Free Fallin’

I have never been so ashamed to be a resident of Biddeford, Maine as I am tonight.

What I witnessed during this evening’s city council meeting was a complete and utter failure of leadership, morality and principles.

Tonight, the city council and Mayor Marty Grohman found a way to screw over a local businessman who, ironically, was just trying to help the city help our unhoused neighbors.

Tonight, the city sent a signal to every resident, business owner and potential resident: Welcome to Biddeford! We don’t pay our bills!

Gotta hand it to our courageous leaders. They finally found a way to save taxpayers some money. We just won’t pay our bills.

Sure, Biddeford was recently  featured in Good Housekeeping magazine for its Christmas “vibe.” Even a Boston news station plugged the city as a top destination.

Well laddi, laddi da! Isn’t that precious?

Sip your fucking cocoa, marvel at the white lights strung along Main Street, and poop unicorn dust in the Lincoln lobby, but never forget that this is also a city being run by an incompetent, self-absorbed moron.

Why am I pissed?

If you don’t know him, Jim Godbout is the owner of Godbout Plumbing and Heating, one of the most respected local companies in southern Maine.

Jim is, perhaps, one of the most decent, kind, generous and hardworking guys you could ever hope to meet. Earlier this year, I listed him as one of the 20 most influential people in the Biddeford-Saco area.

Godbout is always ready to help the community, and he is damn good at rallying other business leaders to pitch in and make seemingly impossible dreams possible.

For example, Godbout led the effort to save and restore Waterhouse Field. As a recognition for his civic leadership there is a street named in his honor next to the field.

Jim has also been leading the renovations at the former St. Andre Church into a community teen center. He is involved in working with students at the Biddeford Regional Center of Technology.

And recently, he again agreed to help the city by providing bare-bones pricing for necessary renovation work at the Seeds of Hope Neighborhood Resource Center.

That renovation project was spearheaded and rushed through by Mayor Marty Grohman and City Manager Jim Bennett.

After all, the city needed some good PR after demolishing a homeless encampment on Water Street near Mechanic’s Park earlier this year.

The city wanted to make sure some homeless advocacy group didn’t sue us for removing homeless folks without providing an option for somewhere better where they could safely spend the night.

The city manager assured the council earlier this year that the cost of upgrading the Seeds of Hope Building would be covered by Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds. Yippee! Free money from the federal government, Bennett assured us. Taxpayers will not feel a pinch.

Oopsie! Something went wrong.

Get Ry Cooder to sing my eulogy

Apparently, the renovation work at Seeds of Hope proved to be more intense than what the city thought it would be. There were problems with the roof and even bigger problems with windows that were literally falling out of the building.

No worries, the city and its contractors pushed forward. They did a truly awesome job. The Seeds of Hope is now able to serve more people although the demand for their service is exploding.

Once the work was finished, Godbout, following an agreed upon budget cost, sent an invoice for his crew’s work, a total of about $655,000.

But the city found out that they could not use CDBG funds for the project.

And then there was silence.

A few days ago, on Nov. 4, Godbout sent a note and a copy of his invoice to Vassie Fowler, executive director of the Seeds of Hope.

“Vassie, please forward [this invoice] to the city as they had promised the funding for this project and have not come through with anything. I am carrying a lot for them making them look good having a warming center open in time for bad weather. Thanks, Jim.”

Godbout was unavailable for comment at press time, but here’s another glimpse at what kind of man Godbout is.

Godbout told the city that he would settle for $400,000 and go out to the community and run a fundraising campaign to cover the remaining $255,000 balance.

Let me say that again slowly. Godbout – a man who is getting screwed by the city – said he will settle for about 60 percent what was owed to him and would raise the remaining balance by coordinating a community fundraising drive.

So, taxpayers have to come up with $400,000 and then likely be called upon to donate to a fundraising campaign for the project.

Kids, you can’t make this shit up.

And the council bought it. Hook. Line and Sinker.

Although Council President Liam LaFountain made a motion to pay Godbout the full amount, only Councilor Marc Lessard voted in favor of paying Godbout every penny of what he is owed.

In the end, the council voted unanimously for the less painful option, even knowing that Godbout is paying interest on a loan he used to finance the work.

Godbout will get $400,000. He will have to raise the rest from the community.

Imagine when you get your next tax bill. Just tell the city to fuck off. Tell ‘em you’ll pay 60 percent of their debt and have Mayor Grohman open a lemonade stand to make up the difference.

If you don’t pay your taxes, the city will take your property. But if the city owes you money . . . sorry, Charlie.

What kind of message does this send to the larger world? What contractor will ever want to do work for Biddeford? Will this impact our bond rating?

Sure, come to Biddeford, visit the glorious Lincoln Hotel and fart hot cocoa from your ass. But when it gets right down to it. When our backs are against the wall. When there are no more shell games to play, this is a city that doesn’t pay its bills.

No wonder we just lost another finance director after only seven months on the job.

I have been covering Biddeford City Hall for nearly 30 years. This is an all-time low.

Lessard summed up his frustration with yet another of his famous pithy quotes. “I expected the city manager to be driving the car on this issue. Apparently, that car doesn’t have a steering wheel.”

And where was our illustrious lame-duck city manager? Reportedly he was home, still recovering from shoulder surgery.

I am ashamed to be from Biddeford tonight.

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