LPC Nominations – Part II

In the May 11 edition, your podcast hosts, Rebecca Lambert and Amanda Campbell met with members of MMA’s Legislative Policy Committee to discuss the roles and responsibilities of the illustrious committee.  This edition continues that conversation with Elaine Aloes (Solon) and Roberta Boczkiewicz (Castine), who bring the elected official’s perspective to the discussion.  

Transcript

 Welcome, everyone, to Potholes and Politics: Local Maine Issues from A to Z. I'm your co-host, Rebecca Lambert, and with me, as always, is my amazing colleague, Amanda Campbell. 

Good morning, Rebecca. Thanks, everybody, for listening. 

Yes, thank you to all of our listeners for your continued support. On our last episode, we featured three of our current Legislative Policy Committee members who shared with listeners their experience of serving on the LPC, and they offered some great advice to those who may be thinking of seeking the nomination. Since our guests were all managers on that episode, we thought it might be useful to have a take two of sorts for this episode with LPC members who are elected officials and willing to share their perspective. If you haven't had a chance to listen to the previous episode, it's available now to listen on whichever platform you use for podcasts. And as always, please consider liking and subscribing to our podcast so that you never miss one of these episodes. 

Don't forget, LPC nominations are in mailboxes now, and are due back on June 4th. 

So today, sharing the elected official perspective, we welcome LPC members Elaine Aloes, select board chair from Solon, and Roberta Boczkiewicz, selectperson in Castine. And we'll just jump right in. Thank you both for joining us today to share your expertise about serving on the LPC. And first, we would like to hear what motivated you to run for the LPC and, has serving been what you expected it would be? Let's start with Elaine, and we'll go from there. 

Mostly start getting involved and being concerned about some of the legislation that was being passed at the state level that wasn't friendly to a rural community. And it's really helpful being on the LPC because you do get to learn the perspective of the big cities, but they get to learn this perspective of the small cities, which is the small rural towns. Which is really important, because a lot of times, we're overshadowed and our voices aren't heard. 

I would totally agree with Elaine that it's nice to hear the perspectives of the bigger towns. I was a complete newbie to all of this, and just wanted to know how this all works. And so, it's been hugely helpful for our entire select board to understand the processes that go on in the legislature and how it affects our small town of Castine. But I agree completely. It really helps... I think it helps the big cities to have the rural perspective and the small-town perspective as well. 

That is true. It's different from big cities to small, rural towns. We heard from our managers last week that the time it takes to prepare for an LPC meeting can be a lot. For you as elected officials, what is the workload like for you to prepare for an LPC meeting? Roberta, let's start with you this time. 

So, I was really nervous for this first year. And I spent hours and hours reading every single proposal that was coming up, every piece of legislation, going through it, writing questions. But the amazing thing was that all of those questions seemed to be answered during the discussion, which was really exciting. But it really was a lot. However, it's worth it to me because then we're so much better informed about what's going on in the legislature. 

Yep, I tend to read over the list of the bills that, that are coming before us, and highlighting the ones that affect the rural towns more that... 'Cause some of the bills just don't pertain to a small rural area, even central Maine area, where a lot of them pertain to southern Maine. And so those I'll just skim over. But the other ones I'll read and figure out and ask questions of people who are outside, like firemen if there's a fire issue, the sheriff if there's a county issue. And so that way those ones I know what I'm talking about when I go to the LPC. Some of the other bills I just pass over 'cause I figured the people who know about those bills will talk about them at the LPC, and I can get my information from them, because a lot of them don't pertain to rural Somerset County. 

Dwayne Young shared with us a mantra that rolls around in his head in terms of LPC work, and I found it very insightful, and I wanted to share it again with you all and with our listeners. He said that conversations equal education, education equals an informed decision, and an informed decision makes for a better outcome overall. During LPC meetings, there are some great conversations, as you both have mentioned, that happen, and those conversations really do help educate other LPC members, and staff too, on how certain bills will affect all of our members. And you touched on this a little bit, Elaine. In preparation for meetings, do you make it part of your practice to reach out to other municipal officials in your district to discuss the bills coming before the LPC?

Yes, I do. Any of the clerk ones, I'll reach out to my clerk and another clerk I know and get their perspective on it. With the voting bills, the same. I'll reach out to my clerk, who's also the registrar of voters. And any county related issue, either with the sheriff or with the county administrator, to get their perspective. 'Cause it's important - to know the facts from their side of it. Yeah. 

What about you, Roberta? 

Exactly. I, I reached out to not only our clerk, but clerks in other towns, and I reached out to the finance officers of several towns and town managers, CEOs quite often, because that was really helpful to get their perspectives. And it's really fascinating, even just on the Blue Hill Peninsula or in the larger Senate District 7, but to get the perspective of all the different people when you can. It's not always possible, but, but I did try to do it as often as I could to reach out to m- most everybody. 

Do you find that you're contacted by municipal officials from other towns? 

Not as much as I thought I would be or that we would be, but it could be because I'm sorta, I'm not really a known entity. So not yet, but I think as I continued to reach out, and people would reply and, toward the end, people would say, "Hey, what happened with this bill?" Or, "How did that go?" Or, "Where did you guys end up on that?" So it, it did eventually.

Mm-hmm. 

That's usually what I get also, is afterwards people ask how that one went and how the LPC stood on it. Not so much before. 

So our, our other guests also indicated that their service has led to increased interactions with their local legislators and that they often reach out to them because it's important that those legislators hear the local perspective outside of testimony and in a way, that it holds them accountable. And so in that same vein, we're curious if serving on the LPC has led to increased interactions with your legislators in your district and what have those interactions been like? 

Yeah, I've reached out to them, especially when they've sponsored a bill that I'm, like, kind of questioning, is like, "Why did you sponsor that bill?" 

That's accountability. I like it. 

I- , I do too. I reach out a lot to my legislators and, and talk with them about bills that are coming up, why they think it's important, or what their take is on it. And, and then try to explain from our perspective how, how will it affect our town? 

And have you found that those interactions have been positive? Are they, are they hearing you? 

I think so, and I think that they actually have reached out to us on some things as well. So, I think it's leading to a really nice two-way street of communication where they're not, you know, they're really open to reaching out to us more, which is great. 

Mm-hmm. That is great. 

Most, most of them are. Some are a little bit more hesitant, but most of them are really good about reaching out or accepting the phone calls and answering the questions when we have them. 

That is great. We also, during our last episode, heard some great advice from our guests. And so, we're wondering what type of advice would you guys, as an elected official, give to someone who is thinking about running for the LPC? 

Don't be afraid to do it. Every voice counts. Everybody brings something to the table. Even if you don't think you know a thing about anything, you do. That's my advice. Don't be afraid to do it. 

That's awesome. 

That's great advice. 

I love that. And also, consider it a learning experience, because it is. You're, you're going to learn so much, not only about the legislature and the way that it works, but about the people at MMA, the other people in the room that are helping to run their communities, and you just, you learn the ins and outs of the different kinds of communities. I thought it was incredibly educational. But I agree with Elaine. Don't be afraid to speak out and, ... Yeah. That's it. 

That's some great advice. 

So I guess this will do it for this episode of Potholes and Politics. We'd like to thank our guests for sharing with our listeners their experience and their perspective about serving on the LPC. Don't forget to look for the legislative takeover edition of the magazine that will be published in the June issue, and this will include the new laws article, updated information on MMA's platform, and a housing update. As always, feel free to reach out to any of us on the team with any questions or comments. 

Yes, we are always happy to hear from our members about any topic, including what you might like to hear more about. Off session, we love to have members on as guests to discuss topics that are important to you, and we are always open to suggestions for content. And most of all, we hope you have found all of this information helpful. Thanks so much for listening. 

Don't forget the June 4th deadline for nominations back to Laura in our office for LPC nominations. We appreciate all of you, and thanks. Have a great week. 

Have a great week, everyone.