The Bangor City Council voted 5-2 in a special meeting Monday to censure Councilor Joe Leonard again following a heated altercation last week when Leonard rebuked white supremacist attacks that disrupted a council meeting, even going so far as to raise his middle finger at an audience member.
The council also voted unanimously to condemn hate speech, which has been a recurring issue during public comment at City Council meetings in recent weeks and was once again on display Monday night.
The vote marks Leonard’s third censure in his time as a councilor. He is the only councilor in the last decade to be dealt the punishment, which is a formal statement of disapproval from fellow councilors. He has become a controversial figure on the council, with some community members dismissing his style of politics as inappropriate and others celebrating his passion and willingness to question the status quo.
The vote indicates that most of Leonard’s colleagues on the council believe his actions last week crossed a line, when disruptions to a council meeting by a speaker espousing hate speech prompted a fiery outburst from Leonard.
The speaker joined the meeting via Zoom and voiced his support for a City Council candidate, Richard Ward, who is known for promoting white supremacy and neo-Nazism. He then thanked Immigration and Customs Enforcement for “protecting our white communities,” called immigrants “savages,” encouraged attendees to visit an antisemitic, white supremacist website that is run by a neo-Nazi organization and concluded by declaring “white f—king power.”
Leonard interjected to denounce the comments, speaking over the council chair.
“All the hate mongers out there … you people are not welcome in our city,” Leonard said before throwing a pen and raising his middle finger at Ward, who was in attendance.
The censure order, brought forward by Council Chair Rick Fournier, calls Leonard’s behavior “disrespectful” and “unacceptable” and stated, “City Council members are required to act with civility and preserve order and decorum during City Council meetings, and to maintain a standard of conduct that will inspire public confidence in the integrity of the City’s government.”
Councilors Susan Deane, Carolyn Fish, Susan Hawes, Dan Tremble and Fournier voted in favor of the censure, while Councilors Michael Beck and Wayne Mallar voted against.
“The caller incited a response in Councilor Leonard that was inappropriate. I wish he could’ve contained himself,” Deane said. “The behavior was inappropriate, but what was behind it was appropriate.”
Beck agreed that Leonard shouldn’t have raised his middle finger or thrown a pen at last week’s meeting, but urged councilors to consider the context in which he did so and said he wished the censure order had been written differently. “It just feels like tonight we’re censuring the fire alarm and using a squirt gun on the fire,” he said.
Leonard stood by his actions Monday, saying, “this council spends its energy on policing gestures rather than helping our community. … I refuse to accept criticism for denouncing bigotry.”
Leonard was previously censured in 2023 for comments he made about fellow councilors’ potential involvement in a campaign prior to their election, and again earlier this year over accusations he made against a city employee in a public meeting.
Numerous community members spoke on the censure order, with a mix of those in support and in opposition. Ward, who said in a Facebook post Saturday that he had filed a police report about last week’s incident, joined the meeting via Zoom to criticize Leonard.
Ward was muted after he called Leonard a homophobic slur.
The resolution condemning hate speech is the council’s first formal response to a spate of hateful comments made via Zoom during city meetings in recent weeks. Councilors said last month they would consider updating their public comment policy in response, but have not yet taken action.
“The City of Bangor and the members of the Bangor City Council, unequivocally condemns individuals and organizations who promote and utilize hate speech in all its forms,” the resolve stated.
A few community members spoke in opposition to the resolve because they feared it could limit free speech, but City Solicitor David Szewczyk explained that the resolve does not prohibit any speech, but rather condemns certain speech. He added that City Council meetings are limited public forums with standards regarding what can be discussed.
Such hate speech continued in full force over the course of Monday’s meeting. Numerous speakers joined via Zoom who made personal attacks against councilors and other community members and spewed antisemitic remarks and racial slurs, including the n-word.
These comments were made by people likely using fake names and mostly claiming to live in Bangor after being pressed by Fournier to share whether they were residents — although one person mispronounced the city’s name.
Ward was the sixth and final speaker who was cut off for making hateful remarks. At that point, Fournier declared that he was ending Zoom comments for the night, a move that was met with applause in the council chambers.
