Text messages exchanged between Bangor city councilors discussing an outburst from their colleague, Councilor Joe Leonard, did not violate the city’s code, the Board of Ethics unanimously decided Wednesday.
In a change to the schedule initially set by the board earlier this month, discussion of two other outstanding ethics complaints will be held until its next meeting, which is set for Dec. 17.
The board’s deliberations were part of a formal process to address multiple concerns city councilors raised about each other during a chaotic period of infighting earlier this year.
The issue that sparked the councilors’ text messages began May 7, when Leonard accused the city’s former finance director, David Little, of lying and misallocating resources during a public meeting — accusations that an independent investigation later found no evidence for.
In the following weeks, some city councilors sent texts and emails back and forth discussing their reactions to Leonard’s accusations and their thoughts on whether they should punish him, as reported by the Bangor Daily News.
The council voted to censure Leonard in August for his comments, which other councilors said were inappropriate and should have been made in private. Shortly after, Leonard announced he was launching an ethics investigation into the messages exchanged by other councilors discussing the situation, alleging that they violated open meeting law and wrongfully discussed confidential information.
But the Board of Ethics, which is tasked with evaluating such complaints, decided at its Wednesday meeting that the messages did not violate the city’s code.
After reviewing the emails and texts, the three board members present — Stephen Brough, John King and Shane Leonard, the chair — agreed that the councilors didn’t violate city rules, noting that they couldn’t find any evidence of councilors discussing confidential matters or talking in groups larger than two.
Leonard’s order requesting an ethics investigation named councilors Carolyn Fish, Susan Deane and Susan Hawes, as well as former councilor Dan Tremble and former council chair Cara Pelletier, and the ethics board voted unanimously that none of those councilors violated the city’s ethics code.
His order included two questions: one asking whether those councilors violated the part of Bangor’s charter requiring open deliberations and another asking whether they violated the city’s ethics code by discussing confidential city affairs.
Although board members determined that the question referring to open deliberations was outside their jurisdiction, their discussion indicated that they didn’t believe the councilors violated either rule.
“There’s no evidence of any group messages, there’s no evidence of any group phone calls,” King said.
Brough expressed some concern that the way councilors relayed information was “a little bit troubling,” but that they were still acting within the rules.
The board decided to table another ethics complaint, regarding a councilor’s circulation of election nomination papers on another councilor’s behalf, until its next meeting on Dec. 17. Members will also discuss a third complaint, regarding Councilor Wayne Mallar’s behavior at an August Historic Preservation Commission meeting, during that meeting. Both complaints were raised in September.
