We are concerned about the credibility of the Ad Hoc Commission (AHC) which is charged with developing a new harbor management plan. Its mission will be tainted by the clear conflict of interest of its chairman, a conflict that he admitted to the press in May.  Not only does he have a direct financial interest in hosting more cruise ships, but it appears that he may be excluding the rest of the AHC members from deliberation on contracts with consultants, the scope of work, and even changing the mission of the commission.  The mission mandated by the City Council was to assess the economic impact of cruise ships on Rockland, not to figure out how to increase their numbers. At this point, any recommendations that the commission makes will never pass the smell test and Rockland residents deserve better.  The harbor is a key asset of the city and its future should reflect the unbiased interests of all of us.

The City Council should review its stance on conflict of interest and ethics as embodied in the City Charter and Maine law.  Indeed, the HMC was created by an ordinance and the AHC by a resolution.  The mission of the AHC, however, subverts that of the HMC and an ordinance can only be modified by another ordinance.  Without that, apparently there is actually no legal standing for the AHC at all. The AHC should be disbanded and the chore of developing a credible harbor management plan should be left to the Harbor Management Commission part of whose mission “is to develop, adopt, and implement a harbor management plan.”

At the very least, the AHC should be cleaned up and anyone who has any self interest or who is circumventing due process removed.  The commission should be totally unbiased and credible. While this may not be a politically expedient course of action, it nevertheless will credit its proponents with doing the “right thing” for Rockland and rising above any personal ambitions.

The AHC should also include Rockland residents as part of its research. Our Bill of Rights states “that all power is originally vested in, and consequently derived from, the people. That Government is instituted and ought to be exercised for the benefit of the people.”  The elected officials of Rockland therefore serve at the pleasure of its residents.  The businesses in Rockland do not vote.  Indeed many of their owners do not even live in the City. They contribute to the town by paying rent and taxes which help support our schools and other town expenses.  This is the economic rent they pay to operate here. This does not give them a right, however, to dictate the future of the city.  They are here at the pleasure of Rockland’s citizenry.  A necessary approach for any good research would be to poll residents as well as as all businesses and interest groups in Rockland who are affected by cruise ship tourism.

After listening to the recordings of the AHC meetings, it is clear that few if any of its members have studied the industry, researched experiences in other harbors, or read economic impact statements from around the world. They seem to be blindly accepting numbers from earlier studies in Bar Harbor and Portland which were done by a group partially funded by the cruise industry itself.  The fox seems to be in the hen-house!

 David and Sally Wylie live on Vinalhaven and in Rockland