Bangor’s finance director resigned earlier this month after a city councilor accused him of lying and misallocating resources in a public meeting.
David Little, Bangor’s finance director, submitted his letter of resignation days after Councilor Joe Leonard expressed his frustrations regarding the city’s finance department during a May 7 council budget workshop.
Little must give 60-days notice when resigning, meaning his last day as Bangor’s finance director will be in July, according to Cara Pelletier, Bangor’s city council chairperson.
Little became finance director in 2022 after working in the city finance department in various capacities since 1993. Little assumed the role when Debbie Laurie, the city’s previous finance director, became Bangor’s city manager.
The loss of Little, and Laurie — who is retiring at the end of May — means Bangor is losing more than six decades of institutional knowledge and experience as it welcomes a new city manager next month, who will need to rapidly learn the city’s financial strengths and challenges. It also comes as city leaders are keeping a close eye on municipal finances due to uncertainty with federal funding allocations and turbulence in the general economy.
“It’s very unfortunate that we’re losing Dave at this moment in time,” Pelletier said. “That’s a huge concern for me.”
In his confrontational comments on May 7, which lasted nearly 10 minutes, Leonard reviewed the list of accomplishments the finance departments had in the last fiscal year and the department’s priorities and challenges for the upcoming one.
While Leonard noted that some accomplishments, like citywide technology upgrades, take time to complete, he said those upgrades should have been done years ago. Leonard also believes the city could be using artificial intelligence to create its own software that would “potentially save millions of dollars a year” instead of renting software.
“There’s no reason for us to not have a visionary IT department, especially in the day and age when IT and data technologies are wildly booming,” Leonard said.
Leonard also accused Little of not contracting with a company that answered a request for proposal another city department issued because Little didn’t like the bidder, and of lying to Leonard about an auditing process.
“What is going on in the finance department?” Leonard said. “I have massive, massive concerns with this department and I think it needs a massive, massive overhaul.”
Little did not respond to Leonard’s comments during the May 7 meeting.
Pelletier said she believes Leonard’s comments may have violated state statute, which grants municipal employees the right to have complaints against them heard in private.
Because Leonard didn’t voice his concerns or accusations in executive session — when a meeting moves behind closed doors — that could make the city liable to legal repercussions, Pelletier said.
Following Leonard’s terse comments, Pelletier reminded councilors that public meetings are not the appropriate place to accuse city staff of wrongdoing or air other grievances.
“We have all agreed to council guidelines on how we will behave,” Pelletier said. “I think it’s important that we hold each other to it and if there are serious concerns about staff behavior, those are entitled to confidentiality under Maine state law.”
Leonard later apologized for his behavior at the end of the city council’s May 12 meeting.
In his comments, Leonard said while his desire to clarify budget information for residents is paramount, “the route I went about it was not done the most professional way and it was inappropriate.”
Leonard also promised councilors and residents that his “passion will be tempered in the future and those actions will not be repeated.”
Neither Little nor Leonard returned requests for comment on Monday.
