Bangor hired a new finance director on Monday, more than three months after the previous director resigned, citing an “unjust personal attack” from a city councilor.
City councilors voted unanimously to hire Stephanie Kimball to replace David Little. Little submitted his resignation May 12, five days after Joe Leonard, a Bangor city councilor, accused Little of lying and misallocating resources in a May 7 council budget workshop.
Leonard’s accusations were unfounded, according to an outside investigation.
Kimball’s appointment ends a months-long saga that cost the city nearly $100,000 and resulted in a sitting city councilor’s second censure.
Kimball served as acting finance director after Little left the position in July. She started working in Bangor about two months prior to that, she said.
She said she’s excited to do the job and increase efficiency within systems and eliminate unnecessary spending.
Kimball, who has nearly 10 years of experience in accounting, “seamlessly integrated” into the city’s leadership team, according to the meeting agenda. She will be paid $116,605 a year and signed a three-year contract.
Councilors welcomed Kimball and congratulated her on the new position.
Leonard’s remarks cost Bangor nearly $100,000 in severance pay and fees related to the investigation. Little received $80,916 in severance and the city paid $9,641 to a law firm for the investigation, according to documents obtained by the Bangor Daily News through a Freedom of Access Act request.
City councilors voted 6-2 to censure Leonard on Aug. 25, after the investigation found no wrongdoing by the finance department. At that meeting, Leonard refused to apologize for his earlier comments, but did say he should have gone through the proper procedures.
At the meeting in May, Leonard 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.
“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.”
Leonard refused to participate in the investigation by law firm Rudman Winchell. The firm found no evidence of wrongdoing by the finance department.
Life is “too short and too precious to continue in a stressful and uncertain situation waiting for the next aggressive comment to be directed at a fellow staff member or myself,” Little’s resignation letter said.
Leonard was previously censured for comments he made the same day he was sworn into office in November 2023 about fellow incoming councilors.
