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 Geoffrey C. Parker 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.

Growing up as the second of six kids you would think I would have a tendency to boss people around, but that never interested me. Instead, I was curious about what people thought and who they were. That led to a 50-year career of producing documentary videos where I got to tell other people's stories. From American Airlines to Yale University to Make a Wish of Maine, that’s still what motivates me, years later. 

Having lived and worked in Rockport since 1977, I have served for several tours of duty on the Select Board (and other committees in the Town, including the 2004 Comprehensive Plan Committee).  Currently I am the chair of the Zoning Board of Appeals and on the Budget Committee.  I want to lend my experience and services again with the aim of improving communication in the Town on matters wide and narrow. Whether it is explaining the nuances of a decision to one person, or advancing efforts to reach everybody at once so that we can have community wide discussions of what matters to our residents, I think I can be of some help again.

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

The community, the residents, the people: we all live here for a reason, each for their own reason. But the difficult task of the Select Board is to keep (and support) the old ideas that are worth keeping, and to propose and support new ideas that are worthwhile adopting. 

Aside from the topography and the natural elements, all the other attributes that Rockport has, originate and are maintained by the people. 

What are Rockport’s greatest issues to address?

Housing affordability: This is affecting everything we do.  It’s not only our nurses and doctors, it’s not only our landscaping crews, nor is it just the boatbuilders, it affects our own children and grandchildren. Both for those that stay close by, as well as for those who go out into the world and experience different places and then come back to the area with more to offer;  housing opportunities are down and prices are up.

In 1974, I lived in a town north of the Arctic circle that had for years shipped its kids out to a Bureau of Indian Affairs school in Arizona.  The town was miserable for those 40 years with no youthful energy in town. It took until 1969 before the town could rebuild and enjoy the spirit that kids and families bring to a community.  While that's an extreme example, I want to make sure our community continues to grow and attract new families and workers, and remains vibrant.

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 the changes?

As the current chair of the ZBA, I keep close track of what our colleagues sitting on the Planning Board are up to.  Jeff LeClair does a great job keeping the committee members on task and judicious in their examination and editing of the current regulations. As a result, the ordinances and maps that are up for revision reflect the combined wisdom of the team. 

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 very important presently and in the future, but it is no magic panacea, nor is it something that can be rushed into.   Often it is necessary to wait for a leadership position to become open before the communities can move ahead with a combined effort. The inauguration of new relationships can often times be a matter of personalities as much as the fiscal objectives. This task force, once past its steep learning curve, will have the gravitas to investigate options that are realistic and mutually beneficial.

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 member of the 2004 Comprehensive Plan, I supported our effort then to create listening meetings at all five villages. Holding those again, in addition to the Select Board’s scheduled meetings, would be an important communication achievement with lots of upside. 

The town has received a 90/10 grant from the Maine Dept. of Transportation to design (not build) a pathway from the intersection of 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?

Geoff Scott’s leadership of the Pathways committee, (A truly mutualistic bi-town committee) has worked very hard on creating multi-modal pathways to enable residents and visitors bicycle and walking access to an increasing area of both towns. This grant will be instrumental in anchoring the, as of now, fragmented successes to date. Did I say “yes?” Here, let me make sure: Yes!

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

First of all, “various interests that request municipal funding” do not do so “throughout the year.” The budget for next year is being thought about throughout the year as department heads report on their target expenditures, month by month. But the real jostling takes place in March and April. That’s when the Department heads, the administration, and the budget committee show their cards as to what they want to support and what they don’t want to support. Then the Select Board takes each of the three budgets, with continuous input between the parties, and crafts the final budget. As an individual you have the opportunity to contact a member of the Budget Committee to have them vocalize your particular perspective on what this community should be involved with. 

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

The recently renewed Charter document should be good for a number of years.

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.

Before we get to the sewer, it is important to understand that suits do not necessarily indicate that the parties are warring. Sometimes they act as a vehicle and a structure within which progress can occur. 

Four more years of sending our waste north and south, or focus on alternatives? YES. We have to do both. Regionalization does not mean we always piggy-back on someone else; sometimes it means that we are the host helping to serve others. The Camden sewer system is coming to the end of its useful life. Some of the infrastructure has been renewed but the system needs a relief valve and perhaps a new life identity. We should be using this time to get all of our ducks in a row to both help ourselves and help our neighbors. The new technology available has a considerably smaller footprint, and are  more cost effective to run. 

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

Like a group of humans who each have their own abilities, attitudes, and experience, so too do communities. Our ability and willingness to help our neighbors belies our stature. Historically we have been a tremendous asset to both our region and to the State. Many of our employees are also in leadership positions in State-wide organizations. Not only do our folks give assistance and perspective to other communities, they also come back with new fresh ideas from the convocations. And, of course, we have some terrific businesses and attractions. 

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

Local government surrounds you all through the day. Step outside your side door and you can see many manifestations of local control. From the condition of the roads to the care of our parks and athletic offerings, From the protective teams of fire fighters and ambulance professionals to the folks that remind you to register your dog, local government is really the whole community. What have we decided to do, or not to do, on behalf of our neighbors? Even though Senator King calls Maine “just one big small town connected by long roads” the first five minutes on those “long roads” are very important to our personal foundations .  And I’m the neighbor down the street that might be able to help out.

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

My interests and experience would suggest that I continue to help in land use issues and harbor concerns. 

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