Last week, I sat in a room with Bobbi Oxton Blake, a lifelong Camden resident, who wants to be elected to the Camden Select Board. She’s running on a two-pronged platform of transparency and fiscal responsibility. She had a lot of questions. As did Chris Nolan who was also in the same room, is running for re-election to the Camden Select Board and is concerned about the town possibly phasing out the Camden Police Department. 

 How, Oxton Blake asked, did the town of Rockport manage to lower its proposed 2027 fiscal year budget from the previous year as opposed to Camden, which didn’t?  What’s going on with some of the town’s employees?  For example why was the full-time Public Works Director awarded a no-bid dam agent stipend of $30,000?  And are there enough hours in the day for this one person to be not only the Director of Public Works but also the Wastewater Superintendent, the Facilities Manager at Mid-Coast Solid Waste Corporation, the Tree Warden and the Dam Control Agent? How many stipends does the town give out anyway and who gets them?

Over the last year I’ve been dismayed at how the town of Camden interacts with the public.  Let’s start with the paid parking issue which by the way I neither support nor oppose.  What I do find troubling is the manner in which a paid parking policy was approved and the rollout of the actual plan.

I zoomed into one Select Board meeting where public comment on the issue was on the agenda. Residents who argued against it were respectful and waited patiently for their turn to speak.  How were their comments received?  Our town manager basically told them that it didn’t matter what they thought because she and the Select Board had the power to approve paid parking and already had.  Then along came the hooded parking meter vandal.  I don’t condone the destruction of public property, but his or her actions was evidence that our Town Manager and Select Board may indeed have had the power, but not public support, for this decision. 

As for the rollout, the last time I walked into the town offices I asked for information on the blue, white and green colored parking spaces and was told there was none available. I would have to look for that on the meters (which by the way were covered up at the time).  I was left wondering why we’re paying a full-time Communications Coordinator who doesn’t appear to be communicating in real time about a hot button issue that residents are focussed on.

Which brings me back to Bobbi Oxton Blake and Chris Nolan.  I plan to vote for them both on June 9th and I hope you will, too.  They have a lot of questions.  I’m confident they’ll raise them. And…. I want answers. 

Jo Dondis lives in Camden