Tag: John Shafer

Saco commission abruptly cancels presentation regarding UNE’s controversial pier proposal

~ Randy Seaver ~ Leave a comment

Following a sometimes-awkward conversation, members of Saco’s Coastal Waters Commission abruptly voted 5-1 Tuesday to remove an item from the top of their December 10 meeting agenda.

The citizen commission was poised to hear a presentation regarding how the University of New England’s controversial pier proposal might impact the city of Saco.

According to James Katz — the commission’s chairperson – he decided Tuesday afternoon – only a few hours before the scheduled meeting — that it would be “inappropriate” for the commission to hear the presentation since no one from the university was invited to the meeting.

Ron Schneider, the university’s lead attorney, however, was also present at Tuesday’s meeting with a pen and notebook in hand.

A view from the Camp Ellis pier overlooking the proposed location of a controversial pier for the University of New England. (Seaver photo)

When one of the commissioners suggested that Schneider should be given an opportunity to speak about the issue, the attorney politely refused. “I’m just here to listen,” Schneider told the commission.

According to Katz, he had previously invited John Schafer to speak to the commission about the university’s proposed pier.

Earlier this year, Schafer resigned as chair of Biddeford’s Harbor Commission. For several months Schafer has been pushing Biddeford city officials to be more transparent about their relationship with the university and how the proposal was being handled at the local level

“Obviously, I am disappointed,” Schafer said during a telephone interview Tuesday evening. “This appears to be a coordinated effort to keep the public in the dark about this project.”

Schafer said Katz was very apologetic when he called to cancel the presentation only a few hours before the meeting.

“I made a mistake,” Katz told his fellow commissioners Tuesday evening. “This presentation was never sanctioned by the city council, but now I guess the bell has been rung, and I would like to have us vote on removing the item from the presentation.”

Schafer said he was stunned by the last-minute notice, but understood that Katz was in a difficult position.

 I’m not sure why city leaders in Saco are reluctant to talk about this issue, Schafer said. “The university’s proposal will impact anyone who uses the Saco River, including people from Saco.”

— John Schafer

“They were eager to hear from me, but somebody shut them down,” Schafer said. “They have been left in the dark about this proposal and how it could impact Saco and residents who use the river for recreation and fishing.”

Saco City Councilor Michael Burman serves as the city council’s liaison to the Coastal Waters Commission. Burman is also a professor at the University of New England. Burman did not attend Tuesday’s meeting.

“Jim [Katz] kept tripping over himself to apologize, but he repeatedly declined to say who exactly asked him to remove the presentation,” Schafer said. “I asked was it the mayor? Was it the council? Was it the city manager?

“He just kept saying ‘the people of Saco’ were opposed to having the presentation take place,” Schafer said.

Schafer said he has been trying to connect with Saco officials about the pier proposal for several weeks, but no one from the city has returned his inquiries.

 “I’m not sure why city leaders in Saco are reluctant to talk about this issue, Schafer said. “The university’s proposal will impact anyone who uses the Saco River, including people from Saco.”

According to the city’s website, the Coastal Waters Commission exists for studying and evaluating public usage of and boating access to coastal waters under the jurisdiction of the city of Saco; planning for its future use, advising the city council on policy matters and proposing regulations concerning the Saco River and coastal waters.”

Schafer said he wrote to Saco Mayor Jodi MacPhail four times between October 15 and November 26, about meeting with “her and her team to compare notes” on the UNE proposal. Schafer said MacPhail never replied to any of the emails.

When contacted Tuesday evening, MacPhail declined to say why she and other  city officials have been ignoring emails sent by Schafer.

“I feel very badly for Jim Katz,” Schafer said. “Somebody put him in a very bad spot. I could viscerally feel his discomfort as he told me over the phone that I could not come to the meeting tonight. I know that he honorably extended the original invitation to me in the spirit of openness and transparency, but he got his knuckles rapped, obviously.”

Editor’s Note: In the interest of full disclosure, Saco Mayor Jodi MacPhail is the writer’s stepsister.

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Biddeford may ‘step away’ from review of UNE pier proposal

~ Randy Seaver ~ 1 Comment

City official resigns, releases video regarding Saco River

Originally published in Saco Bay News, July 1, 2024

By RANDY SEAVER

Biddeford Mayor Marty Grohman said this week that the city may not be included in the review process of a new pier that the University of New England wants to build on the Saco River.

According to city ordinances, such a project generally must first be approved and facilitated by the city’s harbormaster before any other regulatory agency can conduct its own review of the proposal, including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Saco River Corridor Commission.

However, because of actions by the city’s harbormaster and the chair of the Biddeford Harbor Commission, Grohman said the only way for a “fair review of the application” might now include the city withdrawing itself from the review process entirely.

“At this point, they [UNE] are holding all the cards,” Grohman said. “I don’t know how we can get them back to the table.”

On Friday, John Schafer abruptly resigned his position as chair of the Biddeford Harbor Commission.

Schafer told Saco Bay News that he felt “shackled” in his attempt to provide “clarity and transparency” to the discussions surrounding the university’s proposal.

Schafer admits that he should not have played an advocacy role in the review process, but says he was angered by the university’s threat of litigation against the city if their new pier and its specific location is not approved.

According to documents obtained by Saco Bay News, the university began raising threats of litigation months before their pier proposal was formally submitted to the city in June.

“Talk about putting the cart before the horse,” Schafer said. “You had UNE bullying the city with threats of litigation even before they submitted their proposal.”

Several months before the university formally submitted its proposal, Ron Schneider, the university’s general counsel and vice president of legal affairs, sent a letter to the city’s attorney, arguing that the proposed location for the pier was already a “settled issue.”

“It is our position that the planned location of the GMSC Pier is a settled issue,” Schneider wrote. “Mr. Lariviere, and by extension the city, is estopped from reversing course at this time and mandating a different location for the pier.”

In his letter, Schneider says that both Lariviere and former harbormaster Marshall Alexander “specifically told university representatives” in 2015 that the proposed pier should not be built in the location that Lariviere is now suggesting as a more appropriate location.

Lariviere denied Schneider’s assertions about the location of the pier. “That is a complete fabrication,” he said. The harbormaster also says the city’s ongoing actions in removing him and the assistant harbormaster from the approval process violates several state laws.

Grohman says the situation has become a “real mess for the city,” and is causing “unfortunate delays” for the university.

“I’m not sure how we can proceed from this point,” the mayor said during a telephone interview on Sunday.

“There’s really nothing in our ordinances about how to proceed in this situation,” Grohman said. “We have been put into a difficult position.”

Although City Manager James Bennett has previously declined to say whether the university has threatened the city with possible litigation, two letters from Schneider to City Attorney Harry Center make clear that the university is prepared to use litigation if the city does not approve their proposed location for the new pier.

In his Feb. 13 letter, Schneider wrote that Lariviere’s “continued inappropriate obstruction would result in delay that would adversely affect Biddeford, would cause project delay, and would significantly increase expense to the university.”

“It is our sincere hope that UNE is not forced to resort to litigation to avoid the delay and expense that will result if Mr. Lariviere were to insist on obstructing the building of the pier,” Schneider wrote.

Schneider said the university “cherishes its relationship with the city and its people and only wishes to continue being a valuable member of the community.”

Grohman said the University of New England is one of the top-ten academic institutions in the world in field of marine research.

“What they are hoping to do with their pier will result in a lot of positive outcomes,” the mayor said.

As part of his resignation letter to the mayor and all members of the city council, Schafer included a brief video he produced that affirms what the city’s harbormaster, assistant harbormaster and others have been saying about the river depth where the university wants to build its pier.

In the video, depth measurement equipment clearly shows that the river is, in fact, deeper closer to the shore than in the location proposed by the university.

[Click here to see the video] https://youtu.be/EjNWnmvpMyU

Lack of adequate mooring depth has been one pf the primary concerns raised by Biddeford’s harbormaster in connection to the university’s proposal.

UNE representatives, however, say the water depth is better in their proposed location, citing research from engineering firms they hired to study the issue.

Grohman said he has a high opinion of Schafer and his abilities. “I am sorry to see him step down, but I do think it was the appropriate thing to do,” he said.

“The best and fairest way to move forward may be to have the city withdraw from the approval process and see what other agencies have to say about the project,” Grohman said. “One way or another, we have got to get this thing figured out.”

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