LEWISTON, Maine — Lewiston City Hall was hit from both sides Tuesday night, as former Mayor Robert Macdonald blasted the city’s anti-ICE ordinance as an obvious driver of budget pressure and City Council President David Chittim, presiding in Mayor Carl Sheline’s absence, initially tried to stop a Lewiston mass shooting survivor from speaking, despite her having been a frequent speaker at recent council meetings.
The result was a meeting that laid bare a city government under growing public fire, accused of putting political signaling ahead of fiscal discipline while treating survivors of Maine’s deadliest mass shooting as an inconvenience.
Macdonald used the public comment period to deliver a blunt rebuke of the city’s leadership, arguing that Lewiston’s budget problems could be addressed “very simply” if officials stopped blocking cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.
Macdonald, a Vietnam veteran, former police detective, former mayor, and longtime Lewiston public figure, said one of the clearest ways to reduce pressure on city finances would be to work with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement rather than shut it out.
“As I’m listening to the budget, we could cut that budget down very simply,” Macdonald said. “All we gotta do is bring in ICE.”
His remarks came after Lewiston’s mayor and city council recently passed an ordinance forbidding city staff, including the police department, from cooperating with or helping ICE except in limited circumstances required by law.
Macdonald suggested the city’s political class has refused to confront the financial impact of illegal immigration on city services, welfare spending, and the school system.
“But we can’t do that, because my God, the people in Augusta would hate that,” Macdonald said. “And probably some people would lose a lot of votes.”
He went further, arguing that stronger immigration enforcement would reduce strain on city resources, particularly welfare and education costs.
“But you bring in ICE, welfare’s gonna go down, that school budget, God knows how much money is being spent to educate kids, these kids, they don’t speak English,” Macdonald said.
Macdonald also took aim at the atmosphere inside the council chamber itself, calling out the barricades now set up at public meetings.
“This is a public meeting. I don’t understand why barricades are up there,” Macdonald said. “I don’t understand why everybody is so afraid to talk to the public. I think that should come down. I really do. It’s not something that we should be proud of.”
The barricades Macdonald referenced were put in place about a month ago after safety concerns were raised by Councilman Scott Harriman about conditions at the meetings. Later in Tuesday night’s meeting, the council agreed that the barricades should be removed, but only after Harriman expressed a desire to keep them in place.
Macdonald urged current officials to listen to former city leaders as the budget process moves forward, saying decision-makers should seek out those who better understand how municipal government is supposed to function.
He closed with a direct shot at the people now running City Hall, saying he did not believe anyone in power had “the intestinal fortitude” to raise the issue themselves.
Tuesday’s meeting took place without Mayor Carl Sheline, who was in Washington, D.C., attending a Ukraine Action Summit. In his absence, Chittim ran the meeting.
But if Macdonald’s remarks were a political indictment of the council, the night’s most jarring moment came when Destiny Johnson, a survivor of the October 25, 2023 Lewiston mass shooting, was nearly prevented from speaking at all.
Destiny has been a frequent speaker at recent Lewiston City Council meetings, making the attempted enforcement against her all the more striking.
“My name is Destiny. I’m a survivor of the Lewiston mass shooting,” she began.
During the exchange, Chittim asked her to identify where she was from. After she stated that she lives in Windham, she was told that public comment was limited to Lewiston residents and taxpayers.
“I’m a Lewiston survivor,” she responded. “I was almost shot and killed in the city.”
Chittim expressed sympathy but reiterated that council rules restricted public comment to Lewiston taxpayers. Multiple councilors then asked Chittim to allow Destiny to speak, and after a brief pause, the council reached consensus to permit her to continue her remarks.
“Thank you so much,” she said before resuming her statement.
Destiny told councilors that the rule change created a barrier for survivors who no longer live in Lewiston but were directly impacted by the shooting.
“The mayor altered the rules to grant speaking rights exclusively to Lewiston residents,” she said. “I’ve been speaking at this meeting for the last couple months. This presents a problem for me.”
She said the policy signaled to survivors that they were no longer welcome in public discussions surrounding the aftermath of the shooting.
“The mayor’s stance suggests he wants us to leave and go away,” Destiny said. “We plan to continue attending meetings and voicing our concerns until we get the answers we seek.”
Her remarks focused heavily on the ongoing controversy surrounding the $1.9 million distributed to 29 nonprofit organizations through recovery funding connected to the Lewiston shooting.
According to Destiny, survivors and victims’ families did not request the city council’s involvement in addressing their needs, but instead have sought accountability for how those funds were distributed.
“Survivors and victims’ families did not request the city’s council assistance in addressing their needs,” she said. “Instead, our focus has been on seeking accountability for the 1.9 million awarded to 29 nonprofits that were not at Schemengees or at the Bowling Alley on October 25, 2023.”
She reiterated calls for a formal investigation into how those funds were allocated and noted that one of the nonprofits involved had returned its funding.
“It’s worth noting that the Root Cellar, one of the 29 nonprofits, has stated that it returned the Lewiston shooting funds they received back to the victims,” she said.
Destiny urged the city to request that the Maine Community Foundation return the remaining funds to victims and their families.
“Given your current partnership with the Maine Community Foundation, it seems reasonable for you to ask the Maine Community Foundation to return the remaining of the 1.9 million to the victims and their families,” she said.
She closed her remarks by recounting her experience the night of the shooting and the obligation to honor those who were killed.
“I escaped to the kitchen of Schemengees,” Destiny said. “Others didn’t make it out at all.”
“The least we can do now is ensure that their names and the support promised in their honor are treated with fairness, transparency, and respect.”
What unfolded Tuesday night was not just disorder. It was a damning portrait of a city government that looks weak on leadership, hostile to accountability, and alarmingly tone-deaf to the people it serves. A former mayor said councilors lacked the guts to confront reality. A shooting survivor was nearly cut off until others on the council stepped in. For Lewiston taxpayers and victims still demanding answers, the conclusion is getting harder to ignore: this council is losing the public’s trust because it has done too much to earn that loss.
When irresponsibility falls and is an open contradiction, then we need to question those who seem afraid to face the truth. To achieve “Sustainable Community Collaboration and Understanding” – that leads to positive outcomes and efforts to change the madness and self-motivation, we fail. Allowing Destiny to speak was right, and it illustrates what is needed to fix some attitudes and forward efforts in all things troubling.
Mayor Robert Macdonald is a refreshing memory of how things used to be in the country. Sadly those days are gone.
Why are there Barricades? Simple it’s how democrupts preserve Democracy. By barricading the truth.
Barricades signal fear of the people.