Mike Reynolds. Rev. Peter J. Miano

Sep 13, 2026

Monuments

A grand ballroom, a gold plated “legal tender” coin bearing his visage, gilding throughout the White House, a paved over rose garden, an algae-covered reflecting pool, bronze lettering proclaiming his name on the Kennedy Center, a “Garden of Heroes” dedicated to himself, statues, fountains, and to top it all off, a massive triumphal arch with an 84-foot tall gold gloriette on top blocking the sightline to Arlington cemetery, where so many real heroes lie—fallen for our country.

All of this is happening while Mainers are making anxious choices between whether to see a doctor or to feed their children, or whether they can afford to live in Maine at all. The irony draws some to anger, many to indignation. It draws me to poetry.

For instance, will the carving on his arch read …“I am Trumpadandyus, King of Bling: Regard my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”?

I wouldn’t put it past him. Perhaps in his puffed-up state he’d simply be too preoccupied to consider the rest of Mr. Shelly’s prophetic verse: “Round the decay of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare, the lone and level sands stretch far away.”

How would he regard this news if, sadly, he was still alive to receive it? Perhaps William Blake has the answer: “The mire was deep, and the child did weep. And away the vapor flew.”

Sic transit gloria mundi, little Donny.

Mike Reynolds

Seal Cove

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Functional Governance: Common or Exceptional?

Bar Harbor 2035, the town’s Comprehensive Plan, is an extraordinary document. Including the Implementation Plan and Appendix, it consists in 771 online pages. It required prodigious effort by a range of individuals. It was guided by two consulting firms. It is an indispensable tool in guiding public policy.

It strikes me as a bit odd, though, that there is no reference whatsoever to functional governance in the Comprehensive Plan. We decry dysfunctional governance at the national and state levels, but it is not named at the local level. Maybe it is an after thought. Maybe we already have functional governance. Maybe dysfunctional governance has become so common that we accept it.

I submit for consideration that the symptoms of dysfunctional governance in Bar Harbor are many. It might take the form of a long-term resident being heckled at a town council meeting for expressing an unpopular opinion. It might be called dysfunctional when an elected public policy maker resorts to vulgarity to publicly deride another long time resident. Dysfunctional governance might look something like governance by citizen’s initiative or by referendum or governance by the squeakiest wheel or loudest pressure groups. When we see a low public response rate to an important issue, let’s say a 15% response to a public survey, perhaps we can chalk it up to people being busy. On the other hand, maybe it is indicative of a public sense of futility or conditioned apathy. Dysfunctional governance might be manifest when a competent, dedicated chair of a committee decides to step down in frustration. It might look like governance by “urgent crisis,” a phrase which, when used in Bar Harbor politics seems to refer to the issue that will take 18 months or more to address.

Dysfunctional governance might be reflected in a dramatic increase of public lawsuits. Last year, the town exceeded by 400% the line item in the town budget for legal expenditures. Of course, the town needs to defend itself against lawsuits it didn’t initiate. But if the town follows expert legal advice, why would it need to defend itself so much more frequently so suddenly?

Dysfunctional governance could look like governance by false narrative or by anecdote. By way of contrast, functional governance is evidence driven. One such false narrative in Bar Harbor that energizes public discourse is that Bar Harbor receives 3.5 million tourists or more each year. This idea circulates widely and members of the public, elected policy makers, and full time professionals alike cite it frequently in public meetings. This estimate is actually on the lower side of the frequently cited exaggerations. Even so, if it were true, it would mean that Bar Harbor would have three times as many visitors each year than visit Acadia National Park. The point is that it is wildly inaccurate, but almost uncontested in public discourse and forms the background for actual policy.

Another false narrative is that Short Term Rentals (STRs) make housing prices go up. This one is stated as a fact from time to time by highly professional, competent, and dedicated town employees, not to mention amateurs. It is invoked to provide a pretext for specific action. This false narrative ignores the primary upward pressures on housing values. The population has grown nationally by 35% since 1990 and needs housing. Unprecedented levels of disposable income allow more people to buy second homes. Our proximity to Acadia National Park makes real estate more desirable. Take away every STR and housing values on MDI won’t become affordable. Housing affordability was a well documented problem on MDI and in Maine in general in the 1990s long before anyone ever heard of Airbnb.

Dysfunctional governance might be when task forces and subcommittees invest hours of valuable time and personal energy on an issue only to pass it on to the town council where recommendations might be neutralized by a few outspoken neighbors or ignored by people who have spent 1/10^th the amount of time on the issue as the referring task forces or sub committees already have.

Perhaps the most significant feature of dysfunctional governance is reflected in the fact that we ask highly dedicated, committed citizens who nonetheless are essentially volunteer amateurs to fill “part time” roles on the town council and charge them to manage world class issues like the spectre of over tourism and cruise ship regulation. Who can do that? Maybe Bar Harbor has outgrown its governance model?

I think dysfunctional governance occurs when functional governance is not deliberately cultivated. It fills the vacuum when we settle for what we are used to or what passes as common. Indeed, listen enough and often you will hear citizens’ concerns shrugged off with the phrase, “it’s common,” as if commonness is a catch-all excuse.

I don’t have seven generations of ancestry on Mount Desert Island, but I am grateful to the many who themselves have the long time experience that I lack and can never have. They have been patient and generous sharing that experience with me. One thing I am pretty sure of though is that there is nothing in the comprehensive plan, Bar Harbor 2035, that suggests Bar Harbor aspires to be “common” by the year 2035. Bar Harbor is an exceptional town to live in. Its natural environment is exceptional. It attracts exceptional long term residents and short term visitors, too. It deserves and needs exceptional, uncommon, functional governance.

Rev. Peter J. Miano

Bar Harbor

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