A Calais city worker says he has no plans to resign from the city council despite voters deciding he should.
Peter Foster, who works for the school department, took his council seat a year ago after the November 2024 election.
Fellow councilors debated then whether he could legally serve, deciding – in violation of the city charter – that he could as long as he “abstained” from any votes involving school spending.
A charter provision forbidding city employees from serving on the council includes school workers.
As if that weren’t clear enough already, voters earlier this month amended the prohibition by making it even more explicit.
Foster, however, told the Maine Monitor, he’s staying put.
“I was voted in by 500-plus residents of Calais, and I will not let them down,” he said. Moreover, the city council waived the charter prohibition from applying to Foster.
Foster isn’t alone in his Calais conflict.
Marcia Rogers, then but now no longer a local teacher, served also as a councilor until she became mayor by appointment a year ago.
During the meeting at which councilors gave Foster a pass they did the same for Rogers.
They simply told her, too, to simply “abstain” from certain votes – including whether to seat Foster. So at that point she actually had two conflicts – being a city worker serving in elected local office and being in a position to consider whether a fellow councilor had the same conflict as she did.
The Monitor called the council decision to seat Foster unanimous but Rogers wasn’t allowed to cast a vote due to her own conflicts at the time.
City Manager Mike Ellis told the Monitor that Foster can continue his conflict because by waiving it fellow councilors effectively “grandfathered” him to legally maintain both his elected position and school employment.
The Bangor Daily News ran the Monitor story – which actually downplayed the continuing charter violation – as part of what it described as “a collaboration to strengthen investigative journalism in Maine between the BDN and The Maine Monitor.”
