionally like to thank Dorothy Schluub. Sorry if I pronounced that wrong. The Monday coordinator and Christine Perolt, which is the Monday and Thursday co-coordinator. You can all clap now. One more, one, two, three. Perfect. Thank you all. All right, uh, we'll move on to item four, which is well, I take that back. Item five, which is committee correspondence to council. Is there any correspondence from counselors? All right, we'll move on to item six, which is the public comment session. Um, do we have the sign up list? I'll get the sign up list. So we'll we'll begin with the sign-up list. And then if anybody else would like to speak, we will move on to those numbers. Please uh when you come up to the podium, cite your name and address for the record and try to keep it uh a three-minute time limit. So the first person on the list is Kelly Archer. Hello everyone, Kelly Archer, 185 Bradley Street. Thank you for taking council agenda action on citizens' grievances tonight, the SACO Code of Ethics conduct complaint form and the executive sessions, contract zones and Lucia uh Kimball Health Trust Validity. Citizens look forward to transparent and open council deliberations and a detailed written reports for the official record. Counselors, your constituents deserve your courage to right the wrongs of staff. Think about it. For years the common denominator for all our grievances is that staff and daring trustees ignored circumvented or andor violated local, state, and federal laws, thereby creating cr critically severe risk and liability to the citizens of SACO. I understand your need to protect w risk management, political pressures and minimizing po publicity. However, in the executive session going forward, do not be complicit to anything but following the law, no gray areas. Be mindful of any attempt to minimize the severity of daring trustees selling land outside of council and charter rules, or by their non-compliance of administrators' requests for documents during a council ad hoc committee investigation.