Aug 20, 2025
The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by The 1932 Criterion Theatre.
BAR HARBOR—One current member and one former member of the town’s appeals board asked the town council to reconsider its July split vote to not put former appeals board vice chair Cara Ryan back on the town’s appeals board.
“I’m really here to talk about process. As volunteers to the town and citizens, we hold many opinions and those of us who are committed to the town hold them pretty strongly. There is absolutely no reason that in order to sit on a board or a committee we have to give up our first amendment rights,” said former appeals board Chair Ellen Dohmen. “To conflate the idea of having an opinion with necessarily being biased about something is not accurate.”
At a July 15 town council meeting, Ryan, who had been the appeals board vice chair, was nominated to the appeals board, but the motion failed 3-4. At the same meeting Mike Siklosi was reappointed as an associate member.
Applicants for positions on town boards, task forces, and committees (which are not elected positions) are interviewed by a nominating committee comprised of three councilors. The town council then votes on appointments.
There was no council discussion on Ryan’s nomination at that meeting.
Council Chair Valerie Peacock, Vice Chair Maya Caines, Steven Boucher, and Joe Minutolo had voted against Ryan’s return. Councilors Earl Brechlin, David Kief, and Randell Sprague had voted in favor.
“Conflating having an opinion with being biased about something is not accurate,” Dohmen said, Tuesday evening. “I voted against things I couldn’t stand. I approved buildings I hated. I didn’t approve things I wished I could have approved because that was the law.”
She later added, “I have to tell you as two years as her board chair, Cara never varied from any of this. She came completely prepared. She always did her homework. She asked relevant questions. She engaged in relevant dialogue. Not once in all the time that I was her chair did she ever vote against LUZO (land use ordinance).”
The land use ordinance is defined by Bar Harbor as “ordinance that regulates land uses, development patterns, and development designs in the Town of Bar Harbor.”
The appeals board bylaws define its power as “to hear and decide any appeal by any person, affected directly or indirectly, from any decision, order, rule, or failure to act of any officer, board, agency, or other body where such appeal has been authorized by the Town of Bar Harbor by ordinance specifying the precise subject matter that may be appealed to the board and the official(s) whose action or nonaction may be appealed to the board.”
Dohmen said that when the council evaluates candidates, its members aren’t evaluating letters to the editor or money donated.
“What I’m here to speak about is a person and anyone who has a track record before the town, has served the town, and it is definitely a privilege and an honor to serve the town,” Dohmen said. “I hope the town also understands to volunteer your time and effort for the town; we need to be grateful for these people stepping forward.”
She asked them to reconsider their vote.
Siklosi also asked the council to reconsider its vote on Ryan’s reappointment because he couldn’t specify why the councilors with nay votes made their decisions.
“There is a concern that before she was appointed to the board, Ms. Ryan was pretty vigorously in favor of limiting cruise ships and disembarkations and had actually given about $100 to Mr. Sidman’s campaign for that,” Siklosi said.
The original conflict of interest worry was because Ryan had been asked to be a witness in the case against the town and received a $100 witness fee. She did not, however, get called to testify and gave that $100 to Charles Sidman’s GoFundMe campaign (minus transaction fees). That GoFundMe campaign by the lead petitioner of the cruise ship changes is to help him with legal fees.
Siklosi referenced an appeals board meeting where a town decision had been challenged by Charles Sidman, the lead petitioner of the cruise ship initiative, who is involved in a court case defending those changes, as well as other litigation.
“The first question that came up was whether or not Ms. Ryan should recuse herself in a case involving Mr. Sidman,” he said.
Siklosi had made a motion that she should. It died for lack of a second. Ryan sat through the proceedings. When it came to the issue of standing, which would allow the case to be heard, it was voted that Sidman did not have standing.
“Ms. Ryan voted with all the rest of us,” Siklosi told the council.
Other appeals board members attended, but did address the councilors. After the remarks, councilors made no comment, which is normal for how it proceeds during public discussion at the beginning of its meetings. Ryan was not at the council meeting and in July had said she’d hesitated to reapply for the position.
When Ryan learned in July that she hadn’t been reappointed to the appeals board she had said, “I was surprised and a little disappointed, but also relieved. I’ve been feeling I’ve become a target on this board because I’ve spoken out in the past on various important town issues that have found their way into appeals. That was never my reason for volunteering to serve on this particular board, but since it’s become a distraction, I hesitated to reapply. I asked the town clerk just before the deadline if anyone else had applied. Hearing no, and knowing we still had another vacancy, I left my application in.”
There has been an ethics complaint in the town against Ryan about her participation in an appeals board case relating to cruise ship disembarkations.
In March, the Bar Harbor Town Council had accidentally broadcast an executive session (which is meant to be private per Maine law) where members discussed that alleged ethics violation by Ryan and the complaint related to it. Ryan was not at the session. Town rules state that her name was not meant to be public record nor was the person who made the complaint.
Ryan had previously recused herself from a December appeals board discussion about the Golden Anchor LC because of that ethics complaint. The Golden Anchor runs the Harborside Hotel. The Harborside Hotel has been disputing the town’s new requirements that it have a disembarkation permit for cruise ship tenders.
Ryan had participated in a November meeting concerning the Golden Anchor’s permitting dispute when the Golden Anchor’s attorney had missed a submission deadline.
The cruise ship changes, approved twice by voters, though more narrowly the second time, have created multiple lawsuits, costing the town more than a million dollars. The most recent amount, according to Finance Director Sarah Gilbert is $475,000 for the last fiscal year, which ended July 30, 2025, which is more than 351% over the budgeted amount.
While the bulk of legal fees involve the town defending the cruise ship changes, one of the suits involves the town’s ethics commission and its handling of the complaint against Ryan.
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
Bar Harbor Council Doesn’t Reappoint Appeals Board Vice Chair
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