By a split vote without discussion, Bar Harbor’s Town Council decided not to reappoint a member of the town’s appeals board who has opposed cruise ships.
Cara Ryan, the board’s vice-chair, was the subject of an ethics complaint that the council considered in March, when the council met in executive session to discuss Ryan’s public opposition to the cruise ship industry. The hearing, which was meant to be held in private because it was considered a confidential personnel matter, was accidentally aired over the internet.
The council did not take any action on the matter as a result of the executive session, but was divided on Tuesday when Ryan, whose term is expiring, was nominated for another 3-year term on the board. Councilors Earl Brechlin, David Kief and Randy Sprague voted in favor of reappointing Ryan, but Steven Boucher, Maya Caines, Joe Minutolo and Val Peacock voted against doing so.
Ryan had been under public scrutiny since late last year because of her opposition to local cruise ship visits — a controversial topic that has dominated local politics for the past three years. Twice local voters have enacted sharp cuts in cruise ship visits, prompting strenuous objections from businesses that cater to cruise ship passengers and multiple legal challenges to the limits and how the town is implementing them.
In December, Ryan recused herself from an appeals board hearing over a dispute between the town and Golden Anchor LC, which operates the Harborside Hotel. The town has sought to fine the company over the company’s refusal to get a disembarkation permit to allow cruise ship tenders to discharge passengers at its marina.
Ryan said at the time that she recused herself from the hearing because an ethics violation had been filed against her and she did not want an appearance of bias to tarnish the outcome of the hearing, according to the Mount Desert Islander.
At an earlier appeals board meeting in November, Ryan had voted not to allow Golden Anchor’s attorney, who had missed a submission deadline, to submit additional materials for the board to consider at the December meeting, according to meeting minutes posted on the town’s website.
After the December meeting, Ryan told the Islander that “she had been accused of being an outspoken critic of the cruise ship industry, which she freely admitted, and of contributing $100 to [Charles] Sidman’s GoFundMe campaign to help defray the cost of his legal fees,” the newspaper reported.
Charles Sidman has been the cruise industry’s chief local critic and spearheaded a 2022 citizen’s referendum that sharply reduced the number of cruise ship visits that Bar Harbor gets each year. Sidman has been active in resulting litigation between the town and a business group that is challenging the new limits in court.
An appeal of the new limits, which has resulted in a sharp downturn in Bar Harbor’s cruise ship traffic this year, is still pending in federal appeals court in Boston.
In another nomination on Tuesday, the council made a unanimous reappointment to the town’s appeals board with a 7-0 vote to give board member Michael Siklosi another three-year term.
