The political disagreements at the heart of Bangors COVID aid inaction
Bangor City Councilors Gretchen Schaefer (left) and Dina Yacoubagha (right) listen as city manager Debbie Laurie (center) speaks during a council workshop on March 13, 2023.
Credit:
Sawyer Loftus / BDN
Behind Sean Faircloths desk is a homemade card from his child that reads, Best dad ever. Next to it is a small map of Bangor with a little blue dot for each spot someone has overdosed.
Faircloth runs Together Place, a group on Union Street that focuses on three of Bangors biggest challenges: addiction, mental health and housing. It provides counseling and addiction recovery resources funded by donations and grants.
But the organization and others that provide social services have no way to access the millions of federal relief dollars that Bangor city government has sat on since they were disbursed almost two years ago.
Lets be blunt about it, he said. Were talking about two winters.
Sean Faircloth, the executive director of Together Place, a peer-run recovery center in Bangor, stands for a portrait in his office on March 15, 2023. Faircloth is part of a coalition of organizations seeking access to the millions of American Rescue Plan Act dollars Bangor still has available. Credit: Linda Coan OKresik / BDN
Two years ago, President Joe Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act into law to combat the public health and economic hardships caused by the pandemic. Roughly $500 million was sent to Maine counties and municipalities. Maines biggest communities have lagged others in making firm plans to spend their aid, according to a Bangor Daily News analysis.
Bangor has been the slowest of all, having obligated so far only $3.7 million of its nearly $20.5 million to date. It
still does not officially have a process in place
to accept applications for funding, nor has it determined what qualifications the city will use to decide funding levels.
The slow process has also frustrated many organizations that play critical roles in addressing some of the citys most pressing issues. The citys slow movement on disbursing the funds has also been a point of division between leaders who are still debating their best use.
Some councilors continue to push to invest these one-time federal funds in projects that will have future returns, while others have pushed to use them more quickly to address homelessness, drug, mental health and other crises facing the city.
(From left to right) Bangor City Councilors Clare Davitt, Dan Tremble and Gretchen Schaefer and City Manager Debbie Laurie discuss the citys approach to spending its American Rescue Plan Act dollars during a City Council workshop on March 13, 2023. Credit: Sawyer Loftus / BDN
CouncilorClare Davittexpressed her frustration with the citys inaction in an October email to the rest of the council and Bangor City Manager Debbie Laurie, saying the process had been postponed repeatedly and citing concern the issue has gotten lost when it should have been at the very top of the list.
Addressing the ARPA funding is one of the number one ways we can address the issues of housing, homelessness, and substance use disorder that we are consistently focused on, Davitt wrote.
Lauriesaid in a reply to Davitt that the city was waiting for the county to finish its process to not duplicate efforts, thereby leveraging this historic funding opportunity.
Earlier this year, the city distributed $3.7 million of its pot to five local organizations, including the
Bangor YMCA
and Bangor Public Library. The funding was not approved until late last year, and the awards combined both the citys and the countys federal relief funds. The city also has earmarked another $4.1 million to ease the citys housing shortage and homelessness crisis, but that money has not been allocated to any specific entities or initiatives.
Although the city has not had a formal process for groups to request funding, some organizations have requested money anyway, including Together Place. Faircloth made a pitch to the city last spring but has yet to see any promise of funding, he said.
It is time to, Id suggest, make the investment, he said.
Bangor City Manger Debbie Laurie (right) listens during a council workshop on March 13, 2023. Credit: Sawyer Loftus / BDN
Last November, Laurie
told the BDN
that the city was planning to move deliberately. It had not spent any money as of September but has since laid out a rough budget. But Bangor didnt have to look far for an example of a process to solicit ideas for spending priorities and to create an application and selection process.
Penobscot County received about $10 million more than the city did. In January 2022, just before final rules were released about how municipalities could spend their federal relief dollars, it held a listening session that helped dictate the countys spending priorities. By August 2022,
commissioners had selected
the first round of projects to support through grants.
Meanwhile, it took until late spring and early summer for Bangor officials to formally solicit input on how to spend its federal dollars. It wasnt until January 2023 that the city announced its spending priorities, with no way for organizations to request access to that funding.
We have not executed the ARPA process as well as we could have, and much of that falls on the council and our chair for not providing more leadership, Davitt told the BDN.
The chair, Rick Fournier, wishes things moved faster but said that efforts to push the process along hit roadblocks. He pointed to staff changes, a lengthy process of soliciting feedback from residents and a desire from the county to agree on first projects.
While Fournier understands the desire to move quickly, he feels the city needs to be prudent with these one-time federal funds.
Im a former banker. I want to make sure all my Ts are dotted and Is are crossed, he said. Im not willy-nilly just going to give out money.
Cara Pelletier, a first-term city councilor, campaigned last year on moving quickly in spending Bangors federal dollars. During a workshop last Monday, Pelletier urged the council to move faster now that it has settled on a way for organizations to request funds.
I just want to express that it would be great if the council could keep their foot on the gas pedal with ARPA, Pelletier said. I would like to see us moving much more quickly, especially as we get the application out the door.
(From left to right) Bangor City Councilors Clare Davitt and Dan Tremble at a City Council workshop on March 13, 2023. Credit: Sawyer Loftus / BDN
During that same meeting,Councilor Dan Tremblesuggested the city use some of its federal recovery funds to pay for renovations to City Hall, something for which voters already approved $6 million in borrowing. Councilors Dina Yacoubagha and Joe Leonard expressed opposition.
We have a lot of other important projects and organizations that desperately need this money, Yacoubagha said. If we dont address the priorities that we have in our communities, then I f
Monday, March 20, 2023 at 5:00 am