Councilor proposes letting volunteers chair Bangor’s parking committee to avoid cancellations

Councilor Leonard told the downtown parking committee he would recommend an ordinance change so the group could elect a volunteer chair and vice chair rather than requiring a city councilor to serve as chair. He said that when the councilor chair has been absent in the past, the committee sometimes could not proceed under the existing ordinance.

"I would like to suggest that this committee go forward with this recommendation," Leonard said, explaining his preference to remain a liaison rather than the required chair. He cited a past incident where a meeting could not move forward because the designated councilor chair was absent and argued a volunteer chair would reduce that risk and increase the committee’s continuity.

Committee members discussed adopting standard language used by other advisory bodies to allow annual officer elections; staff agreed to draft proposed ordinance language for review at the next meeting. No formal ordinance change was made at this meeting.