If the Camden Select Board's job is to lead or govern then one cannot help but be extremely dismayed at the recent behavior concerning proposals put forth by the Harbor Committee and the Planning Board.

Almost two years ago the Harbor Committee, as mandated by the Comprehensive Plan, undertook a review of the Harbor Ordinance. A working group of the committee was established to review and make any recommended changes in order to "provide an efficiently managed harbor that balances commercial and recreational needs and maximizes the variety of boating opportunities available to the public and to preserve and enhance public and visual access to the harbor,” as quoted in the Comprehensive Plan.

Some of the recommended changes were minor clarifications of definitions. There were three more significant changes.

To eliminate the possibility of building consolidated piers.

To take the existing provision for the town to build a large municipal pier anywhere in the Outer Harbor and limit the location of that pier to Steamboat Landing.

To extend the already existing ban on piers in Sherman's Cove to include all of the Outer Harbor.

The Harbor Committee voted unanimously to approve these changes and went before the Select Board in April to request a public hearing in May in order to be on the warrant for the June 2014 Town Meeting.

Some Select Board members were opposed to the changes and voted to hold a Public Hearing in July in order that summer waterfront residents could be in attendance. Later, in an unannounced off camera meeting where no minutes were taken, the Select Board rescinded its commitment to have a public hearing without even the courtesy of notifying the Harbor Committee.

The then chairman of the Select Board, Martin Cates, a realtor and owner of a real estate company, was the most outspoken opponent of the proposed changes, stating concerns for property rights and property values. He demanded that the committee determine the effects of these changes on property values, and that we discuss these changes with all waterfront property owners.

I have been involved in Camden zoning issues for 27 years and I have never seen any board or individual asked to undertake such tasks. The Planning Board has never been asked to poll those affected by its recommended changes.

Groups who have gathered enough signatures to be on the ballot have never had these demands made of them.

Were the Foxhill petitioners asked to poll the abutters or determine their property values? These are the kind of things that get talked about in a public hearing.

Another demand, as the months went by, was that the Harbor Committee meet with the Planning Board to insure that the Harbor Ordinance was compatible with the Zoning Ordinance. After several meetings to iron out details the Planning Board voted UNANIMOUSLY to support the Harbor Committee's proposed changes.

This brings us to the Aug. 4 Select Board meeting, where, after hearing the support of a town committee and a town board, it was a struggle to get the board to agree to an Aug. 18 public hearing, which, to me, was a low point in town government.

Ostensibly, the purpose of the hearing was for the Select Board to decide whether or not to put these measures on the warrant. Instead some Select Board members mounted an attack on the provisions of the changes.

Without taking the space here to argue the merits of the proposed changes, what is most appalling is that the some members of the Select Board ignored and overrode a key central issue, that being that the Harbor Committee, with decades of experience in the harbor, and the Planning Board, with it's long term expertise, are being denied the opportunity to put their unanimously approved proposals before the town.

All of the committee and board members were appointed by current or past select boards. It was also embarrassing how unfamiliar some board members were with the actual Harbor Ordinance. I must point out that a minority of the board supported the changes.

Prior to the meeting, the Associate Executive of the Mid-Coast Board of Realtors sent an email to its membership advising them of and urging them to get involved in this issue. I can only assume that the encouragement for this came from a Select Board member. Under the circumstances that board member should have recused himself from discussion of the matter.

I believe the Camden Select Board has overstepped a reasonable boundary between what it should decide and what the voters should decide. It has also undermined the extensive volunteer work of a town board and a town committee. Not respecting the work of these knowledgeable volunteers makes the idea of a democratic town government a farce.

Stephen Gold lives in Camden and serves on the Harbor Committee.