While the Orono City Council refuses to engage citizens in a meaningful way to gauge interest on a significant public safety change and multimillion dollar investment - the creation of Orono Fire - Councilmember Maria Veach takes it upon herself to individually poll/influence Long Lake Fire Wives via text.

At a June 4th Fire Advisory Board meeting, Maria inquired about the current culture at LLFD and Assistant Chief Cody Farley gave an impassioned response that specifically noted that maintaining morale is “taking a lot of effort.” He further emphasized that, “The fire department brings a lot of stress to a firefighter’s life and their family life, and this situation (the future of fire service conflict between City of Long Lake, and City of Orono,) has enhanced that tremendously.”

So what does Maria do in response? She pours gasoline on the fire.

On June 20th, Mrs. Veach sent text messages to a handful (confirmed five and most likely more) of fire wives, asking for their opinion on a social media post by Mayor Walsh where he laid out his terms for mediation. His terms were incomplete, out of reach and posted a few hours before the third court-ordered mediation on June 17th. The fire wives we spoke with felt they could not speak freely and that their words might be used against them, their husbands and the department.

WHY IS THIS SO CONCERNING?

The City of Orono has already been held in contempt of court TWICE for violating the temporary injunction which prevents them from hindering Long Lake fire service. Why do they insist on further disrespecting the court, pushing the limits of these orders, and putting the City of Orono at risk for additional violations and fines while engaging in a non-public, unsolicited communications?

Despite repeated requests from Orono residents for a public hearing, listening session, open house etc. regarding the future of fire service, nothing has been offered by the City of Orono (the City of Long Lake has hosted three). Instead, Mrs. Veach seems steadfastly focused on one-on-one meetings held behind closed doors and conducting individual polls via text.

Maria has already been called to the carpet for back-door negotiations as she has repeatedly made impulsive decisions to approach Long Lake officials outside of the proper channels.

Is this “weird”? Yes! And Maria knows it, which is why she included the disclaimer in her text (see image).

It’s inappropriate for a sitting Councilmember to take advantage of personal relationships to solicit information surreptitiously while the two cities are involved in ongoing litigation.

The majority of the LLFD Firefighters and their wives have steadfastly refused to comment publicly on the details of the ongoing negotiations, choosing instead to stay focused on the work of saving lives.

This is a clear effort at manipulation and violation of the trust of the fire families. Most of the fire wives have very clearly chosen not to get involved to avoid creating any division or animosity within the fire family.

WHY DOESN'T ORONO ENGAGE CITIZENS ON THIS TOPIC?

Because they don’t want to know the answer, and because they don’t care about your opinion.

We know that to date, the only data that has been publicly collected clearly reflects that citizens DID NOT support Orono Fire and/or had questions/concerns about the initiative. For the majority of the Orono Council, there is a high risk that citizen input will cause a conflict with the Mayor Walsh’s stated intent to push forward with OFD no matter what.

No matter the legal ramifications.

No matter the impact on public safety.

No matter the cost to taxpayers.

Mrs. Veach and the Orono City Council should be focused on gathering citizen input in a public, transparent and meaningful way. What they have done to date does not meet the community’s requirement for representation and despite years of public outcry, they have repeatedly chosen not to engage their citizenry. Instead, they cherry-pick data to manufacture their desired outcome, and that is what they communicate to citizens in materials that can easily be classified as propaganda.

Not only are back-door texts and behind-the-scenes dealings not great examples of open and honest conversations, but they also undermine the intelligence and priorities of taxpayers who deserve a seat at the table…last time we checked, we still live in a representative democracy.