This November, the Town Council will be made up of three new members representing the priorities and concerns of our community. While we rely on our elected officials to make rational decisions with the sensitivities of the public in mind, councilors in turn look to the public to participate in dialogue. The Town Council is committed to ensuring that the feedback they receive from residents has a real impact on the outcomes of their decisions. In the past year, the current councilors displayed efforts of participating in – and responding to – the public process.

The budget planning process from late March through May is a significant opportunity for the council to sway the spending priorities and other ways of adjusting the tax rate. The Finance Committee spent hours going through each line of the proposed budget by department and hearing the rationale for needs. The budget largely emphasized maintaining the quality services that residents expect, with a few areas of investing for the future. However, this was also a revaluation year that meant many homeowners would have their tax bills affected by their new assessed values. The council treated this as a major consideration and kept homeowners at the forefront of decision making.

The council’s sensitivity was specifically focused on Scarborough’s more economically vulnerable population that would be disproportionately affected: seniors living on fixed incomes. With the anticipation of the residential revaluation impact, combined with the discontinuation of the state’s property tax freeze program, the council preemptively increased both the eligibility threshold (from $50,000 adjusted gross income to $60,000) and the overall benefit (from $750 to $1,000) for Scarborough’s local Property Tax Assistance Program for eligible seniors. The council also expressed an interest in a final budget that focused on maintaining the status quo. The final budget came in at a 4.21% increase, below their 5% goal and equivalent to a 1.47% tax rate increase in a non-revaluation year, compared to 3.77% last year. This was also a decrease from the budget that was initially proposed at the start of budget season.

The Town Council not only considers the community impact of its decisions, but also is responsive and reactive to community concerns as they arise. Earlier this year, residents of the Maple Avenue area approached town staff and the council about pedestrian safety concerns in their neighborhood with frequent speeding cars. The collaboration of neighbors with the town Engineering, Public Safety and Public Works departments led to the creation of a traffic calming policy, approved by the Town Council in March 2024. Now residents can request an analysis to assess concerns and receive an appropriate data-driven solution by town experts.

In certain cases, the public process involves the Town Council changing their stance on an issue as details emerge and the public weighs in. This was the case with the Gorham Connector, a 5-mile highway proposed by the Maine Turnpike Authority to address heavy traffic congestion along routes 114 and 22. The February 2024 announcement of the highway’s path quickly garnered media and public attention. As is typical for controversial issues like this one, the council received steadily increasing comments from the community in opposition to the plan. In an extended public comment period of a September workshop, commenters cited the plan’s environmental impact, concerns with urban sprawl and skepticism of the plan’s overall efficacy. The largest concern was with the plan’s impact on Smiling Hill Farm and it being in direct conflict with the original intent of the memorandum of understanding.

After public workshops, several months of ongoing public feedback and an organized social media campaign, the Scarborough Town Council wrote a resolution withdrawing its support for the project as it is currently defined. On Oct. 2, it passed with a 6-1 vote and made Scarborough the first of the four communities to take action.

This is how a public process, seeking input and feedback, with an elected body listening to their community, should work. Prior to their vote, Councilor Don Cushing, who worked with councilors John Anderson and Jean-Marie Caterina to bring the resolution forward, stated, “The lesson here tonight, big time, is at least this council does listen.”

The Town Council is influenced by critical points of the public process: the public comment period of meetings, emails sent to the council, Council Corner Live listening sessions, and more. This will continue into 2025 with three new councilors and a host of infrastructure projects, concerns and foresight to consider in future planning.

Allison Carrier is the marketing and communications manager for the town of Scarborough.