Incumbent, David Reed, is seeking one of the three-year term seats on the Select Board. Reed is completing his first year on the board, after being elected to finish the term of a seat left vacant by a resignation.
With a Political Science degree from the University of Southern Maine and as the youngest person to ever serve on the North Yarmouth Select Board, Reed does not back away from issues.
Reed is straightforward about his positions and has been very active in his outreach to residents, canvasing as much of the North Yarmouth as he can in the lead up to the election. He is willing to talk to anyone about their concerns.
We met at the Veterans Memorial Park, using the newly installed accessible picnic tables.
“The whole debate over the Land Use Ordinance, it takes up a fair bit of time but it's not actually the thing that primarily consumes a selectman’s time. Like, we probably spend more time talking about like road schedules and what's getting paved next, and what are we going to do if this project overruns.”
For Reed, “The Select Board has to look out for the interests of the people who are already living here. That's both the people who moved here five minutes ago, and the people who moved here 50 years ago, or who were born here 70 years ago. Those are the people that we're looking out for.”
He further stated, “It's not the job of government to look out for whom I call the hypothetical other, the person who could move here in two years.”
Provisions in North Yarmouth’s Land Use Ordinances tied to creating affordable housing allow pocket neighborhoods. Reed is concerned about aspects of this model not being discussed. Reducing lot sizes to 5,000 square feet, less than 1/8th of an acre, particularly in the groundwater protection overlay should not be permitted.
He agrees something needs to be done to help with housing, particularly for residents at either end of the spectrum, young people and seniors. According to Reed, what qualifies as affordable in North Yarmouth, $510,000, is “ludicrous”. Areas local officials have control of are limited. How officials approach it needs to change.
“You have to look at housing as a regional phenomenon.” Problems are linked to cities like Portland or New York becoming less desirable, causing people to move to less urban areas. “That's putting a lot of pressure on our communities.” High-density housing is more suitable for cities, so fixing cities might be a place to focus.
He sees a looming recession as a serious concern. Recent population shifts due to Covid means layoffs or an economic downturn in other regions, such as New York, “could have implications in Maine if people are virtually commuting into their workplace.”
Due to the town’s size, Reed questions whether North Yarmouth’s current form of government is still appropriate. The process no longer represents a majority of the community. “There's barely anything we can change once it goes to town meeting. Town meeting is, more or less, a rubber stamp.”
Attendance at town meeting is likely not a fair representation of the population in North Yarmouth. A town council form might be more suitable.
Siting the lack of true debate at town meeting, Reed proposed sending town warrants to ballot. Using a referendum format for special town meetings would allow more residents to vote on warrants. Reed clarified “referendum” means as a ballot question, similar to the school budget process, and not citizen petition. Warrants could use the regular election cycle of June and November.
He did add, “Citizens bringing a petition to the board with 400 signatures is a powerful statement of support,” that residents want the board to do something. He thinks Maine’s citizen petition statutes are rooted in Maine’s history of high civic involvement. Further, “I’m the first one to admit that elected leaders can be out of touch with people. And every once in a while, it’s good to have that little nudge from folks.”
“I’ve knocked on hundreds of doors. I'm constantly listening to everybody.” He sees the push to make local campaigns more partisan as a “distraction” from real issues.
He says residents he has spoken to do not support the recent changes to the village center and want the town “to do something to constrain the development and growth of the town because it's gotten crazy.”
Reed blames emphasis on the term “rural” in the comprehensive plan for disagreement about recent development, calling it a Trojan horse. “It talked about rural character, there was nothing in that well, there was nothing in building up the town center, and the way that was gone about that was about preserving rural character. That was all about promoting development. They expanded the center outwards, and they'll do it again when it's full.”
Reed is critical of the planning board’s handling of citizen amendment proposals and believes they are applying “a gross double standard to things.” Reed alleges confusion about the process is an intentional distraction technique.
“The last referendum passed with 60% of the vote. The people who, who put in the work on doing that did their homework. It was a relatively simple change, that would have an impact. And they brought it before the public. It's not hard to understand unless you have people who are purposefully trying to muddy the waters on it.”
Reed says he is not anti-development. “I just want to see responsible development. You might even be able to get in some of the higher density stuff, if we just are able to revise the Land Use Ordinance in a way that would mean it would be tucked back a little more from the road, so that the homes would have more privacy, and you wouldn't have the same, like visual impact.”
Reed questions the push to abdicate decision making to experts. He agrees there is value and a need for experts, particularly in certain situations, such as financial or public health policy, but he does not include developing Land Use Ordinances.
“We need experts who will help us go in the direction we want, not dictate the direction we want to go in.”
Tapping into local expertise, like Northstar Planning, has been a valuable resource for the planning board with technical aspects of application review. He supports continuing this targeted approach.
The effect to the mil rate by having a TIF was highlighted during the recent budget process. “According to our internal budget materials, our town manager decided to put the TIF impact as a separate item, so she could show the general expenditure funds. The TIF stuff was about $1 on the mil.”
Reed proposes amending the TIF. “I'm primarily talking about shrinking the amount of captured revenue and letting more of it go into the general fund.”
The path forward must be resident-focused. “I'm not talking just about the majority of people that turnout for town meeting. If I get elected, I will block policies that I think aren't helpful for the people of this town. And I will try to get policies out before the voters that you know, that fit with the with the ideas that have been expressed to me.”
“Cumberland’s town center grew naturally you can see kind of how it was built out. This town center in North Yarmouth was built purely because of the political decision to make a town center.”
“We're a policy-making board. Our job is to put policies before the public for a vote, whether that be through town meeting or through referendum. I'm going to make sure that I've put sane and rational policies in front of the public and don't let people play games to get things that you know, benefit interests other than their own.”
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