Committee rescinds prior vote and reopens review of development agreement for 8 Harlow Street

The Bangor City Business & Economic Development Committee rescinded a prior committee vote on proposed modifications to the development agreement for 8 Harlow Street and agreed to revisit the measure before sending it again to the full city council.

City Solicitor Dave Shepchak told the committee that, after reviewing the meeting record and Robert's Rules of Order, he was not comfortable with the procedure used at the prior meeting. Shepchak said he and the assistant city solicitor “did a deep dive into the Robert's Rules” and that while he found no clear rule forbidding the action, he remained uneasy. “I wasn't comfortable when I made the call. And just because the rules say something can happen, that doesn't mean necessarily that I would think that it should happen,” he said.

Shepchak described the circumstance in which a fifth committee member was appointed to replace an absent member after a motion had been made and seconded, and then the vote was taken with five members even though four had participated when the motion was introduced. He recommended the committee rescind that prior committee vote so the committee could re-consider the development-agreement modification on the current agenda and remove any procedural question before the full council considered the item.

Committee members debated only procedural and substantive clarifications rather than reopening the merits of the development agreement. Councilors asked several substantive questions about project safeguards: whether the letter of credit amount tied to the project reflected current costs (councilors noted the cost estimates were about two years old), whether required masonry repointing (brick-and-mortar work) had been inspected and certified as complete, and what the city's exposure would be if the private project failed. Staff replied that the letter of credit is intended to demonstrate a developer's capacity to obtain credit, not to act as a performance bond. On inspections, staff said enforcement and inspection information could be provided; on liability, staff said the property is privately owned and the city would not assume project construction liability.

After discussion the committee voted to rescind the prior committee vote and then voted to forward the development-agreement modification again to the full city council for reconsideration.

The committee did not adopt any new substantive changes to the development agreement at the meeting; it sent the item back to the full council so members there can now review the agreement without the procedural question attached.

Next steps: the development-agreement modification for 8 Harlow Street will appear on the next full Bangor City Council agenda for reconsideration. The committee asked staff to provide updated cost estimates, documentation of any required masonry/inspection work, and clarification of the letter-of-credit terms before the council hears the item.