Proposed Dexter Community Bill of Rights ordinance will get legal scrutiny

By Mike Lange
Staff Writer

    DEXTER — Four months after Dexter residents passed a moratorium extension on constructing “private transportation and distributing corridors” though the community, a group of residents is asking the town council to enact a Community Bill of Rights ordinance.

    But councilors are taking a precautionary stand on the request and agreed at their March 12 meeting to send the proposed ordinance to the town’s legal firm for review.
    Like the moratorium, the Community Bill of Rights is aimed at the proposed east-west corridor connecting the New Brunswick and Quebec borders via a 220-mile controlled-access highway through Maine.
    However, opinions were sharply divided on the value of the proposed law which closely resembles the Rights-Based Ordinance (RBO) passed in Sangerville last summer.
    The text of the Community Bill of Rights “challenges the idea that corporations, supported by the state, can harm the community against the will of the people who live here.”
    The group promoting the ordinance also cites the Maine Constitution’s Declaration of Rights which states that “all power is inherent to the people” and since government was instituted for their benefit, citizens have the right to “reform or totally change the same when their safety and happiness requires it.”
    But Code Enforcement Officer Al Tempesta told the audience that he didn’t think the ordinance could withstand a legal challenge. “I don’t think you can tell people who they can sell their land to and who they can’t,” he said. “At the minimum, I think this should be sent to the town attorney to look at.”
    Tempesta also questioned a provision that stated, “If the local government fails to enforce the ordinance due to a conflict with corporate powers, any person may enforce the ordinance through direct action.” He added, “That’s the reason we elected you,” gesturing toward the council.
    But one of the committee members who drafted the ordinance, Marcia Delaware, emphasized that the ordinance “would only apply to the east-west corridor. It doesn’t apply to CMP running a line across a street. It only applies to construction of this corridor.”
    Councilor Sharon Grant cautioned, however, that the council “isn’t being asked to pass something we think you want. We’re being asked to pass what this ordinance says.”
    Councilor Fred Banks agreed. “Every time I read this, I get two or three different interpretations,” he said.
    Banks also questioned what involvement the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) had in drafting the ordinance.
    Linda Tisdale responded that CELDF “assists communities faced with development projects like pipelines, water extraction, mineral extraction or other projects that could potentially be damaging.” She went on to say that efforts in other communities to simply amend land-use laws or zoning regulations to halt such development have not been successful.
    Tisdale said that CELDF has learned “what has worked and what has not worked. And when communities go through the normal permitting process, they’re going to lose.”  She also charged that the real purpose of the corridor “was to allow Irving Oil to build a pipeline to move the tar sands oil from Alberta to the Saint John (New Brunswick) refinery.”
    After about 20 minutes of debate, councilors agreed to hold a public hearing on the ordinance on Thursday, April 9 prior to the regular council meeting.
    “I think its good business for a town attorney to look at this,” said Council Chairman Michael Blake. “Once this goes into effect, it’s the law. So if a paragraph or two needs to be adjusted, we need to do it now.”