Town officials are examining the roles of boards and committees, from advisory groups to quasi-judicial bodies, as they consider a potentially more formal framework for local government.
Sep 11, 2026
The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by Thrive Juice Bar & Kitchen.
BAR HARBOR—Last week at the Bar Harbor Town Council workshop, Town Manager James Smith explained some ideas about how the town is governed—specifically its boards, committees, and task forces—might be tweaked.
“This kind of sets the framework,” Smith told the town councilors.
Looking at the policy and the rules that already exist for the town is the first step to setting the stage for the overall governing structure. The next steps would likely be looking at the individual boards, committees.
“Ultimately we’re trying to get down to the various types of boards” and show the distinctions between quasi-judicial vs governing bodies, Smith explained.
Towns like Bar Harbor typically have four areas that its councils (or select boards), task forces and committees/boards fall under. Some might have dual roles.
A legislative role is when a body makes decisions for its town. Depending on a town’s charter, that council or select board can enact policy through various steps that are laid out in the town or city’s rules.
An executive role involves administrative decisions.
A quasi-judicial body is one that makes a decision that has to be based on evidence and criteria that’s specified. An example would be reviewing an application.
An advisory body recommends actions but can’t bind the town to a decision itself. An example would be recommending a policy about recycling.
Bar Harbor’s draft Chapter 31 classifies bodies as advisory, quasi-judicial, hybrid or an independent statutory authority.
In Bar Harbor’s governing rules, some boards already have chapters in the town’s rules. Some have nothing.
During the workshop, Smith said he doesn’t expect to immediately come right back to the councilors with changes and that there is still work to be done both on the overall structure for all the boards, committees, and task forces as well as tweaking individual ones if they need it.
“There’s going to be a little bit of give and take in that process,” Smith said.
Making sure that input from the boards that are advisory boards to the council, get back to the council is a part of that, Smith said.
Areas discussed included when councilors are liaisons to boards, committees, or task forces. He wanted to make sure that there the language that delineates between appropriate and inappropriate behavior is clear.
“We do want to be very careful in the kind of communication” happening from individual councilors or the Town Council as a whole, Smith said. It’s important to respect the independency of the quasi-judicial bodies.
Council Chair Maya Caines said she’d also hoped for more language about youth participation in the various structures. State law has rules about youth participation on municipal bodies and voting rights.
Planning Board Chair Ruth Eveland said that regular opportunities for boards to come before the council and community — not just staff liaisons for those boards— was important.
“It is informative to the community as a whole,” she said, but it also gives the board a chance to feel like it is in direct communication with the council.
There were also multiple supportive comments for strong ethics training.
Former Town Council Chair Val Peacock said a lot of what was talked about in the past year was represented in the document. It’s a massive culture shift, she advised.
Twenty years ago, she said, there was a lot of informality about being on a committee, but the document builds a lot of formality into how things happen.
“We’re in a different place than we were,” she said.
She worried that the draft document was too formal, long, and had too much jargon, which she believed would make it inaccessible to the public. The detail in it, she said, felt more like policy than ordinance.
“It just feels heavy-handed,” she said, adding, “I know it’s not meant that way.”
Caines and Councilor Joe Minutolo agreed with making it shorter.
Ezra Sassaman, who is Caine’s partner and also on the Climate Emergency Task Force, said it would be great to hear the Town Council’s perspective on the Climate Emergency Task Force and it transitioning to an advisory committee rather than a task force.
Sassaman liked the idea of the staff liaison creating an agenda, but worried about overwhelming that staff member to have approval or supervision of all communications to the task force or board.
Minutolo said that it would be nice to see compensation for Planning Board members to show that the town values them.
“They have a very important role in this town,” he said. “And I know there’s a lot of behind the scenes work and digestion that goes on.”
Council Vice Chair Earl Brechlin said he thinks of ordinance/law as a minimum standard and policy more as practice. He worried that if things are codified in an ordinance, then there could be lawsuits or penalties.
Councilor David Kief agreed that it felt a bit heavy handed. “It’s kind of intimidating. It’s almost like you have to call three people before you can talk to somebody. It’s so regimented.”
“If it isn’t an ordinance where does it go?” Councilor Steven Boucher asked.
It rightfully belongs in an ordinance, Smith said, adding that the concerns are valid.
“It is more structured. It’s structured by design,” Smith said.
SHARED ACCOMMODATIONS LICENSE
There was no public comment and the council unanimously approved the yearly renewal of a shared accommodations license (a type of housing) for 294 Main St, the Kogod Center, part of MDI Health.
COMMITTEE APPOINTMENTS
Stephen Miller, Tenant Commissioner, and Millard Dority, Community Member at Large were appointed to the Bar Harbor Housing Authority for five year terms.
LIVE STREAM
In a home page news flash ahead of the meeting, the town explained, “For those looking for a livestream of the September 1 Council meeting and workshop, the stream will only be on Town Hall Streams, not the YouTube channel. We apologize for the late notice.”
The live streams for Town Council meetings had recently been moved to YouTube, but was not for this meeting.
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
To read the agenda and related materials
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