WATERVILLE — Mayor Mike Morris has vetoed a vote the City Council took to establish a task force that would recommend ways the city can support vulnerable residents, including homeless people, and encourage community-driven solutions, collaboration and public input.
Waterville Mayor Mike Morris, seen delivering his inaugural speech Jan. 2, vetoed Friday a vote the City Council took to establish a task force that would recommend ways the city can support vulnerable residents. Amy Calder/Morning Sentinel file
In an email to the council and City Manager Bryan Kaenrath dated Friday, Morris said he firmly believes such a task force is necessary to address challenges, but he is disappointed the resolution didn’t incorporate any input from the business community.
“Conversations with officials in the police department reveal that more and more businesses are voicing their concerns and requesting assistance for things like criminal trespassing,” Morris wrote.
Morris said that while deflection and diversion are primary goals, the city has a responsibility to resolve such quality-of-life issues. When deflection and diversion fail, those committing criminal trespassing and other incidents are either cited or arrested if they return to the properties where the offenses occurred, and Morris doesn’t view that as a viable solution.
He said any new resolution the council considers concerning a task force should include language saying everyone, including businesses, be taken into consideration to create a more effective and comprehensive approach to finding solutions.
The idea for a task force arose when downtown business owners and landlords said they were having problems with people, some of whom are homeless, approaching customers to ask for money, sleeping in buildings, using drugs and, in some cases, soliciting for prostitution or engaging in sexual activity in public places.
Business leaders, including Bill Mitchell, Gregg Perkins and Tom Nale Sr., asked that the city work to help balance the needs of those who are homeless, as well as businesspeople and residents. They asked that the city institute a six-month pause on expansion of services, including the Mid-Maine Homeless Shelter and Waterville Area Soup Kitchen, both of which have talked about expanding.
The council voted unanimously Dec. 17 to create the task force. Before voting on the resolution, the council decided to eliminate a recommendation that the task force explore how to better utilize city resources for all residents. The objective of the recommendation was to explore how best to balance the needs of businesses and those of homeless or vulnerable people, to ensure public funds are spent in the most effective and efficient manner. The task force would send recommendations to the council on the issue.
Councilors at their first meeting of the new year, Jan. 7, are scheduled to consider Morris’ veto. They could vote to sustain or override it, according to Sarah Cross, executive support specialist to the mayor and city manager.
Morris said he thinks it is unlikely that the council will sustain his veto, but if it does, he would ask a councilor to make a motion to waive cloture, or take up an item not listed on the agenda, to reintroduce the previously approved resolution with the added language about how to deliver city services.
The vote the council took Dec. 17 stipulated the task force include three people who work in community social services, three business leaders who work closely with social services or are city landlords and three residents who receive rental subsidies or are homeless or have experienced homelessness. Three city staff members are also to be on the panel.
Morris, Kaenrath and a city councilor would review applications and the council would make final approval.
The panel would focus on how to mitigate barriers and risks to accessing and supplying transitional housing; explore a risk-share model to encourage public-private partnerships to remove barriers for newly housed tenants, mitigate risk to landlords and recommend council adoption; and foster positive interactions with community members, with an emphasis on ensuring quality of life for all residents and connecting people in need to social services.
A separate task force meets regularly at the Mid-Maine Homeless Shelter and various people attend, including Kaenrath; Katie Spencer White, the homeless shelter’s president and CEO; and officials from agencies, such as Kennebec Behavioral Health and the Kennebec Valley Community Action Program.
Councilor Rien Finch, D-Ward 6, said the task force is not a strategy-based group, and the new one would focus on long-term goals and strategies. It is scheduled to report on its work to the council by June 1, 2025, and every three months thereafter. A tentative sunset date of Dec. 31, 2026, was set for the group.
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