There are three open Rockport Select Board seats up for election June 9 at annual Town Meeting. Four candidates are seeking election to two of the seats that carry three-year terms. Those candidates are incumbents Kimberlee Graffam and Michael Thompson, as well as Samantha Appleton and Darren Robbins.

The one-year seat will fill out the remaining three-year term vacated by Select Board member Michelle Hannan, who resigned from the Rockport Select Board last winter. For that one-year seat, there are three candidates: Linda Greenlaw, Craig Mitchell and Geoffrey Parker.

Penobscot Bay Pilot has posed questions to each candidate, providing the opportunity for the public to better understand their positions on issues. Here, candidate Craig Mitchell responds:

Please provide a brief biography of yourself, explain why you decided to seek a seat on the Select Board, and what you are hoping to accomplish.

I have lived in Rockport all my life.  I own Rockport Landscape and Design. My wife and I are raising our three children here, and I decided to run for the Select Board, because of conversations with my neighbors surrounding town spending and property tax bills on the rise year over year.

Many residents in my neighborhood are retired or living on fixed incomes, and after hearing their concerns, I joined the Budget Committee last year. While serving, I realized the committee had limited ability to impact spending decisions. I want to advocate for a fiscally responsible budget in our town.  

What are Rockport’s greatest strengths, and how do you hope to support them?

Our community is full of kind, hard-working people who make it truly special. We are good neighbors who care for one another, and that sense of connection is part of what draws people from out of town and out of state to settle here. 

Neighbors help neighbors, supported by a volunteer fire department that is robust and town committees made up of residents who are deeply invested in the community.  I plan to support them by celebrating where we are doing well.  Bring in those locals who are stepping up, thanking them and building strong partnerships.

What are Rockport’s greatest issues to address?

Rockport has a diverse group of residents.  The financial burden on the property tax bill is a conversation that needs to be had.  We need to have fiscally responsible decisions that keep our town affordable for 21% of our residents making under $50,000 total household incomes annually.  (Rockport town, Knox County, ME - Profile data - Census Reporter)

These retired income locals have roots that run deep.  When a property tax bill doubles in five years, this can have a major impact on our fixed income neighbors.  The roofs don’t get repaired, the landscape falls apart and repairs can’t be made to their home when the budget is stretched.

Our town municipal budget has grown from $6,810,937 in 2022 up to over $12,626,829 in 2026.  This increase is historically higher than any other four-year period in our town’s history.  I would like to address this spending and make sure we are making fiscally responsible decisions that address all citizens and protect our most vulnerable.

   Rockport has several land use ordinance and subdivision ordinance amendments on the June 9 Annual Town Meeting warrant, including adjustments to the zoning map. Have you read through the proposed amendments, and do you approve of the changes?

We have a very attentive planning board and I trust their judgement.  I reviewed the changes, nothing stood out and I haven’t heard concerns from locals with differing positions on this topic.  I approve of the changes. 

 The current Select Board has discussed establishing a Regionalization Task Force (April 13 SB meeting, conversations starts at 1:55:34). What is your perception of what that means, and do you have ideas of how Rockport could collaborate with other municipalities to improve on best practices, collaborations, and/or reduce the annual financial load on taxpayers for town operations?

Regionalization is a concept that can work if the towns work together. It’s important that town Select Boards and town managers get along and collaborate.  We can have the task force and have the solutions, however if the town managers in our town or neighboring towns refuse to meet, discuss or implement I can see that being a roadblock.  

My first initiative on the Select Board will be to collaborate with our neighbors in Camden.  There is a very real perception that the two towns are at odds with each other, which makes for inefficiencies and negativity for town employees and citizens.  Sharing resources and getting along is what we all must do in our careers as citizens; we can’t get upset and refuse to work with others or we lose our job.  I would like to see the two town managers and two town Select Board members work together.

As a Select Board member, how will you help ensure all villages (Rockville, Glen Cove, Simonton Corner, West Rockport and Rockport Village) all receive equal attention and investment by the town? 

As a business owner I work with all citizens in these areas.  I have no problem making sure that all receive equal attention.   

The town has received a 90/10 grant from the Maine Dept. of Transportation to design (not build) a pathway from routes 1 and 90 to the high school, as outlined in the 2024 Sewall Transportation Infrastructure Study for Rockport. Do you support investing in the design and build of a Route 90 pathway?

As far as I am understanding this is already underway.  From what I have read our town is paying $30,000 towards the study and the Maine DOT is paying $270,900.  As a Mainer, that seems steep to pay for a study, $300,900 in costs.  I also can’t recall schools with sidewalks on roadways, especially with traffic averaging 50 MPH.  

I think this is an issue we should vote on as a community when it comes to construction.  Are we wanting to encourage kids to travel on highways?  Maybe the speed on that portion of Route 90 must come down for safety?  How much do maintenance costs for public works amount to, time and labor for snow removal.  Lots of questions, I don’t have an opinion until those are answered.

What is your opinion of the Rockport budget process, the working relationship between the Select Board and the Budget Committee?

I was on the Budget Committee last year.  I quickly found out the committee had been silenced these last few years and couldn’t vote up/down on the budget, but thankfully our committee figured out how to get our votes back on the ballot, that was a good thing.  

I did find it unusual on this committee when I asked for receipts or payroll documents, it wasn’t well received.  Our payroll and benefits make up more than half of our town budget; that’s a pretty large portion of our expenses, but no one seemed excited to talk about that.  

So, I decided to send a few emails to the town manager to drill down these inflated expenses. After a dozen emails, I decided to send a FOAA (Freedom of Access Act) request to the town manager.  I was asked to write a check for $100 to the town for the labor it would cost to pull the payroll reports for our town. I received this report and shared this document with the Budget Committee, as well as the Select Board via email.  The payroll trends were unsettling.  As a result of that opportunity, I decided my time would be better spent on the Select Board.  

How will you advocate for the Rockport taxpayer as you help shape and govern the municipal budget, and juggle various interests that request municipal funding throughout the year? 

I feel confident I can juggle these interests.  I will respond to every email and follow through with concerns from each citizen.  My roots run deep here, and I have a vested interest in this community succeeding.  As a business owner, I do look at spending, saving, debt and efficiency and I plan on using that knowledge on town issues.   

Have you read the Rockport Municipal Charter and does it need amending?

I have read the charter.  I think there are opportunities in our town following the charter.  We have it written well, but I don’t see it always enforced.  At the end of the day, we can put more on it, but if we aren’t adhering to it, which I have seen on many occasions, then it’s just a document that exists.  I would like to see us follow our charter and then add to it if needed.  I can discuss more at next weeks public forum.

Rockport and Camden signed a five-year wastewater agreement in May 2025, which terminated lawsuits between the two towns, and “emphasized their mutual commitment to cooperation and shared goals,” said a two-town press release last year. Do you think Rockport should, for the long term (four years from now), continue sending its wastewater to Camden (and Rockland) or focus on building its own wastewater facility, as it proposed to voters in 2024? That measure failed at the polls but the idea is not forgotten.

I support working with our neighboring towns.  At this point I don’t see the need for us to incur more expenses which will only burden our citizens with higher tax bills.  

Rockport can’t sustain this cost; we need partnerships with neighboring towns.  With our current management and budget off the charts I can see why this was voted down by our citizens.  We must get the town managers to work together and avoid lawsuits and create a long-term solution that benefits citizens in all three towns.  

How do you see Rockport fitting into the greater regional economy and culture?

Our economy is something to discuss, how can we find other revenues to support our expenses instead of turning to our citizens and inflating their tax bills?  How can we regionalize and work with neighboring towns and run things more cost effectively?  These are questions I am excited to ask and work towards, because the unlimited checking account from you, the taxpayer needs to stop.  

As far as culture we have a diverse town, the folks with higher incomes and high property taxes are constantly giving me feedback that they are not seeing benefits, amenities or improvements for their increased property tax bill.  The locals with lower fixed incomes are feeling stretched to the max and their mortgage that they paid off is now back in the form of property taxes.  After years of hard work and paying off their mortgage that expense is now back in the form of property taxes.  Our culture of hard-working folks with deep roots here is the backbone of our community.   

What is the importance of local government, and how do you see yourself, as a Select Board member, in it?

As taxpayers, we deserve to speak at meetings.  We have a culture of hurrying during public comments or interrupting folks during public comments, and I feel folks that spend thousands of thousands of dollars on property taxes decade over decade deserve to be heard.  

Public comments should be the most exciting fruitful part of the meeting.  We have very intelligent hard-working citizens with great thought processes on ways to improve.  I think we could improve as Select Board by adding ideas/feedback to agendas and show a respect and urgency to care about what the townspeople care about. 

What municipal committee(s) would you like to be a liaison to, and why?

I am flexible.  Budget committee is my passion. The spending is off the charts, and I feel we could get more bids, negotiate better on contracts and listen to our citizens; they have a huge wealth of knowledge.  

Free space! Is there anything else you'd like to say to the voters that we haven’t considered?

If you want someone on the Select Board that asks tough questions, listens to and respects citizens and values your hardworking money, please give me a vote.  

Please come to the forum on May 26, 6 to 8 p.m. at the Rockport Opera House. I look forward to all questions, and I will answer them as directly and efficiently as possible.