The newly elected Penobscot County commissioner will keep his seat on Bangor City Council instead of resigning.
Democrat Dan Tremble, 59, won the race for the Penobscot County Commission seat with 14,300 votes, besting Republican challenger Cary Weston who had 12,462 votes.
Tremble has a seat on the City Council that expires in November. In an interview with the Bangor Daily News before the election, he said he would resign his seat based on legal advice. After he was elected, Tremble said he may not resign the council seat. Tremble finally decided to keep his council seat after further consultation, he said Saturday.
Under state law, county commission seats are listed alongside various local offices as incompatible to hold at the same time. City council seats are not listed as one of those. It would have been impractical to bring the issue to Maine’s high court for clarification by the end of the year, Tremble said.
Bangor City Councilor John Mooney held both offices in the 1970s, setting a precedent, Tremble said. During his campaign, the issue of holding two offices was not raised by residents, he said.
“This is an overlap of 10 months and what the voters I have heard from in Bangor have overwhelmingly asked me to do,” Tremble said.
