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Only about half of Bangor’s neighborhoods are currently represented on the city council due to a government structure that differs from the state’s other major cities.
All nine city councilors are elected at-large, meaning they can live anywhere and represent all of Bangor’s nearly 32,000 residents. But councilors are concentrated in a select few neighborhoods, leaving wide swaths of the city seemingly unrepresented.
While Bangor councilors’ homes are nearly evenly split between the east and west sides of the city, most are in or on the outskirts of two neighborhoods: Fairmount and Little City. There are a few outliers downtown, in the Tree Streets and in far north Bangor, according to city tax records.
This structure leaves Bangor as the state’s only major city in which none of its councilors serve specified wards or districts. It also means that some of its neighborhoods — including Outer Ohio, Capehart, Bangor Gardens and Judson Heights — are without local elected leaders, and the council may be unaware of critical issues in those areas.
Portland, for example, has a hybrid system in which five councilors serve specified wards while three are elected at-large. In Lewiston, each councilor serves one of the city’s seven wards.
While being elected at-large doesn’t restrict where councilors can live, it means they do face the daunting task of knowing the feelings, thoughts and wishes of residents in all corners of Bangor, said Cara Pelletier, City Council chair.
“From my perspective, it was intimidating to throw my name in the ring and know that there were 32,000 people I needed to reach and feel qualified to represent their voices,” Pelletier said.
During her campaign, Pelletier said she worked to knock on doors all over the city to hear from constituents, but that required significant time and effort and doesn’t yield the same result as having someone from each neighborhood on the council dais.
“Certainly knocking on doors is important and I understand that every councilor has a social and business circle that extend beyond their own neighborhoods,” Pelletier said. “But, talking with someone in Capehart and asking about their experiences is not the same as having someone from Capehart at the table.”
Bangor’s government format took effect in 1932 after voters approved a change to the city charter in 1931. That established a council of nine people, all elected at-large to make decisions for the city. That body works in partnership with a hired city manager, who oversees the departments.
This abandoned the city’s previous government format in which an elected mayor, board of aldermen and common council led Bangor, alongside a slew of other officers.
The switch was part of a nationwide wave of local government reform in the early 20th century, according to Earle Shettleworth, former Maine state historian.
The change in leadership structure was intended to fight potential corruption and depoliticize local government, since a city manager is an appointed professional with no voting ability, Shettleworth said.
When Bangor made the switch — nearly a decade behind Portland — it had seven wards that appeared to be used as voting precincts and didn’t have any bearing on councilor elections, according to the city’s annual report from that year.
Bangor held onto its wards, though it reduced their number over the years, until 2009, when councilors decided to have all residents vote at one location, making the city one voting district.
Pelletier said she’s interested in asking Bangor residents if they’re happy with the current form of government, or if they’d like councilors to equally represent every corner of the city.
“If citizens are in favor of us opening the charter and making changes, it would be nice to hear from them on what direction they’d like to see us go,” Pelletier said. “Ultimately, it’s about making sure each person in the city feels well-represented in the matters of city business.”
In 1973, then-councilor James Henderson released the results of a citywide survey that revealed most respondents didn’t like Bangor’s format of all councilors serving at-large, according to a Bangor Daily News article. Henderson two consecutive terms from 1971 to 1978.
Of the 3,500 questionnaires that were distributed to Bangor residents, 400 people responded. More than three-quarters of the respondents said they’d prefer city councilors to represent Bangor’s different wards or districts, Henderson said at the time.
Pelletier said she wouldn’t be opposed to requiring councilors to represent every area of Bangor because, “it gets us closer to truly representative democracy.”
If the city later requires councilors to come from all areas of Bangor, Pelletier said she hopes that would also encourage and inspire more people to run for office to represent their neighborhood.
