Why All Towns in Maine Need a Town Charter
And why is information on our planning boards so NOT transparent?
How The Home Rule Amendment Is Overwritten In Statutory Law
Yesterday I published my least popular story to date on NewsBreak. Apparently, Mainers are not interested in why every town should have a town charter, which relates to how the Maine Legislature “handled” the Home Rule Amendment.
Home Rule (1969) authorizes local control but in 1976 Governor Longley instituted central management.
The statutory institution of central management over local control is found in the difference between those two small legal terms, “shall” and ”may”. and in between the lines of what is said and what is not said.
The statute governing municipal planning boards (see my NewsBreak story) says that the appointed planning committee shall “Hold public hearings and use other methods to solicit and strongly encourage citizen input” to “Encourage the widest possible involvement by the citizens of each municipality in all aspects of the planning and implementation process”
BUT….
NO aspect of the planning and implementation process calls for a public vote, not even the appointment of the planning committee which is appointed by “the officers of the municipality” or a “combination of municipalities”.
The words of the statute are not a “region of municipalities” so the “combination of municipalities” need not be in close proximity, allowing, for example, someone from Augusta to be on the planning board of any municipality in the state, in other words allowing for the planning of municipalities to be centrally managed, rather than locally managed. It doesn’t mean that planning board members are from distant places, but the wording of the statutes allows it to be so, and the wording of statutes must be carefully chosen, for better or for worse. They are not written unawares.
Boothbay’s Planning Board Members are
Robert Ham Boothbay Maine- probably from a local family and is likely the same Robert Ham who is Chairman at Boothbay Region Ambulance Service · Boothbay, Maine
Bruce Bowler works for Bigelow Labs in East Boothbay for over twenty years
Peggy Kotin appears to use multiple identities, no information on Peggy, but Margaret P Kotin shares Peggy’s interest in dogs and has many aliases with various last names, uses many phone numbers, and lives in Boothbay, has previously lived in Massachusetts and Connecticut. No information was found in my search on her occupation.
William Wright, according to Fast People search lives in West Bath since 2013 and lived in East Boothbay from 2012-2013, where only a PO address is given, starting in February of 2009, William lived at 24104 Havers Dr, Cary NC 27518. It is likely that William Wright is married to 35-year-old Whitney A Spaulding, and they have lived together in at least 13 different locations, Fast People search lists six possible aliases and says “We do not show William Wright associated with any business records”
Alternate Board Members
An alternative steps in when one of the members is away. The most likely member to be away for a long period of time is Bruce Bowler who has an identifiable occupation working for Bigelow Labs.
Dimsie McBride When I searched Dimsie McBride, Dimsie Clark is generated as an equivalency in WhitePages reports, with three other aliases. This person has lived in several other locations in Maine and once lived in Boothbay but currently is listed as residing in Boothbay Harbor.
Dimsie BcBride co-signed a letter to the editor of the Boothbay Register with her husband supporting Paul Coulombe when he pulled out of the space that was quickly taken up by the Water Front Park Group, but in the McBrides letter, they say that no one else willing or able to make the kind of investment that Mr. Coulombe wants to make, That proved to be untrue.
As we see it, there is no one else willing or able to make the kind of investment that Mr. Coulombe wants to make. The board of selectmen and the planning board need to evaluate the zoning proposal based on the merits of the proposal rather than who is making that proposal. It is difficult for us to understand why the town would not want to change the zoning for that area of the east side to reflect what the area is actually being used for now, rather than hope that someday someone will want to add a maritime-related business there. Those of us who support positive change and appreciate the opportunities that Mr. Coulombe has offered need to speak up now and let him and the town know how we feel. Mike and Dimsie McBride Boothbay Harbor
Mike Leighton has about seven aliases but they all share the same last name and are all first names variations of Michael.
The only reason I am uncertain that this Michael Leighton and the Michael Leighton I found in the white pages are not one and the same is that in the White Pages Michael Leighton’s wife’s name is listed as Heidi L Leighton, and when I looked up Heidi L Leighton it does not list an alias, Lisa, and when I looked up Lisa Leighton, I could not find a clear association. However, there is only one Michael Leighton listed for the Boothbay Region on Clustrmaps, which listed “Persons With the Same Name”. I am leaning toward believing that Michael Leighton who has been a fisherman and has started a new modular housing business as being one and the same Michael Leighton who is an Alternate Boothbay Planning Board member.
The Boothbay planning board is evenly divided between people with long local roots and those from other places. Read more about the historical-cultural divide:
Gentrification and Maine's Fishing Communities by Ben Martens
I Believe that Peggy Kotin and Margaret P Kotin are the same people, as they both are very involved with dogs. Otherwise, the only available information about Peggy Kotin is that she is a member of the Boothbay Town Planning Board, while one can find much more information on Margaret P Kotin, whose LinkedIn profile says “Interested in exploring the non-corporate environment. “- That would be what I am talking about!
Read About how the Remote Work Revolution is leading away from the corporate environment- including job listings
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However, I can not confirm that Margaret P Kotin on Linkedin lives in Boothbay. White Pages is conflating many different names. Margaret P Kotin could also go by Margaet P Kotek, Margaret P Kotele, and various others. This individual also has many phone numbers and many previous addresses in Connecticut and Massachusetts.
Why do I have to go through such a search- and possibly come up with a mistaken identity?
Answer! Because the Town of Boothbay offers no information on the background of planning board members. In fact, the only planning board members for which it is relatively easy to associate with an occupation are those with long local roots.
In my view, the identity and background of members of the Boothbay planning board should be more publically accessible than it is in the cases of Peggy Kotin, William Wright, and Denise McBride. I wonder why and how they came to be on the Boothbay planning board and why they often use so many different identities.
Acknowledgment: I also use several identities, all versions of my own birth name. I might be known as Susan Andersen, Mackenzie Andersen, or my full name Susan Mackenzie Andersen. Susan Andersen is a relatively anonymous name since there are so many. Mackenzie Andersen is less common, more distinctive. It is combined maternal-paternal family last names and is gender-neutral. Susan Mackenzie Andersen links it all together but is quite long. I favor Mackenzie Andersen, short, distinctive, maternal-paternal, and gender-neutral.