BANGOR, Maine (NEWS CENTER) -- Bangor's City Council passed an amendment to one of its ordinances Monday night -- trying to make sure city councilors show up to City Council meetings.
They did it because, last summer, former City Councilor Pat Blanchette moved to Florida several months before her term ended, but she never resigned.
“It is an extraordinary happening, where one councilor decided to take a prolonged vacation instead of formally resign which lead to other strange circumstances” said Bangor City Councilor David Nealley.
He is referring to former Bangor City Councilor Pat Blanchette. Last year with four months left in her term, she moved to Florida.
She had packets of paperwork sent to her and she even got her city council paycheck sent to her. But she never attended another meeting.
Fellow City Councilor David Nealley said at the time the council did not have specific "rules and protocol in place for which to act."
“We couldn't un-elect them so we chose really not to censure the person or to force their hand into an official resignation...And in this case I think we actually failed the citizens by not upholding this individual to a higher standard,” said City Councilor Nealley.
So, Monday night, the council voted and passed an amendment to an already existing ordinance.
It doesn't give the body any new power. What it does do, in part, is specify the number of times a councilor can have an unexcused absence. If he or she passes that number, they face possible censure.
“Basically, it's just a formal hand slap, you sort of go in public, it's at a council meeting, and it says that you did something bad in sort of like a tisk tisk scenario but that's it” said Bangor City Councilor Josh Plourde.
Councilor Nealley thinks tightening up the existing ordinance will make a difference.
Though City Councilor Josh Plourde said it's meaningless.
“In Councilor Blanchette's words this amendment is a paper tiger, if she were here today she might refer to it in that phrase. First to making an ordinance that’s never going to be enforced unless the council decides to, which we could do already. It's essentially a fluff ordinance” said Bangor City Councilor Plourde.
But what both Councilors agree on, though, is that when the people of Bangor elect a Councilor, they expect that person to do their job.
NEWS CENTER was unable to reach Blanchette for comment.