CARIBOU, Maine — Caribou City Council voted to move forward with a policy on meeting attendance for 2021 in which councilors risk forfeiture if they have three consecutive unexcused absences or fail to attend 80 percent of workshop and committee meetings outside of regular council meetings in which they have voting power.
The discussion, which was held during the council’s beginning-of-the-year organizational meeting on Jan. 4, comes after former Caribou mayor Mark Goughan resigned when he risked forfeiture due to missed committee meetings.
Goughan, who was re-elected in November for a three-year term, returned to the council during this meeting.
Caribou City Manager Dennis Marker said that, following discussion with city attorney Richard Solman, the city charter’s attendance requirements could be interpreted in numerous ways. The term “committees” is not specifically defined in the city’s charter, meaning the council could adopt a narrow or broad interpretation, according to a letter from Solman included in the council packet,
The narrow definition would be only those committees in which councilors comprise the majority of members and carry out city business. This would include airport, municipal buildings, and personnel committees.
The broad definition would include all assignments to all city boards and outside groups such as the Northern Maine Development Commission and the Caribou Economic Growth Council.
The lawyer said the charter does not provide guidance as to which interpretation is correct, adding that he would recommend following the narrow interpretation as these committees are mostly composed of council members and contain discussion and work relevant to the council. Many of the committees under the broad definition only include councilors as liaisons without voting authority.
He said the decision is ultimately up to the council, adding that there is no right or wrong answer.
Goughan asked for clarification on the charter’s definition of excused absences. With the council meeting just twice a month, he asked how an absence could be excused by the council beforehand if they’re not holding a meeting in which a vote can be made.
“We can’t vote over the internet or privately,” Goughan said.” We have to have a meeting for councilors to vote, so how can you get excused by the council unless there happens to be a meeting just prior to that committee meeting? Unless that means the council can excuse after the fact.”
Marker said, in the case of outside committee meetings, it would probably need to be excused after the fact. When councilors discuss reports during regular meetings, a councilor can mention that they were not able to attend an outside meeting and explain the reason for this absence, and their fellow councilors can agree to excuse them, Marker said.
Councilor Thom Ayer suggested holding a workshop in the future in which the council could discuss amending the charter to prevent the issue of needing to interpret gray areas.
“We need to look at this objectively because there are so many different ways we can go,” he said. “We just spent the last five, 10 minutes talking about different ways we can go.”
Ayer suggested the council follow the rule of needing to attend three consecutive council meetings and at least 80 percent of committee meetings until they can bring the matter to a workshop later in the year, adding that this aspect of the charter requires close examination.
“You can interpret this six ways from Sunday,” Ayer said.
Councilor Lou Willey said a workshop would be appropriate, adding that if the council agrees to move forward and examine the charter closely, it should go beyond just the attendance requirements.
“If you’re serious about looking at restructuring and clarifying some of this, it needs to be the whole thing; it can’t be piecemeal,” she said.
Ayer agreed, and Willey said that if a workshop takes place, it would be with the understanding that, no matter what the council does, the voters would ultimately need to make a decision on the matter.
Ayer motioned that missing three consecutive council meetings and 80 percent of any committee meetings where a councilor has voting power, without excused absences, would put that councilor at risk of forfeiture.
The motion passed with six councilors in favor and Goughan opposed.
