The Saco City Council met on Monday, February 9, 2026, at 6:30 p.m. with all six councilors present. The meeting focused on extending the temporary emergency moratorium on mobile home park rent increases, receiving updates on the mediated agreement between Blue Haven Mobile Home Park and its residents, and approving several policies, including an electric vehicle charging pilot, a recreational vehicle ordinance amendment, and a memorandum of understanding with the University of New England for a wave gauge installation. All votes were unanimous.
Hello, and welcome to the Sarkov City Council meeting for Monday, February 9th, at 630 p.m. Let the record reflect that all members council are present this evening. Let the record also reflect that City Administrator Ryan Pellateer is also in attendance. Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. Thank you. Moving on tonight, under general, I see none. Next up, agenda item five, committee correspondence to council. Would any counselor wish to speak? Deputy Mayor Parks, I just want to point out that uh I have not been told what my committee assignments are to date. And uh if that could be generated and sent to me an email, that'd be great. All right, City Administrator Hellateer, do you have that down? I do, and we actually have it. I'll give it to you after the meeting if you'd like. All right, would any counselor wish to speak on counselor Hewitt? Thank you. The Dyer Library wants everyone to know they have a new online platform that if you want access to the general tribune and some of the other media that you can use it for free without any um web page or subscription um pop-ups at the higher library. If you ask someone at the circulation desk, they can inform you. And they have all kinds of activities coming up for February vacation, so definitely check out their website. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Hewlett. Would any other counselor like to speak on committee correspondence? All right, moving on to public comment. First up tonight is Sarah. Yes, that's right. Giles Gardner, that's okay. I was I wrote down Madam Mayor, but what do I call you? Mr. Deputy Mayor. Mr. Deputy Mayor. Okay. All right. Let me see. Okay. Um, hello, counselors and deputy mayor. My name is Sarah Giles Gardner. I live at 17 Pine Street. I'm here today because of what happened during the Blue Haven mediation was um was not just a misunderstanding. It was an experience that left me feeling misled, unprotected, and taken advantage of. At best just someone with a disability. Um January 26th, we spent nearly eight to nine hours in mediation with a hungry and trying our best to negotiate in good faith. But the end of the night, we were told we had to reach an agreement on the rent numbers, and what the paperwork we were at the time was rest incomplete and did not match what we had discussed all day long. I was told repeatedly, don't worry, we'll fix the language later, but I'm a visual learner with my brain disability, and I cannot process complex legal language behaving it read out loud to me. And I said that multiple times, and they told to ignore that. I asked for my ATA contact to be involved, and he would never contacted, even though the attorney of the media knew this was required for me to fully understand what it is that I'm signing. And they said, don't worry, go ahead and sign, we'll fix it later. Have the media department attorney added new language that we never agreed to. The wording I objected to from the original offer was still there. Nothing but promise would be fixed later was actually fixed. Instead, more was added, more restrictions, more of language, more ways for residents to lose there, but I cannot find something legally binding.